This Day in Indie History: Vincent Gallo

The often-controversial actor-writer-director Vincent Gallo was born on this day in Buffalo, NY in 1961. As a teen he dropped out of high school and moved to New York City, nurturing his creativity by making Super 8 films, playing in bands (including one with graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat) and exhibiting his paintings and sculpture work at local galleries. After discovering an affinity for motorcycle sports, Gallo took up acting as a way to get health insurance. His first feature was 1986’s Euridice of the Avenues, for which his score won the 1984 Berlin Film Festival Award for Best Music. In the mid-’90s his mug could be seen in Calvin Klein ads the world over. By 1998 when his semi-autobiographical Buffalo ‘66 was released, he had already racked up bit parts in The House of the Spirits, Palookaville and The Funeral. But he wouldn’t again receive such heightened critical acclaim until his second time in the director’s chair with The Brown Bunny. Starring alongside former flame Chloë Sevigny, Gallo also took on roles as the movie’s cinematographer, costume designer, editor and camera operator.

Factoid: Vincent Gallo came back with a vengeance when The Brown Bunny premiered at Cannes to extreme and mixed reviews. First there was the now infamous exchange of words with critic Roger Ebert, followed by an equally infamous sexually explicit billboard display in Los Angeles. It’s difficult to tell whether the publicity helped or hurt the small independent movie, which made back only one-third of its budget.

April 10th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Location of the Week: Wyoming

Wyoming might not have a musical celebrating it like Chicago or play host to any renowned film landmarks like Philadelphia, but it can claim a long list of movies that have shot upon its soil. As part of the Rocky Mountain range, Wyoming offers movies of every color and stripe its peaks and valleys, canyons and grasslands. Best of all, it is now less expensive to shoot that dream Chuck Norris western with entire towns already dressed for scenes at the old bank or Broken Wheel saloon. This is the state where John Ford filmed Cheyenne Autumn and Brad Pitt fished the rivers of Jackson in A River Runs Through It.

More than the locations Wyoming provides all moviemakers, the Equality State gives up to 15 percent cash back through its Film Industry Financial Incentive program. A minimum budget of $500,000 must be met, but the benefits are great. There are also additional incentives for a Wyoming-based storyline and behind-the-scenes Wyoming footage.

Join the group of moviemakers who chose this High Plains state, but first visit www.filmwyoming.com.

Other movies from big, wonderful Wyoming include:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Dances with Wolves
Rocky IV
Starship Troopers
Rollerball
Flicka

Sound Off: Yellowstone National Park, partially situated in Wyoming, has been the setting on many a film frame. On which is it depicted best?

--Mallory Potosky

April 10th, 2007 | Category: Location of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

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Association of the Week: Association of Film Commissioners

California is the land of promise—the place where aspiring actors go to be discovered and studios build lots upon lots of soundstages. But the entire world is your oyster when looking for a suitable production location. Finding out just what it takes to film outside of Hollywood can be a daunting and difficult task, but that’s the reason the Association of Film Commissioners International was created. On April 12 it will begin the 22nd annual Locations Trade Show.

“Filmmakers have vast location and other production resources to choose from worldwide,” says AFCI president Robin James. The Trade Show “brings information about those resources and the film commissions that help connect filmmakers with those resources, together in one place at one time.” This year the association will unveil its Global Initiatives, making it easier than ever to shoot that safari adventure film on the actual soil of the Dark Continent.

As part of the AFCI collective, the Locations Trade Show plays an exceptional role in the future of moviemaking--gathering together certified film commissioners who have the know-how to “benefit the jurisdiction in which they work and the entertainment industry for which they provide services.”

Find your Promised Land in California when the Locations Trade Show hits Santa Monica April 12 - 14, 2007. For more information, visit www.afci.org.

Sound Off: Where do you feel is the most desired international shooting location for independent moviemakers? Let us know in the comments section!

--Mallory Potosky

April 10th, 2007 | Category: Association of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

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Film School of the Week: UCLA Extension

Affiliation by name to one of the country’s best film schools doesn’t put any pressure on the accomplished staff and faculty of UCLA Extension--their product is just as good as the bigger version. The Extension is a certificate-granting program for people not looking for a full degree, but instead needing skills to succeed. “Success in the entertainment business depends not only on who you know, but on what you know,” says Brian Bell, UCLA Extension’s media relations manager. Film courses from UCLA Extension range from “Film Scoring” (the first program of its kind, formed in 1984) to new additions such as “Costume Design.”

