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EXORCISING HOLLYWOOD
When Travis Crawford last interviewed director Paul Schrader for Filmmaker in Fall 2002 he was looking forward to beginning work on a prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. "It will be nice to do something with a larger tableaux from a quality script," said Schrader. "I don't feel like I'm doing something beneath me. It's been 20 years since Cat People, and it will be refreshing to work the big arena again."
Little did he know what was in store for him. In the LA Weekly Scott Foundas details the behind-the-scenes debacle that led to Schrader's eventual replacement by Renny Harlin at the helm of Exorcist: The Beginning.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/13/2004 10:48:17 AM Comments (0)
WOODY ALLEN TRIBUTE
Nerdy Brooklyn Math teacher Keith Black, who still lives at home with his mother at age 35, has gone from your "average joe" math teacher to a cult movie star through the unlikely success of his award winning $3,000 short Get the Script to Woody Allen. Against all odds, Black has garnered national press and recently closed movie, TV and airline deals. Black's critically acclaimed short will play before several classic films by Allen as part of Loews Cineplex Entertainment's tribute to Woody Allen's 35th anniversary in films during the month of August.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, August 12 at 7pm - Annie Hall
Thursday, August 19 at 7pm - Broadway Danny Rose
Thursday, August 26 at 7pm - Manhattan
Theatre: Loews @ 34th Street, NYC
Vicinity: 34th St. (8th & 9th Ave)
Screenings are free; no reservations
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/12/2004 10:57:14 AM Comments (0)
BIRTH OF A NATION CANCELLED... AND REMIXED
As reported in The Guardian today: "A silent film cinema in Hollywood has been forced to cancel a screening of the landmark 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation following protests from members of the public and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The film was due to screen on Monday at the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood, California, until owner Charlie Lustman bowed to pressure. Lustman said that he was concerned that customers would have to cross a picket line and was also fearful for the safety of Bob Mitchell, his 92-year old organist."Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, recently toured the country with a remix of Birth of a Nation. As Ana Finel Honigman writes in Artnet: "Today, while the film is reviled for its politics, it is revered by film critics and scholars for its cinematic innovations (including the first color sequence). Its power as propaganda remains unnerving and it is reportedly still used as a recruitment piece for Klan membership. During a private screening at the White House President Woodrow Wilson is reported to have exclaimed: 'It's like writing history with lightning.'
"Miller's Rebirth of a Nation [premiered] in mid-May at the Vienna Festival and [travelled] to the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston South Carolina [prior to arriving] at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York on July 23, 2004. For each performance Miller [mixed] audio and video on-site and a DVD of Rebirth of a Nation will be released in the upcoming year."
Paul Miller offers the following rationale for his interest in Birth of a Nation: "[The film] focuses on how America needed to create a fiction of African American culture in tune with the fabrication of 'whiteness' that undergirded American thought throughout most of the last several centuries: it floats out in the world of cinema as an enduring albeit totally racist, epic tale of an America that, in essence, never existed. The Ku Klux Klan still uses this film as a recruiting device and it's considered to be an American 'cinema classic' despite the racist content. By remixing the film along the lines of dj culture, I hoped to create a counter-narrative, one where the story implodes on itself, one where new stories arise out the ashes of that explosion."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/11/2004 03:48:26 PM Comments (1)
"TV's new artistic credibility is making the small screen an alluring alternative for directors, offering freedom from the stresses of financing and distribution that beset any adventurous filmmaker," writes Joy Press in this week's Village Voice ["Out of the Box," August 11-17, 2004].
"According to film and TV director Barry Levinson, 'Movies these days are less and less about characters and behavior. All that's gone out the window. It's television that's taken over the role of capturing the small moments of human behavior -- a role that's been abdicated by theatrical films."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/11/2004 11:46:14 AM Comments (0)
The Toronto International Film Festival, the largest film event in North America, has announced additions to this year's line-up:
"Six films, four world premieres and one North American premiere, have been added to the Special Presentations line-up at the... Festival, for a total of 13 films in Special Presentations announced to date. "The world premieres are Crash, from Paul Haggis [and featuring Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillipe, Thandle Newton, Larenz, Nona Gaye, rapper Ludacris and Don Cheadle]; Haven, by Frank E. Flowers, [featuring Bill Paxton and Orlando Bloom]; Alexander Payne's Sideways [with Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen]; and James Toback's When Will I Be Loved [starring Neve Campbell and Frederick Weller].
"Also screening as part of Special Presentations are Niels Mueller's The Assassination of Richard Nixon [starring Naomi Watts, Sean Penn Don Cheadle and Jack Thompson], a North American premiere, and John Duigan's Head in the Clouds [with Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz and Stuart Townsend]."
The Festival also announced two additions to its Gala Presentations:
Director David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabees, which "delightfully explores the highs and lows of self-discovery, in an existential comedy that is simultaneously sublime and ridiculous." The film featues Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Naomi Watts, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert.
Bill Condon's Kinsey "tackles the life and relationships of a man who set out to research the sexuality of Americans and found himself at the height of a controversial media frenzy." Starring Liam Neeson in his compelling portrayal of scientist Alfred Kinsey, the film is supported by a stellar cast that features Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, Dylan Baker and Lynn Redgrave.
