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Post by Ace on Jul 27, 2007 15:39:16 GMT -5
On the IMDB, Focus is now listed as the U.S. distributor.
Universal seems to have a deal with Kimmel pictures as does MGM. Focus is their specialty division and are currently releasing Kimmel's well reviewed "Talk To Me", and Universal released Kimmel's 'Breach".
Along with Fox Searchlight I think they're the best releaser of independent films -- in terms of quality and strategy. (funnily I was just thinking yesterday that I'd like them to pick up distribution )
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Post by Ace on Jul 27, 2007 22:05:17 GMT -5
As for MGM and if they can get their act together. I would love if Kimmel was releasing it though Focus instead or Searchlight but they had a right of first refusal deal with MGM so ... Then again if MGM drags their feet maybe there's some loophole provision to take their film from them. It was moved for a time to 2008 then that was changed to TBA. Pierce mentions in his latest note that it will be released this fall but actors are usually the last to know. Ha! Guess I was thinking about this more often than I thought I was. Ace
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Post by Lauryn on Jul 28, 2007 13:53:07 GMT -5
As for MGM and if they can get their act together. I would love if Kimmel was releasing it though Focus instead or Searchlight but they had a right of first refusal deal with MGM so ... Then again if MGM drags their feet maybe there's some loophole provision to take their film from them. It was moved for a time to 2008 then that was changed to TBA. Pierce mentions in his latest note that it will be released this fall but actors are usually the last to know. Ha! Guess I was thinking about this more often than I thought I was. Ace I think in the post before yours I started you down the path of wishful thinking.. Maybe we were both wishing and hoping and channeling this result, LOL! Of course I was being a misery guts by noting that even the "good hands" people at Fox Searchlight and Focus find the marketplace for smaller and indie films a hard slog. But they're still the current experts at finding opportunity in this Darwinian environment and I'd be hap hap happy to hear Focus had wrestled the film from MGM. I hope the not always reliable IMDB isn't messing with our heads. I'm clicking my heels together three times and saying "there's no place like Focus." Couldn't hurt.
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Post by Andrea on Aug 9, 2007 9:34:20 GMT -5
Here´s the latest info from piercebrosnan.com: "Married Life, an ensemble piece, written and directed by Ira Sachs and starring Christopher Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Clarkson and myself is due for release this fall. The film was accepted to the Toronto Film Festival and will screen on September 12th. Married Life is a period piece set in Seattle in 1949, and is a story we can all relate to, one of love and marriage, secrets and sorrows." (Unfortunately there is still no mention of a BOAW release at all...) ahm
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Post by Ace on Aug 9, 2007 11:25:08 GMT -5
Thanks Great to have some confirmation (would like to have some on the studio releasing Married Life) I guess he doesn't have any more info on BOAW from Lionsgate than anyone else has. But the site should link to the trailer and poster (unless he's really pissed off at Lionsgate).
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Post by Ace on Aug 15, 2007 11:53:50 GMT -5
Married Life is also going to the New York Film Festival. Very select and prestigious -- and only 28 films are selected as compared to hundreds at other festivals. Indie Wire: NYFF '07 | Breillat, Chabrol, DePalma, Ferrera, Haynes, Hou, Landis, Lumet, Reygadas, Rohmer, Schnabel, Sokurov, Tarr, Van Sant... On New York Fest Rosterby Brian Brooks (August 15, 2007) Twenty-eight films will be showcased at the 45th New York Film Festival, taking place September 28 - October 14. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, which organizes the annual event, announced Wednesday that Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's animated coming-of-age Cannes '07 jury prize-winner "Persepolis" will close the festival, joining previously announced opener "The Darjeeling Limited" by Wes Anderson and Centerpiece film "No Country for Old Men" by the Coen Brothers. Among the other films hailing from Cannes are Gus Van Sant's 60th anniversary prize-winner "Paranoid Park," Julian Schnabel's French-language "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Palme d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu as well as "Secret Sunshine" by Lee Chang-dong, which received the best actress prize in Cannes for Jeon Do-yeon. In addition to NYFF's 45th milestone, this is also the 20th year that Richard Pena, the Film Society's programming director, has chaired the selection committee. Also making its return for the 11th year at the festival is "Views from the Avant-Garde," a showcase of experimental film and video (October 6 - 7) as well as a special tribute to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with "Chinese Modern: A Tribute to Cathay Studios (October 10 - 16). Additionally, as previously announced, NYFF organizers will salute New Line Cinema's 40th anniversary with a black-tie gala benefitting the Film Society's campaign to build a new film center. Five films will screen in NYFF's retrospectives including the "definitive cut" of "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott, marking the film's 25th anniversary. Also on tap is Josef von Sternberg's 1927 film "Underworld," winner of the best writing award at the first Academy Awards; John Ford's first major film "The Iron Horse" (1924); Sven Gade and Heinz Schall's 1920 production "Hamlet"; and an evening NYFF is calling "The Technicolor Show," introduced by Martin Scorsese and featuring John Stahl's "Leave Her to Heaven" (1945). Due to ongoing renovations at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, this year's New York Film Festival screenings will be held at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the Time Warner Center. Opening Night will be held at Avery Fisher Hall, as well as Rose Hall. Joining Pena on the selection committee this year were Kent Jones, associate director of programming at the Film Society and editor-at-large of Film Comment magazine; Scott Foundas, film editor and critic, L.A. Weekly; J. Hoberman, film critic, The Village Voice, and visiting lecturer at Harvard University; and Lisa Schwarzbaum, film critic, Entertainment Weekly. 