The Playlist

Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions Pick Up Kristen Wiig Starrer 'Imogene,' RADiUS-TWC Take Errol Morris' Latest

By Ryan Gowland
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September 11, 2012 10:45 AM
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News

More Toronto International Film Festival acquisitions abound, including the comedy "Imogene" and the documentary "The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld," right on the heels of Roadside Attractions picking up Sarah Polley's documentary "Stories We Tell."

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Watch: New Errol Morris Short Documentary For ESPN 'Team Spirit'

By Benjamin Wright
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August 7, 2012 5:51 PM
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News

ESPN has a long history of working with talent that hasn’t necessarily set foot on a sports field, but never perhaps a filmmaker as renowned as Academy Award-winning “The Fog of War” and “Tabloid” documentarian Errol Morris. In typical Morris fashion, his ESPN short documentary “Team Spirit” explores the obsessive nature of sports fans that carry their team spirit until they are quite literally a plot and a grave stone.

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Errol Morris Will Point The Interrotron At Donald Rumsfeld In A New Documentary

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 14, 2012 1:04 PM
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News

Controversy has never scared off Errol Morris, and in fact, it has powered some of his best work. From the true crime tale "The Thin Blue Line," powerful portraits of war in "The Fog of War" and "Standard Operating Procedure," and more recently the JFK assassination (in the astounding short "The Umbrella Man"; watch it here) he has faced some tough material head on with tremendous insight. And his next effort promises nothing less.

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Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Kirsten Wiig & Christopher Walken Will Get Frozen In Errol Morris' 'Freezing People Is Easy'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 4, 2012 3:37 PM
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1 Comment

News

Errol Morris? Cryogenics? Sound familiar? Over the summer, the documentarian Morris let it drop that Paul Rudd would lead his adaptation of the memoir “We Froze The First Man.” Well, it looks like it's now beginning to take shape with a new title and one helluva cast coming together.

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Watch: Powerful Errol Morris Short 'The Umbrella Man' Investigates The Mysterious JFK Assassination Figure

By Kevin Jagernauth
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November 22, 2011 3:42 PM
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14 Comments

News

Give Errol Morris any topic (the more obscure and bizarre the better), and he'll likely dazzle you with what he can come up with. And as a testament to his powers of narrative force, all the famed documentarian needs is about six minutes to let his latest short, an endeavor for New York Times where he frequently writes, to say more about the JFK assassination than Oliver Stone did in his own three hour movie (which is a still great watch).

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When Subject Becomes Plaintiff: Joyce McKinney Sues Errol Morris Over ‘Tabloid’

By Drew Taylor
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November 4, 2011 1:06 PM
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Well, she’s been threatening it for months now (but with her, how do you know what she’ll actually do?), but it’s actually come to pass: Joyce McKinney, the subject of Errol Morris’ outstandingly odd “Tabloid,” is suing the director for, among many other things, “likeness, defamation, misrepresentation, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract.” “Tabloid” is the story of McKinney’s life, specifically an incident in 1977 when she flew to England to retrieve her boyfriend, who was on missionary work for the Mormon church and who claimed, later, that he had been kidnapped and raped by McKinney. The story became a sensation in England, where it was dubbed the “Manacle Mormon” story or, more luridly, the “Sex in Chains” scandal (McKinney reportedly restrained her boyfriend).

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Interview: Errol Morris Talks The Anxiety Of Making 'Tabloid' & Finding The Laughter In His Films

By Christopher Bell
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July 13, 2011 10:27 AM
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2 Comments

In a time where documentaries are made cheaply and are often no more than glossy, agenda-pushing propaganda bulleted lists, filmmakers like Errol Morris seem even more admirable. Starting in 1978 with the amusing "Gates of Heaven" (which followed a number of people who had beloved animals buried in a California pet cemetery), the man alternated between scrutinizing the weird and picking apart the political, triumphing in both camps due to both his respectful and prudent attitude. He even invented his own interviewing technique called the "Interrotron" which, using two-way mirrors in a similar way a teleprompter would work, allows both camps to see the face of who they are talking to while directly looking into the camera. Because of this intimacy, Morris' films not only avoid the dullness that many talking head flicks fall into, but it also constructs a very personal audience connection to each speaker. As he probes into each subject, he's never condescending, but often unearths uncomfortable truths and manages to portray each person as not just a tool to prove whatever point he's trying to make, but as a complicated human being.

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Paul Rudd To Star In Errol Morris' Adaptation Of 'We Froze The First Man'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 12, 2011 9:55 AM
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1 Comment

Steve Zaillian's Film Rites Producing; 'Stranger Than Fiction' Writer Zach Helm PenningNo sooner than we post about a new Errol Morris movie, "The Demon In The Freezer," than another big update comes in for one of the handful of other projects he's got brewing. The famed documentarian is currently doing the press rounds for his forthcoming film "Tabloid" and it looks like he's parceling out new info about some of his upcoming movies.

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Exclusive: Errol Morris Adds Adaption Of Richard Preston's 'The Demon In The Freezer' To His Queue

By Christopher Bell
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July 12, 2011 3:56 AM
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Updates On 'The End Of Everything' & 'We Froze The First Man' Known for both his chilling investigative documentaries ("The Thin Blue Line," "Standard Operating Procedure") and his jovial examinations of the weird and eccentric ("Gates of Heaven," "Fast, Cheap & Out Of Control"), Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris has consistently been able to uncover various truths in his non-fiction expeditions. But these movies also suggest a creative asset outside the usual documentary wheelhouse; a responsive soul that shouldn't be bound to a single type of filmmaking. Morris's flicks, absurdly fascinating tales related with the breezy charm of an assured storyteller and punctuated with expertly employed reenactments, are singularly paced to leave you on the edge of your seat. Most importantly, in addition to his knack for choosing captivating subjects, Morris' respectful treatment of these individuals results in rounded, three-dimensional, human portrayals.

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Watch: Trailer For Errol Morris' Exceptional Documentary 'Tabloid'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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June 10, 2011 1:00 AM
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1 Comment

The theaters might be dominated at present by big, expensive action flicks, but for those after more thought-provoking cinema, it's looking to be an excellent summer for documentaries. Already we've seen the likes of "The Arbor," "Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff" and "L'Amour Fou," and even more exciting prospects are coming down the pipe, including "Page One," "Buck," "Project Nim" and "Beats, Rhymes & Life."

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