A few weeks ago we blogged about Killer Film’s 50% equity sale to venture capital fund GC Corp., a deal that will see Killer developing and producing larger-budgeted properties. Today, Jones reports on one such project. From Variety: GC Corp. has bought rights to Israeli TV series “Danny Hollywood,” assigning it to the venture capital fund’s production unit, Killer Films. Story follows three time-traveling journalists investigating the mysterious death of a pop star. Killer will reset the skein in 1960s America.
“How couldn’t you be existentialist in space?” asks Mike Plante in his just-posted interview with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips about his feature, Christmas on Mars. From the piece: Indeed, the film has more existentialism on purpose than accidental ambience. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” Coyne said with a laugh. “I think some kind of bleak isolation left over from my childhood in Oklahoma seeped into this. I don’t know if you are feeding off your subconscious, but there are things about making movies that you cannot justify or understand. I like stories and I like intense things, […]
How couldn’t you be existential in space? Cut off from Mother Earth, becoming a machine of sorts with only memories of holidays to pass the time? In the lovably lo-fi sci-fi Christmas On Mars, psych rock band The Flaming Lips have invented a straight-to-DVD film that could be a lost cousin to 2001, but born on the other end of the budget universe. Stuck on Mars with the gravity control device and the oxygen supply failing, a group of young colonists try to fix their space home, while battling hallucinations of babies. Part of the space colony also houses a […]
Congratulations to Sundance Film Festival director Geoff Gilmore for receiving the inaugural Sydney Pollack Award at tonight’s tribute to Samuel L. Jackson presented by the American Cinematheque in L.A. Anne Thompson has the story at Variety. From Thompson’s piece: Cinematheque said the award honors “someone who has been of critical importance and continuing influence in nonprofit film exhibition, film preservation and/or independent film promotion and distribution –people whose work Sydney supported and found to be so valuable, who are not often recognized for their efforts.” Cinematheque director Barbara Smith wanted to honor the memory of the late producer-director, who as […]
Okay, one more music video posting. Via Kottke, who gets a hat tip: In a compilation of 64 videos all shown on the same page, one man recreates “Thriller” — the beats, the howling, the singing — all by himself. This is pretty awesome, like Christian Marclay on speed.
At his blog Keef has assembled a tasteful playlist of music videos by feature film directors. Van Sant, Jarmusch, Wong Kar Wai, Sayles, Scorsese, Lynn Ramsay and Gaspar Noe all make appearances. Here are two. “Savoure le Rouge” by Indochine, directed by Marc Caro. “Disapearer,” by Sonic Youth, directed by Todd Haynes.Sonic Youth – New Music – More Music Videos
The excellent indie criticism site Hammer to Nail has taken the stratagem of being the first to publish its 2008 “10 Best” list, posting its selection (a baker’s dozen of 13, actually) the day after Thanksgiving, when some of us film bloggers were still digesting the previous evening’s turkey dinner. The rules: eligible films had to be American narrative films (features or shorts) budgeted at less than $1 million and which premiered or received theatrical distribution in 2008. I’m very happy to see Filmmaker favorite Frownland nabbing the number one spot! Ronnie Bronstein’s miserabilist masterpiece has been heralded here many […]
I moderated a panel this rainy Sunday afternoon in New York with the five nominees for the Gotham Breakthrough Director Award: Lance Hammer (Ballast), Dennis Dortch (A Good Day to be Black and Sexy), Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy), Antonio Campos (Afterschool) and Alex Rivera (Sleep Dealer). I’m not a big fan of reading (and writing) panel conversation blow-by-blows, but it was a good talk and some interesting contrasts and comparisons between the directors emerged during the conversation. I’ll note them here. 1. Independent films can take a long time to make. Four out of the five directors spend several […]
On Feb. 20, 2005 the grandfather of Gonzo journalism, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, was walking around his snow covered compound in Woody Creek, Colorado when he decided to point the gun he was carrying to his head and pull the trigger. For a man who lived his life with a glass of Wild Turkey in one hand and a hand gun in the other it was a fitting end. Now doc filmmaker Alex Gibney recounts Thompson’s roller-coaster life and how his intoxicating prose changed journalism forever with Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Blessed with volumes […]
In Filmmaker‘s Summer issue we ran David Rosen’s “The Next Telecom War,” which argued that net neutrality debates are distracting us from the real goal of infrastructure common carriage. Now, Rosen has contributed to “What Now for Broadband and the Telecoms,” posted on the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard’s Nieman Watchdog site. Bruce Kushnick’s article poses a series of relevant questions regarding broadband and telco policy to the incoming Obama administration: Q. Will you set the goal of broadband access at 1 gigabit in every American home? Q. Why aren’t telecom subsidies being directed to cover much-needed infrastructure improvements? […]