45th New York Film Festival Lineup (detailed program Information provided by Film Society of Lincoln Center) "Married Life," directed by Ira Sachs, USAIra Sachs' wonderfully clear-eyed comedy relocates British crime novelist John Bingham's Five Roundabouts to Heaven to the Pacific Northwest in the late 1940s. Harry (Chris Cooper) is dissatisfied with his marriage to Pat (Patricia Clarkson) and has found love with Kay (Rachel McAdams), who immediately attracts the attention of Harry's womanizing friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan). Meanwhile, Harry, in order to spare Pat the humiliation of being left, is inspired to take drastic measures. Married Life is a beautifully rendered piece of period Americana and a perfectly acted four-hand roundelay. It is also a wisely comic and at times harrowing look at the pitfalls and pathologies of marriage.
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Post by Ace on Aug 15, 2007 16:57:49 GMT -5
Full press release:
28 Films to Debut at 45th New York Film Festival, Sept. 28–Oct. 14
Closing Night: Persepolis Five Special Retrospectives, Three Special Event Screenings, Three Sidebars Included
NEW YORK, August 15, 2007—The 45th New York Film Festival will premiere 28 films when it runs Sept. 28-Oct. 14 at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and sponsored by Sardinia Region Tourism and The New York Times, also features three unique sidebars, three special event screenings and five retrospective films.
Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis has been selected as the festival’s Closing Night film. The animated coming-of-age story, based on Satrapi’s popular graphic novel about her own childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, won a Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. It features the voice talents of Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Danielle Darrieux and Simon Abkarian, several of whom are expected to attend the festival’s Closing Night screening at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday, Oct. 14. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the film.
The festival’s previously announced Opening Night and Centerpiece selections (Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited and the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men) now headline a strong American contingent in the 2007 slate. Noah Baumbach, Gus Van Sant, Todd Haynes, Sidney Lumet all return to the festival with American productions; Julian Schnabel and Abel Ferrara come back with international co-productions; and Brian DePalma, John Landis and Ira Sachs each make their festival debuts.
Baumbach will screen his follow-up to The Squid and the Whale, the very funny and very true Margot at the Wedding. Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh star as contentious sisters thrown into a disastrous family weekend caused by Pauline’s (Leigh) engagement to the underwhelming Malcolm (Jack Black). Scott Rudin produces the film, a Paramount Vantage release.
Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, based on the novel by Blake Nelson, details the unraveling of a skateboarder’s life after he is involved in the death of a security guard. Newcomer Alex Nevins stars in the film, for which Van Sant won Cannes’ special 60th Anniversary Prize. IFC First Take will release the film.
The other American titles include Haynes’ I’m Not There—a rumination on the life of Bob Dylan, with actors Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Wishaw and Marcus Carl Frankin each representing elements the famed musician’s mystique—DePalma’s trenchant vision of the Iraq war, Redacted, and Ira Sachs’ taut melodrama Married Life. Lumet returns to the New York Film Festival for the first time in 43 years (Fail-Safe, 1964) with Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, a crime story starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney and Marisa Tomei. Two documentaries—Landis’ Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project and Ed Pincus and Lucia Small’s The Axe in the Attic—round out the festival’s new U.S. productions.
The 45th New York Film Festival honors worldwide film production with more than half of its slate taken from other countries. Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells the story of magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, paralyzed by a stroke, blinks out a memoir that eloquently captures his vibrant interior life. Mathieu Amalric stars as Bauby in the Miramax release, which won Cannes’ Best Director award and Technical Grand Prize.
Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona will screen his feature film debut The Orphanage, a supernatural drama about a woman who re-opens the orphanage in which she was raised, only to discover terrible secrets as her seven-year-old son, Simón, begins making imaginary friends. The Picturehouse release is presented and produced by last year’s Closing Night director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth).
Among the other international titles in the festival are Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light, which shared with Persepolis the Jury Prize at Cannes; Abel Ferrara’s Italy/U.S. co-production Go Go Tales; Catherine Breillat’s The Last Mistress; Claude Chabrol’s A Girl Cut In Two; Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Flight of the Red Balloon; Eric Rohmer’s The Romance of Astrea and Celadon; Alexander Sokurov’s Alexandra; Béla Tarr’s The Man from London; and Jia Zhang-ke’s documentary Useless. Cannes Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Best Actress prizewinner Secret Sunshine were previously confirmed.
