Friday I head down to SXSW for the fifth year straight; a festival I’ve had a love affair with ever since my first trip to Austin, when Cowboy Del Amor took home the audience & grand jury prize. Beautiful Losers premiered there as did the short Prom Date and the festival helped secure distribution for Kurt Cobain About a Son. I didn’t expect to be back this year - I was stung too harshly by the sudden closing of Las Manitas Avenue Cafe - but the festival lineup proved too alluring. Not to be missed: 11/4/08, Barry Munday, Cold Weather, Helena From the Wedding , How to Fold a Flag, Jean Michele Basquiat: The Radiant Child, Life 2.0, Putty Hill, and The Canal Street Madam. Also, I’ll be participating in the mentor sessions on Monday, March 15th. Sign up, say hi, and I promise to be informative.
In order to keep with the punctuated feeling of last night’s Oscar presentation, I’ve decided to deliver my thoughts on said presentation in bullet point form. Before I do, however, I’d like to explain what bullet points are and why they are used. A “bullet point” is a symbol used in order to mark off items in a list in order to make the list both more legible and organized. And now that that’s been established:
• Alec Baldwin & Steve Martin did a great job hosting. At least for the first 15 minutes of the show. Why the producers decided to keep their best asset off stage for so long is a mystery to me. One industry insider suggested that any mid-show banter was by necessity more improvisational while the intro can be studiously rehearsed. Maybe, but I think the hosts were up for a little improv.
• The shorts are finally distinguishing themselves as something other than the awards that separate the Oscar pool winners from the Oscar pool losers. Whereas last year they provided an Oscar high point with “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto”, this year they offered the Oscar low point with what has already been dubbed “Oscar’s Kanye Moment.”
• Interpretive dance!? Did anyone seriously think that would increase viewership? Next time try Nascar or even better - THE PBR!
• George Clooney is the new Jack Nicholson.
• Did we really need a whole montage tribute to horror in place of seeing the ceremonies for honorary Oscar winners Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman. I think not.
• I hope Kathryn Bigelow’s win doesn’t make studios, producers, financiers pat themselves on the back about the breaking of a glass ceiling. Her victory was truly, truly amazing. But the field of directing is still overly dominated by men, and only once that is rectified will real change come about.
• I can’t believe The Hurt Locker won! That’s just damn awesome and congrats to everyone involved in making and distributing such a great film!!!!
When I see comic book news in Variety or Screen, I tend to roll my eyes. There was a while there where every day it seemed like a celebrity was “launching” a comic book line that in reality would never see the light of day. Or some 27th tier property was being optioned by company desperately to get into the graphic-novel-to-movie biz. What can I say, I’m jaded. But when I saw this morning that Likely Story purchased a 33% stake in Top Shelf, I’m gonna admit I got a little giddy. Not only is it a merging of a great producer with great comics, it’s also a really smart way to bridge the comic book/film world that is mutually beneficial to the creators, the stories, and the economics. I’m looking forward to what happens with Too Cool to Be Forgotten and what comes after
1) I’ve been in production on a new film called Silver Tongues. We just put up our imdb page here. And here’s an article on the film published in the Rivertown Enterprise.
2) indiewWIRE published my best of the year and best of the decade lists.
3) Beautiful Losers is now available on DVD and Netflix.
The reason I’ve been MIA on this blog for the past month and half or so is that I’ve been dug in deep in the bunker that is production. The film’s called Silver Tongues, and I could tell you all about it, but instead I thought I’d let you read about the project in this article from the River Town Enterprise - the local paper in Hastings-On-Hudson where we spent many days shooting. And oh yes, I am aware of the extra “c” that makes numerous unfortunate appearances.
*****Update*****
I’ve decided instead to late you wait and wonder. More info coming soon!
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