Indie Films

LA Times: Clint Eastwood as Superman or James Bond? ‘It could have happened,’ he says

Published on: 8th September, 2010

Clint Eastwood is watching the contemporary superhero craze in Hollywood with a bit of generational relief. “Thank God that I didn’t have to do that,” says the the 80-year-old star. The Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker is best known to moviegoers as a cowboy or a cop, but during a recent interview in Carmel, the Hollywood icon said that in the 1970s he was an early candidate to play the Man of Steel. He added that, a few years before that, he was approached with an offer to join her majesty’s secret service in the role of suave spy James Bond “I can remember – and this was many years ago – when [Warner Bros. President] Frank Wells came to me about doing Superman. So it could have happened. This was when they first started to think about making it. I was like, ‘ Superman? Nah, nah, that’s not for me.’ Not that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s for somebody, but not me. “I was also offered pretty good money to do James Bond if I would take on the role. This was after Sean Connery left. My lawyer represented the Broccolis,” who produce the Bond franchise, “and he came and said, ‘They would love to have you.’ But to me, well, that was somebody else’s gig. That’s Sean’s deal. It didn’t feel right for me to be doing it.” Read the full LA Times article here

The Hollywood Reporter: ‘American’ wins holiday weekend box office

Published on: 8th September, 2010

Exit popcorn-pic season, hello movies for grown-ups: Focus Features’ George Clooney starrer "The American" topped the domestic box office with an estimated $16.4 million during the summer-ending Labor Day weekend. The assassin-themed thriller rang up $19.5 million in its first six days, after unspooling midweek to get a jump on the four-day frame. Two other wide openers bore the same R rating as "American" but seemed more restricted in audience appeal. Fox’s crime actioner "Machete" topped daily rankings with $3.9 million in its first day of release on Friday, but the Robert Rodriguez-shepherded splatterfest quickly ceded its lead to the more broadly appealing Clooney pic and fetched $14 million in second place through Monday. Warners’ romantic comedy "Going the Distance" — starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long — proved the weakest of the weekend debutantes, wooing $8.6 million in fifth place during its first four days. Elsewhere, Sony’s heist actioner "Takers" took in $13.5 million in its sophomore session to finish third on the frame and pile cumulative coin to $40 million, while Lionsgate’s horror pic "The Last Exorcism" conjured $8.8 million in fourth place for an 11-day cume of $33.6 million. Outside of the top rankings, Fox’s special edition re-release of "Avatar" posted another $2.9 million in its second weekend to push record cume for the James Cameron epic to $758.2 million. Labor Day is marked annually on the first Monday of September, both in the U.S. and Canada. Collectively, the top 10 pictures registered $93.2 million, or 3% less than top performers in last year’s comparable holiday-stretched weekend, Rentrak said. Read the full Hollywood Reporter article here

LA Times: Michelle Rodriguez: Machete reminds me of…Barack Obama

Published on: 2nd September, 2010

Before she signed on to make "Machete," the campy celebration of the eponymous Latino legend,  Michelle Rodriguez had pretty much decided she didn’t want to make a movie about her own culture. "I was nervous about doing a movie about Latinos. I’ve usually stayed away from it," she told 24 Frames, saying she found most depictions of Latino culture on the big screen to be one-note and marginal. "But after I read the script, I realized this is about a symbol of hope. It was kind of the way we felt about Obama when he was first elected." The Robert Rodriguez movie wouldn’t, on its face, be considered a grand political statement. Although it could be categorized as an immigration-law satire and an exploration of Latin identity, it’s also an exploitation film whose linchpin scene features low riders shooting missiles. Among other selling points, it offers the rare triple whammy of Lindsay Lohan engaging in a ménage à trois, shooting Robert De Niro and dressing up as a nun, while the film generally takes advantage of most opportunities for comedically over-the-top violence. (It also throws in character parts for Don Johnson, Steven Seagal and Cheech Marin and a leading role for longtime baddie Danny Trejo. Read more about him here: "Danny Trejo, a lethal talent.") Read the full LA Times article here