Five films will be featured as special retrospectives of the 45th New York Film Festival: the long-awaited “definitive cut” of Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, honoring the landmark science fiction film’s 25th anniversary; the premiere of a new score by the Alloy Orchestra to accompany Josef von Sternberg’s 1927 film Underworld, winner of the Best Writing Oscar® at the first Academy Awards®; John Ford’s first major film The Iron Horse (1924), a massive production about the building of the transcontinental railroad; Sven Gade and Heinz Schall’s 1920 German production of Hamlet, starring actress Asta Nielsen in the title role; and an evening titled The Technicolor Show, introduced by Martin Scorsese and featuring John Stahl’s Leave Her to Heaven (1945).
The Walter Reade Theater will also host three upcoming music documentaries as part of the New York Film Festival’s special events. Carlos Saura will screen Fados, a exploration of the celebrated Portuguese musical style. Acclaimed rock documentarian Murray Lerner’s The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965 features footage of Bob Dylan’s infamous Newport performances, where the musician first used electric amplifiers. Peter Bogdanovich will complete the set with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream, an in-depth look at the legendary American rock band to be screened at its full 238 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission.
Persepolis joins a select group of films that have closed the New York Film Festival, many of which have gone on to critical acclaim and successful theatrical runs. Over the last 20 years, these have included David Mamet’s House of Games, Jane Campion’s The Piano, Milos Forman’s The People vs. Larry Flynt, Pedro Almodóvar’s Live Flesh and Talk to Her, Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams, Alexander Payne’s Sideways, Michael Haneke’s Caché and last year’s selection, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.
Due to ongoing renovations at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, this year’s New York Film Festival screenings will be held at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the Time Warner Center. Opening Night will be held at Avery Fisher Hall, as well as Rose Hall. Closing Night will be held at Avery Fisher Hall only. Special events and some retrospective screenings will be held at the Walter Reade Theater.
The 45th New York Film Festival’s selection committee is made up of Richard Peña, chairman and the Film Society’s program director; Kent Jones, associate director of programming at the Film Society and editor-at-large of Film Comment magazine; Scott Foundas, film editor and critic, L.A. Weekly; J. Hoberman, film critic, The Village Voice, and visiting lecturer at Harvard University; and Lisa Schwarzbaum, film critic, Entertainment Weekly.
As previously announced, this year’s festival sidebar will honor director and screenwriter Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, a renowned member of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, who solidified his place as a master filmmaker with his 1969 classic, Macunaima. The series, titled Tropical Analysis: The Films of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, will run Sept. 29-Oct. 9 at the Walter Reade Theater.
Two other sidebars are included among the festival’s events screening at the Walter Reade Theater. Views from the Avant-Garde returns for its 11th year as a distinguished showcase of experimental film and video, screening films during the second weekend of the festival, Oct. 6-7. The festival also celebrates the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with Chinese Modern: A Tribute to Cathay Studios, Oct. 10-16, screening films from the Hong Kong production that, more than any other, introduced a distinctly modern lifestyle to Chinese culture.
Additionally, during the festival, the Film Society will salute New Line Cinema’s 40 years of extraordinary filmmaking at a black-tie gala to benefit the Film Society’s campaign to build a new film center. New Line Cinema’s Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne will be honored at the event on Friday, Oct. 5, at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
The 45th New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, is sponsored by Sardinia Region Tourism and The New York Times. The screening of Underworld is made possible through the generosity of the Ira M. Resnick Foundation. Tropical Analysis has been organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Os Filmes do Serro. Chinese Modern is sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new directors, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of film. Advancing this mandate today, the Film Society hosts two distinguished festivals: the New York Film Festival, which annually premieres the best films from around the world and has introduced the likes of François Truffaut, R.W. Fassbinder, Jean-Luc Godard, Pedro Almodóvar, Martin Scorsese, and Wong Kar-Wai to the United States, and New Directors/New Films, co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art, which focuses on emerging film talents. Since 1972 when the Film Society honored Charles Chaplin, the annual Gala Tribute celebrates an actor, filmmaker or industry leader who has helped distinguish cinema as an art form. Additionally, the Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming at its Walter Reade Theater and offers insightful film writing to a worldwide audience through Film Comment magazine.
