Unless the latest round of dueling press releases between the AMPTP and the WGA represents a last spasm of contentiousness before a final reconciliation, which I really doubt, it looks like the WGA could be striking by the end of the week or Monday. (The WGA agreement expires at midnight tonight, but it originally looked like writers would work while negotiations continued post-expiration.) On her Deadline Hollywood Daily Nikkie Finke posts a statement issued by AMPTP President Nick Counter. (He’s the guy repping the studios and producers). In it, Counter says not only that the WGA-desired revision of the DVD […]
Stephen M. Duesner at the always reliable Pitchfork reviews the soundtrack to Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There. (It gets an 8.0.) Here’s the lede: I’m Not There is director Todd Haynes’ third music biopic, after Superstar in 1987 and Velvet Goldmine in 1998. In each of those films, the main subject– the celebrity at the center– has been altered or is somehow absent: Superstar recounted Karen Carpenter’s death from anorexia with only Barbie dolls, which continually prevents it from being officially released. Velvet Goldmine traces David Bowie’s rise and fall throughout the 1970s, but the singer threatened to sue and […]
Steve Buscemi’s Interview, which Filmmaker featured on its cover last issue, opened in London this week and there’s been some U.K. press about the movie and its American shoot. And while I don’t consider myself a reflexive stars-and-stripes-forever rah-rah’er, I found the comments in this Guardian piece entitled “The Final Cut” by the slain Dutch director Theo Van Gogh’s “creative consultant” Doesjka van Hoogdalem about shooting in American both naive and annoying. Much of the piece is devoted to van Hoogdalem’s wide-eyed wonder at the wacky wastefulness of U.S. filmmaking. From the piece: However, maintaining the authenticity of the Van […]
The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting today issued proposed new rules for the permitting of film shoots in the city of New York. If you remember back several dozen internet news cycles (like around late July), an outcry arose when the Mayor’s Office issued specific new shooting rules that seemed to many to disregard First Amendment rights, legitimate news gathering needs, the needs of tourists, and the working practices of artisanal street photographers and experimental filmmakers. Protests were had, everyone from no-budget filmmakers to Keith Olbermann chimed in, and a grass roots group, Picture NY, organized the opposition. […]
Since showing his debut feature We Are The Strange at Sundance last January, M dot Strange has become the poster boy for DIY filmmaking as he’s warded off all main stream avenues for theatrical distribution, concentrating instead on festival screenings, grassroots programs like MobMov (mobile movie drive-ins) and now a comprehensive 2-disc DVD package that is a must have for low-budget animators and filmmakers alike. It’s hard to describe the film other than to say it’s really experimental. (surprised?) All I know is the two main characters really want ice cream. But what makes this film great is that it […]
Jan Kounen is a French music video and feature film director who has specialized in bringing the spiritual world to the screen. On locations in Peru and Mexico to film the psychedelic spaghetti western, Renegade (2004, released as Blueberry outside the U.S.), an adaptation of the French comic book by renowned visionary artist Moebius, he discovered Shamanism, fell in love with the indigenous Shipibo-Conibos culture and later spent several months learning the ways of their plant medicine, ayahuasca. He even filmed a documentary about it, Other Worlds, which will be re-released as a DVD box set in October. His latest […]
DAVID LYNCH IN DIRECTOR blackANDwhite’S LYNCH. COURTESY ABSURDA. Contrary to popular belief, many directors are genuinely modest and can honestly maintain that they make movies for the love of cinema (rather than the money, stardom, hedonistic lifestyle, etc.), but it is still surprising to find one who is unwilling to reveal their identity. This is the case with the director of LYNCH, the new documentary about David Lynch, who is choosing to remain anonymous behind the pseudonym blackANDwhite. He (for blackANDwhite is a he) initially drew attention to himself with this refusal to stand in the limelight, and prompted the […]
In time for Halloween is this spooky music video for the band Bat for Lashes and their song “What’s a Girl to Do.” It’s a great addition to the “choreographed one-shot wonder” school of pop promos, and it was directed by Dougal Wilson.
The appealingly designed, crisply minimal Motion Design site describes itself as “a research blog on the subject of Motion Design. It serves as a means to discuss, share and develop ideas that will be used for a feature length documentary film.” I came across the site because it just posted an article about Pablo, director Richard Goldgewicht and producer Jeremy Goldscheider’s animated documentary on title designer Pablo Ferro. (You may remember this film and these filmmakers — they were featured in our 25 New Faces this year.) From the piece: Back in March of this year, a short teaser popped […]
David Halbfinger has a noteworthy piece in The New York Times today revealing that Ed Burns will release his new film, Purple Violets, a $4 million indie production starring Burns, Debra Messing, and Selma Blair, exclusively on iTunes. From the piece: When Edward Burns’s latest romantic comedy, “Purple Violets,” had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, it drew positive reviews, but only lukewarm offers from movie distributors. Mr. Burns, the director of indie favorites like “The Brothers McMullen” and “She’s the One,” but whose latest movies have not done as well, knew from experience how that story […]