LA Times: Danny Trejo, a lethal talent

Published on: 2nd September, 2010

For a man who’s so stone-faced on the screen, Danny Trejo sure has a lot to say. Standing up at a banquette inside the classic Hollywood restaurant Musso & Frank on a recent afternoon, Trejo tells an elderly man hovering uncertainly in the doorway to "come on in," imitates director Robert Rodriguez ‘s text-happy fingers, gestures to the waiter for a refill of his cranberry and 7-Up ("Manny, another one!") and turns to a reporter to decry the flaws in the California prison system before offering some culinary advice ("You’ve never had the eggs Benedict here? You gotta have them!"). Then, he follows said reporter into the restroom, where the business at hand does little to stop Trejo’s riff about the time his then-9-year-old-son greeted Robert De Niro with a "Taxi Driver" imitation. ("I said ‘ Mi hijo , how do you know that movie?’ ") Welcome to the world of Hollywood’s toughest bad guy — or possibly its biggest social butterfly? For more than two decades, audiences have watched Trejo play a litany of men you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley, characters such as El Jefe, Jumpy and Hoodlum No. 2. But when he’s not starring as the requisite roughneck, Trejo cultivates a different image. The former San Quentin inmate is, after a fashion, a political activist, a neighborhood guy, a mainstay of old-school Hollywood (he eats at Musso & Frank once or twice a week), a 12-step poster-child and motivational speaker, and last but undoubtedly not least, a man Mexican rock bands write songs about. "I was doing radio interviews and all of them were asking me about my song," he says, referencing a track about him from Monterrey rock band Plastilina Mosh. "I’m like, ‘Come on. I’ve gone from ex-con to icon.’ " Read the full LA Times article here

indieWIRE: Docs Top 2010 Telluride Roster

Published on: 2nd September, 2010

Documentary films are the buzz of this year’s Telluride Film Festival. In keeping with tradition, the lineup for the event is announced just 24 hours before the event begins in Colorado tomorrow and the roster includes a number of notable documentaries. Errol Morris will unveil his latest, “Tabloid,” ahead of its Toronto debut next week, while Ken Burns will present “The Tenth Inning” and Werner Herzog will be at the event with “Happy People: A Year in the Taiga.” Shlomi Eldar’s “Precious Life,” a look at Israeli and Palestinian doctors’ attempts to save the life of a Palestinian baby, will screen prior to traveling to Toronto. Telluride will also unveil “A Letter to Elia,” directed by Martin Scorcese and Kent Jones, concurrent with its premiere this week at the Venice Film Festival. Doc legend Rickie Leacock will be at this year’s festival. The event will include a look at work by Robert Flaherty and Telluride will spotlight filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan. Even more docs will screen for free in the fest’s Backlot theater all weekend. Some two dozen new feature films lead the roster of more than eighty titles that will screen at this weekend’s Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. Evening tributes to both Colin Firth and Peter Weir will showcase new films from both men. Firth stars as George VI in Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech,” and he’ll be in Telluride with Hooper and film co-star Geoffrey Rush. Peter Weir will appear with his latest, “The Way Back,” set in a Siberian prison camp. Looking back, Telluride will salute legendary actress Claudia Cardinale this weeeknd. The Italian star will be in Colorado for a tribute that will include conversations with Hilton Als and Davia Nelson, as well as a screening of Valerio Zurlini’s 1961 film, “The Girl With The Suitcase.” A selection of films from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, as well as a program of classic and restored films, as well as a number of short fllms, round out the roster for the 37th Telluride fest. Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go” is on the lineup ahead of its Toronto fest launch and distributor Fox Searchlight is expected to unveil two more titles with unannounced sneak previews at the Telluride Film Festival. Festival organizers are silent on the matter, but word is that Danny Boyle will debut “127 Hours” and Darren Aronofsky will make the trip from Venice to Telluride for the U.S. debut of “Black Swan,” which opened the Venice Film Festival last night. The much talked about new film, starring Natalie Portman, will be at the Toronto fest next week. Heading to Telluride directly from Cannes are Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu’s “Biutiful,” Olivier Assayas’ “Carlos,” Charles Ferguson’s “Inside Job,” Lee Chang-dong’s “Poetry,” Bertrand Tavernier’s “The Princess of Montpensier,” and Stephen Frears’ “Tamara Drewe.” Other notable inernational entries include Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist” and “If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle,” directed by Florin Serban, both from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival As usual, Telluride will showcase numerous classics, archival films and restored work. As the festival organizers said last year, it’s as important at a film festival to offer classics and repertory cinema as it is to debut new work. “For those of us who love movies,” explained festival co-director Gary Meyer, in a conversation with indieWIRE last year, “I don’t think that our world is limited to new movies. We often relate something we see to our past moviegoing experiences.” This year’s Telluride fest will include a selection of films from the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the organization will be awarded a special medallion. Also this year, popular fest attendee Serge Bromberg will present a collection of classic 3D titles. Finally, filmmaker Michael Ondaatje is this year’s guest director presenting favorite films. Continue reading the full indieWIRE article here .