In 1922 the school began offering a course they called “Motion Pictures: The Film as a Factor in Molding Tomorrow’s Citizenry.” Interestingly enough, this basis has lasted, guiding many industry professionals along the way, including Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Iris Yamashita (Letters from Iwo Jima).

The spring quarter at UCLA Extension, which began March 31, is offering its established courses on producing, directing and post-production and this year will introduce instruction for aspiring voiceover professionals, costume designers and cinematographers looking to advance to HD. Best of all, as a certificate program, any paying student can attend without worrying about applications or prerequisites.

Expand your mind at www.uclaextension.edu.

Sound Off: UCLA Extension makes it easy for any interested person to attend film school--plus it has that recognizable moniker. But what factors really draw you to film classes?

--Mallory Potosky

April 10th, 2007 | Category: Film School of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

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Film Festival of the Week: Independent Film Festival of Boston

Boston remains one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the United States--not simply for its historical significance but also now for its burgeoning independent film community. At the Independent Film Festival of Boston that community is celebrated.

This year the IFFBoston will run from April 25 - 30 and utilize such venues as the city’s historic Somerville, Brattle and Coolidge Corner theaters. Some of this year’s most anticipated screenings include actor-turned-director Sarah Polley’s feature debut, Away From Her, indie legend Hal Hartley’s Fay Grim and the latest from Wet Hot American Summer director David Wain’s star-studded The Ten. “We look for original, risk-taking films and shy away from formulaic Hollywood fare dressed-up as indies,” says executive director Jason Redmond of the festival’s one-of-a-kind programming.

The truly unique aspect of this year’s fest is the partnership it has formed with Apple. The collaboration offers any paying customer an AppleTV, pre-loaded with a variety of films from its first four fests. “It’s the best of IFFBoston in a box,” says Redmond. Now in its fifth year, this year’s event will offer more movies, more parties and, as always, the Candlepin Bowling challenge--all of which makes this an event almost as big as that infamous tea gathering in the harbor.

Head over to www.iffboston.org for more information on how you can score yourself a seat (or an AppleTV).

Sound Off: As a festival promotion, IFFBoston is offering the new AppleTV loaded with independent programming. Is this the next step for festival distribution deals? Talk back in our comments section!

--Mallory Potosky

April 10th, 2007 | Category: Festival of the Week, This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

Comments: 3

This Day in Indie History: The 1967 Academy Awards

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the rescheduled date for the 1967 Academy Awards ceremony. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4 of that year, artists including Louis Armstrong, Diahann Carroll, Sammy Davis Jr., Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger requested that the Academy postpone the originally-set April 8 ceremony until after the civil rights activist’s funeral on April 9. The Academy shuffled its feet but complied, unwilling in part to admit that the real world reigns over Hollywood as it does anywhere else.

Factoid: The event was postponed once more in 1981. Originally slated for March 30, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences held off on hosting the ceremony for one day following an assassination attempt on newly-elected President Ronald Regan--himself a former screen actor.

April 10th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Top of the Box Office

1. Blades of Glory
Dreamworks SKG
Weekend Gross: $22,522,330
Total Gross: $67,905,237

2. Meet the Robinsons
Buena Vista
Weekend Gross: $16,715,437
Total Gross: $51,947,271

3. Are We Done Yet?
Sony Pictures
Weekend Gross: $14,262,724
Total Gross: $18,517,017

4. Grindhouse
Weinstein/Dimension
Weekend Gross: $11,596,613
Total Gross: $11,596,613

5. The Reaping
Warner Bros
Weekend Gross: $10,025,203
Total Gross: $11,958,518

6. 300
Warner Bros.
Weekend Gross: $8,368,382
Total Gross: $193,402,459

7. Wild Hogs
Buena Vista
Weekend Gross: $6,644,971
Total Gross: $145,260,566

8. Shooter
Paramount Pictures
Weekend Gross: $5,856,494
Total Gross: $36,712,076

9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Weinstein Co.
Weekend Gross: $4,825,445
Total Gross: $46,607,331

10. Firehouse Dog
20th Century Fox
Weekend Gross: $3,838,916
Total Gross: $5,101,907

All data courtesy of www.the-numbers.com

April 10th, 2007 | Category: Top of the Box Office | By MovieMaker Staff

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In Theaters Now

Are We Done Yet?
directed by Steve Carr
Ever wonder, “Gee, what would a knock-off of The Money Pit starring Ice Cube look like?” Yeah, me neither. But that’s unfortunately what we’re getting in this sequel to Are We There Yet? called, ironically, Are We Done Yet? Nick Persons (Cube) is running out of space in his home since his new, large family moved in. So when his wife, Suzanne (Nia Long), tells him she’s having a baby, Nick packs up and moves out to the country. The family finds a fixer-upper that’s more than they bargained for, forcing the family to shout, “Are we done yet?” Funny, that’s what we’ll be shouting at the screen at the end of this second installment in a (hopefully) short-lived franchise. Also starring John C. McGinley, Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden.

