Filmmaking

SCREENWRITER FUCKS CANCER

Via my favorite non-film and non-politics Web site, the excellent music daily Pitchforkmedia, comes this tidbit of info that relates to a good cause. A number of musicians, including Cat Power, J. Mascis, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion will play a benefit entitled “Fuck Cancer” May 11 at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. The evening will raise funds for Jackie Farry, a young tour manager with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. Among the acts is Chavez, the beloved NYC band that hasn’t released an album since 1996’s Ride the Fader. I’ve known bassist Clay Tarver for […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 7, 2004 Filmmaking
JACKASS

On Hollywood films and also those by conscientious independents, the American Humane Association is brought in by the production to “monitor animal activity” when animals are featured on the set. But as producers know, the AHA isn’t just there to protect the lives of the animals — the organization also serves to protect the sensibilities of the performers. Case in point: John C. Reilly reportedly walked off the set of Lars von Triers’ new Mandalay in protest after the production slaughtered an “old and sick” donkey on the set. Animal slaughter is nothing new in contemporary filmmaking. Gaspar Noe’s Carne, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 30, 2004 Filmmaking
SUPERSTARS

Thanks to David Poland and his Hot Button for posting this link to the Holy Grail of underground videos: Todd Haynes’s Barbie-doll-epic Superstar. The Illegal Art organization, which highlights and exhibits works that tangle with and illuminate the complexities and inequities of copyright law, has posted a downloadable copy of Haynes’s hard-to-find first film. The 43-minute work draws on the same Sirkian influences displayed in his more recent Far from Heaven in telling the tragic tale of anorexic pop diva Karen Carpenter. And while you’re there, check out the rest of the site, which features work by Joe Gibbons, Negativeland […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 26, 2004 Filmmaking
Useful Producing Bromides, #s 1 – 4

Working as a producer over the years, one is given pieces of advice about the job that initially seem vague, counterintuitive, or just plain silly. But as time passes, these pearls of wisdom ultimately prove their worth… if one is smart enough to apply them. Here, then, are a few thoughts people have passed on to me that may read a bit Erma Bombeck-ish but which I think are worthwhile if contemplated correctly. 1. From producer and Focus Films co-president James Schamus a long time ago: When seeking financing for a film, don’t get people to say “yes.” Get them […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 23, 2004 Filmmaking
TENDER IS THE EGO

Depressed screenwriters upset over their latest rejection should check out this unusual front page New York Times story detailing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s failed Hollywood screenwriting career. Quoting documents just unearthed from the Fitzgerald estate and collected at the University of South Carolina, the story paints a portrait of an earnest, dedicated writer futilely struggling to balance art and studio politics on a succession of never-realized pictures. There are some great quotes in the piece — Billy Wilder dubs Fitzgerald “a great sculptor who is hired to do a plumbing job” — and the documents overall correct, in the words of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2004 Filmmaking
BOND… ON THE Q.T.

Casino Royale Via Elston Gunn’s invaluable Weekly Recap in Ain’t It Cool News comes this link to an online petition urging the once daring but now depressingly conservative Broccoli clan to accept Quentin Tarantino’s offer to helm a remake of Casino Royale as the next James Bond film. Remembering pre-adolescent times when Bond films were the essence of forbidden entertainment, I put my name down. If you’d like to as well, click here.

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 21, 2004 Filmmaking
GERSH GOINGS ON…

If you’re like me and you skim through Variety online each day and then catch up on the pile of print editions every week or so, it was easy to miss the news, buried under the headline “Lit topper books a new gig,” that the Gersh Agency’s veteran NY agent Mike Lubin has, as the pub would say “ankled the tenpercentery.” Lubin’s clients include The Woodsmen director Nicole Kassell, director Alan Taylor, screenwriter (and former Filmmaker managing editor) Mike Jones, and director Rose Troche. At Gersh, Lubin always kept his eye out for emerging new indie film talent so it […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 13, 2004 Filmmaking
POLITICAL BEDFELLOWS

Porn is an easy election-year target, and along with the $495,000 Clear Channel/Howard Stern fine that was announced by the FCC this week, the Baltimore Sun reported that the Justice Department is gearing up for a crackdown on the industry in this election year. But it may not be the ACLU and free-speech types who lead the defense this time around. The article points out that porn is a $10 billion a year business with profits that flow to many Fortune 500 companies, including Comcast, whose Hot Network channel streams porn to hotel room customers at $12 a pop. And […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 11, 2004 Filmmaking
CROWD MANAGEMENT

Congrats to Filmmaker Managing Editor Matt Ross for the successful reading of his screenplay Plays Well with Others at Tom Noonan’s Paradise Theater this past Wednesday night. The reading, which featured Cynthia Nixon, Sonia Braga, Tom Gilroy, Dean Wareham and others, was the first in a series sponsored by the Hamptons International Film Festival. When I say “successful,” though, I’m basing that on heresay. As this Indiewire piece notes, the reading was wildly overcrowded, and the dutiful Filmmaker staff who showed up — Mary Glucksman, Peter Bowen and myself — joined a sizable group (which included development folks from some […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 11, 2004 Filmmaking
SCARY FLORIDA

I’ve got no plans to jet down to Miami anytime soon, but if any of our readers happen to be down there, check out this gallery exhibition featuring artists like Sue de Beer (pictured) and Cameron Jamie, and shoot us an email about it. It sounds cool, and I’m sorry I missed it in New York. From the press release: “SCREAM at THE MOORE SPACE 10 artists x 10 writers x 10 scary movies Curated by: Fernanda Arruda and Michael Clifton April 8 – July 3, 2004 Opening Reception: Thursday, April 8, 2004, 7 – 10 pm THE MOORE SPACE […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 11, 2004 Filmmaking

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