Filmmaking

VAUGHN LEAVES X-MEN 3

Though I was never a big fan of the comic books, for me, the X-Men films were some of the best of recent big-budget superhero movies. Director Bryan Singer kept the focus on the characters and their relationships while also engaging in the de rigeur FX spectacle. X-Men 3 has been underway and after a prolonged search Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn was hired to helm the film. However, Moriarty over at Ain’t It Cool News has the scoop that Vaughn is no longer on the picture due to his having to deal with personal issues. The film is still […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 31, 2005 Filmmaking
PIRATE SATELLITE

Via Movie City News comes this link to McSweeney’s and a piece by J. Chris Rock and John Leary titled Reviews of DVDs that May or May Not be Pirated but Were Definitely Bought on the Street in Shanghai for About a Dollar. Here’s an excerpt: “The Clearing Obtained: Wulumuqi Street, just past the #830 bus stopPrice: 7 RMB One of the worst releases this year, in terms of DVDs bought out of a cardboard box on the street. The colors are so blown out, we can’t see the pockmarks on either Willem Dafoe’s or Robert Redford’s face. The sound […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 31, 2005 Filmmaking
CATHEDRAL IN THE SKY

While in Europe recently I heard about a documentary Martin Scorsese was making about Airbus, the European consortium of British, French, Spanish and German aircraft manufacturers formed in 1970 to rival the dominant American companies like Boeing. Of course, Scorsese recently memorialized an American aerospace pioneer with The Aviator. Today via Variety comes more details about the new project: “Scorsese will team with Spanish docu producer-director Jose Luis Lopez-Linares (Un instante en la vida ajena, Strangers to Themselves), who will take a co-director credit. Per Spanish monthly movie magazine Fotogramas, the doc will establish a parallel between the creation of […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 31, 2005 Filmmaking
COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS…

There are websites that have counted down the days to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. And then there are fansites that are collectively anticipating Chris Nolan’s new Batman Begins. At Filmmaker, we are counting down the days to Rubber Johnny. The six-minute Chris Cunningham video will be released by Warp Films on June 6 in the form of a DVD and accompanying 40-page book. In the meantime, however, there’s this review and interview over at Pixelsurgeon. Synopsizing the film, the site writes: “The titular Johnny is a mutant kid stuck in a wheelchair who is shut in the dark […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 30, 2005 Filmmaking
ADAM’S DA BOMB

Adam Bhala Lough is one of our 25 New Faces alumni, and his feature Bomb the System opened in New York this weekend. Here are quotes from an interview with him in the Gothamist. On the difficult of making sympathic graffiti artist characters: “…anyone who’s walked up to their apartment in NY and saw a fresh tag on their door, literally dripping because it just went up, and got pissed off, they’re going to bring that hatred to the movie. A lot of people even asked me, ‘why did you even bother making a movie about graffiti writers? They’re horrible […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 28, 2005 Filmmaking
THE STARS ALIGN

Via Variety comes more details about the long-awaited June 17 opening of IFC Film Center in Manhattan at the site of the old Waverly Theaters. The IFC has assembled a high-powered advisory board to lend its clout to the venture. Writes Willa Paskin in the trade, “Helmers Steven Soderbergh, Alfonso Cuaron, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Errol Morris, John Sayles, Rebecca Miller and Gary Winick will be among those serving on the center’s advisory board. Nonhelmers Noah Cowan, Cynthia Swartz and Dan Talbot also are members. “According to IFC prexy Jonathan Sehring, board members will mainly be involved with programming, ‘be […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 25, 2005 Filmmaking
OUT OF THE ’80S

As I sit here working my CD changer has just slid over to the Mysterious Skin soundtrack, which has not left the platter since I received a promotional copy about a week ago. From its first seesawing notes, Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd’s distinctive style, echoing their classic The Moon and the Melodies, evokes the 4AD and Budd ambient releases that provided a dreamy backdrop to many of our adolescences years ago. Writes Skin director Gregg Araki, “I have been a huge fan of Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd since the glory days of the 80s when 4AD, the Cocteau […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 19, 2005 Filmmaking
CONTENT IS KING

While James Marsh’s film The King plays at the Festival de Cannes, the Hollywood Reporter relays this odd bit of news regarding ContentFilm, Ed Pressman and John Schmidt’s company that produced the pic: “Edward R. Pressman, co-chief executive officer of London-based ContentFilm PLC, and co-chief executive officer John Schmidt are going their separate ways after four years together. The board of directors of ContentFilm, which went public in December 2003, has voted to abandon film production and continue forward as a library acquisitions company. Schmidt will run the company, which has agreed to buy Fireworks International’s film and television library […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2005 Filmmaking
CATCHING SOME ZZZZZ’s

Below I posted some thoughts about the Xan Cassavetes doc Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, and now this weekend IFC runs a Z-Channel marathon. Tune in all weekend and see films like the uncut Heaven ‘s Gate, Nick Roeg’s Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession, and the fairly obscure That Most Important Thing: Love..

By Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2005 Filmmaking
OUT OF AFRICA

Ever since he made the independent classic Killer of Sheep Charles Burnett has had more than his share of tough times finding financing for his films. But this news story in Variety may detail his strangest career moment yet: the crew shut-down of his latest feature, Where Others Wavered due to lack of payment by the government of Namibia, where the film is shooting. From the article: “Principal photography started April 25 in the capital of Windhoek on the movie about former freedom fighter Sam Nujoma ( played by “Alias” thesp Carl Lumbly), who helped Namibia gain independence from South […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2005 Filmmaking

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