Filmmaking

GLENN KENNY OUT AT PREMIERE

Adding to the already long list of axed film critics, Glenn Kenny announced this morning on his blog that he’s been terminated from his position at Premiere.com. One of the only (if not thee only) survivors when Premiere closed its print edition over a year ago, Kenny’s blog has since been a marvelous edition to the blogsphere as his colorful style and almost scary knowledge of film was wonderful to read daily (and the comments were always entertaining to read). Here’s his post from this morning: I’ve just been informed that my position at Premiere.com is being terminated. What this […]

By Jason Guerrasio on May 8, 2008 Filmmaking
RECUT, REVOTE

CNN is reporting that Weinstein Company head Harvey Weinstein engaged in a “heated phone call” with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in late April in which he pressured her to accept a plan in which he would finance primary revotes in Michigan and Florida. From the piece: In a heated phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late last month, Hillary Clinton supporter Harvey Weinstein threatened to cut off campaign money to congressional Democrats unless Pelosi embraced a new plan by the movie mogul to finance a revote of the Democratic presidential primaries in Florida and Michigan, according to three officials […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2008 Filmmaking
THE TRIAL OF JOSEF K

Susannah Breslin has a positively surreal interview at Radar Online with Ira Isaacs, the 57-year-old L.A.-based director currently awaiting trial on obscenity charges for his, um… scat videos. Kudos to the photo editor at Radar for the two improbable shots that run with the piece — one of Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal (voted in 2004 by a group of art critics as the most influential piece of art of all time), and the other of Martha Stewart. On her own Reverse Cowgirl blog, Breslin had previously written about Isaacs and the novel defense he’s mounting against the charges that his […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 7, 2008 Filmmaking
CRITERION GOES BLU

There’s nothing like a film getting the Criterion treatment. And having this job I get the privilege of finding out before many what they have next up their sleeves. But the latest announcement doesn’t have to do with a film but of the company adapting to new technology. The Criterion Collection is preparing to put several of their titles on Blu-ray. Read below. The time has arrived! Several titles from the Criterion Collection are set for Blu-ray treatment beginning in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and […]

By Jason Guerrasio on May 7, 2008 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE CHANNEL TO RAINBOW

In a move that has been rumored for months, Variety reports today that Rainbow Media (which also owns AMC and Independent Film Channel) has acquired the Sundance Channel for $496 million. According to the story: Rainbow Media will exchange about 12.7 million shares it owns in GE, tax-free, with a cash adjustment based on the value of the GE shares in relation to the total purchase price. GE will get all of the GE shares, and CBS and [Robert] Redford’s entities will get cash for their stakes.

By Jason Guerrasio on May 7, 2008 Filmmaking
BRIAN ENO ON BARRY LYNDON

(Hat tips: GreenCine and Coudal Partners.)

By Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2008 Filmmaking
YOUR MONEY, YOUR MOVIE?

Over at his CinemaTech blog, Scott Kirsner writes about the new Seattle-based IndieShares, which is another one of those “democratize the process” companies that has sprung up around some aspect of the film business. Democracy, of course, is (mostly) good. Filmmaker‘s mission statement even includes the goal of democratizing the production process for beginning filmmakers. And last week I interviewed Lance Weiler and learned more about his From Here to Awesome festival (which I’ve concluded is a really cool and good thing, and I’m not just saying that because I know Lance and he’s a writer for the magazine), and […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 4, 2008 Filmmaking
"THIS ‘INDIE’ PART OF THE BUSINESS"

With the demise of New Line — one of the two partners behind the creation of Picturehouse (HBO is the other) — speculation has arisen over what’s going to happen to the specialty shingle now that it, like New Line, has been absorbed into Warner Brothers. Warner, you remember, has Warner Independent already on its lot. Anne Thompson penned a piece in Variety stating that WIP head Polly Cohen and Picturehouse head Bob Berney “are likely to accept a bicoastal co-head arrangement.” Stu Van Airsdale at Defamer ran his own story, saying that there are rumors that Berney will be […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 4, 2008 Filmmaking
HOLLYWOOD OR BUST

The Hollywood Reporter hosts a roundtable on the economics of independent production with five noted players: Newsweek film critic David Ansen; Kirk D’Amico, president and CEO of Myriad Pictures, a production and sales company; Cassian Elwes, co-head of William Morris Independent; Mark Gill, CEO of finance and production company the Film Department; and Avi Lerner, co-chairman and CEO of Nu Image/Millennium Films. Stephen Galloway leads a conversation that, by my read, offers a pretty accurate and succinct take on the American independent film market at the moment. They discuss overproduction, the demise of New Line, foreign markets, the plight of […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 3, 2008 Filmmaking
BLOGGER EXODUS

In a post below, we noted Matt Zoller Seitz’s decision to abandon print journalism — and that includes blogging — in order to concentrate on filmmaking. Now, at GreenCine, David Hudson draws attention to one other blogger calling it quits and another who is contemplating an exodus as well. Over at Flickhead, Ray Young issues a simple farewell, reprinted here in its entirety: ““It was more than being holy and it was less than being free” All things must pass…I’m outta here… A more detailed explanation is found buried in his comments thread, when Young responds to the various posters […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 1, 2008 Filmmaking

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