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Post by Ace on Jul 13, 2006 23:25:51 GMT -5
Cinezak: Harry Gregson-Williams Interview (June 2006)[Excerpts. Translated from French by Google]Born in the United Kingdom in 1961. A long time assistant of the other type-setters of the studio MEDIA VENTURES created by Hans Zimmer, he since has forged himself a solid experiment in the electro-orchestral kind, like John Powell. As at ease on films of action, comedies, dramas, as on cartoon films, he is one of the new sure values of the current music of American film. At the time of its passage to the festival music and cinema of Madrid on June 30, 2006, we met the type-setter of SHREK and the WORLD OF NARNIA for which it was the first experiment in concert as a public. Return at one strong time of its musical career and on some of its key works, before approaching its projects for 2007 and 2008. Among your one projects little to quote FLUSHED AWAY for Aardman and Dreamworks, then SERAPHIM FALLS of David von Ancken, film for which you will approach film of war tendency “western”. What can you tell us these films and of your musical approach?I started with worked on FLUSHED AWAY there are three or four months, I wrote the topics, and the elements of the score. Then Dreamworks said to me recently that they had decided to change the history, and to change nature completely even film! I was thus a little in the expectancy: I left them a “ultimatum” six weeks to arrange the things… When I am engaged, it is necessary to be ready! That inevitably freed me a little time in my schedule, and as a result I preferred in the mean while to move towards a smaller budgeted film: SERPAPHIM FALLS. I really adored script, it is exceptional. There is very little dialogue, only one vote which describes the landscape, the mountains and snow, and only two characters in film, interpreted by Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson. You will discover there Pierce Brosnan very rough, not at all in the style of James Bond! The film is held at the end of the American civil war, but it is not really a western in the classical sense of the term, nor a film of war. It is a very naturalist film, that describes the beauty of the landscapes of Utah, and the music has a true narrative role in film, it replaces a little the dialogue. I am unaware if the public will like it, because it is not a large film to several million dollars, but it is the first film of the David van Ancken, and it is really a very good film. I wrote the music very quickly, in three-four time weeks, and now I work again on FLUSHED AWAY. Will there be a CD for SERAPHIM FALLS?For the moment, we seek a distributor for film. But I do not know if I want really to do a disc for this score: the music is very atmospheric, and not at all melodic. There are natural sounds, a beautiful atmosphere which I like much, but I am not sure that it is very interesting to listen on CD. ============================ Original French:Parmi vos projets on peu citer FLUSHED AWAY pour Aardman et Dreamworks, puis SERAPHIM FALLS de David von Ancken, film pour lequel vous allez aborder le film de guerre tendance « western ». Que pouvez-vous nous dire de ces films et de votre approche musicale ?J'ai commencé à travaillé sur FLUSHED AWAY il y a trois ou quatre mois, j'ai écrit les thèmes, et les éléments du score. Puis Dreamworks m'a dit récemment qu'ils avaient décidé de changer l'histoire, et de changer complètement la nature même du film ! J'étais donc un peu dans l'expectative : je leur ai laissé un "ultimatum" de six semaines pour arranger les choses... Quand on m'engage, il faut être prêt ! Cela m'a inévitablement débloqué un peu de temps dans mon planning, et du coup, j'ai préféré me diriger vers un film à plus petit budget entre temps : SERPAPHIM FALLS. J'ai vraiment adoré le script, il est exceptionnel. Il y a très peu de dialogues, seulement une voix qui décrit le paysage, les montagnes et la neige, et seulement deux personnages dans le film, interprétés par Pierce Brosnan et Liam Neeson. Vous y découvrirez un Pierce Brosnan très rugueux, pas du tout dans le style de James Bond ! Le film se déroule à la fin de la guerre civile américaine, mais ce n'est pas vraiment un western au sens classique du terme, ni un film de guerre. C'est un film très naturaliste, qui décrit la beauté des paysages de l'Utah, et la musique a un véritable rôle narratif dans le film, elle remplace un peu les dialogues. J'ignore si le public aimera, car ne c'est pas un gros film à plusieurs millions de dollars, mais c'est le premier film du David van Ancken, et c'est vraiment un très bon film. J'ai écrit la musique très rapidement, en trois-quatre semaines, et maintenant je travaille à nouveau sur FLUSHED AWAY. Il y aura-t-il un CD pour SERAPHIM FALLS ?Pour l'instant, nous cherchons un distributeur pour le film. Mais je ne sais pas si j'ai réellement envie de sortir le disque de ce score : la musique est très atmosphérique, et pas du tout mélodique. Il y a des sons naturels, une belle atmosphère que j'aime beaucoup, mais je ne suis pas sûr que ce soit très intéressant à écouter sur CD.