Firehouse Dog
directed by Todd Holland
Firehouse Dog is that old, stock Hollywood tale of a superstar action-movie-hero dog that gets lost during the height of his stardom, is found roaming the streets as a dingy stray by a friendless kid and is begrudgingly taken in by the kid’s fireman dad before discovering that the dog is really special. This kind of movie is a dime a dozen! Okay, maybe not. But it’s good, alternative family-oriented programming in a release week dominated by horror and exploitation flicks. Starring Bruce Greenwood, Josh Hutcherson and Bill Nunn.

Grindhouse
directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez turn their love of exploitation films and the seedy, run-down theaters that played them (called “grindhouse cinemas") into this “double-feature.” Tarantino contributes Death Proof, a thriller about a crazy, murderous driver (Kurt Russell) cutting a swath of terror wherever he goes. Rodriguez’s film, Planet Terror, finds a group of humans fighting for survival against an army of zombies. Grindhouse could either be an inspired trip into film history or an exercise in self-indulgence. But whatever the outcome, it’s bound to be one of the biggest films of the spring. Also starring Rose McGowan, Josh Brolin, Freddy Rodriguez, Michael Biehn, Rosario Dawson, Zoe Bell and Nicky Katt.

The Hoax
directed by Lasse Hallström
Director Lasse Hallström can be kind of hit or miss, but when he’s on, he’s on. And with The Hoax, he looks to be in good form. Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) is an author who keeps striking out with his book pitches until he comes up with the idea to write the “most important book of the 20th century"—an authorized biography of reclusive eccentric Howard Hughes. Clifford gets a $1 million advance and enlists the help of Dick Susskind (Alfred Molina). Problem is, the whole thing’s a scam: No Hughes, no book, no nothing. Hallström takes a page out of Spielberg’s book, crafting a Catch Me If You Can-style dramedy with a slight thriller edge. Also starring Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, Stanley Tucci, Julie Delpy and Eli Wallach.

The Reaping
directed by Stephen Hopkins
If there are two constants in Hollywood, they are that good female roles dry up as the actor gets older and that Best Actress winners have trouble finding roles up to their talents. (See Diane Keaton’s career and Catwoman for examples.) The latter now applies to Hilary Swank. How else to explain her appearance in The Reaping, a biblical horror film about as scary as the Left Behind series? It seems a small town is being inundated with the 10 biblical plagues—you know, locusts, rivers of blood, etc.—and a former Christian missionary (Swank) comes to “debunk” what the town is going through. Let’s pray for Swank’s sake it’s not a dud of biblical proportions; an eleventh plague if you will. Also starring David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb and Stephen Rea.

—Dante A. Ciampaglia

April 6th, 2007 | Category: In Theaters Now | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Zach Braff

Before he became the in-demand actor and moviemaker he is today, Zach Braff spent his youth in South Orange, New Jersey, where he was born on this day in 1975. While audiences might have first recognized him for his acting chops, Braff traveled to the top by way of Northwestern University. He graduated from the school’s reputable film program with a Bachelor of Arts and soon after took a turn alongside Alec Baldwin and Angela Bassett in the NY Public Theater’s production of “Macbeth.” His feature film debut came as the son to seasoned professionals Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Manhattan Murder Mystery. Before entering America’s homes each week as J.D. on the NBC sitcom “Scrubs,” the actor took parts in indie mockumentary Endsville and the ensemble dramedy The Broken Hearts Club, plus opposite Heather Matarazzo in 1999’s Getting to Know You and 2000’s Blue Moon. His next film, The Ex, co-stars Amanda Peet as the breadwinning wife who trades family for career and leaves her husband to deal with the changes.

Factoid: Zach Braff finally had the clout (and a great script to boot) when he put his BA to work on Garden State. The moviemaker wrote, directed and starred in his first feature along with Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm. The 2004 film and its screenplay were recognized by numerous Critics Choice Awards, the Grammys (for Best Compilation Soundtrack, produced by Braff), the Independent Spirit Awards and Sundance.

