Filmmaking

WALKER WALKS… TO CAA

Via Variety comes this (subscription-only) news that agent Bart Walker has left ICM for CAA. Based in New York, Walker has for years at ICM repped high-profile independent auteurs like Jim Jarmusch, Julian Schnabel and John Turturro. In addition to negotiating director deals, he usually works actively to arrange financing for his clients’ pics by combining foreign distribution and presale monies with domestic partners. Recently, Walker worked to put together the financing for Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides in a manner that allowed the filmmaker to retain the film’s copyright. Directors who will travel with Walker to CAA include all […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 3, 2004 Filmmaking
DUTCH DIRECTOR MURDERED

Prolific Dutch director Theo Van Gogh, known in America for the release of his 1994 phone-sex drama 06 under the title 1-900, was killed earlier today in Amsterdam. He had been receiving death threats following the television screening of his latest short film, Submission, a drama about a Muslim woman coerced into a violent marriage, raped by a relative, and then brutally punished for her adultery. The film was co-written by a Dutch right-wing politician who renounced her Muslim faith and now is a critic of the religion. The film enraged Muslim groups after its airing and the filmmaker has […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 2, 2004 Filmmaking
BREAK ON THROUGH

The IFP/New York announced the nominees for two of its competitive sections of its newly retooled Gotham Awards, to be held December 1 and broadcast live by the IFC. Below are the Breakthrough Actor and Director nominees. Breakthrough Actor Award Nominees: Mos Def for The Woodsman (Newmarket Films) Anthony Mackie for Brother to Brother (Wolfe) Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace (HBO Films & Fine Line Features) Dallas Roberts for A Home At the End of the World (Warner Independent Pictures) Ensemble cast of Everyday People (HBO) Breakthrough Director Award Nominees: Rodney Evans, Writer/Director/Producer for Brother to Brother […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 1, 2004 Filmmaking
NICK NOLTE… PARODIED!

The folks at Greg.org got suspicious first, and their fears proved correct. Nick Nolte’s online diary, linked to below, is revealed by its creators to be a parody. Or, alternately, a work of fiction. Or a satire containing photographs protected by Section 107 of the United States Copyright Law. Whatever. For the few seconds it takes to scan a home page and link to it here, we were fooled.

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 26, 2004 Filmmaking
A PERFECT LIFE…

“And it seems to me to be almost the perfect life, really. I mean, I would like to be taller and have more hair [laughs] and things, but apart from those physical things I can’t really imagine how my life could be improved. I hope that doesn’t sound smug, but it is a pretty good life.” That’s British d.j. John Peel, the legendary musical tastemaker who championed and established bands like Joy Division and the Sex Pistols, as quoted in an interview on the B92 website as linked to by the ever essential Greencine Daily. Peel, 65, died yesterday, and, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 26, 2004 Filmmaking
GIMME A (TAX) BREAK

It’s pretty unusual to wake up in the morning and read entertainment industry news detailing benefits specifically targeted towards independent filmmakers. But that’s what this (subscription-only) Variety piece does as it explains provisions in the just-signed American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 that make it more advantageous for investors to invest in independent film. Writes Susan Crabtree and Ian Mohr, “After years of lobbying, independent filmmakers scored a major victory Friday when President Bush signed a bill that gives a sweeping tax break to movies made in the U.S. Producers believe the measure may draw substantial fresh funds into indie […]

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 25, 2004 Filmmaking
COASTAL DIVIDE

Perhaps you’ve heard that the IFP/New York has retooled its annual Gotham Awards, moving the event out of IFP Market week to December 1 — smack dab at the start of the Oscar push. This week the IFP/New York announced the Gotham’s first two 2004 award recipient: actor Don Cheadle, who has Hotel Rwanda coming out from United Artists, and Michel Gondry’s film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is being honored under the new “Celebrate New York” tag for films shot in New York that “expand the boundaries of creative expression.” With its December 1 date, the Gotham’s […]

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 22, 2004 Filmmaking
WEIR, GIBSON, PATTERN RECOGNITION AND JOHN KERRY

I stumbled across author William Gibson’s (Neuromancer) online blog today and caught up with the news that director Peter Weir is attached to direct a film version of Gibson’s latest, Pattern Recognition. The novel is a contemporary cybernoir about a “cool hunter” who winds up on the chase for the director of mysterious multi-part Internet film. Locations are being scouted in Moscow, London and Tokyo. I wound up bookmarking Gibson’s blog as he seems to update it daily and has some interesting political commentary on it as well. In today’s entry he describes the process by which he feels an […]

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2004 Filmmaking
NICK NOLTE… DAILY

Nick Nolte, who has worked in a number of independent and foreign films recently, has a rather charming online diary up. Check it out here.

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 15, 2004 Filmmaking
THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES

Filmmaker has long been interested in smart modern horror, so check out these two web links. The first is the link to the elegantly eerie teaser trailer for The Ring 2, the sequel to the horror hit which also happens to be the first English language film to be directed by the great Hideo Nakata, who helmed the Japanese original. And then there’s this thought-provoking feature in The Guardian about a three-part BBC series to be aired next week entitled The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear. Written and produced by the documentarian Adam Curtis, the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 14, 2004 Filmmaking

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