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Post by Ace on Aug 10, 2006 13:12:43 GMT -5
Yes! CBC Arts :Guest, Almodovar films among high-profile flicks set for Toronto festLast Updated Thu, 10 Aug 2006 13:45:33 EDT The latest satire from Christopher Guest, Pedro Almodovar's award-winning Volver and Kenneth Branagh's updated version of The Magic Flute will be among the high-profile films screening at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Organizers announced Thursday a slate of star-studded films, largely from the U.S., that have joined the TIFF lineup. Four films have been added to the gala program, the festival's showcase of high-profile U.S. studio projects as well as major Canadian and foreign-language films, which screen at Toronto's lavish Roy Thomson Hall. The newest galas are: * For Your Consideration - Christopher Guest regulars such as Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard and Parker Posey reunite for a send-up of Hollywood's moviemaking industry and the annual film awards season. * Bonneville - a cross-country road trip drama starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen. * Bobby - the much-anticipated ensemble drama set against the backdrop of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. * Volver - Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's award-winning, female-centred drama about the struggles of three generations of women in one family. Organizers also added to the festival's special presentations program, its showcase for films featuring major stars and directors. The latest additions are: * El Cantante - a bio-pic about Puerto Rican-born salsa star Hector Lavoe starring husband-and-wife pop stars Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. * Stranger Than Fiction - a comedy about the collision of a fiction writer's (Emma Thompson) book and a real-life man (Will Ferrell) who bears the same name as her doomed lead character, directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball) * Penelope - dubbed a "modern-day fairy tale" about a woman (portrayed by Christina Ricci) who is afflicted with a secret curse. * The Last Kiss - a U.S. remake of the 2001 Italian hit, with an ensemble cast featuring Zach Braff, Rachel Bilson, Casey Affleck, Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson, and a script by Canadian Paul Haggis. * Seraphim Falls - a post-American Civil War action thriller starring Liam Neeson as a colonel hunting down a man with whom he has a grudge (Pierce Brosnan). * Venus - a British-made "coming of very-old-age" story starring Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips. * The Magic Flute - actor-director Kenneth Branagh's update of Mozart's beloved opera, set during the First World War and starring Canadian tenor Joseph Kaiser. * The Fountain - a science fiction film starring Hugh Jackman in three parallel stories spanning 1,000 years, about a man's search for the fountain of youth and his struggle to save the woman he loves (Rachel Weisz). Organizers have not yet announced which filmmakers and actors will accompany their films to this year's event. The 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 7 to 16.
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Post by Ace on Aug 10, 2006 13:16:57 GMT -5
www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/media_centre/news_releaseItem.asp?id=227Major Films, Major Stars And Major FilmmakersToronto - Seven world premieres and one North American premiere have been added to the Special Presentations lineup for the 31st Toronto International Film Festival. These highly-anticipated films feature some of cinema's biggest names, including Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Reese Witherspoon, Christina Ricci, Catherine O'Hara, Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah, Peter O'Toole, Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Zach Braff, Rachel Bilson, Blythe Danner, and Tom Wilkinson. Limited Festival Passes and Coupon Books are still available. For more information call 416-968-FILM or click, bell.ca/filmfest. SERAPHIM FALLS David Von Ancken, USA World Premiere This epic action thriller is set five years after the end of the American Civil War. Deep within the cold mountains of the American West, Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) sits pensively in front of a fire, shocked back into reality by a bullet to the shoulder. So begins the initiation of Colonel Morsman Carver's (Liam Neeson) excruciating and relentless revenge. Simultaneously confronting the caverns of their past and the recesses of their souls, these two men are launched into a deadly battle amidst an unforgiving wilderness - a wilderness at once breathtakingly beautiful and wholly treacherous, and remarkably shot by gifted cinematographer John Toll (BRAVEHEART, VANILLA SKY).
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Post by sparklingblue on Aug 12, 2006 6:44:03 GMT -5
Oh, oh, goody! I so wish I could be there to see it premiere.