April 5th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: The Chumscrubber

On this day in 2004, film began rolling for The Chumscrubber, Arie Posen’s social critique on modern suburban life. Co-written by Posen and Zac Stanford, the movie takes its name from the pop culture sphere of the story’s fictional upper-middle class town. Death and deception feature greatly in this tale about adult/adolescent communication and the great common denominator in modern-day society: Drugs. The Chumscrubber hit Sundance in 2005 with its all-star cast, including Jamie Bell, Glenn Close, Rory Culkin, Ralph Fiennes, Lou Taylor Pucci and Allison Janney. By August of that year it reached U.S. audiences in limited release.

Quotable: “I live in a city, but in an apartment high above the cloud left by the blast. I’m one of the lucky ones. One morning, I awoke to find my head no longer attached to my body. I’m not dead, but who could call this a life? So I do what I can, in this city of freaks and subhuman creatures. I became… The Chumscrubber.” --living in suburbia, as summed-up in the movie The Chumscrubber.

April 4th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: The Illusionist

It was on this day in 2005 that Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Rufus Sewell, Jessica Biel and writer-director Neil Burger met on set to begin shooting their independent feature The Illusionist. Set in Vienna in the early 20th century, Burger adapted his second feature from the short story “Eisenheim the Illusionist.” The story revolves around the son of a cabinet maker (Norton), his upper-class childhood love (Biel), the men who benefit from the separation of the lovebirds (Giamatti and Sewell) and the magic that interferes. The Illusionist went in to limited release in August 2006 and widened its popularity by the following month. Burger received a Best Screenplay nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards and cinematographer Dick Pope was honored with an Academy Award nomination for his camera work.

Connections: Actor Paul Giamatti will once again star alongside Rufus Sewell in the television miniseries “John Adams,” scheduled for a 2008 release. The story will follow Giamatti as the title character who sees the United States grow from a British colony to an independent nation. Sewell will play fellow founding father Alexander Hamilton. The impressive supporting cast also includes Laura Linney, Justin Theroux, Tom Wilkinson and David Morse.

April 3rd, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Marlon Brando

Can any actor can live up to the legend that is Marlon Brando, who was born on this day in 1924? The suave bad boy who popularized the leather jacket as a symbol of rebel cool, the Nebraska-born Brando’s acting techniques developed throughout his studies at the New School and the Actors Studio in New York City. Under former teacher (and celebrated director) Elia Kazan, Brando won favor as Broadway’s Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Four years later his big-screen version of the same character brought the first glimmer of fame when he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination. (This would be the first of eight nods from the Academy throughout his illustrious career.) Buff up on film history by watching his one-of-a-kind performances in 1953’s Julius Caesar, Kazan’s On the Waterfront, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and Apocalypse Now and the 1972 classic, Last Tango in Paris. Brando’s last movie, before passing away of lung complications in 2004, was opposite Robert De Niro and Edward Norton in Frank Oz’s The Score.

Factoid: Marlon Brando was the inimitable protector in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. For his patriarchal role, the actor won the Academy Award for Best Actor but chose not to show his face at the ceremony--instead enlisting a local actress to impersonate a Native American woman and appear on his behalf. His goal was to promote equality in Hollywood for the indigenous people. It was a cause so close to Brando that he had co-founded the American Indian Movement the previous year.

April 2nd, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Top of the Box Office

1. Blades of Glory
Dreamworks SKG
Weekend Gross: $33,000,000
Total Gross: $33,000,000

2. Meet the Robinsons
Warner Bros.
Weekend Gross: $25,056,000
Total Gross: $25,056,000

3. 300
Warner Bros.
Weekend Gross: $11,155,000
Total Gross: $179,662,000

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Weinstein Co.
Weekend Gross: $9,160,000
Total Gross: $38,428,000

5. Wild Hogs
Buena Vista
Weekend Gross: $8,389,000
Total Gross: $135,355,000

6. Shooter
Paramount Pictures
Weekend Gross: $8,000,000
Total Gross: $27,212,000

7. Premonition
Sony Pictures
Weekend Gross: $5,100,000
Total Gross: $39,342,000

8. The Last Mimzy
New Line
Weekend Gross: $4,000,000
Total Gross: $16,242,000

9. The Hills Have Eyes II
Fox Searchlight
Weekend Gross: $3,925,000
Total Gross: $15,808,609

10. Reign Over Me
Sony Pictures
Weekend Gross: $3,700,000
Total Gross: $13,331,000

All data courtesy of www.the-numbers.com

April 2nd, 2007 | Category: Top of the Box Office | By MovieMaker Staff

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Exhibitor of the Week: Ironweed Films

Though some might mourn the decline of box office numbers in recent years, the fading out of the movie theater as a venue of choice has made way for some true innovations in film exhibition. Netflix has popularized the rise of the Internet and the ease of renting by mail, but what options exist for cinephiles who are looking for something off the beaten path?

