Filmmaking

SUNDANCE PREMIERES, SPECTRUM, MIDNIGHT & FRONTIER

The Sundance Institute today announced the Opening Night film and complete lineup of feature films screening in the Premieres, American Spectrum, Frontier, Park City at Midnight, Special Screenings, and Sundance Collection categories of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. According to a press release received today, “The Film Festival opens on January 20 in Park City with the World Premiere of Happy Endings, written and directed by Don Roos and starring Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Tom Arnold. ‘A discussion of American values is at the forefront of many of the films this year, and the humor and compassion with which […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Dec 1, 2004 Filmmaking
HIGH ON HI-DEF

David Poland’s Moviecity News links to this interesting interview with Mark Cuban in Business 2.0 in which the Broadcast.com, 2929, and HDNet founder (and Dallas Mavericks owner) concisely lays out his long-term vision as a digital distributor and content supplier. It’s a good read as it clearly lays out in one short article the thinking that informs Cuban’s business ventures, which include the producer of low-budget indie HD films, HDNet. Cuban disparages the DVD format (he believes they’ll be replaced by higher quality presentations delivered via satellite and broadband and stored on hard drives) and, in one great quote, dismisses […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 19, 2004 Filmmaking
THIS DVD WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN…

In a blog entry below we reported on “window-busting” release of Chazz Palminteri’s film Noel, which will appear in theaters, on cable and on DVD all within the same month. It’s part of a marketing strategy designed to score Noel some ink in the press — perhaps to divert attention away from the reviews, which Rotten Tomatoes scores only 18% positive. In our entry we were intrigued by the release strategy, but the folks at The Movie Blog linked to this USA Today piece which describes it in more critical terms. Some of the comments in the piece, like the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 15, 2004 Filmmaking
ON THE COUCH

At Filmmaker, we’ve interviewed documentarian Joe Berlinger and his partner Bruce Sinofsky several times over the years, and the two are always great explicators of the filmmaking process. Now Berlinger with co-writer Greg Milner has authored Metallica: This Monster Lives, the story of his and Berlinger’s making of the rock’n’roll-meets-therapy doc. And if you bookmark this blog page and skip over Filmmaker’s home page, then you’ve probably missed this downloadable Chapter Five book excerpt, in which Berlinger talks about submitting himself to therapist Phil Towle to discuss his post-Blair Witch 2 issues. Also worth noting in our on-line features section […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 13, 2004 Filmmaking
OUT OF THE TANK

One New York indie I’ve been tracking over the last year is Kevin Jordan’s Lobster Farm, the story of two generations of one Brooklyn family struggling to hold onto the family business, a Sheepshead Bay lobster shop. Jordan’s previous pic, Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire, received much festival acclaim, and as he readies his new one for a fest premiere, he’s already picked up one high-profile supporter. Reports Michael Fleming in Variety, Martin Scorsese has agreed to put his “Martin Scorsese presents” label on the film, assuring it some degree of critical buzz. Jordan connected with Scorsese when he […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 11, 2004 Filmmaking
CELLUAR ENTERTAINMENT

Via Variety comes this interesting subscription-only piece announcing a new spin-off for Fox’s espionage TV series 24 which reachers viewers via cell-phone. Writes Josef Adalian, “In a first-of-its-kind deal for a U.S. TV studio, 20th Century Fox TV has greenlit production of a live-action 24 spinoff skein that will be produced exclusively for cell phone users. Dubbed 24: Conspiracy, the show — featuring original characters separate from the Fox TV skein — will unfold over 24 roughly one-minute episodes; one seg will be downloaded to subscribers’ phones every week.” Premiering in the U.K., where cell phone use and 3G technology […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 10, 2004 Filmmaking
IN HOMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS

At Filmmaker we’re always interested in alternative forms of distribution, so we took note of the unusual “window-busting” release plans for Noel, Chazz Palminteri’s directorial debut which premiered in September at the Toronto Film Festival. The sentimental holiday film which stars Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker and Penelope Cruz will premiere in theaters November 12 via The Convex Group, a new company headed by WebMD founder Jeff Arnold. Then, on Sunday, November 28 Noel will screen once on the TNT network. That day, the film will also become available to Amazon.com customers as $4.99 Flexplay DVDs, disks which erase themselves 48 […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 5, 2004 Filmmaking
KINK IN THE MAINSTREAM

One of the problems independent filmmakers have faced in the last decade has been the studio’s co-option of the specialty film genre. Acquistions have dropped as the mini-majors have set out to make, with bigger budgets, better production values, and real stars, the kinds of quirky character-based stories that in the ’80s and ’90s were largely the province of independent filmmakers. A particularly cruel example of this trend was driven home by a press release, excerpted below, I received from CineKink, an organization devoted to “the recognition and encouragement of kink-positive depictions in film and television.” In order, I guess, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 5, 2004 Filmmaking
A-LIST SANCTUARY

If you work in the film industry, there’s a point every year in which you scan through your Palm Pilot or Treo or old-fashioned rolodex and realize that so many of your colleagues have left the business. Some of them you know their whereabouts; you’ve gotten a cheery card announcing their latest endeavors. But so many others just fade away. Someone who hasn’t faded away is former Time Warner chief Gerald Levin according to Maria Bartiromo, whose “Closing Bell” piece on Levin and his new venture I caught while channel surfing today. Several years after the murder of his son, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 5, 2004 Filmmaking
VAN GOGH MURDER, PART TWO

The latest news reports say Dutch police have apprehended eight more suspects as conspirators in the murder of Dutch director Theo Van Gogh (see our blog below) and also report that the alleged shooter was captured carrying a letter calling for a Holy Jihad. For those who want to see what the fuss is all about, our friends at Greg.org have posted this link to the Dutch broadcaster VPRO’s site, where you can watch a few minutes of Submission, the “anti-Islam” film that provoked the Islamic community’s outcry against Van Gogh.

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 4, 2004 Filmmaking

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