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Post by Lauryn on Aug 12, 2006 21:47:38 GMT -5
Yes! CBC Arts :Guest, Almodovar films among high-profile flicks set for Toronto festLast Updated Thu, 10 Aug 2006 13:45:33 EDT The latest satire from Christopher Guest, Pedro Almodovar's award-winning Volver and Kenneth Branagh's updated version of The Magic Flute will be among the high-profile films screening at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Organizers announced Thursday a slate of star-studded films, largely from the U.S., that have joined the TIFF lineup. Four films have been added to the gala program, the festival's showcase of high-profile U.S. studio projects as well as major Canadian and foreign-language films, which screen at Toronto's lavish Roy Thomson Hall. The newest galas are: * For Your Consideration - Christopher Guest regulars such as Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard and Parker Posey reunite for a send-up of Hollywood's moviemaking industry and the annual film awards season. * Bonneville - a cross-country road trip drama starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen. * Bobby - the much-anticipated ensemble drama set against the backdrop of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. * Volver - Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's award-winning, female-centred drama about the struggles of three generations of women in one family. Organizers also added to the festival's special presentations program, its showcase for films featuring major stars and directors. The latest additions are: * El Cantante - a bio-pic about Puerto Rican-born salsa star Hector Lavoe starring husband-and-wife pop stars Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. * Stranger Than Fiction - a comedy about the collision of a fiction writer's (Emma Thompson) book and a real-life man (Will Ferrell) who bears the same name as her doomed lead character, directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball) * Penelope - dubbed a "modern-day fairy tale" about a woman (portrayed by Christina Ricci) who is afflicted with a secret curse. * The Last Kiss - a U.S. remake of the 2001 Italian hit, with an ensemble cast featuring Zach Braff, Rachel Bilson, Casey Affleck, Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson, and a script by Canadian Paul Haggis. * Seraphim Falls - a post-American Civil War action thriller starring Liam Neeson as a colonel hunting down a man with whom he has a grudge (Pierce Brosnan). * Venus - a British-made "coming of very-old-age" story starring Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips. * The Magic Flute - actor-director Kenneth Branagh's update of Mozart's beloved opera, set during the First World War and starring Canadian tenor Joseph Kaiser. * The Fountain - a science fiction film starring Hugh Jackman in three parallel stories spanning 1,000 years, about a man's search for the fountain of youth and his struggle to save the woman he loves (Rachel Weisz). Organizers have not yet announced which filmmakers and actors will accompany their films to this year's event. The 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 7 to 16. Nice move! Some festival buzz could do the film's profile a world of good. Seraphim Falls sounds like it has some good company. If I could hop on a plane I'd be psyched to see "Venus" because, from what you hear, it seems like such a ripe plum of a role for Peter O'Toole, perhaps a last hurrah at Oscar? "The Fountain" might be trippier than Zardoz (if that's possible), and Christopher Guest's "For Your Consideration" has to be a hoot! "Volver" sounds like the stuff Almodovar does best; I'd have to see it even though his movie "Talk to Her" reeaaallly disturbed me.
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Post by Ace on Aug 13, 2006 0:45:00 GMT -5
It is a good sign that the film was accepted at the TIFF and I'm hoping all goes well and a distributor for the US is announced soon. The only impression of the film so far is from the composer and it's a promising one that I hope holds.
O'Toole is said to have given a splendidly fun performance in Venus which has so far been described and good-very good with his performance being the must see thing about it. And yes Oscar buzz is circling it. If it's even a modest hit he could finally break the most undeserved and longest Oscar snubbing on record. It's hard to believe he hasn't been nominated in over 20 years since My Favorite Year but then he hasn't been given the greatest of material to work with since then either. It's still criminal that he didn't win for Lawrence. But at least he lost that a great performance -- Peck in To Kill A Mocking Bird. But losing for Beckett to Harrison in My Fair Lady and for Lion In Winter to Cliff Robertson in Charly -- oy.
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Post by Ace on Aug 22, 2006 14:01:39 GMT -5
Pierce is listed in todays new reports as one of the multitude of stars showing up at the TIFF.