Ironweed Films fills this void with their monthly Film Club, which sends a DVD compilation to its members showcasing the best of today’s socially-conscious moviemaking. Even better, the DVD is yours to keep. “We look for important, newer films that have not yet received a wider distribution. Movies that deal with meaningful issues--censorship, war, our impact on the environment,” says David Steuer, head of production at Ironweed’s parent company, Act Now Productions. For instance, the latest installment of the Film Club, which explored the relationship between humans and the natural world, included a portrait of three bull-riding champions, a look at the local reaction to Timothy Treadwell’s death by bear mauling in Alaska and an interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Mattha.

In addition to the Film Club, Ironweed works with organizations like the Earth Day Network to create action campaigns around the films that they screen. For a limited time, MovieMaker readers are invited to get a FREE TRIAL MONTH for the cost of shipping (just $2.95) and then only $14.95 per month thereafter. Log on to
www.ironweedfilms.com/affiliates/moviemaker/offer070227e to sign up or for more information.

Sound Off: Do you watch many “socially-conscious” films? Why or why not? Do you see film primarily as a vehicle for entertainment, or for effecting change? Talk back in the comments section!

--Jennifer Straus

April 2nd, 2007 | Category: Exhibitor of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

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Festival of the Week: Woods Hole Film Festival

Sixteen years ago, the Woods Hole Film Festival was small, a one-day event in which five short films were screened. But those screenings were packed. And three of the five moviemakers showing their work were Bill Plympton, Kate Davis and Robert Stone--big-name talent for a start-up festival, or any festival for that matter.

Since that first event, the Woods Hole Film Festival has grown in stature and popularity. It is now the oldest independent film festival on Cape Cod, and part of what has allowed it to age so gracefully is its desire to form connections with likeminded people and organizations, resulting in programs like The Reel BlueFest and Filmmaker in the Schools. “We have been able to expand our reach by creating these relationships,” says Judy Laster, executive director of the festival. “The Reel Blues Fest takes place each summer during the film festival, and the film festival always programs music-related films to screen during the Blues Fest,” says Laster. “We have also developed Filmmaker in Schools through which the film festival gives back to the local schools through offering filmmaking classes to middle school students.”

From that modest one-day shorts festival 16 years ago, the Woods Hole Film Festival has developed into something much, much bigger. It’s a destination for moviemakers, but the festival has also become an important part of the community. That’s one distinction not every festival in an increasingly-crowded festival circuit can claim.

Entries are currently being accepted for the 2007 Woods Hole Film Festivals, which will take place July 28th – August 4th. Log on to www.woodsholefilmfestival.org for more information, or to submit your film.

Sound Off:  Besides forming relationships with groups and other film festivals to create the best possible film festival it can, the Woods Hole Film Festival is committed to its community. Does the strength of a festival’s ties to its community impact your decision to go to it? Let us know in our comments section!

--Dante A. Ciampaglia

April 2nd, 2007 | Category: Festival of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

Comments: 2

Screenwriter of the Week: Quentin Tarantino

It’s nearly impossible to find a moviemaker or film enthusiast who has not heard of Quentin Tarantino. One of the industry’s living legends, his is a career and creative mind many aspire to emulate. While the tale of Tarantino’s road to fame is, by now, tired--weaned on movies as a video store clerk in California, discovered by its patrons, somehow made the right connections and landed himself at Sundance--his movies are anything but. The mind of this man is a complicated, pop-culture sieve, intuitively holding tight to meaty (and not-so-meaty) morsels and relieving itself of the rest. This is how he crafts one clever, absorbing screenplay after another--and the reason so many pay to enjoy them.

His half of the highly-anticipated Grindhouse, in theaters April 6, will undoubtedly do the same, proving that wit and form can prevail over the crowd-pleasing fare dominating the box office of late. It is, however, at times ironic that this type of crowd-pleasing fare is what inspires the screenwriter to new lengths, and has, in the past, helped to earn him nominations and awards from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, BAFTA, Cannes and the Independent Spirit Awards.