LA TIMES: Classic Hollywood: Rare films on display at Cinecon 46

Published on: 2nd September, 2010

The Cinecon Classic Film Festival is not for movie softies. It’s for hard-core film buffs and historians who don’t want to see the usual vintage fare that pops up on Turner Classic Movies or at revival theaters. So if you’re looking to see "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane" or " It’s a Wonderful Life ," Cinecon isn’t the festival for you. "Most of the films have not been seen since their original release or have not been seen since the early days of television," says film and TV archivist/historian Stan Taffel, who is vice president of Cinecon. The 46th edition of Cinecon takes place Thursday through Monday at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The festival offers a memorabilia and collectibles show at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, along with seminars. Oscar-nominated actor Don Murray will be receiving the Cinecon Career Achievement Award at a banquet at the hotel on Sunday evening. Cinecon began rather humbly in 1965 at a Holiday Inn in Indiana, Pa., the hometown of Jimmy Stewart . The Society for Cinephiles Ltd. met in a small room at the hotel and showed 8-millimeter silent films from their collection. "Little by little, people started to find rare films and it became a festival," Taffel says. Now called Cinecon, it has been in Los Angeles since the 1990s. "We have been able to generate really good relationships with all the studios," Taffel says. "I would say one of my favorite aspects about the entire thing is that we have become personal friends with people who work at the studios in film preservation. A few of them will say, ‘What do we have that we should be preserving or what you like to see be preserved?’ Those of us on the board, including Cinecon President Bob Birchard, have films we would love to see, things we have never seen before." Taffel’s favorite "cause" these days is a silent and sound comedian named Charley Chase, who besides acting in film also directed movies. "He was involved in some 400 films in various capacities," he says. "I have spent most of my life tracking down as many films of his that he either worked in front of or behind the camera." For this festival, he’s running a 1937 Charley Chase comedy , "From Bad to Worse," that hasn’t been screened in 73 years. "It’s one of his first Columbia shorts. We are delighted. It’s a brand-new print that has been struck from original elements." Other rarities being screened include a 1928 Frank Capra gangster drama , "The Way of the Strong" and a 1930 version of Jack London ‘s "The Sea Wolf," starring acclaimed actor Milton Sills, who died shortly after its release at the age of 48. But the biggest draw of Cinecon is the re-premiere Saturday of the 1914 Keystone comedy "A Thief Catcher," which features Charlie Chaplin in one of his first screen appearances and in a non-Tramp role. "I don’t think any film is lost," Taffel says. "My rule is no film is lost, they are just MIA." "A Thief Catcher" was discovered last November at an antiques show in Taylor, Mich., by filmmaker and film historian Paul E. Gierucki. "I travel all around the world searching for classic films, trying to restore them, release them on DVD and put them on Turner Classic Movies," Gierucki says. "I have found things like Harry Langdon ‘s home movies, some Buster Keaton work prints and Laurel and Hardy trailers." He went to the antiques show just for fun when his eyes caught a vintage streamer trunk. "I flipped open the top and inside there was a large stack of 16mm films. Nothing was marked or labeled, so I sat down on the floor in the middle of the antiques show just trying to go through all the films." The majority of the films weren’t worth noting, but he bought about five of the films, including one called ‘His Regular Job," which he recognized as a reissue of a Keystone Kops silent comedy. He took them home where they sat on a shelf while he worked on another project. Continue reading the full Los Angeles Times article here .