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Post by Ace on Aug 25, 2006 1:14:00 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Aug 25, 2006 4:49:26 GMT -5
Source: Coming Soon:
Serpahim Falls will open in the U.S. on Dec 1 in limited release and be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
The U.S. distrubtor is Samuel Goldwyn Films (IDP) -- a good company with usually quality films but very limited release patterns. I think their largest (in terms of box office and theaters) films up to now have been Supersize Me and The Squid & The Whale.
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Post by Ace on Aug 29, 2006 17:05:44 GMT -5
The write up/review in the TIFF ScheduleExecutive Producer: Stan Wlodkowski Producer: Bruce Davey, David Flynn Screenplay: David Von Ancken, Abby Everett Jaques Cinematographer: John Toll Editor: Conrad Buff Production Designer: Michael Hanan Sound: William Sarokin Music: Harry Gregson-Williams Principal Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson Programme: SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS Director: David Von Ancken Country: USA Year: 2006 Language: English Time: 115 minutes Film Types: Colour/35mm Rating: PG (It's an R in the U.S.) SCREENING TIMES: Wednesday, September 13 9:00 PM VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN) Friday, September 15 3:00 PM VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN) We are in the American Rockies. Snow covers everything, dampening sound and colour. Gideon (Pierce Brosnan), a bearded figure cloaked in fur, contemplates a fire. Shots pierce the quiet. Gideon, convulsed with fear, is hit by a bullet and moves quickly away. Soon we learn why his fear is so acute: Gideon is a hunted man. Colonel Morsman Carver (Liam Neeson), a Confederate officer, has hired several mountain trackers to find and kill him to avenge a terrible wrong committed at the end of the Civil War. So Gideon stumbles away, bleeding profusely. A manœuvre on a river bank succeeds in throwing the hunters off. He takes his brief respite to remove the bullet from his arm and cauterize the wound - in a scene not for the faint of heart - and proceeds down the valley. And so the chase begins. From the snowy peaks, we descend into the savannahs - full of rapacious traders, vicious railway foremen and overly-welcoming Christian missionaries - and move finally into the desert, where the two men challenge each other in the face of Mother Nature at her harshest, with surreal visitations from the world of superstition to guide them to their final confrontation. Brosnan and Neeson are sublime. Both convey the swagger and intensity of former soldiers, with unsettling cores of, respectively, fear and hate. These tough, spare performances are captured in breathtaking fashion by first-time feature director David Von Ancken. He is assisted by two of cinema's most artistically gifted technicians. Academy Award-winning editor Conrad Buff perfectly captures the rapid changes in the film's mood, from quiet intensity to frightening violence and suspense. The brilliant cinematographer John Toll evokes the full range of poetic resonances from the multiple landscapes featured in the film. This is as beautiful and austere a portrait of the American West as one can hope to find. - Noah Cowan
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Post by Lauryn on Sept 3, 2006 20:55:53 GMT -5
Source: Coming Soon: Serpahim Falls will open in the U.S. on Dec 1 in limited release and be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films. The U.S. distrubtor is Samuel Goldwyn Films (IDP) -- a good company with usually quality films but very limited release patterns. I think their largest (in terms of box office and theaters) films up to now have been Supersize Me and The Squid & The Whale. True, Goldwyn is by nature and budget constraints, a scrappy indie outfit, though, one, as you say, with a quality rep. They've always been an advocate for good, under-appreciated films, especially foreign. When we've shown art films at the library over the years they've been very lovely and generous, unlike some others, when I've asked them for stills and publicity material. A quick check of the imdb shows that Goldwyn's "The Squid and the Whale" topped out at 143 screens in the US, and that was with some fairly serious Oscar buzz for Jeff Daniels' performance. It would be a shame to deny "Seraphim Falls" fair opportunity on a big screen, for American audiences, with its Western visual canvas that cinematographer John Toll can exploit to the full. I wonder if Icon will be handling the bulk of foreign distribution for "Seraphim" and also home video (which is probably where I'll have to see it!) I think Sony handled foreign and home vid for "The Squid and the Whale."
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Post by Ace on Sept 4, 2006 0:47:57 GMT -5
Sony is distributing in Canada according to the TIFF page so they might be doing other Foreign territories.