Tarantino’s unorthodox dialogue--interlocked with rigorous action sequences--has made Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn, Jackie Brown and Kill Bill: Vols. 1 & 2 critical and popular darlings. When not in the director’s chair himself, Tarantino’s slick imagery has been transformed by the likes of Tony Scott (True Romance) and Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers). All said, this screenwriter’s work has carved out its own niche in the continuum of film studies and already left its mark on the moviemaking community.

Sound off: Quentin Tarantino is well-known for his controversial subject matter and lightning-fast discourse. Together, they form some of moviemaking history’s best speeches. Which of this screenwriter’s memorable lines or conversations do you think deserves a top spot on the list? Everyone has got an opinion on this--share yours in our comments sections!
--Mallory Potosky

April 2nd, 2007 | Category: Screenwriter of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Maestro

The short film Maestro hit Los Angeles theaters on this day in 2004. But its origins began on the other side of the country, when fellow Rockport College professors-writers-directors Doug Stradley and Daniel Stephens began visualizing a humble $5,000 short project. In the end, Maestro was 30 minutes in length, six times its original budget and featured an unexpected performance by “Saturday Night Live” head writer and performer Seth Meyers. This Rocky-inspired story stars Meyers as the older version of Tim Healy, a bowling alley employee fantasizing about the day he would be the greatest orchestral conductor in the world. His piece de resistance would be the cursed composition “Air,” which failed anyone who ever had a hand in it.

Factoid: Seth Meyers and Stan Grunder (the young version of Tim Healy) returned for writer-director Doug Stradley’s Cub Scout Pinewood Derby comedy, Thunder Road.

April 1st, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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In Theaters Now

Meet the Robinsons
directed by Stephen J. Anderson
In this latest animated film from Walt Disney Studios, Lewis (voices of Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry) is an overachiever. His science fair experiments are ambitious, but they result in explosions so often that his teacher pleads with Lewis not to kill anyone. Lewis doesn’t have mayhem on the brain, though. Instead, he’s desperately searching for the family he’s never met. Lewis gets sidetracked when he’s plucked from the present and taken into the future to “Meet the Robinsons.” The Robinsons are a family he’d love to have, full of quirky eccentrics, but as Disney likes to browbeat, the only family you should yearn for is your own. Also starring the voices of Angela Bassett, Matthew Josten, Adam West, Tom Kenny, Paul Butcher and Tom Selleck.

The Lookout
directed by Scott Frank
The tagline for this thriller is “Whoever has the money has the power.” The punchline could be “...to deviously remake Memento.” Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) suffers short-term memory loss after a car accident, forcing him to write stuff down to remember it. When he gets a job as a bank janitor, a maybe-former classmate manipulates Chris into helping him rob his employer while promising to help him overcome his memory problem. Nothing is what it seems… yadda yadda yadda… the credits roll. Audiences should heed the tagline: You have the money and the power to keep movies like this from clogging theaters. Also starring Jeff Daniels, Isla Fisher and Matthew Goode.

Blades of Glory
directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck
Will Ferrell has sent up television news and NASCAR, so the next logical step is, of course, men’s figure skating. Ferrell is a gruff, Journey-lovin’ figure skater and Jon Heder is his dainty, leotard-wearing rival. After they butt heads and cause some damage, they’re banned for life from singles skating. But thanks to a loophole, they’re able to put their differences aside, embrace each other’s styles and become a duo. If you’ve seen Anchorman or Talladega Nights, you know what kind of non-sequitor, classic rock-inspired humor to expect. Also starring Craig T. Nelson, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, William Fichtner and Jenna Fischer.

Peaceful Warrior
directed by Victor Salva
It’s not every film that gets ringing endorsements from both Sting and Deepak Chopra, but Peaceful Warrior gets one. In this Zen/New Age sports movie, Dan Millman (Scott Mechlowicz), a star gymnast with everything going his way, becomes paralyzed after a horrific motorcycle accident. During his recovery, he meets a mechanic named Socrates (Nick Nolte) who calls himself a “peaceful warrior” and acts as Dan’s Ghost Dog, teaching him how to become a peaceful warrior himself. It might sound a little hokey, but in an era of emotionally transparent, overcoming-the-odds sports movies, Peaceful Warrior has something going for it--perhaps earning the praise of Sting and Chopra. Also starring Amy Smart and Tim DeKay.