The Wrap: Hollywood Needs to Draft a Fantasy Football Movie

Published on: 2nd September, 2010

It’s late August and that means football fans across the country gather for their annual ritual: drafting their fantasy team (I got Brees this year! Yay!) Fantasy football has grown from an obscure hobby to a nationally advertised phenomenon. Organized leagues can play for some serious money. And now Hollywood is getting in the act. No sooner did my league finish drafting than one of my fellow fantasy owners emailed me this: Isn’t this a good idea for a spec? FANTASY DADS Representation: Chris Sablan (Original Artists) Written by: Jon Guerra and Eugene O’Neil "Banned from fantasy football by their wives, a group of dads form an underground fantasy league around their sons’ pee-wee football games.  OLD SCHOOL meets BAD NEWS BEARS." It was quickly followed up by an email from another owner with a link to the new Fox series "The League." It certainly looks like the studios are trying to cash in on this new national craze and why not? But as a proud owner here’s a few things I hope they get right. Use the Real NFL There’s a huge difference between two guys arguing whether or not to draft Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys versus say Joe Kingman of the Boston Rebels. Would "There’s Something About Mary" be half as funny without Brett Favre? Would "Airplane!" be as hilarious without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Probably but we would have been deprived of classic moments like this (at the 1 minute 50 second mark): Don’t Forget the Ladies The only problem I have with the pitch for "Fantasy Dads" is that all the wives and mothers are the kill joys. Today’s NFL fans have a healthy does of estrogen in the mix as detailed by my fellow owner Amy Sorlie’s article "Queens of Sunday." So how about a fantasy football rom com? Can a rabid fan deal with the fact that his girlfriend is kicking his butt at fantasy football? And of course the NFL isn’t shy about selling team jerseys to women either. Make it Visually Exciting While I personally get all kinds of excited just before Sunday, I freely admit it’s not the kind of thing that will translate cinematically. Mostly it involves me sneaking to the computer during commercial breaks to check on how the rest of my team is doing. And I’m not sure you can re-create the drama of last year when Ronnie Brown scored a last-second TD on the Monday night game to send my previously invincible squad down to defeat. Continue reading the full Wrap article here .

NY Times: Traveling Man With Few Words and a Big Gun

Published on: 1st September, 2010

“You have the hands of a craftsman, not an artist,” says a friendly village priest (Paolo Bonacelli) to an American expatriate whose identity is ambiguous but whose face is recognizable to the rest of us as George Clooney ’s. This fellow, temporarily assuming the name Edward, having been Jack before, but known to two different women as Mr. Butterfly, has showed up in a picturesque town in Abruzzo, a mountainous region East of Rome, where he’s pretending to be a photographer. His actual profession, though never quite specified, is more malevolent, and he is currently working on a commission to supply a sexy assassin (Thekla Reuten) with a custom-made weapon. A good deal of “The American,” directed by Anton Corbijn from a script by Rowan Joffe (adapted from the novel “A Very Private Gentleman,” by Martin Booth), is devoted to the patient examination of Mr. Butterfly at work. He plies his trade with meticulous care, weighing, measuring, disassembling and tweaking his special gun with artisanal devotion. And the virtues of the film itself are those of craft rather than art. Its precision is impressive and fussy rather than invigorating. It is a reasonably skillful exercise in genre and style, a well-made vessel containing nothing in particular, though some of its features — European setting, slow pacing, full-frontal female nudity — are more evocative of the art house than of the multiplex.  Read the full NY Times article here