One would hope that with a higher profile cast Goldwyn would be able to get this on more screens. Much will no doubt have to do with reviews and buzz. But heck the Yari Group finally released one of their own films The Illusionist on almost 1,000 screens this weekend (and it did quite well) but then Bob Yari has a lot of capital for the costs of prints. (though I don't recall seeing much mainstream adveritising for the film)
Ace
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Post by Lauryn on Sept 4, 2006 19:34:47 GMT -5
Sony is distributing in Canada according to the TIFF page so they might be doing other Foreign territories. One would hope that with a higher profile cast Goldwyn would be able to get this on more screens. Much will no doubt have to do with reviews and buzz. But heck the Yari Group finally released one of their own films The Illusionist on almost 1,000 screens this weekend (and it did quite well) but then Bob Yari has a lot of capital for the costs of prints. (though I don't recall seeing much mainstream adveritising for the film) Ace Icon would have the wherewithal, too, if they wanted, for 1,000 screens but their usual pattern has been to hand off the US distribution of their films to partnering studios and concentrate on international, where they're better positioned. It does look more and more likely that Sony may be handling the bulk of foreign. I was casting back in my memory for recent films close to "Seraphim Falls" and thought of the Western, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." It played the festival circuit, was quite well reviewed, and was essentially marketed on that basis. Tommy Lee Jones was the only big name in it, but I would guess expectations for both films would be comparable. Sony Classics handled it in the US, and they managed to get it to 356 screens. With Goldwyn at the helm of "Seraphim" you may be looking at a bit less, though there's more star power with the duo of Neeson and Brosnan, so hard to say, precisely. I hope we at least get to a similar plateau because "Estrada" did play within driving distance of me.
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Post by Ace on Sept 5, 2006 22:24:08 GMT -5
Tiff Talk: Sold Out FilmsHere's a list of all the films that were marked as sold out this morning, at least as far as passes and coupons go. There may have been additional ones added after I left the box office today. Note that the festival will most likely release additional tickets once ticketing opens to the general public on Wednesday. Thursday, September 7 The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, 5:00 PM Deliver Us From Evil, 8:00 PM La tourneuse de pages, 8:30 PM The Bothersome Man, 9:00 PM Ten Canoes, 9:15 PM Borat, 11:59 PM Friday, September 8 The Italian, 9:45 AM Time, 12:15 PM 2:37, 2:30 PM These Girls, 5:15 PM Brand Upon the Brain!, 6:00 PM Palimpsest, 6:00 PM Confetti, 6:15 PM Candy, 8:30 PM London to Brighton, 8:45 PM An Evening With Michael Moore, 9:00 PM Saturday, September 9 Hana, 9:00 AM La tourneuse de pages, 9:15 AM These Girls, 9:15 AM Volver, 9:30 AM The Way I Spent the End of the World, 2:30 PM Manufactured Landscapes, 3:00 PM Stranger than Fiction, 6:00 PM Indigenes, 6:15 PM Diggers, 6:30 PM Half Moon, 6:30 PM Sweet Mud, 7:30 PM Reprise, 8:15 PM Shame, 9:00 PM Venus, 9:00 PM Sunday, September 10 Confetti, 10:30 AM Babel, 11:30 AM The Sugar Curtain, 12:30 PM Paris, je t'aime, 3:00 PM Opera Jawa, 4:30 PM Catch a Fire, 6:00 PM The Last Kiss, 6:00 PM Waiter, 7:00 PM The Italian, 7:30 PM Copying Beethoven, 8:00 PM D.O.A.P., 8:30 PM Cashback, 8:45 PM The Last King of Scotland, 9:00 PM Monday, September 11 Never Say Goodbye, 9:00 AM EMPz 4 Life, 5:45 PM The Bubble, 6:00 PM The Namesake, 6:00 PM The U.S. vs. John Lenno, 8:00 PM Office Tigers, 8:45 PM The White Planet, 9:00 PM Tuesday, September 12 Kurt Cobain About a Son, 9:00 AM Shortbus, 2:15 PM D.O.A.P., 4:15 PM Copying Beethoven, 4:30 PM The Fountain, 6:00 PM Prague, 6:45 PM 10 Items or Less, 7:00 PM Renaissance, 7:00 PM The Fall, 8:30 PM Vanguard Cinema: John Waters in Conversation with John Cameron Mitchell, 8:30 PM El Cantante, 9:00 PM The Half Life of Timofey Berezin, 9:00 PM Wednesday, September 13 STRIKE, 9:15 AM Vanaja, 12:00 PM Little Children, 2:30 PM Zidane: Un portrait du XXIeme siecle, 8:00 PM Seraphim Falls, 9:00 PMThe Hottest State, 9:30 PM Thursday, September 14 Kurt Cobain About a Son, 6:00 PM Snow Cake, 6:00 PM The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, 8:30 PM Jade Warrior, 8:45 PM Friday, September 15 Suburban Mayhem, 11:45 AM Hana, 5:30 PM The Sugar Curtain, 7:00 PM D.O.A.P., 7:45 PM Saturday, September 16 I Am the Other Woman, 11:45 AM The Bubble, 5:15 PM Outsourced, 7:30 PM Beauty in Trouble, 7:45 PM Fay Grim, 7:45 PM London to Brighton, 8:00 PM
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Post by Ace on Sept 6, 2006 8:37:34 GMT -5
Oscar contenders often get their big break at Toronto film fest By TERRY LAWSON Detroit Free Press/Syndicated
Zach Braff loves film festivals, which is why he will be taking a break from work on his final season of "Scrubs" to head to Ontario this week for the Toronto International Film Festival. The 31st annual edition of the festival will open Thursday and run through Sept. 16.
