One of the notable things to come out of SXSW is the so-called mumblecore movement, which like the word “indie,” has taken on so many meanings that it doesn’t really mean anything. (Check out Paste’s long-winded answer to the question: “Is Indie Dead?”) The term is mainly used as shorthand for micro-budget talking-head flicks and a generation of moviemakers who work on each other’s films.
What really matters is what happens to these directors. My old NYU colleague John Pierson (film prof at the U of Texas, Austin and husband of SXSW producer Janet Pierson) feels strongly that one thing the old theatrical indie model did well (besides generating cash) was to support and develop the careers of emerging directors—something the new DIY model doesn’t do.
Well, typically, the engaged and linked-in generation help each other. Take the most talented filmmakers to emerge from the mumblecore pack, Mark and Jay Duplass. As they have grown from The Puffy Chair and Baghead to Fox Searchlight-backed Sundance hit Cyrus, which boasts movie stars (John C. Reilly, Catherine Keener, Jonah Hill, Maria Tomei) without betraying the filmmakers’ signature naturalistic style, they’re supporting other filmmakers along the way. (My Sundance video interview with them is below.)
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Independents on March 19, 2010 at 3:00pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
TCM’s first-ever Classic Film Festival launches April 22nd, running 50 classic films and wide-ranging panels over four days at three landmark venues—Grauman’s Chinese, the Egyptian and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
The fest kicks off with a screening of the newly restored George Cukor film A Star is Born (1954). Other highlights include gorgeous prints of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Mel Brooks’ The Producers, which will be accompanied by a discussion with the triple threat writer/director/actor.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, Hollywood, Writers on March 19, 2010 at 12:39pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
It was a smart move for Fox to hand over the reins to FX whiz Robert Rodriguez on a Predator sequel. He promised to deliver them a $45-million movie—modest, for an action sequel—which he wrote and produced at his Austin Troublemaker Studios (with location shoots in Hawaii) with Nimrod Antal (Kontroll) at the helm. Rodriguez offers studios a one-stop shop on a somewhat smaller scale than Peter Jackson’s Weta operation in New Zealand. The deal is, they leave him alone to deliver the goods. “Do your thing and make it cool and make it a Troublemaker Studios movie,” Fox told Rodriguez. “We’ll release it, but you don’t have to make it a Fox movie.”
Next on Rodriguez’s platter is Spy Kids 4. He just handed the script to the Weinstein Co. It’s set ten years later with a new set of kids. He wants to return to the look and feel of the first Spy Kids, with plenty of practical effects, he said: “That’s my most loyal audience.”
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Robert Rodriguez, Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Action, Sci-fi, Sequel, Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Video, Trailers on March 17, 2010 at 12:04pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (3)
You couldn’t ask for a more obvious set-up for a sequel than the end of Kick-Ass. Yet director Matthew Vaughn—who cannily set out to make a $50-million commercial hit—won’t count his chickens until the movie opens on 3000 screens April 16. Lionsgate wants to talk sequel—they have first-look rights. But Vaughn, who has plenty of ideas for how to go about reforming his pint-size killer Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz)—think Terminator 2, with Schwarzenegger’s cyborg assassin shooting folks in the knees—isn’t ready to sit down and make a deal. (See two-part flip-cam interview below.)
Why? Remember the guy’s a producer-turned-director. If your movie opens big, you have more leverage.
And believe me, Vaughn’s entertaining comic-book action spoof—which Lionsgate acquired after footage played well at Comic-Con—will do great box office. Nic Cage, Chloe Moretz, Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Platz and a surprisingly comedic Mark Strong all carry the movie. But while the SXSW male demo and fanboys love it, critics will be mixed. Lionsgate wants to encourage women to see the film—they say that it tests well for them—but there’s a difference between showing someone a movie and getting them to show up.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Headliners, Nic Cage, Independents, Lionsgate/Roadside, Reviews, Video, Interviews, Writers, Screenwriters on March 16, 2010 at 9:22pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
Well, I checked out writer-director Aaron Katz’s third film Cold Weather to see what the fuss was all about.