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Post by Ace on Aug 15, 2007 18:24:41 GMT -5
Commercial Appeal: 'Married Life': Major Film Festivals Say 'I Do' to Latest from Memphis' Ira Sachs August 15, 2007, 04:57 PM counter espionage: Pierce Brosnan and Rachel McAdams in 'Married Life'"Married Life" -- the long-awaited new movie by native Memphian Ira Sachs -- will debut next month at two of the world's most prestigious and commercially advantageous film festivals. The film -- which stars Pierce Brosnan, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Clarkson and Academy Award-winner Chris Cooper -- is the followup to Sachs' Memphis-made "Forty Shades of Blue," which won the Grand Jury Prize for best American dramatic feature at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. "Married Life" will premiere Sept. 12 at the 32nd annual Toronto International Film Festival, Sachs, 41, said in a phone conversation today (Aug. 15) from Colorado, where he is visiting family. The Toronto lineup has yet to be announced officially. Next, the movie will screen at the 45th New York Film Festival, probably during the opening weekend of the Sept. 28-Oct. 14 event. The New York lineup was announced today by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which organizes the festival. The Film Society program describes "Married Life" as a "wonderfully clear-eyed comedy," as well as "a beautifully rendered piece of period Americana and a perfectly acted four-hand roundelay. It is also a wisely comic and at times harrowing look at the pitfalls and pathologies of marriage." Sachs appeal: Ira thanks the Sundance crowd for his Grand Jury Prize The New York lineup is absolutely incredible, and places relative newcomer Sachs in the company of many of the world's most revered, respected and successful directors. Some of the filmmakers slated to screen their new movies at the New York festival will include Joel and Ethan Coen ("No Country for Old Men"), Brian De Palma (the Iraq War-inspired "Redacted"), Sidney Lumet ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"), Abel Ferrara ("Go Go Tales"), Noah Baumbach ("Margot at the Wedding"), John Landis (a documentary, "Mr. Warmth, the Don Rickles Project"), Gus Van Sant ("Paranoid Park"), Peter Bogdanovich (a documentary, "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream"), Hungary's Bela Tarr ("The Man from London"), Russia's Alexander Sokurov ("Alexandra"), China's Hou Hsiao-hsien ("The Flight of the Red Balloon"), and three directors from France: Claude Chabrol ("A Girl Cut in Two"), Catherine Breillat ("The Last Mistress") and 87-year-old Eric Rohmer ("The Romance of Astrea and Celadon"). Wes Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited" is the festival's opening night film, while the animated "Persepolis" -- directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud from Satrapi's graphic novel about growing up female in revolutionary-era Tehran -- will close the fest. Other highly anticipated films on the New York schedule include Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Cristian Mungiu's Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"; and Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan-inspired "I'm Not There," a project that has generated all sorts of speculation and curiosity with its casting of Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett and other actors as "avatars" of Dylan. The film festival program describes "I'm Not There" as "a singularity: a cinematic phantasmagoria built around the poetic re-invention of the self, which collapses time and leaves the linear universe of progress and cold logic in the shadows." To quote Billy Bob Thornton's Karl Childers: Mmmm-hmmm. In addition, the festival will feature special screenings of Ridley Scott's "definitive cut" of "Blade Runner" and John Ford's 1924 silent Western, "The Iron Horse." For a full lineup, check out the report at indieWIRE.com. Sachs said both Toronto and New York are extremely important as "launching pads" for "Married Life," which he said is the type of movie that marketers describe as "a 'smart film' instead of an 'art film.'" On the one hand, the broad appeal of its movie-star cast and its suspenseful yet occasionally comic plot could attract a large, appreciative audience; yet on the other hand, it lacks the surefire box-office allure of an action sequel or a comic-book adaptation or some other type of youth-oriented blockbuster. Set in the Pacific Northwest and shot last summer in Vancouver, "Married Life" (originally titled "Marriage") was adapted by Sachs and Oren Moverman from "Five Roundabouts to Heaven," a 1953 British psychological crime novel by John Bingham, a professional spy-turned-author who was a key inspiration for the famous John le Carre character, George Smiley. (Moverman also co-wrote "I'm Not There," a connection that will increase interest in Sachs' film.) The story concerns an adulterous husband (played by Chris Cooper) who decides it would be kinder to murder his loyal wife than to divorce or abandon her. The movie is scheduled to open late this year in a few major markets before receiving a wide release in early 2008.A 1983 graduate of Central High School who now lives in New York, Sachs said "Married Life" is much more accessible than "Forty Shades of Blue," which flopped in theaters despite many critical raves (along with many pans) and the performance of Rip Torn as a Sam Phillips-like Memphis music veteran. P.S. - Crime fans, take note: "Five Roundabouts to Heaven" is well worth reading, and may especially appeal to those who enjoy the "literary" suspense novels of Patricia Highsmith.
