Authors — Nick Dawson
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Baltasar Kormákur on His New Christian Bale Film, Everest
In late 2012, I interviewed Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, whose excellent new film The Deep is upcoming this spring through Focus World. He is also currently in post on the Mark Wahlberg/Denzel Washington thriller 2 Guns, but was already talking about his next project, Everest. He described the (then-unnamed) lead who he was in talks with as “an actor who is known for… put[ting] himself through hell.” That strongly implied that the star in question was Christian Bale, and now it’s been reported that Bale is indeed attached to the project, with Universal and Working Title producing. Here’s what Kormákur told me about Everest when we spoke: […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 19, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Danny Boyle’s Trance
Danny Boyle’s latest film snuck up on us, being added to the release schedule a few weeks ago after flying below the radar. This red-band trailer for Trance, which stars James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel, makes it seem like an enjoyably pulpy venture into genre territory.
by Nick Dawson on Feb 14, 2013 -
Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher Picked Up by Oscilloscope
Our current crop of “25 New Faces” are a busy bunch (I recently wrote an update on their exploits), and the latest alum to make headlines is Hannah Fidell, whose debut feature A Teacher has just been picked up by Oscilloscope. The film — produced by another of 2012’s 25, Kim Sherman — tells the story of a 20-something teacher (the excellent Lindsay Burdge) who has an affair with one of her students. It premiered at Sundance last month, and will play at SXSW in March. In a press release announcing the acquisition, Oscilloscope’s David Laub and Dan Berger said, […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 13, 2013 -
SXSW Adds The Spectacular Now, The East and More
The SXSW Film Festival today announced a further round of films that have been programmed for this year’s festival, including Sundance favorites such as James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now, Zal Batmanglij’s The East, Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer and Lucy Walker’s The Crash Reel. Among the other films also added are Ramin Bahrani’s At Any Price, which bowed at Venice last year, and a film shot entirely by Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne on his iPhone, entitled A Year in the Life of Wayne’s Phone. A full list of the new titles is below: […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 13, 2013 -
Come Out and Play Director Makinov’s Video Manifesto
Come Out and Play, a film produced by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna’s company Canana, is an intriguing little chiller, coming out in March through Cinedigm, that I’m looking forward to checking out. The trailer reveals the movie’s promising narrative hook — the children on a remote island are killing all who cross their path — but what really grabbed my attention was the manifesto recorded by Come Out and Play‘s director, the single-monikered Makinov. My favorite line is, “I believe in the mystery of the spirit. That’s why I want to scream at the stupid person that keeps checking photos […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 11, 2013 -
Mark Rappaport’s Latest Letter to Boston University on the Carney Affair
In the current Winter issue of Filmmaker, Scott wrote a piece on the sad situation that has developed in which Ray Carney, who was entrusted with prints of many of experimental director Mark Rappaport’s films, is refusing to return the materials to the Paris-based auteur. Carney, who has positioned himself as the foremost John Cassavetes expert, is a professor at Boston University, and Rappaport recently appealed to the academic institution to pressure Carney to give him back his life’s work. Last week, though, Rappaport reached out over email and informed me, “The unhappy update of all of this is that Boston University washed their […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 11, 2013 -
Five Questions with I Send You This Place Directors Peter Ohs and Andrea Sisson
The debut film from husband and wife team Peter Ohs and Andrea Sisson (also known collectively as Lauren Edward, a composite of their middle names), I Send You This Place is a very unconventional documentary which tackles themes of mental health, creativity and the natural world through the prism of the couple’s trip to Iceland. Gorgeously shot and made with genuine invention by Ohs and Sisson — whose backgrounds in science and design bring a fresh approach to their interpretation of the non-fiction form — I Send You This Place establishes the pair as directors with a bright future. Filmmaker spoke to the […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 9, 2013 -
25 New Faces Update: At SXSW and Beyond
There’s been a lot going on with our current crop of 25 New Faces, so I thought I’d do a quick catchup of recent goings on. Firstly, four feature projects by 2012 alums are playing at this year’s SXSW Film Festival: there’s a world premiere for Ornana’s first narrative feature, Euphonia, while Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick’s evocative documentary These Birds Walk (a world premiere at True/False later this month), Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher (which was actually shot in Austin) and Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye’s archival doc Our Nixon will continue their fest circuit runs there. (Incidentally, Lane and […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 7, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Spring Breakers International Trailer (NSFW)
Harmony Korine’s upcoming Spring Breakers — which is featured in the current issue of Filmmaker — got a French trailer this week. As stated above, it is NSFW which, for a movie like this, seems only right.
by Nick Dawson on Feb 1, 2013 -
SXSW Announces 2013 Lineup
A few weeks ago, the opening night movie at SXSW, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone — plus a handful more choice titles, such as Spring Breakers and the Evil Dead remake — were announced, but today the full line-up was unveiled. As ever, there’s a ton of titles here by directors we know little or nothing about — SXSW is a true discovery festival — but there’s also a fair amount here that grabs the attention straight away. In the narrative competition section, there are new films from Todd Sklar, Chris Eska (August Evening) and former “25 New Faces” alum Destin Daniel […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 31, 2013