No question Katz and his team know how to make a sharp, funny, visually stunning movie on a shoestring. But while shot in naturalistic light with talking heads, this film is more complex than Katz’s prior efforts (both are available on Amazon). Shot in 18 days on 25 locations, Cold Weather deployed Katz’s usual tiny crew, who all stayed in one house in Portland, Oregon, and now share shorthand.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Independents, Reviews on March 16, 2010 at 8:31pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
MacGruber cost just $10 million, a micro budget for a Universal release starring Ryan Phillippe, Val Kilmer, Will Forte, Seth Meyers, Powers Boothe and Kristin Wiig. The gang stopped by the IFC House Tuesday for a Matt Singer interview and photo shoot.
Clips from the fun SXSW MacGruber panel and a trailer are on the jump:
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Comedy, Studios, Universal/Focus Features on March 16, 2010 at 7:12pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
At the SXSW closing awards ceremony Tuesday night, Lena Dunham’s offbeat autobiographical drama Tiny Furniture won the narrative feature jury prize. Shot in November and edited in December, the filmmakers finished the micro-budget drama last Monday, and flew into Austin with a tape in hand. Dunham also won the Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award.
The dramatic jury also awarded two special jury prizes: best ensemble, Myth of the American Sleepover, directed by David Robert Mitchell and best individual performance: Brian Hasenfus in Phillip the Fossil, directed by Garth Donovan.
The feature doc jury winner was Jeff Malmberg’s Marwencol, about Mark Hogancamp and his fantasy world. The runner-up was War Don Don, from director Rebecca Richman Cohen.
The audience awards went to Will Canon’s fraternity thriller Brotherhood and documentary filmmakers Jim Bigham & Mark Moormann’s For Once in My Life, about the members of the Spirit of Goodwill Band.
Prizes for Shorts, Film Design, the SXSW Chicken & Egg and the SXSW Wholphin Award are on the jump and at indieWIRE.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Documentaries, Independents on March 16, 2010 at 6:20pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
Monday night I squeezed into the last seat at Fantastic Fest’s midnight surprise screening of Neil “The Descent” Marshall’s Romans vs. Picts epic Centurion at the Alamo Draft House.
The good news: the movie kept me awake and Michael Fassbender and Dominic West are strong leads as the titular centurion and the general of the ninth legion, respectively. The bad news: the movie is a slightly cheesy period B actioner, rife with bloody, gory slo-mo fighting with squibs of gushing red blood and lopping off of heads. Think Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Only straight.
The men are far stronger than the ancillary action babes in fur and anachronistic hair and make-up. Think Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. Fassbender’s girl-interest sub-plot is plain silly.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Action, Independents, Magnolia, Reviews on March 16, 2010 at 10:28am PDT | Permalink | Comments (1)
Michael Gondry is a marvel—and I would have loved a longer chat than this flip-cam quickie, which skates across his SXSW doc The Thorn in the Heart, about his school teacher aunt Suzette, who the family used to visit deep in the country in the summer. He wanted partly to capture a vanishing world.
Gondry also talked about making his video Open Your Heart and working with Seth Rogen and Christoph Waltz in The Green Hornet, which he first wanted to make 13 years ago. Gondry was just starting to talk about his new animated feature Megalomania, a futuristic teen rebel adventure written by Daniel Clowes (Ghost World) as an alternative to the skuttled big-budget Master of Space and Time that never got off the ground at DreamWorks. The animation will be based on designs by Gondry’s son Paul, who is charming in The Thorn in the Heart.
Eugene Hernandez got to ask him more questions during a longer Q & A, in which Gondry revealed more details. Hornet’s Rogen, Steve Buscemi and Juliette Lewis are tagged as voice stars. And The Playlist dragged even more info out of the man about other new projects—details here.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Video, Interviews on March 15, 2010 at 9:59am PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
Foreign sales company Cinema Management Group has acquired all rights outside America for Will Canon’s college thriller Brotherhood, which premiered at SXSW Saturday night. The film began ten years ago as Canon’s NYU short film Roslyn. He co-wrote Brotherhood, about a frat initiation ritual gone wrong, with Doug Simon. Chris Pollack, Jason Croft, Steven Hein and Tim O’Hair produced with executive producers Jamie Patricof, Kevin Iwashina, Darryn Welch and Chris Ouwinga.
CMG acquired two titles at this year’s Sundance Film Festival: The Perfect Host, and Josh Fox’s doc Gasland, which won the doc Special Jury Prize.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Independents on March 14, 2010 at 2:49pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
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