After the Wedding
directed by Susanne Bier
Another 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nominee gets a wider release this week, as After the Wedding, a thriller-drama from Denmark, makes its way into theaters. Mads Mikkelsen, recently seen as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, is Jacob, the head of an orphanage in India that’s in desperate need of money. Rolf Lassgard is Jorgen, a Danish businessman who offers a lot of money to help the orphanage-if Jacob attends his daughter’s wedding. When Jacob makes eyes-and other things-with Jorgen’s wife, all kinds of bad things happen. In English and Danish. Also starring Sidse Babett Knudsen, Stine Fischer Christensen and Mona Malm.

March 30th, 2007 | Category: In Theaters Now | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Warren Beatty

Henry Warren Beatty joined his parents and older sister, Shirley MacLaine, when he came into the world on this day in 1937. Beatty’s first noticeable role was on the CBS sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” where he spent a short time as the resident heartthrob. His first feature, 1961’s Splendor in the Grass came soon thereafter. With longtime large aspirations, Beatty expanded his production role for his second movie, 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde. In addition to acting opposite Faye Dunaway, the actor produced the film. Both roles earned him Oscar nominations (the film was noticed for a total of 10).

Throughout the years, Beatty has continued to challenge himself with roles and production credits from Shampoo (which he co-wrote and starred in) to Reds (for which he won the Oscar for Best Director). In total, Beatty’s films, including Heaven Can Wait, Bugsy and Bulworth have garnered 14 Oscar nominations. At the 2000 Academy Awards ceremony the accomplished moviemaker was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

Factoid: In 1987 Warren Beatty hit a snag when Ishtar, the movie he produced and starred in, was deemed by critics as one of the worst ever made. Luckily he redeemed himself with such fare as Dick Tracy and a remake of Love Affair with his future wife, Annette Bening.

March 29th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: The Godfather

On this day in 1971, Francis Ford Coppola woke up to start production on The Godfather. Finalizing the script while on set and primarily concerned about collaborating with the actors, Coppola left most all of the decisions about visuals to his director of photography, Gordon Willis. Meticulous and slow-going in his lighting set-ups, Willis irked Coppola more and more as the production fell behind in its shooting schedule. On top of that, the mob thwarted the moviemaker’s ability to shoot in particular locations at specific times.

Although the movie release on March 15, 1972 ushered in both positive reviews and box office numbers, the production experience made Coppola question whether or not he wanted to direct the sequel. He relented—and returned in 1974 with The Godfather: Part II, often cited as the best of his mafia trilogy.

Quotable: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” -Marlon Brando as Don Corleone in The Godfather.

March 28th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Lucas

The David Seltzer-penned high school coming-of-age story Lucas was released to U.S. audiences on this day in 1986. Seltzer, previously known for writing The Omen, also took charge behind the camera as director. In a complete 180 from his previous work, this is a sweetly told tale of unrequited, teenage love. The story revolves around Lucas, a typical pint-sized science geek, his crush, beautiful new student Maggie, and her football player love interest, Cappie. An attempt to join the football team backfires and lands Lucas in the hospital. As an unexpected bonus, his injuries gain him the respect of the entire school--even the jocks that once goaded him.

Factoid: While the movie unfortunately did little to propel the career of its title star, Corey Haim, it did launch the careers of Winona Ryder (Mermaids, Reality Bites) and Jeremy Piven (Smokin Aces, “Entourage"). This was the first feature film for both.

March 27th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Quentin Tarantino

He’s not even 45 and Quentin Tarantino, born in Knoxville, Tennessee on this day in 1963, is already a moviemaking legend. By the age of two, his mother had moved him to Los Angeles. After leaving school at a young age, Tarantino began work at the famous California movie haven Video Archives. It was during his five-year stint there that the movie buff began imagining and writing some of his biggest hits.

Through a chain of connections, Tarantino met with Lawrence Bender, who helped to produce and release Reservoir Dogs at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. Together the pair formed the production company A Band Apart and its divisions, including the Miramax distribution label Rolling Thunder. In 1994 A Band Apart released Pulp Fiction, arguably Tarantino’s most famous and well-respected work to date. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes that year, plus honors at the Independent Spirit Awards, Golden Globes and the Oscars. Since then the writer-director-actor’s contributions to cinema have be seen in Four Rooms, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Volumes 1 and 2 and the highly anticipated Grindhouse, due out early next month.

