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Martin Scorsese's Cut Of 'Margaret' Longer Than Current Version; Producer Turned Down TIFF Premiere

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • October 3, 2011 1:44 AM
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  • 1 Comment
After six years of legal battles and editing bay drama, Fox Searchlight finally released Kenneth Lonergan's long awaited "Margaret" this weekend in a handful of theaters. Pushed by a marketing campaign that could generously be called "modest," the film opened to fairly dismal numbers and even though it will rollout to more cities next weekend, the extended imbroglio seems to earned the movie a quiet death. Except, in the court of law, the saga of "Margaret" is not over (more on that in a second) but moreover, for anyone who has seen the film, the news that a longer version of Lonergan's film never made it to screens will be an added frustration to a picture that flirts with greatness only to become unhinged in its wild second half (indeed, it split The Playlist team in half).
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More: Films, Kenneth Lonergan, Margaret

Weekend Box Office: 'Dolphin Tale' Flips Over Another Batch Of Weak New Releases To Score #1

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • October 2, 2011 4:38 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Break it down however you want, but its simple economics. The last month has been absolutely saturated with product, so few of it appealing to mainstream America. These movies aren’t bad. And, in most cases, the marketing isn’t all that faulty. It’s pure numbers. The market can’t withstand this over-saturation. In September, eighteen films entered wide release of 1500 or more theaters, and only six crossed $30 million domestic, two of them benefiting from inflated 3D prices. That’s a poor record of success, even as we keep the bar exactly that low.
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More: Films, Film Studios, Weekend Box-Office, Animated Films, Dream House, Contagion, Take Shelter, 50/50, What's Your Number?, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony, Open Road, Lionsgate, The Lion King, Margaret

In Theaters: 'What's Your Number?' Does The Math With '50/50' & 'Dream House'

  • By Katie Walsh
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  • September 30, 2011 6:58 AM
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  • 2 Comments
I hope you've all iced your crotch punches from last weekend and are ready to get down to brass tax. Joseph Gordon-Levitt with cancer! Come on now, people, we've got to be SERIOUS, it's almost October after all. We need politics and drama and commentary, like in the scathing feminist critique of "What's Your Number?" (Lemme guess, Chris Evans is number 20 and she doesn't have to go over the socially acceptable limit of dudes effed). So put on the big boy or girl pants, this weekend we've got "50/50," "Dream House," "What's Your Number?" and "Take Shelter" hitting screens.
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More: Films, What's Your Number?, 50/50, Dream House, Margaret

Review: Minor-Masterpiece Or Bloated Melodrama? 'Margaret' Could Be The Ultimate Argument Starter

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • September 28, 2011 8:21 AM
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  • 5 Comments
A Point/Counter-Point Review Of Kenneth Lonergan's Long-Delayed Contentious Drama"Margaret" was a film that split those at The Playlist who saw it right down the middle with some of us hailing it as a near masterpiece, while others had some clear issues with Kenneth Lonergan's long-awaited, sprawling drama. So, we have two reviews for you here. The first is a positive take from Drew Taylor and the second is a more critical look by the site's editor-in-chief.
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Kenneth Lonergan, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo, Anna Paquin, Margaret

Watch: Tears & Grief Permeate Trailer For 'Margaret' Starring Anna Paquin & Mark Ruffalo

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • September 1, 2011 3:57 AM
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  • 6 Comments
After six years of legal drama and struggles in the editing room, Kenneth Lonergan's "Margaret" is finally arriving with something of a whimper, with the release date set for thirty days from now and a trailer and poster only coming into view today. It's a bit of an anti-climatic ending to the saga of Lonergan's sophomore effort after his acclaimed "You Can Count On Me," with the big question remaining: has the wait been been worth it? Well, take a look below to get a hint at your answer.
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More: Films, Margaret

