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In a blog entry below we reported on “window-busting” release of Chazz Palminteri’s film Noel, which will appear in theaters, on cable and on DVD all within the same month. It’s part of a marketing strategy designed to score Noel some ink in the press — perhaps to divert attention away from the reviews, which Rotten Tomatoes scores only 18% positive. In our entry we were intrigued by the release strategy, but the folks at The Movie Blog linked to this USA Today piece which describes it in more critical terms. Some of the comments in the piece, like the […]
At Filmmaker, we’ve interviewed documentarian Joe Berlinger and his partner Bruce Sinofsky several times over the years, and the two are always great explicators of the filmmaking process. Now Berlinger with co-writer Greg Milner has authored Metallica: This Monster Lives, the story of his and Berlinger’s making of the rock’n’roll-meets-therapy doc. And if you bookmark this blog page and skip over Filmmaker’s home page, then you’ve probably missed this downloadable Chapter Five book excerpt, in which Berlinger talks about submitting himself to therapist Phil Towle to discuss his post-Blair Witch 2 issues. Also worth noting in our on-line features section […]
One New York indie I’ve been tracking over the last year is Kevin Jordan’s Lobster Farm, the story of two generations of one Brooklyn family struggling to hold onto the family business, a Sheepshead Bay lobster shop. Jordan’s previous pic, Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire, received much festival acclaim, and as he readies his new one for a fest premiere, he’s already picked up one high-profile supporter. Reports Michael Fleming in Variety, Martin Scorsese has agreed to put his “Martin Scorsese presents” label on the film, assuring it some degree of critical buzz. Jordan connected with Scorsese when he […]
Via Variety comes this interesting subscription-only piece announcing a new spin-off for Fox’s espionage TV series 24 which reachers viewers via cell-phone. Writes Josef Adalian, “In a first-of-its-kind deal for a U.S. TV studio, 20th Century Fox TV has greenlit production of a live-action 24 spinoff skein that will be produced exclusively for cell phone users. Dubbed 24: Conspiracy, the show — featuring original characters separate from the Fox TV skein — will unfold over 24 roughly one-minute episodes; one seg will be downloaded to subscribers’ phones every week.” Premiering in the U.K., where cell phone use and 3G technology […]
At Filmmaker we’re always interested in alternative forms of distribution, so we took note of the unusual “window-busting” release plans for Noel, Chazz Palminteri’s directorial debut which premiered in September at the Toronto Film Festival. The sentimental holiday film which stars Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker and Penelope Cruz will premiere in theaters November 12 via The Convex Group, a new company headed by WebMD founder Jeff Arnold. Then, on Sunday, November 28 Noel will screen once on the TNT network. That day, the film will also become available to Amazon.com customers as $4.99 Flexplay DVDs, disks which erase themselves 48 […]
One of the problems independent filmmakers have faced in the last decade has been the studio’s co-option of the specialty film genre. Acquistions have dropped as the mini-majors have set out to make, with bigger budgets, better production values, and real stars, the kinds of quirky character-based stories that in the ’80s and ’90s were largely the province of independent filmmakers. A particularly cruel example of this trend was driven home by a press release, excerpted below, I received from CineKink, an organization devoted to “the recognition and encouragement of kink-positive depictions in film and television.” In order, I guess, […]
If you work in the film industry, there’s a point every year in which you scan through your Palm Pilot or Treo or old-fashioned rolodex and realize that so many of your colleagues have left the business. Some of them you know their whereabouts; you’ve gotten a cheery card announcing their latest endeavors. But so many others just fade away. Someone who hasn’t faded away is former Time Warner chief Gerald Levin according to Maria Bartiromo, whose “Closing Bell” piece on Levin and his new venture I caught while channel surfing today. Several years after the murder of his son, […]
The latest news reports say Dutch police have apprehended eight more suspects as conspirators in the murder of Dutch director Theo Van Gogh (see our blog below) and also report that the alleged shooter was captured carrying a letter calling for a Holy Jihad. For those who want to see what the fuss is all about, our friends at Greg.org have posted this link to the Dutch broadcaster VPRO’s site, where you can watch a few minutes of Submission, the “anti-Islam” film that provoked the Islamic community’s outcry against Van Gogh.
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 […]
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 […]