Quotable: Quentin Tarantino is a walking pop-culture trivia game, frantically spouting off responses both on-screen and off. Ironically, so important is the writer that lines from his own screenplays have become part of that same lexicon. Case in point, Pulp Fiction’s “I’m going to get medieval on your ass” is sure to go down in movie history.

March 26th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Alan Arkin

New York comeback kid Alan Arkin was born this day back in 1934. The actor began his career as part of the folk group The Tarriers, but soon found his rightful path as an original member of Chicago’s “Second City” acting troupe.

Arkin’s stage career took off with a Tony Award for Carl Reiner’s 1963 comedy “Enter Laughing.” Four years later, he earned his first Oscar nomination for his debut feature, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. His second nod came in 1969 with The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

After dozens of screen appearances in-between, Arkin finally received his first Academy Award this year for his supporting role in the independent movie sensation Little Miss Sunshine. Other roles made memorable by Arkin include Captain Yossarian in Catch-22, opposite Peter Falk in The In-Laws, John Cusack’s therapist in Grosse Pointe Blank and a desperate salesman in Glengarry Glen Ross.

Quotable: Never missing a beat, Alan Arkin returned last year as the oddly comforting grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine. Despite a filthy mouth, his Grandpa character cleaned up around young Olive, who counted on him for support. When doubting her beauty, Grandpa classically assured her, “I’m madly in love with you and it’s not because of your personality.”

March 26th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Moviemaker of the Week: Robert Rodriguez

For independent moviemakers there is perhaps no better example of creativity and ingenuity than the $7,000 man, Robert Rodriguez. The San Antonio native began his meritorious career back in 1991 when he and high school chum Carlos Gallardo completed a feature-length action movie in a small Mexican border town. Rodriguez famously sold his body to science to raise funds and acted as the movie’s director, cinematographer, camera operator, lighting technician, editor and every other conceivable member of the production crew. He was the new golden boy of independent cinema once El Mariachi and the story behind it became talk show and festival circuit fodder.

The moviemaker’s path took a few unexpected turns beginning with the 1992 Toronto Film Festival, where both the El Mariachi media frenzy and a friendship with Quentin Tarantino began. From that first feature grew the high-budget, celebrity-strewn sequels Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, with Rodriguez still pulling the weight of multiple crewmembers. Together with Tarantino, Rodriguez has completed five films. Dimension Films will release their latest collaboration, Grindhouse, on April 6, 2007.

As two movies on one bill, Grindhouse references those theaters of old that screened back-to-back explicit and taboo exploitation movies. Rodriguez’s segment, “Planet Terror,” features Rose McGowan and Freddy Rodriguez as a scarred couple out for revenge. Making sure he still has a hand in everything, this gritty thriller is produced, edited and scored by the famed moviemaker himself.

Sound Off: Robert Rodriguez raised money for his first feature film by becoming a lab rat. What is the furthest you have gone to complete a film? Let us know in the Comments section!

--Mallory Potosky

March 26th, 2007 | Category: Moviemaker of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

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Film School of the Week: Mobile Film School

Getting an education in moviemaking can be tough-the best programs can be almost impossible to get into, and cost alone is enough of a deterrent for some. But what about those who have no access to a film school, or even the equipment they need to start making movies on their own? The Mobile Film School was founded with these people in mind, with the mission to reach out to underserved communities by bringing film school to them.

The Mobile Film School, which employs guest instructors like legendary documentarian Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter), travels to rural areas in two buses: One containing editing suites and production equipment, the other holding a resource library and staff offices. They offer five-week courses in narrative and documentary moviemaking as well as acting, giving students the opportunity to express themselves via the medium of film.

The inaugural run of the Mobile Film School took place this February in the town of Manor, Texas, where high school seniors collaborated on the completion of a documentary short entitled In A Place Like This. “The students were so intuitive about the process, it was really exciting to watch,” says executive director and founder Lisa McWilliams. “They absolutely exceeded my expectations.”

For more information on the Mobile Film School’s upcoming workshops, visit www.mobilefilmschool.com.

Sound Off: Mobile Film School is one of several organizations sprouting up in order to help under-represented communities express themselves through the medium of film (Mira Nair’s moviemaking laboratory, Maisha, is another). Do you think programs like these should work to expose the rest of the world to the experiences of these communities, or should their goal solely be one of artistic expression? Talk back in the Comments section!

--Jennifer Straus

March 26th, 2007 | Category: Film School of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

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