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Post by Lauryn on Aug 16, 2007 19:45:25 GMT -5
Good news that Toronto is confirmed -- and wow, what a coup for ML to be in the line-up of such a stunning slate of films, American and foreign, at this year's NYFF! So, inquiring minds want to know if Ace, intrepid girl reporter, is going to see it on opening night and can give us a play-by-play (and no pulling a Phil Rizzuto and writing out WW on your scorecard)<wink>
I feel encouraged, actually, at the description of ML as "a clear-eyed comedy" because it sounds like the tone of the novel may well survive intact, even though they're changing location, etc. If they're adding a stylish dose of Hitchcock it would still meld perfectly with the story's overlay of irony and and cool character dissection.
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Post by Ace on Aug 16, 2007 22:09:17 GMT -5
LOL! No WWs from me, promise. The spirit is most definitely willing -- the availablity of the tickets may be a problem. Supposedly NYFF tickets are 90% sold out to patrons/critics etc before they even go on sale to the general public. It's not exactly a festival of the people. Though I've heard it may be possible to scrounge up tickets at the box office at Lincoln Center which supposedly makes more tickets available there than on line.
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Post by Lauryn on Aug 16, 2007 22:37:11 GMT -5
LOL! No WWs from me, promise. I didn't think so. Unless the SMA shows up in a whimsical mood in his orange sneakers and you're momentarily blinded. Hey, no fair! Damned limousine film-goers! I hope the scrounging goes well.
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Post by Ace on Aug 22, 2007 14:12:37 GMT -5
It's Officially Official:
Variety: Toronto festival unveils full slate Lineup includes 349 films from 55 countries
By TAMSEN TILLSON
32nd Toronto International Film Festival
Organizers unveiled the remainder of the slate for the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival Wednesday, comprised of 349 films from 55 countries, including new offerings from Michael Moore, Richard Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, and Wayne Wang.
Psychological thrills and chills make multiple appearances on the Gala slate, including Branagh's "Sleuth," with Michael Caine and Jude Law, based on the play from Anthony Shaffer; Paul Schrader's "The Walker," starring Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, and Willem Defoe; and the Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Evan Mendes and Keke Palmer-starrer "Cleaner," from Renny Harlin.
Also new on the Gala slate, Attenborough's "Closing the Ring," an enduring love story starring Shirley MacLaine Christopher Plummer, Mischa Barton, Neve Campbell, Pete Postlethwaite and David Alpay; from Alain Corneau, a 1950s-set remake of the 1966 film, "Le Deuxieme Souffle," starring Daniel Auteil, Monica Bellucci, Eric Cantona and Michel Blanc; and Robin Swicord's "The Jane Austen Book Cub," with Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, Marc Blucas and Emily Blunt.
Thirteen new titles on the Special Presentations program feature star wattage from of the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" from Sidney Lumet; Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba in "Bill," from Melisa Wallack and Bernie Goldmann; Michael Moore directing and starring in "Captain Mike Across America"; Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Gillian Armstrong's "Death Defying Acts"; and Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood in the big screen adaptation of Laura Kasischke's "In Bloom," directed by Vadim Perelman.
In addition, Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner star in a Special Presentation of Jason Reitman's "Juno"; Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Pierce Brosnan and Rachel McAdams star in "Married Life," directed by Ira Sachs; former US president Jimmy Carter is featured in Jonathan Demme's doc "Man from Plains"; Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden headline Alison Eastwood's directoral debut, "Rails and Ties"; John Leguizamo, Tyrese Gibson and Bobby Cannavale star in "The Take" from Brad Furman; Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor" stars Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman and Hiam Abbass; and Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth, Juliet Stevenson and Gina McKee star in "When Did You Last See Your Father?" directed by Ireland's Anand Tucker.
Rounding out the Special Presentations list, fest veteran Brian de Palma returns to Toronto with the Iraq war story "Redacted."
Two more titles have been added to the Master's line-up, for 20 in total. "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" and "The Princess of Nebraska," both from director Wayne Wang ("Joy Luck Club,") examine the experiences of Chinese immigrants in the US.
New on the Real to Reel slate, musical docs Paul Crowder and Murray Lerner's "Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who," "Lou Reed's Berlin" from Julian Schnabel, and "Joy Division" from Grant Gee, as well as "Children of the Sun" from Ran Tal, "Callas Assoluta," directed by France's Philippe Kholy, Wang Bing's "Fengming: A Chinese Memoir," "Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case," from Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov, and Jia Zhang-ke's "Useless."
This year's Mavericks sessions, examining how the worlds of politics and cinema intersect, include Everything to Gain: A Conversation with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter; Darfur/Darfur, featuring Don Cheadle; "Religulous": A Conversation with Bill Mather and Larry Charles; and Mira Nair Presents Four Views on AIDS in India, with Santosh Sivan ("Before the Rains,") Vishal Bhardwaj ("Omkara") and Farhan Akhtar ("Don").
And Dialogues: Talking with Pictures will feature legendary actor Max von Sydow, architect Bruce Kuwabara, auteur Ken Loach, filmmaker and thesp Arthur Dong & Nancy Kwan, multi-hyphenate Peter Bogdanovitch, thesp Ellen Burstyn, and filmmakers Sidney Lumet and Lord Richard Attenborough.