The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Last Exorcism’ tops ‘Takers’ at No. 1

Published on: 30th August, 2010

Summer’s last couple box office sessions often produce solid results for niche pics, and the latest frame has proven to be a textbook case. Lionsgate’s horror pic "The Last Exorcism" bowed at No. 1 in the domestic rankings with more than half of its estimated $21.3 million collected from Latino patrons, while closely behind, Sony Screen Gems’ crime thriller "Takers" took the weekend silver medal with a $21 million debut built on core urban support. But the niche riches at the top of the season’s penultimate session contrasted sharply with a lackluster tally by winter blockbuster "Avatar," which Fox and James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment returned to theaters for a delayed victory lap. A 171-minute, 3D-only "special edition" of "Avatar" offered in 812 locations rung up $4 million, including $1.6 million from Imax auditoriums, to push the scifi epic’s record cumulative boxoffice to $753.8 million domestically. Though its weekend results were less than eye-popping, the 8 1/2-minute longer "Avatar" re-release nicely preps fans of the eco-themed fantasy for Fox Home Entertainment’s release in November of special-edition "Avatar" discs featuring even more extra footage. "We did this for the fans," Fox senior vp distribution Bert Livingston said. Lionsgate tends to release movies in late summer and fall, when competition from studio tentpoles clears a bit. The minimajor’s chart-topping outing with "Exorcism" follows its two weeks at No. 1 with Sylvester Stallone’s "The Expendables," which registered $9.5 million during its third frame to push the ensemble actioner’s cume to $82 million. "Everybody is ecstatic," Lionsgate exec vp distribution David Spitz said. "We’ve never before had two of the top three films in the marketplace." Directed by Daniel Stamm ("A Necessary Death"), "Exorcism" producers included Eli Roth, creator of the "Hostel" horror franchise. Opening loot dramatically exceeds Lionsgate’s low single-digit millions acquisition costs on the pic, which was produced for less than $2 million by Roth and Strike Entertainment with Studio Canal co-financing. Read the full Hollywood Reporter article here

NY Times: Following Workers’ Trails of Tears in China

Published on: 30th August, 2010

IN the quietly devastating documentary “Last Train Home” Chinese migrant workers huddle together in an overcrowded railway car, sweating through their annual ride home for the New Year holiday. One nattily coiffed young man inveighs against the West, complaining bitterly that American consumers who buy the cheap Chinese goods he makes also get to spend most of their higher salaries on discretionary items, while he, who makes those goods, must send most of his earnings home to support his family. Lixin Fan, who shot, edited and directed the film, might have chosen to stick with this feisty representative of the new China. Instead his camera cuts away to a middle-aged couple who sit in silence. Zhang Changhua and Cheng Suqin, who make this trip every year to visit the children they left behind nearly two decades ago, belong to a mostly ignored generation of roughly 130 million migrant workers who have sacrificed their productive years, and possibly the integrity of their families, in service to China’s headlong rush into global economic supremacy. “Many times I was in tears at all this misery,” Mr. Fan said, seated in an anteroom at the Los Angeles Asian-Pacific Film Festival, where “Last Train Home” played in May after winning praise at the Sundance Film Festival . “If you were on this train with hundreds of migrants around us — it stinks, it’s dirty and everyone’s trying to survive, just to see their kids.” In 2006 Mr. Fan and a skeleton crew of three began documenting the effects of industrial change on this family, with whom he spent three years, on and off. Read the full NY Times article here

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