Braff describes himself as "movie mad," but unlike the thousands of visitors, seeing some of the fest's 352 films is his second priority. His first order of business at North America's largest and most prestigious film festival will be introducing "The Last Kiss," which will have its premiere as one of the festival's 21 special gala presentations before opening in major markets on Sept. 15.
"It was great" for the film to be chosen, says Braff, who stars in "The Last Kiss" as a young man whose impending marriage to the perfect woman, played by Jacinda Barrett, is threatened by an act of self-sabotage.
"You couldn't have a better showcase. When you make a movie that's apart from the usual sort of Hollywood film, you always worry if it's going to find an audience, even if you feel really good about the work you've done. Festival audiences are there because they love movies, and they usually prefer films that wander off the regular path."
"Who knows what would have happened to `Garden State' if we hadn't shown it at Sundance," says Braff of the independent movie that he directed, wrote and starred in. It was the breakout hit of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, and the film, made for $2.5 million (much of that put up by Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert, whom Braff refers to affectionately as his "Detroit sugar daddy"), went on to gross $25 million in North America.
"I like to think it would have found an audience anyway, but there's a lot of great films made every year that people never get a chance to see. Getting a launch at a festival can be an incredible boost if audiences respond to it. Festival goers tend to prefer films that are original and different."
To be completely accurate, "The Last Kiss" is not technically original. It is based on an Italian film released in North America under the same title, and was itself first shown in North America at the 2001 Toronto festival. But director Tony Goldwyn and screenwriter Paul Haggis, who wrote back-to-back best- picture Oscar winners in "Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash," have made such substantial alterations to the story - and especially the character played by Braff (a callous playboy in the Italian film, now a middle-class and generally likable fellow) - that it not only stands on its own, but is that rare remake that betters the original.
"They had Haggis on this film before, you know, he was `Haggis,'" says Braff. "`Million Dollar Baby' hadn't been released yet. After `Garden State' was a success, all of a sudden I've got this pile of scripts to read. I was really excited, because obviously I wasn't getting sent the good stuff before. But then when I started to read stuff, it was almost all the same kind of formulaic romantic comedies you see every day. In fact, you may have seen some of them already, because they did get made. I thought, `Man, everybody's missing the point.'"
"I think `Garden State' struck a chord not because I was the greatest director or writer, but because it was honest and different. So I just decided I wasn't going to make another movie just for the sake of making another movie. I was going to wait until something came around that really said something about the sort of people I know. And I read `Last Kiss,' and I thought this is it.
"All I worried about is that the studio would want to change the ending, to make it more conventional. And that could have ruined it. But they didn't, they were brave enough to leave it be."
Braff does have one thing in common with the 250,000 people who attend some or all of the festival every year. After he's done "everything I can possibly do" for "The Last Kiss," he's hoping to see a few movies. He counts himself as one of the festivalgoers who seek out independent and foreign films that may have a hard time finding U.S. distribution, though he says he's always "eager to see new films by directors or writers I really like."
Many of them will be bringing their films to Toronto this year. Joining "The Last Kiss" on the galas schedule are:
_"Breaking and Entering," a new drama by Anthony Minghella, director of "The English Patient."
_"Stranger Than Fiction," a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson from "Monster's Ball" director Marc Forster.
