Filmmaking

MOODY ON BROKEBACK

Author Rick Moody, whose novel The Ice Storm was adapted by James Schamus for an Ang Lee film, discusses Brokeback Mountain in the pages of The Guardian. I wish he had gone a bit more into his thoughts on Lee and the process of adaptation informed by his own first-hand experience, but his is a good take on Lee’s artistic intent: “There is also the question of whether or not Lee’s film is a genuine western. The western, in American cinema, is one of the foundational genres. It’s the bedrock on which the language of film was constructed. It’s the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 18, 2005 Filmmaking
Sundance Screenwriters Lab, 2006

The Sundance Institute has just announced the 12 projects selected for the 2006 Screenwriter’s Lab, which takes place in January the week before the Sundance Film Festival at the Sundance Resort. From the press release, here are the attendees and their projects: “Kit Hui (writer/director), U.S.A./China, A BREATH AWAY: As Typhoon Ellen approaches Hong Kong, the residents of a high-rise apartment complex struggle with their individual emotional demons, not realizing they are connected by more than the increasing swarms of flies invading their homes. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Kit Hui emigrated to the United States at age 16. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 17, 2005 Filmmaking
OH, TO BE A BLOGGER (PART TWO)

I’ll be sitting on a panel tonight at 7:30 at the Apple store on Prince Street organized by our friends at Indiewire. A sort of “meet the bloggers,” the panel brings together a bunch of us who write about film here in the blogosphere — mostly people who do it far more diligently and conscientiously than I: Karina Longworth (Cinematical), Alison Willmore (IFC News), Andrew Grant (Like Anna Karina’s Sweater), Aaron Dobbs (Out of Focus), S.T. VanAirsdale (The Reeler) and Michael Koresky (Reverseblog: The Reverse Shot blog). Eugene Hernandez of Indiewire moderates. Aside from the inevitable shop talk — blog […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 16, 2005 Filmmaking
HELL’S BELLS, THE COLLECTOR’S EDITION

“In 1989… at the peak of the Satanic Panic, a small media company called Reel to Real Ministries began selling a video documentary called Hell’s Bells: The Dangers of Rock and Roll,” writes Stephen M. Deusner at Pitchfork Media of the anti-rock music doc that was shown in public schools around the time of various “metal-inspired” teen killings in the late ’80s and early ’90s. “Taking its name from the AC/DC song, Hell’s Bells was produced, directed, and hosted by Reel to Real’s founder, Eric Holmberg, an amiable emcee and a mid-life convert whose self-confessed gods had once been John […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 15, 2005 Filmmaking
DICK’S MPAA ADVENTURE, PART 2

The Reeler has a piece up today following up on the IFC press release blogged below regarding Kirby Dick’s upcoming Sundance doc This Film is not Yet Rated and its MPAA controversy. It’s all a bit more complicated than the release made it sound…

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 14, 2005 Filmmaking
MOVIE POSTER WORD BALLOONS

I saw one for the first time while walking past a poster of the Jennifer Aniston pic, Rumor Has It, yesterday: a big empty white word balloon coming right out of the Friend’s mouth. I thought it was part of the poster, its blank space some sort of Kaufman-esque pitch having to do with the vapidity of celebrity culture. But at the 14th St. station tonight, I saw a few more, on different posters, and I realized that these professionally printed stick-ons are some artist/prankster’s works of media detournement. Amplifying the intention of the movie poster — to “draw you […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 14, 2005 Filmmaking
TEN BEST… LATER

Now that Matt Ross has thrown down the “10 Best” gauntlet, below, I guess I have to make a list. It’s a seemingly mandatory task required of all participating in the film blogosphere, but mine will have to wait until I see a few more films, including Matt’s #1, King Kong. So expect mine sometime before the end of the year.

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 14, 2005 Filmmaking
TRUTH IN MARKETING

I am very much looking forward to New Line’s thriller Snakes on a Plane for one reason: the title. In this day of bland, would-be exciting one-word movie names — Derailed, Havoc — there is something refreshingly straightforward and old-school about the title of this Sam Jackson movie about, well, poisonous snakes let loose on a plane. Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Today Dave McNary has a piece in Variety about the buzz for the pic created just by its title: “Though New Line has done no publicity and the thriller is eight months away […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 11, 2005 Filmmaking
RICHARD PRYOR, 1940 – 2005

Richard Pryor died today of a heart attack in California. To those old enough to remember his stand-up routines and many TV appearances preceding his string of hit movies, Pryor was both a cultural pioneer, the comedian who made so many other careers possible, as well as an entirely original and never imitated cultural voice. Even at his angriest and most sardonic, a vulnerability and hurt laced his stage persona, a pain that cut against his outrageous satire and made it all feel sometimes too real. Over at Firedoglake one linked commentator (I”m sorry, the blog doesn’t make clear who) […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 10, 2005 Filmmaking
BLOGGING FROM SYRIANA

Syriana director Stephen Gaghan is blogging over at the Huffington Post. From his inaugaral post: “What’s the way in? My first blog. You only get one first time at anything. I’m on a plane. I’m drinking bad coffee. I’m promoting a new film, Syriana, that I’ve spent the last three and half years writing and directing, cutting and scoring, agonizing as recently as three weeks ago over details like the font and point size of the end-title scroll — I chose Highway Gothic, considered in some circles to be the new Helvetica. Since this is an inaugural blog and it’s […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 9, 2005 Filmmaking

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