6560 Results for “production”
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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 -
Great Expectations
Years ago, before I worked in film, I was a curator and programmer at The Kitchen, New York’s center for contemporary performance and video. In my first year there, the organization produced a one-off TV special entitled “Two Moon July,” and in it David Byrne performed a work of solo performance art that involved the Talking Head running in giant circles through The Kitchen’s Soho loft space, chanting out the names of future movies culled from the AFM issue of Variety. It might sound a bit slim, but it was a nice piece — there is something oddly poignant and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 4, 2004 -
IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES
There was interesting news in Variety today — Rick Linklater has been greenlit by Warner Independent Pictures and New York’s Thousand Words to film his adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s great A Scanner Darkly, which will star Keanu Reeves in his first post-Matrix trilogy project. An earlier script was penned by Charlie Kaufman, and the good folks at Muse Productions had the option once — and still list a Chris Cunningham-directed version on their website. Now, however, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney’s Section 8 are producing the current project with Thousand Words. Most interesting is the note that the movie […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 30, 2004 -
THE CUBAN CONNECTION
With his purchase of the Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures and his creation of production company 2929 and the high definition cable network HDNet, which boasts an NYC-based production arm run by Open City Films’ Jason Kliot, Dallas Maverick-owner Mark Cuban has quickly announced himself as one of indie film’s key players. For those who want to know more about Cuban, check out his weblog, which boasts regular postings about the Mavericks, Godsend, the Robert DeNiro/Rebecca Romijn-Stamos movie Cuban produced with Todd Wagner, and Mamma.com, the search engine he just picked up stock in. Regular reading might help you figure […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 21, 2004 -
MICKIE REALIZES DREAM
When Canada’s entertainment conglom Alliance Atlantis announced a few months ago that it would be shuttering its film production and sales divisions, independent filmmakers wondered where its Managing Director of Motion Picture Sales Charlotte Mickie would wind up. Throughout the ’90s, Mickie has been a reliable and accessible presence on the scene, picking up many noteworthy American indies and often propelling them to solid international sales. Among the many titles in her Alliance Atlantis catalog are Bowling for Columbine, The Station Agent, Welcome to the Dollhouse, and In the Company of Men. So, we were happy to hear yesterday that […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 20, 2004 -
BETTER THAN NEW
Vincent Gallo fans — and perfectionist filmmakers with money to spare — must check out this eBay page in which Gallo sells the camera, lights and sound package used to create The Brown Bunny. (Being a fan, I hope this doesn’t herald a retreat from filmmaking for Gallo.) The package contains two Aaton 16mm cameras, Super Baltar lenses, the last Nagra 4 STC made by the company, and an Angeniuex zoom purchased from the Kubrick estate! Writes eBay seller nbvbn, who, by the way, has a seller rating of 76 with 100% positive results, “Vincent Gallo, the director of Buffalo […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 8, 2004 -
THE EUROPEAN GRADUATE SCHOOL
Holly Willis, Karol Martesko and I founded Filmmaker back in the fall of 1992 and for many years after that Holly served as our West Coast Editor before moving on to her current position as editor of the quite excellent Res magazine. We were trading e-mails recently, and Holly asked if we’d link this site to the European Graduate School, where she is working on her second Ph.D. When she wrote to me that the program was “ridiculously perfect — it brings together amazing philosophers with filmmakers for intensive three-week seminars in a tiny town in the mountains of Switzerland […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 7, 2004 -
OVERLOOKED
Of course, with the Academy nominations come and gone, it may seem kind of pointless to hype an un-nominated performance. But given the nods to Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro for their work in 21 Grams, I just wanted to mention my favorite performance in the film which I was surprised to see absent from the various year-end lists. I’m not talking about Melissa Leo, who has her supporters, but rather Charlotte Gainsbourg. Playing Penn’s wife — a Brit transplanted to Memphis who just wants a second chance at a child with Penn — Gainsbourg, in a quiet, unshowy […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 10, 2004 -
MARK SILVERMAN FELLOWSHIP
Sundance has awarded its annual Mark Silverman Producer’s Fellowship to L.A.-based producer Gina Kwon. Formerly a V.P. at Myriad Pictures, Kwon has worked with Academy Award-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler on his TNT series The Residents and his Fox series American High. She’s most associated, though, with director Miguel Arteta and producer Matthew Greenfield, having production-managed Star Maps, associate produced Chuck and Buck, and co-produced The Good Girl. She is currently producing a Sundance Lab project, Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know, aiming for a Summer 2004 shoot. The fellowship, which is a tribute to the late producer […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 9, 2004 -
FIELD REPORT
Following last year’s Rotterdam Film Festival, Simon Field, the fest’s illustrious director, announced that the 2004 edition would be his last. This year’s festival more than lived up to the high standard Field set when he joined Rotterdam eight years ago, and now Field has revealed his next endeavor. He’ll be joining the U.K. production company Illuminations, run by Keith Griffiths and John Wyver, and will be executive producing a series of music, architecture and film pieces commissioned by the City of Vienna on the occasion the Mozart anniversary in 2006. Theatre and opera director Peter Sellars will be artistic […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2004
