FALLOUT
As reported in the Guardian Unlimited today: “The Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier has thrown Bayreuth into confusion. Not by his outrageous take on the operas of Richard Wagner, nor by spectacular fallouts with divas — but by admitting that he is not up to the job of directing the festival’s forthcoming Ring cycle.
“A statement from the festival said the sudden resignation by Von Trier, the director of Dogville and The Idiots, stemmed from his conviction that ‘the Ring would clearly exceed his powers, and that therefore he would not be able to fulfill his ambitions of his own high standards and the special standards of the Bayreuth festival.’ ”
Another filmmaker who has thrown in the towel on a future project according to the Guardian is Kevin Smith, who “has reportedly taken himself out of the director’s seat on Miramax’s forthcoming comic book adaptation of The Green Hornet.”
Smith’s decision is apparently unrelated to speculation that Disney is ready to sell the Miramax film company back to founders and co-chairmen Harvey and Bob Weinstein after the row over Michael Moore’s new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11 — which Moore, following a well-received preview screening of the film in Los Angeles yesterday, predicted would gross as much as three times the box office of Bowling for Columbine.
According to yesterday’s New York Times, Disney chief executive Michael Eisner was considering the move after experiencing “accumulated aggravation with the Weinstein brothers.”
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Anonymous