_"The Fountain," a sci-fi-time-travel epic directed by Darren Aronofsky.
_"Volver," the latest film from Spain's Pedro Almodovar.
And per usual, the Toronto fest looks to be star-studded. Already confirmed to attend in connection with their festival films are Ferrell and Thompson; Kenneth Branagh ("The Magic Flute"); Jennifer Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony ("El Cantante "); Hugh Jackman and Rach el Weisz ("The Fountain"); Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson ("Seraphim Falls"); Reese Witherspoon ("Penelope"), and Russell Crowe, who stars in "A Good Year."
For the past decade, the Toronto festival has been seen by the film industry as the first stop on the road to Academy Award nominations, and all the films listed above are considered to be in contention.
Other Toronto films whose titles have been mentioned in the same sentence as Oscar include "All the King's Men," a new version of the Robert Penn Warren novel starring Sean Penn as a corrupt southern politician; a documentary about child-abusing Catholic priests, "Deliver Us From Evil" and, in the foreign language category, "After the Wedding," from Denmark's Susanne Bier.
Not coincidentally, "After the Wedding" is on Braff's want-to-see list, for personal and professional reasons. His next film as a writer-director is an American-set adaptation of Bier's 2002 drama "Open Hearts."
"`Open Hearts' is a great film that most people never got to see," says Braff. "You won't find the video at Blockbuster, either. Thank God for festivals."
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Post by Ace on Sept 6, 2006 19:12:08 GMT -5
Toronto Features New Looks for Actors
Wednesday September 6, 2006
By DAVID GERMAIN
AP Movie Writer
TORONTO (AP) - Celebrities always are looking to show new sides of themselves, and the Toronto International Film Festival is one of the best showcases for their transformations.
A launching pad for Hollywood's fall releases and awards contenders, the Toronto festival is where Jamie Foxx became Ray Charles in ``Ray,'' Eminem went from rapper to movie star in ``8 Mile'' and Denzel Washington turned director with ``Antwone Fisher.''
Transformations highlighting this year's festival, which opens Thursday and runs through Sept. 16, include Sean Penn as a Southern demagogue, Forest Whitaker as an African dictator, Russell Crowe as a romantic lead, former James Bond Pierce Brosnan as a Civil War fugitive, new James Bond Daniel Craig as a cold-blooded murderer and Will Ferrell as a serious actor.
The 31st Toronto festival also offers a huge range of international films, documentaries, independent fare, avant-garde works and movies looking to find theatrical distributors.
``Toronto offers the widest breadth of any of the major festivals,'' said Tom Ortenberg, president of Lionsgate Films, whose 2004 Toronto acquisition ``Crash'' went on to win the best-picture Academy Award last spring.
The company's lineup at Toronto this time includes the documentary ``The U.S. vs. John Lennon,'' which opens theatrically Sept. 15 and examines the former Beatle's transition to anti-war activist.
The festival opens Thursday night with the Canadian film ``The Journals of Knud Rasmussen,'' a saga of native Inuits and their first contact with Europeans.
Along with the John Lennon documentary, Toronto's nonfiction lineup features the musical portrait ``Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing.'' Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple (``Harlan County, U.S.A.'') the documentary traces the furor over the country trio after singer Natalie Maines told a concert audience in 2003, ``We're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.''
A filmmaker accustomed to furor will be on hand. Oscar winner Michael Moore (``Fahrenheit 9/11,'' ``Bowling for Columbine'') will show a teaser for his health-care indictment ``Sicko'' and excerpts from another film-in-progress, ``The Great '04 Slacker Uprising,'' following his rabble-rousing travels during the 2004 presidential election.
The festival's biggest political hot potato may be director Gabriel Range's ``Death of a President,'' a documentary-style film chronicling the fictional assassination of President Bush.
Also among the festival's 261 feature-length films: ``All the King's Men,'' with Penn as a firebrand politician in a new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel; Whitaker as Ugandan despot Idi Amin in ``The Last King of Scotland''; Crowe as a cutthroat investment broker who finds love during a time-out in Provence in ``A Good Year''; Ferrell as a tax auditor able to hear a novelist (Emma Thompson) chronicling his imminent demise in ``Stranger Than Fiction''; Brosnan as a man on the run from a Confederate officer (Liam Neeson) in ``Seraphim Falls''; and Craig as killer Perry Smith in ``Infamous,'' a portrait of Truman Capote's emotionally shattering years spent researching the true-crime novel ``In Cold Blood.''