The festival runs September 6 to 15.
For the full lineup of the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival, click here.
For more Toronto fest goodness, be sure to visit Fest Central.
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Post by Ace on Aug 22, 2007 14:26:12 GMT -5
Cooper, Clarkson + McAdams expected for TIFF www.thegate.ca/front-page/0372/star-gazing-at-the-2007-tiff/Here's The GATE's abbreviated list of expected stars. Stay tuned for lots more news, photos, and interviews from this year's festival which runs from September 6 to 15. A - C Aaron Abrams Aaron Eckhart Aaron Poole Adam Brodie Alessandro Capone Alfred Molina Alison Eastwood Allan Moyle Ang Lee Anne Michaels Asia Argento Atom Egoyan Bill Maher Brad Pitt Brian De Palma Bruce McDonald Carly Pope Carrie-Anne Moss Casey Affleck Cate Blanchett Catherine Breillat Catherine Keener Charlize Theron Chaz Thorne Chris CooperChris Klein Christopher Plummer Clement Virgo Clive Owen Colin Farrell D - G Daniel Lanois Dario Argento David Auburn David Cronenberg David Schwimmer Denys Arcand Diora Baird Don Cheadle Donald Sutherland Ed Gass-Donnelly Ellen Burstyn Ellen Page Emile Hirsch Eric Bana Evan Rachel Wood Ewan McGregor Freddie Prinze, Jr. Gabriel Byrne Gael García Bernal Geoffrey Rush George A. Romero George Clooney Gus Van Sant Guy Maddin Guy Pearce H - K Helen Hunt Ian McEwan Jake Gyllenhaal James McAvoy Jason Bateman Jena Malone Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Garner Jennifer Jason Leigh Jia Zhang-ke Jiang Wen Jim Broadbent Jimmy Carter Jimmy Smits Joaquin Phoenix Jodie Foster Joel Coen John Leguizamo Josh Brolin Jude Law Julie Taymor Juliette Binoche Kate Bosworth Kelli Garner Ken Loach Kenneth Branagh Kevin Bacon Kevin Macdonald Keira Knightley Kristin Booth L - P Laura Linney Leelee Sobieski Lenny Abrahamson Liam Neeson Ling Li Lisa Ray Liev Schreiber Lou Reed Marcia Gay Harden Maria Bello Marica Gay Harden Mark Ruffalo Martin Freeman Matthew Broderick Mena Suvari Michael Caine Michael Douglas Michael Moore Michael Pitt Michelle Rodriguez Mira Sorvino Monica Bellucci Nadine Labaki Naomi Watts Neil Jordan Noah Baumbach Patricia ClarksonPaul Crowder Paul Haggis Paul Schneider, Peter Lynch Peter Sarsgaard R - Y Rachael Leigh Cook Rachel McAdamsRay Liotta Reese Witherspoon Robert Kennedy Rosie Perez Roy Dupuis Ryan Gosling Sabiha Sumar Samuel L. Jackson Scott Speedman Sean Garrity Sean Penn Sigourney Weaver Simon Pegg Stuart Townsend Susan Sarandon Sydney Pollack Taryn Manning Terrence Howard Thandie Newton Tilda Swinton Timothy Olyphant Tom Cavanagh Tom Collins Tom Wilkinson Tommy Lee Jones Tony Leung Tricia Helfer Tyrese Gibson Uma Thurman Viggo Mortensen Werner Herzog Wes Bentley William Hurt Wilson Yip Woody Allen Woody Harrelson Yasmine Al Masri
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Post by Ace on Aug 24, 2007 10:38:30 GMT -5
Marketplace: Oscar season just over the hill(There's a link there to listen to the show) Friday, August 24, 2007 The Toronto Film Festival gets underway in two weeks, unofficially signaling the transition at the box office from summer blockbusters to Academy Awards hopefuls. Variety's Mike Speier tells us what that's all about. Listen to ThisStory * E-mail this to a friend * Print article The famed Hollywood sign sits atop Mt. Lee in Hollywood. (David Livingston/Getty Images) More on Entertainment TEXT OF INTERVIEW Doug Krizner: This year's Toronto Film Festival gets underway in two weeks. 349 films from 55 countries will be screened. The festival's a paradise for movie lovers and a party for Hollywood power-brokers. Mike Speier is executive editor with Variety here in LA. Mike, what does the Toronto Festival mean for the film business? Mike Speier: The Toronto Film Festival is like the bridge between the summer blockbuster season and the Oscar season and Toronto is the kickoff of that, so you get all the prestige movies that come during the fall season and the winter season. They all kind of want to position themselves to get the best buzz and Toronto is that 'here we are, watch us, we're good and we're Academy contenders.' Krizner: Are there any surprises that come to your mind, films that debuted in Toronto that turned out to be kind of sensational or blockbuster type films? Speier: The one that comes to mind right off the bat is last year's Borat. I mean that was a movie that no one really understood what was going on with it and then it went to Toronto and the only movie that anyone talked about out of Toronto last year was Borat. Krizner: So what kind of business gets transacted, what kind of deals get done? Is it all about distribution at that point really? Speier: There's a couple of things that Toronto serves as. One is just a showcase for these movies that already have distribution. Then there are movies that get there that are independent that can be picked up by smaller companies, people can shop for films and buy them and do something with them later down the road. Krizner: I guess for many years I mean independent films have really been the big surprises. Do you expect that trend to continue? Speier: I would if this was Sundance or if this was Cannes because those, Sundance was made for independent films. Toronto, Venice, these kind of places where the festivals happen in September, those are more prestige festivals, festivals that are around just to showcase both the movie stars and the presentations themselves. Krizner: So Mike give me the names of a few films that are on your radar in so far as Toronto is concerned.