New Looks At Matt Damon & Anna Paquin In 'Margaret' And Liam Hemsworth In 'Hunger Games'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • August 11, 2011 2:00 AM
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  • 1 Comment
The story of "Margaret" is long, complicated and kind of tragic, but here's the short version. Riding high off the success of "You Can Count On Me," Kenneth Lonergan set to work on his sophomore effort "Margaret," beginning shooting in September 2005. The film wrapped a few months later, but that's where everything started to go wrong. For reasons that are still not clear, Lonergan, who had final cut, was unable to get an edit together that he liked, causing the film to keep getting pushed further and further back. Scott Rudin and Sydney Pollack were brought in to try and help Lonergan over the finish line, but those efforts proved futile. Meanwhile, a row was growing between Fox Searchlight and the producers and after lawsuits started being filed, and this film wound up in limbo for years. Well, six years later, the film is complete -- with Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker arbitrating a final edit with Lonergan's approval -- and after all that drama, the film is being given a quiet release on September 30th. A shame for the project to end on such an anti-climatic note but we're still curious to see how this all eventually turned out.
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More: Films, Hunger Games, Margaret

Kenneth Lonergan's Long-Awaited 'Margaret' With Matt Damon & Anna Paquin Hits September 30th

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • August 3, 2011 9:34 AM
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  • 6 Comments
Ten years after the tragic events of 9/11, that also serves as the backdrop to the film, Kenneth Lonergan's long-awaited and forever delayed "Margaret" will finally hit theaters on September 30th, according to Exhibitor Relations.
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More: Films, Margaret

Producer Gary Gilbert Hopes To Get Kenneth Lonergan's 'Margaret' In Theaters By The End Of The Year

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • May 26, 2011 7:09 AM
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  • 3 Comments
2011 seems to be year of new films from director's who've been making us wait, with new efforts from Terrence Malick, Lynne Ramsay and Alexander Payne all on the way, but the story of Kenneth Lonergan -- whose "Margaret" is still unreleased -- is perhaps the most heartbreaking of them all. His followup to the critically acclaimed “You Can Count On Me,” has been sitting in limbo for the past few years—it wrapped way back in 2005—for a variety of reasons. Foremost, a legal battle erupted, with suits and countersuits filed, as Lonergan simply could not find the picture in the editing bay. Lonergan apparently requested further time in the editing room, while multiple editors apparently also took control of the film at various points both with and without Lonergan’s ok. Even late producer Sydney Pollack became infuriated with Lonergan’s “unprofessional and irrational behavior,” and we pretty much had figured the movie would end up as an historical curiosity rather than an actual finished film. At one point, it was rumored that 300 pages of script were shot, so no wonder he had trouble wrangling this thing into a manageable size. The sticking point seems to be length of the film: Lonergan's cut runs about three hours, but this contract with Fox Searchlight states he needs to bring it in at two hours.
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More: Films, Margaret

Martin Scorsese To Edit Kenneth Lonergan's 'Margaret' In Hopes Of Creating A Releasable Cut

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • May 9, 2011 9:22 AM
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  • 9 Comments
Where do we start with Kenneth Lonergan's "Margaret," his followup to the critically acclaimed "You Can Count On Me." Well, here goes. The film has been sitting in limbo for the past few years -- it wrapped way back in 2005 -- for a variety of reasons. Foremost, a legal battle erupted between Fox Searchlight and the film's producer Dan Gilbert, with suits and countersuits filed, as Lonergan simply could not find the picture in the editing bay. Lonergan apparently requested further time in the editing room, while multiple editors apparently also took control of the film at various points both with and without Lonergan's ok. Even late producer Sydney Pollack become infuriated with Lonergan's "unprofessional and irrational behavior," and we pretty much had figured the movie would end up as an historical curiosity rather than an actual finished film. At one point, it was rumored that 300 pages of script were shot, so no wonder he had trouble wrangling this thing into a manageable size.
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More: Films, Actors, Mark Ruffalo, Margaret

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