Starring Toby Jones as Capote and featuring Sandra Bullock, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sigourney Weaver, ``Infamous'' follows last year's ``Capote,'' which played at Toronto and won the best-actor Oscar for Philip Seymour Hoffman.
``This sort of thing happens more often than you think in movies, though not so often in the art-house world. Usually, it's two earthquake movies or the two tsunami movies,'' said ``Infamous'' director Douglas McGrath. ``Rather than have the other film exhaust people's interest, in a very funny way none of us could have predicted, it has stirred up interest. I think people are interested in comparing the two Trumans.''
In the wake of acclaim for ``Capote,'' ``Infamous'' has generated its own early Oscar buzz for Jones' and Craig's performances.
Known for broad comedy, Ferrell may catch awards attention for ``Stranger Than Fiction,'' in which he gives a restrained performance loaded with pathos.
Toronto presents early looks at other movies angling for Oscar attention, among them the road-trip tale ``Bonneville,'' with Jessica Lange, Joan Allen and Kathy Bates; the culture-clash drama ``Breaking and Entering'' from director Anthony Minghella (``The English Patient''), starring Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn; and ``Little Children,'' an ensemble suburbia story starring Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly and directed by Todd Field (``In the Bedroom'').
``Toronto really is an initial launching pad for the Oscars,'' said festival co-director Noah Cowan. ``If you're feeling pretty solid about your Oscar chances, it's usually a smart move to think about coming to the Toronto film festival.''
The Hollywood awards machine also takes a licking in Christopher Guest's comedy ``For Your Consideration,'' featuring himself, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean in the story of actors caught up in the frenzy after their independent movie catches awards buzz.
``It's a small film with a group of journeyman actors, not a very good movie, but rumors start to go around, and it infects them. I look at this as a virus, the way it infects the whole cast,'' Guest said. ``I've known actors who have been told a year before a film came out, `This is it.' That's not really very nice to say that, because what good can come out of that?''
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Post by Ace on Sept 11, 2006 18:05:00 GMT -5
The Globe and Mail: Ask the starsGot a question for a celebrity? The Globe's Brad Wheeler will do his best to get answers for you. Submit your questions using our comment tool and Brad will pick one to take along with him as he goes to the Toronto International Film Festival news conferences. Wednesday's news conference: Pierce Brosnan, star of director David Von Ancken's film Seraphim Falls. Send in your questions for Mr. Brosnan and check back later in the week for the answer. Got a question for a celebrity? Wednesday: Pierce Brosnan
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Post by Ace on Sept 12, 2006 23:53:59 GMT -5
First review from the early press screening. MovieholeTORONTO PART 4 From Alzheimer’s to a Western, through to a disappointing drama set in 1968, Toronto buzzes and hums along with an eclectic array of films for the diverse, cinematic palate. "Seraphim Falls" is a visually grand and striking Western set at the end of the Civil War. Liam Neeson is magnificent as a southerner who vows revenge on a Northerner [Pierce Brosnan] whom he blames for a major act of atrocity that occurred at the tail end of the war. An impressive directorial debut by David Von Ancken, who also co-wrote the script, pic looks gorgeous, as it shifts from the harshness of the snow-capped mountains to the blistering desert. A film that is purely visual with minimum dialogue, both Neeson and Brosnan give arresting performances, powerful and emotive. Brosnan especially is as removed from his Bond persona as you can get, delving deeply into the soul of a tortured character. A film ultimately about forgiveness, it works splendidly as a visceral chase movie, stripped of the technologies of the contemporary world, thus making it a fiery character piece, but it lets itself down with a rather clumsy ending that needs re-shooting if the film is to work in a mainstream setting. Yet with that flaw, the film is still a majestic and glorious work, featuring two great performances by Neeson and Brosnan. **** Tomorrow is my last day and full of interviews: an exclusive half hour chat with Emilio Estevez is on the table, plus one on ones with Laura Linney, Pierce Brosnan, Ron Perlman and the exquisite Julie Christie. Final thoughts on Toronto 2006 coming soon! - Paul Fischer
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Post by Ace on Sept 13, 2006 13:25:09 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Sept 13, 2006 13:31:47 GMT -5
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