Speier: Well to prove that this is a festival that showcases kind of big Hollywood films or films that are coming up that everyone's excited about, I mean there's, you know Jodie Foster has not been in a lot of movies in the past few years and her big movie coming up is called The Brave One and it's kind of a death wish revenge movie and that's showcasing there. Ang Lee, who won the Oscar for Brokeback Mountain as a Best Director, he has his movie Lust, Caution there. There there's stars and their movies like Jessica Alba has a movie there, Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, there's a war story from Brian De Palma . . .
Krizner: Sounds like a who's who of Hollywood.
Speier: Yeah, that's what this is all about, I mean a lot of these people haven't had movies this year at all and this is a place for them to showcase that.Krizner: Mike Speier is executive editor at Variety here in Los Angeles. Mike always a pleasure, thanks for joining us. Speier: My pleasure. ============================================================ Nice for Pierce to be singled out though how did Jessica Alba get in there?
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Post by Ace on Aug 26, 2007 1:36:27 GMT -5
Blog on Variety.com:- Fest Central - NYFF Picks: Abel Ferrara and Ira Sachs ( 8-17-07)Mike Jones is Managing Editor at Variety.com, covering the film festival beat from opening to closing night. Underneath all the NYFF press about Baumbach, De Palma, Anderson and Van Sant, two "comedies" caught my eye. Abel Ferrara’s “Go Go Tales” is described as a “comic fantasy” -- Willem Defoe as a down-on-his-luck club owner struggling to keep his place afloat. Ferrara’s career is a wonderful mystery. Now close to 60 years old, his body of work is bizarre and disjointed. If you’ve ever met Abel frantically checking pay phones for quarters on the Lower East Side, it’s not hard to see why. Some of his stuff has yet to find US theaters – even with Forest Whittaker and Juliette Binoche his last film “Mary” hasn’t yet found a brave distrib. But when he hits, he hits hard and unforgettably – “Ms. 45,” “Bad Lieutenant,” and still his most respected work, “King of New York.” The other comedy comes from another unlikely source: Ira Sachs, director of indie dramas “The Delta” and “Forty Shades of Blue” brings “Married Life.” Set in the 1940s, Chris Cooper is a cheating husband who’d rather plan his wife’s death than put her through a divorce. When I asked him about the jump to comedy, Ira replied the film is more like "'Rules of the Game,' 'Shadow of a Doubt,' 'The Earrings of Madame D,' 'The Trouble with Harry'... The drama of life told with lightness. As opposed to the last time I went to Toronto, in '96 with 'The Delta,' when I just wanted to be Fassbinder." "Married Life" will also be at Toronto.
