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Sneak Peek: Sex and The City
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Revisiting the World of Indiana Jones
In the 1980s Indiana Jones was spunky and adventurous—traversing Egypt, Asia and Germany in search of fantastical treasures. He fought off Nazis and a Shankara cult with the crack of his infamous whip. His journeys, like Indy himself, represented all that was exotic, forbidden and beyond the reach of his fellow Americans. Now, as he returns to the big screen, Dr. Jones isn’t taking audiences outside of the States… technically.
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Ted Braun Discusses Darfur Now
The impact of his first big-screen documentary may not be fully appreciated for years. Even with Don Cheadle and George Clooney as principle characters in the 2007 film Darfur Now, it’s not easy to get moviegoers flooding to a flick about African genocide. That director Ted Braun even got the movie made, however, provides moviemakers everywhere with a lesson for the ages: Every solution begins with a conversation.
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Being John Cusack
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Sundance Goes Green with “What’s the Big Idea?” Contest
It’s hard to escape the buzzword “green” nowadays. More and more people are trying to make their everyday activities environmentally-friendly. Sundance Channel is using the trend to launch their latest “What’s the Big Idea?” contest, inviting the online community to submit a one-minute short film or photo essay that depicts creative ways to go green.
Sundance Channel will narrow the field down to 25 based upon creativity, overall theme, feasibility and presentation. From May 27th to June 24th, the 25 will then go back to the online users, who will pick their five favorite proposals that will go on to be judged by a panel of environmental experts.
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Lights! Camera! Geritol!
Are audiences ready for a rickety Indiana Jones?
Today’s stars keep themselves in better shape than ever before, and audiences seem to like that. In fact, box office receipts for recent flicks featuring some of our favorite aging action heroes are so encouraging that studio execs are practically rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the new Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and Sylvester Stallone (Rambo) vehicles. Stallone certainly didn’t hurt himself when his more famous screen persona—Rocky Balboa—earned critical acclaim and a respectable $70 million in last year’s titular blockbuster, chasing doubts that the actor-director was simply giving himself a starring role in order to slow a career slide.
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Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Go Commercial
After bursting onto the film scene with their Academy Award-winning debut feature film Little Miss Sunshine, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris decided to go back to their roots: Commercials. In doing so, the husband and wife directing duo haven’t missed a beat; their latest effort, the “There Can Only Be One” spots for the NBA playoffs, featuring a split screen of two players reciting the same speech about playoff competition, was the inspiration for a recent Time magazine cover featuring Barack and Hillary. While working hard to get their upcoming projects ready, Dayton and Faris found a few minutes to chat with MovieMaker about the commercials and their career.
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Making Movies in Middle East
With the Dubai and Middle East International Film Festivals and a flood of financing, the Middle East is quickly becoming Hollywood Way East
Dubai could very well be the largest construction site on Earth. Everywhere you travel in this so-called “Las Vegas of the Middle East,” towering cranes fill the arid desert skyline from one end of the city to the next, including the manmade, meticulously crafted “islands” that surround the oil-rich emirate. Construction occurs day and night, with workers from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts unknown bussed in from the trailers they occupy in de facto labor camps just outside the city.
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Kung Fu Panda Comes to Cannes
In the tradition of all things animated finding appreciation at Cannes (from Shrek to Persepolis), Jack Black and Angelina Jolie's new film, Kung Fu Panda, made its debut on the French Riviera.
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Fantasy Comes Alive in New Zealand
When The Lord of the Rings trilogy became a cultural phenomenon, people no longer had to imagine J.R.R. Tolkien’s mystical, supernatural universe; Peter Jackson had found it in New Zealand. The country’s rich variety of landscapes, from the rolling pastures of the North Island to staggering mountains on the South Island, helped bring to life what was previously only a fiction.
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Lifetime Movie Networks Contest Gives Female Moviemakers a Voice
Of the three women who have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, not one has taken home the little golden man. Lifetime Movie Networks has always been known for prizing stories involving women and this year, it is lending its power to help advance the female moviemaker to new heights with the Every Woman’s Film Competition.
Women from all over the globe have the chance to submit their three- to five-minute short non-documentary film to be judged by a selection of powerful women in Hollywood. Last year’s panel included Angela Bassett, Jennifer Lopez, Lauren Shuler Donner, Gale Anne Hurd and Mimi Leder.
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Last Exit to Film Geekdom
Film geeks like to show off; it's in their job description. Whether it's debating the merits of Lars von Trier or discussing which Evil Dead film is the true masterpiece, it's just what they do. Well, thanks to entrepreneur Mike Ford, what they do has just gotten a bit easier to show off. Ford's UK-based company, Last Exit to Nowhere, sells T-shirts based on fictional companies and locations from films. And although the movies represented tend to skew a bit toward cult favorites (designs include the Winchester Tavern from Shaun of the Dead, the Urban Achievers from The Big Lebowski and Jaws' Amity Island), Ford says this was not deliberate.
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Christina Ricci Goes Hollywood with Speed Racer
A seasoned moviemaker at the age of 28, Christina Ricci has never been one to play by the rules. Ricci is surprising Hollywood again by starring in Speed Racer, her first big summer blockbuster, nearly two decades into her career.
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Dennis Farina Reveals What Happens in Vegas...
He’s been a part of some of the most critically acclaimed movies (Saving Private Ryan) and popular television shows (“Miami Vice,” “Law & Order”) of the past 30 years. But for Dennis Farina, the notion of making a living as an actor was not the first one that occurred to this son of blue-collar Chicago; his first career was as a beat cop in the City of Broad Shoulders. It was only after meeting director Michael Mann through a mutual friend that the actor best known for his wiseguy roles (Midnight Run, Get Shorty) and the occasional unorthodox ladies’ man (Sidewalks of New York, “Empire Falls”) landed his first role in the 1981 thriller, Thief. While Mann helped launch his career, Farina has gone on to work with a number of other strong auteur directors, including Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight), Guy Ritchie (Snatch) and John Frankenheimer (Reindeer Games).
