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 (1)
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)
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)
The week after winning two Oscars for directing and producing The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow was standing in line at L.A.‘s Superior Court. Fulfilling her duty as a citizen, she turned up for jury duty and was placed in the jury pool for a drunk driving case.
According to another jury pool member, as the bailif called out the juror names, Bigelow was number 50. During interrogation, Bigelow said that she couldn’t find a defendant guilty unless rehabilitation was attached to the sentence. The jury and alternates were picked before they got to Bigelow, and she was sent home.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Oscars, Directors, Kathryn Bigelow, Genres, Independents, Independents, The Hurt Locker on March 16, 2010 at 9:32am PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
Finally, the ink has dried on the pact with Sony Worldwide Acquisitions Group and distributor Apparition (as reported here) to release Sundance Kristen Stewart-starrer Welcome to the Rileys. They’re planning a fall release. Directed by Ridley Scott sprig Jake, the movie was executive produced by Steve Zaillian and boasts a strong script by Ken Hixon.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Genres, Independents, Independents, Apparition on March 14, 2010 at 10:22pm 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)
At the SXSW opening night party, Jason Reitman showed me the trailer (below) for Aaron Katz’s third feature Cold Weather on his iPhone. Reitman was psyched to see it, and I was intrigued, but it was up against Michel Gondry’s Cannes doc Thorn in My Heart, which I needed to see in order to interview him Sunday.
Sure enough, Reitman was right: the LAT’s Mark Olsen, LA Weekly’s Karina Longworth and indieWIRE’s own Eric Kohn have all raved.
At a provocative panel Sunday, “Saving Cinema in the Digital Era,” IFC’s Ryan Werner said he was interested in the movie, but that it was just this sort of indie American drama that was the toughest to market these days. Local exhibitor Tim League of the Alamo Drafthouse agreed, saying that he markets films at his two local cinemas via twitter and facebook, not print and radio. The message of the panel—well-moderated by indieWIRE’s Eugene Hernandez, who recognized that some of the most interesting things were brought up by questioners from the interactive side—was that everyone needs to get as much publicity as possible by any means necessary. What’s exciting about SXSW is the way that the interactive/music/film/online worlds collide and cross-pollinate and inform. The networking and panels are fab.
Katz posted his YouTube trailer well in advance of the fest—which obviously started the process of grabbing notice.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Independents, Reviews, Video, Trailers, Web/Tech, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube on March 14, 2010 at 12:50pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
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