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Post by Ace on Aug 29, 2007 0:20:25 GMT -5
From The TIFFPUBLIC SCREENINGS [Special Presentations] Wednesday September 12 06:00PM RYERSON [Special Presentations] Friday September 14 09:15AM SCOTIA BANK THEATRE 2 Technical Information Country: USA Year: 2007 Language: English Runtime: 90 minutes Format: Colour/35mm Rating: 14A Cast & Crew Production Company: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment/ Firm Films Executive Producer: William Horberg, David Nicksay, Geoff Stier, Adam Shulman, Matt Littin, Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Bruce Toll Producer: Sidney Kimmel, Jawal Nga, Steve Golin, Ira Sachs Screenplay: Ira Sachs, Oren Moverman Cinematographer: Peter Deming Editor: Affonso Goncalves Production Designer: Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski Sound: Damian Volpe Music: Dickon Hinchliffe Principal Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams, David Richmond-Peck Film Description and Director Biography The setting is post-war America. As stringent moral codes begin creeping back into private life, members of the upper and middle classes must begin to be careful. But caution can always be overcome by beauty and charm, and this is the theme of Married Life, a stylish, sophisticated drama starring some of the most accomplished actors working today. Ira Sachs’s third feature is the devilish story of two men driven to villainy by their desire for one woman. Nebbishy Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) is a sentimental fool of a certain age. He has fallen head over heels in love with a beautiful and soulful blonde named Kay (Rachel McAdams), whose husband disappeared during the war; he spoils her unashamedly. The only problem is that Harry is married to the smart and sensual Pat (Patricia Clarkson), who sees herself as his keeper. Too cowardly to upset her by breaking things off for Kay – Pat begins hyperventilating when he even hints at the gulf between them – Harry soon settles on a drastic means of ending the marriage without causing his wife any undue suffering. Meanwhile, Harry’s good chum Rich (Pierce Brosnan) is plagued by jealousy. He visits Kay when Harry is out of town, and is nagged by the question of what a gorgeous catch like Kay is doing with boring and crusty old Harry. Soon he is out-and-out competing with his friend for Kay’s affections and engaging in some substantial scheming of his own. He even discovers a precious secret of Pat’s that the increasingly unpredictable Harry may want to know. Brosnan’s Rich, also serving as narrator, wryly comments on the amorous goings-on around him. With a seeping sense of the gravity of Harry’s plans, the film takes on a noirish shade, teasing out this tortured man’s guilt and obsession. As the tension level rises, the cast adeptly handles all the deceptions that begin to pile up. The transformation that McAdams’s Kay undergoes over the film is particularly superb. Cooper, meanwhile, hides a whirlwind of emotions behind Harry’s seemingly placid and noble demeanour, a perfect illustration of the masks we all wear to obscure our true intentions – particularly in love. Noah Cowan
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Post by Ace on Aug 29, 2007 16:16:17 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Sept 4, 2007 16:47:36 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Sept 5, 2007 0:12:23 GMT -5
Variety: Bell' to open Woodstock festival'I'm Not There' to screen closing night By DADE HAYES Julian Schnabel's 'The Diving Bell and Butterfly' will open the Woodstock Film Festival on Oct. 10. The eighth Woodstock Film Festival, which unspools Oct. 10-14, will be bookended by "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "I'm Not There." The centerpiece titles are "Under the Same Moon" and "Married Life." A launch party to be held Sept. 18 in downtown Gotham will tout the fest to citybound film bizzers, many of whom make the trek north for the emerging fest. The full lineup of 150 films and accompanying events will be announced then. Organizers noted the themes of the opening and closing pics were a good fit for Woodstock, which for more than a century has been a hive of art and independent thought ======================================== Indie Wire| "Diving Bell" and "I'm Not There" to Bookend Woodstock Film FestivalJulian Schnabel's Cannes-award winning "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" will open the 2007 Woodstock Film Festival, while Todd Haynes' experimental Bob Dylan biopic "I'm Not There" will close the event, festival organizers announced Tuesday. Also on tap are three Centerpiece screenings taking place in the Catskills, New York home of WFF taking place October 10 - 14. Ira Sachs' "Married Life" will screen along with Patricia Riggen's "Under the Same Moon," which will have its screening in nearby Rhinebeck. "Married Life" is described as " a sultry look at sex, betrayal, murder and marriage among the tangled lives of four friends in the 1940s," while "Under the Same Moon" revolves around a Mexican boy who embarks on a journey to find his mother working illegally in the United States. "After the successful U.S. premiere of 'Far From Heaven' at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2002, I am so happy to welcome Todd Haynes back to the festival with his new masterpiece", commented WFF Executive Director and co-founder Meira Blaustein in a statement. "So much of Julian Schnabel's work is steeped in the arts. To bookend the festival with music and art, is to so honor what the Woodstock Film Festival is all about." [Brian Brooks]
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Post by Ace on Sept 10, 2007 11:00:45 GMT -5
Darn, both showings of the NYFF Married Life were already sold out this morning when they went online. Great for the film (especially when only a couple of films have both their shows sold out) , pfttt for me.
Ira Sachs’ wonderfully clear-eyed comic melodrama relocates British crime novelist John Bingham’s Five Roundabouts to Heaven to the Pacific Northwest in the late Forties. Harry (Chris Cooper) is dissatisfied with his marriage to Pat (Patricia Clarkson), and has found love with Kay (Rachel McAdams), who immediately attracts the attention of Harry’s womanizing friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan). Meanwhile, Harry, in order to spare Pat the humiliation of being left, is inspired to take drastic measures. Married Life is a beautifully rendered piece of period Americana and a perfectly acted four-hand roundelay. It is also an exceptionally wise look at the pitfalls and pathologies of marriage.
Please check back ~ tickets may become available again online before Fri Sep 28. Or call 212-875-5050 for information about ticket availability. There will be a standby line at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office before the screening if advance tickets are no longer available.
This screening is at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Two business days after placing your online order, your tickets will be available for pick-up there and will be held for you until showtime.
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