Filmmaking

HOW TO BEHAVE IN CANNES

Over at Variety‘s The Circuit, Mike Jones digs up a very helpful article by a director who travelled to Cannes to pitch his project… that happened to appear a couple of years ago in Filmmaker. Producers and directors about to make the trip over would do well to check it out. An excerpt from Richard Press’s Cannes Diary: A week before I leave for cannes to participate in L’Atelier du Festival, the co-production market of the Cannes Film Festival, I receive an e-mail from the festival reminding me to bring my black tie; without it I will not be allowed […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2008 Filmmaking
WHO RUNS THE YAKUZA, OR THE MASONS, OR THE M15?

The New Yorker this week reports on a Hollywood job opening in this generally deteriorating entertainment economy. The “Talk of the Town” piece by Lizzie Widdicombe quotes an “unofficial” email about what is apparently a real position: cultural attache to Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer. Here’s the email: This person would be responsible for keeping Brian abreast of everything that’s going on in the world; politically, culturally, musically. . . . They’re also responsible for finding an interesting person for Brian to meet with every week . . . an astronaut, a journalist, a philosopher, a buddhist monk. . . . […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2008 Filmmaking
RICKY JAY ON SWORD OF VENGEANCE

Here’s Ricky jay, who co-stars in David Mamet’s Redbelt, currently in release, performing a card trick alongside his discussion of Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance. Both Mamet and Jay were interviewed this week, separately, on the XMPR Bob Edwards radio show, and the discussions can be listened to or downloaded here. Both men are fantastic raconteurs and interview subjects, so this is a great hour, with Mamet talking about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the fight film and noir genres, the link between drama, magic and con games, and his approach to rehearsing film actors. Jay discusses performing, card magic, and […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2008 Filmmaking
ROSSELLINI’S GREEN PORNOS

I’ve wondered several times on this blog why more filmmakers don’t try to make original works for the web, works that challenge and alter the storytelling conventions of their feature or other narrative work. Well, now on the Sundance Channel website comes Green Porno, a series of shorts designed to be watched on computers and cellphones. Here’s what Sundance and Rossellini say about the project: Green Porno is a series of very short films conceived, written, co-directed by and featuring Isabella Rossellini about the sex life of bugs, insects and various creatures. The films are a comical but insightful study […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2008 Filmmaking
PICTUREHOUSE AND WIP SHUT DOWN!!!

Variety is reporting the stunning news that Warner Bros. is shutting down both Picturehouse and Warner Independent. Speculation has been running in the indie community about the fate of the companies following the demise of New Line (which was a co-owner, with HBO, of Picturehouse) as a standalone studio and distributor. Observers had imagined a variety of scenarios, but I don’t think anyone thought that both companies would be folded. Here’s Warner prez and COO Alan Horn’s statement: “With New Line now a key part of Warner Bros., we’re able to handle films across the entire spectrum of genres and […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2008 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

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