The Festival will close with the world premiere of Adim Jean's Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, in which Martin Short reprises his Comedy Central character, the exuberant entertainment critic Jiminy Glick. Also starring Jan Hooks, Linda Cardellini, Janeane Garofalo, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Perkins, Larry Joe Campbell, DeRay Davis, Aries Spears, and Gary Anthony Williams, the film is a rollicking romp that follows Jiminy as his dreams of all-encompassing celebrity land him in the comical trappings of an outlandish murder mystery.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/11/2004 10:04:32 AM Comments (0)
MOVEON CAMPAIGN ADS
A series of 24 anti-Bush campaign ads produced by filmmaker Errol Morris for MoveOn.org will began airing in select markets during the Republican National Convention later this month. According to Variety, each of the ads "feature real people who voted for Bush in 2000 but have been let down by the president's performance and now support Kerry.
"'This is a very simple idea: a different kind of political advertisement. Not a prepared speech, not a voiceover narrative, but rather people speaking one on one,' said Morris.
"Others who are directing campaign ads for MoveOn include Rob Reiner, comedian Margaret Cho and helmer Allison Anders. A separate animated spot will feature the voices of Scarlett Johansson, Kevin Bacon and Ed Asner. Woody Harrelson is directing an ad that will star Alicia Silverstone."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/10/2004 10:31:55 AM Comments (0)
Andre Noble, who stars in the film Sugar, which has been playing to great success at the leading gay and lesbian film festivals this summer, died from inadvertant poisoning on July 30. According to a news release, Noble, 25, died a few hours after he came in contact with a poisonous plant known as monkshood on a small island near his Newfoundland home. Noble appeared in productions of Shakespeare's Hamlet, As You Like It and Twelfth Night and he co-founded a new theater group in Toronto, The Young Company. He began his television career by appearing in the popular CBC mini-series "Random Passage," TVO/TFO's "Ta Voix Dans La Nuit" and the TV-movie "Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story."
He made his feature film debut as "Adam" in Jacob Tierney's Twist, a modern retelling of Oliver Twist, which opened in Canada in 2003 and is currently in limited release in the U.S. through Strand Releasing. Noble then got what might have been his breakout role as the lead in Sugar, an adaptation of Bruce LaBruce's "JD" stories directed by John Palmer. Noble played "Cliff," an 18-year-old suburban boy who heads into the city and falls in love with a seductive, crack-addicted hustler, played by Brendan Fehr ("Roswell").
Sugar is currently in theatrical release in Canada through ThinkFilm; it will be released on DVD/VHS in the United States by TLA Releasing and ThinkFilm on November 16, 2004.
In his memory, Noble's family has set up a scholarship fund in his name for the Theatre Department at the Sir Wilfred Grenfell School of Fine Arts in Newfoundland. Tel: 709-256-1600.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/10/2004 09:54:27 AM Comments (1)
IMAGINE FESTIVAL
New York's first annual Imagine Festival, of Arts, Issues and Ideas coincides with the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. From August 28 to September 2, 2004, the Imagine Festival is hosting over 125 events that mix artistic and educational activities through a series of concerts, performances, screenings, forums, town meetings and other extraordinary cultural happenings. The complete schedule of events -- including an evening with John Sayles, who will discuss and preview his new film Silver City, and Robert Altman will revisit his classic Secret Honor on the 20th anniversary of its release -- can be found here.# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/9/2004 05:38:13 PM Comments (0)
Photographer Johnny de Brest's "Vladracul" photo series is currently being exhibited in Washington, D.C. through August 27 at Goethe-Institut Washington. "'Vladracul,' a modern-day allegorical spin on the Dracula tale, shot in Berlin and Poland... was culled from over 15,000 images, from brightly-lit contemporary clubs pulsating with undercurrents of darkness to shots of Auschwitz that are simultaneously horrific and beautiful" (LA Weekly).
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 8/9/2004 10:43:49 AM Comments (0)
HELLHOUND ON OUR TRAILS
Filmmaker Alison Murray emailed to say that she's launched her new Web site, The Hellhound, which contains a trailer from her forthcoming debut feature Mouth to Mouth as well as short films and other info.
Says the Web site, Mouth to Mouth, executive produced by Atom Egoyan, "features Alison's signature choreographic style, woven into a powerful narrative about a search for belonging. Sherry, a teenage goth, runs away with a bizarre collective called SPARK (Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge) losing her lip ring, her virginity and her family in one road trip. Cast include Natasha Wightman (Gosford Park), Eric Thal (Snow Falling on Cedars), Ellen Page (Marion Bridge), August Diehl (Was Nutzt die Liebe in Gedanken) and Maxwell Mccabe-Lokos (of cult band The Deadly Snakes)."
Murray's company, Hellhound, is an associate producer of the project, and it's also getting involved in other types of productions as well. One of the most fascinating is Carnesky's Ghost Train, "a real ghost train ride featuring live performers and magic illusion. This phantasmagorical journey starts up in London's Brick Lane this coming August, before commencing an international tour." Conceived by theater artist Marisa Carnesky, the travelling event reconceives the traditional amusement park haunted house ride for darker, more psychologically distressed times.# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/8/2004 02:15:36 PM Comments (0)
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