| Filmmaker Magazine

STONING BUSH

Michael Fleming has a surprising story up at Variety: Oliver Stone is set to make a feature about George W. Bush. Before the strike, if he can. Josh Brolin will play Bush. Here’s Stone discussing the project and the screenplay, which is written by Nixon co-scripter Stanley Weiser: “It’s a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to ‘Nixon,’ to give a sense of what it’s like to be in his skin,” Stone told Daily Variety. “But if ‘Nixon’ was a symphony, this is more like a chamber piece, and not as dark in tone. People have turned my political ideas into a cliche, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2008

SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES CREATIVE PRODUCING INITIATIVE

At a lunch here at the Kimball Art Center at the base of Main Street, the Sundance Institute announced their new “Creative Producing Initiative” today. “To work effectively with filmmakers, producers need an opportunity to develop their own skills and voices. The Creative Producing Initiative is designed to develop a producer’s creative instincts in the scripting and editing stages and to evolve their communication and problem-solving skills at all stages of realizing a project,” said Michelle Satter, Director, Sundance Institute Feature Film Program. Producer Paul Mezey (Sugar, Maria Full of Grace) gave the keynote speech, and he pledged his support […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2008

THE GOOD BUZZ…

Before arriving at Sundance, if people asked what I thought the business climate was going to be, I told them that if they had a film with name cast and genre hooks enabling it to be sold as something other than a speciality film that the bidding would be strong. Traditional “small” speciality films might have a harder time given the poor theatrical performance of last year’s Sundance titles. So far, I don’t think my prediction is far off, although it’s too early to tell how strong the bidding will be for the larger titles. One industry vet told me […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2008

SUNDANCE FROM THE INSIDE

Over at the Film in Focus site, filmmaker Craig Zobel gives us five tips for making it through Sundance alive. I’m going to meditate on his tip number three — “Don’t Get All Stress Out Over the Parties” — rather than stewing over the invites I didn’t get. From Zobel: If you haven’t heard, the nightly parties at Sundance are real hard to get into. Even the fancy/rich/important have to stand in line sometimes. (For, like, two minutes. But still.) Let me go ahead and tell you what you are missing. A chocolate fondue fountain that has white chocolate on […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2008

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUNDANCE…

was seen at last night’s black-out on Main Street. Over at Movie City Indie, Ray Pride has photographic documentation, like the picture of his I am posting here.

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2008

THE BUDDY SYSTEM

Filmmakers Joe Swanberg and Ronnie Bronstein are videoblogging Sundance for Spout. Here’s episode four, in which they wonder where all the filmmakers are. Sundance 4: Melee on Main StreetAdd to My Profile | More Videos

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2008

BLUNT FORCE

I ran into producer Mike Ryan, whose Choke is screening here at Sundance, and he told me about a new website he’s involved with. Hammer to Nail has just launched, with Ryan and, soon, Mike Tully filing film reviews from Sundance — reviews that are intended to be provocative conversation-starters that eschew the niceties that sometimes inhibit writing from not only the MSM but also the blogosphere. (Last year, Ryan forwarded me at Sundance his politically-outraged comments about Grace is Gone, which I posted on the blog.) He launches the new site with a review of the Sundance doc The […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2008

DECONSTRUCTING THE DGA DEAL

The Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative deal with the AMPTP, and now its time to weigh in on it. However, coming as it did on the eve of Sundance, much of the working film industry press is a bit distracted. Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes have a solid article in today’s New York Times, in which they outline how the DGA’s different negotiating philosophy and lengthy pre-negotiation back channel conversations led to a quick deal. Over at the Working Life blog, labor activist and former Senatorial candidate Jonathan Tasini is doing the math, reviewing the deal point […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008

“FROZEN RIVER” writer-director, Courtney Hunt

Ten percent more money wouldn’t have made that big a difference, but 10 percent more preproduction time would have helped. Our funding showed up so late in the game that nothing could be nailed down until two weeks before we started shooting. Casting and location scouting was last minute. Luckily my producers and crew were intrepid so we just marched on. Rehearsal with actors was minimal. I met most of the people in the smaller roles for the first time on the day they arrived on the set. The only thing that saved us was the script. The time spent […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 18, 2008

“ADVENTURES OF POWER” writer-director, Ari Gold

After 13 months of shooting in four states, a broken arm, lightning strikes, a once-in-a-generation power failure at our power-plant location (“stay here, you’re slightly more likely to survive if it explodes”), I should want at least 11 percent more money to make the movie, to deal with these contingencies, or else I’d be wise to force myself to write 99 percent less insanity into my script so I could make something simple. But since all that’s past, I’d say if I wished I had 10 percent more of something, it would be peace of mind. I wasted a huge […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 18, 2008

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