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David Mamet in Pictures
There isn't anyone quite like David Mamet, the American writer who brought us such films as the steamy 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice and the groundbreaking 1996 film American Buffalo. More than just a screenwriter, Mamet has brought his characters to life on screen as a director and on stage as a Tony Award-nominated playwright. This week, as audiences prepare for his latest directorial effort, Redbelt, MM revisits some of the work that made him the moviemaker we know today.
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Doug Pray Gets Surfwise
The past few years have seen a boon in the number of documentaries that focus on senior citizens out to prove it's not age that matters but state of mind. It was Doris "Granny D." Haddock in Marlo Poras' Run Granny Run, a chorus of elderly folks who tugged at the heartstrings of Stephen Walker's Young @ Heart and a group of more than a dozen 60-plus dancers that became the NBA's first senior dance team in Gotta Dance. There are a few more that can be added to that list for sure, but few that will make you feel as invigorated and inspired as Doug Pray's Surfwise.
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Screenwriters Get Lucky in Nevada
Twenty-one has always been a lucky number in gambling. This year it's proving to be a good number for moviemakers, too, first as the title of one of the season's biggest box office draws and now as the Nevada Film Office launches its 21st annual Screenwriting Competition. As the film office's call for scripts opened, MM spoke with Sarah Bontrager, the public relations coordinator for the Nevada Film Office, about this year's crop of submissions, how Nevada is more than just casinos and what it takes to make it in this land of opportunity.
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Sundance Goes Vintage
Nobody really seems sure what the word “Sundance” even means anymore. Some say it refers to a week in January in which high profile actors and moviemakers congregate to get free stuff and ink their next multi-million dollar deala, while others maintain the word signifies an independent film festival. Regardless, it is tough to deny that the word has always been synonymous with some damn good art.
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Garth Jennings Channels His Inner Rambow
Director Garth Jennings and his friend and producer Nick Goldsmith, who work under the moniker Hammer & Tongs, have been toying with video cameras for a while now. They got their start in music videos, breaking onto the scene with 1999’s award-winning video for Blur’s “Coffee and TV,” a semi-tragic story of a milk carton’s search for a missing person. Now, after successfully helming one of the most anticipated film adaptations of all time, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Hammer & Tongs have returned with Son of Rambow, a smaller, more personal story about the exploits of two kids in the 1980s making a movie and the highs and lows that come with even the smallest of productions.
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Harmony Korine’s Golden Rules
Harmony Korine first gained notoriety at the age of 22, when his screenplay for Kids, about 24 hours in the life of an HIV-positive teen, was made into a feature film by Larry Clark. Two years later, Korine made his debut as a writer-director with the feature film Gummo, followed by Julien Donkey-Boy in 1999. Nine years later, Korine has returned to the indie film landscape with Mister Lonely, in theaters now courtesy of IFC. Here, Korine shares his 10 "Golden Rules" of moviemaking.
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Dori Berinstein Has Gotta Dance
For 15 years Dori Berinstein was a Tony Award-winning force behind the scenes as a producer for some of Broadway's biggest hits, including Thoroughly Modern Millie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Legally Blonde: The Musical. While she had, at times, worked in television and film (see Dirty Dancing and "The Isaac Mizrahi Show") it was largely in a producorial capacity. That changed when Berinstein found inspiration for her first feature, ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway, in the opening of the 2003-2004 Broadway season. But it is her most recent documentary, Gotta Dance, that is the talk of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. The movie follows the 12 women and one man chosen as the first senior hip-hop dance team for the New Jersey Nets.
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Harry Potter’s World Comes to a City Near You
It’s really impossible to hear something like “sorting hat” or “invisibility cloak” and not feel at least a little of the allure of Harry Potter's universe. When the films brought the J.K. Rowling books to life, it was through the costuming, set design and props. In 2009, “Harry Potter: The Exhibition” will bring 10,000 square feet of artifacts from the enchanting films to 10 or more cities around the world over a five-year period.
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Kodak Named Technology Sponsor at Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival has selected the Eastman Kodak Company as its official Technology Sponsor. Kodak will provide educational segments and product demonstrations during the 12 days of the festival. In addition, for one lucky festival winner, Kodak will donate 20,000 feet of camera negative film.
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Iron Man Comes Out Fighting in London
As U.S. audiences start counting down the days until Iron Man, one of this spring's most anticipated movies, is released in theaters on May 2nd, film fans across the pond got a sneak peek at hero in action when the film premiered yesterday at the Odean in London's Leicester Square.
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She’s The Boss
The rise of the actress-director
Two of last year’s more critically acclaimed films—Sarah Polley’s Away from Her and Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in Paris—were directed by women who first gained renown for their on-screen performances. Now, a new pair of films—Helen Hunt's Then She Found Me and Jada Pinkett Smith's The Human Contract—also happen to be made by actress-turned-directors.
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Website Brings Together the Global FILMCOMMUNITY
The Web 2.0 revolution seems to have broadened the scope of networking possibilities and marketing opportunities for moviemakers, but for real professionals the top choices are not always sufficient; Facebook is a bit sophomoric and MySpace has quickly become the one of the messiest and most unprofessional places on the Internet. Luckily for film professionals, Garth Hall, founder and CEO of film-centric social networking site FILMCOMMUNITY.com, has stepped in to rescue moviemakers from the mires of these other social networking sites.
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Life After “Saturday Night Live”
Life isn't always so kind to those who choose to depart late night sketch show "Saturday Night Live." Some, like Bill Murray, end up leading a comic revolution while others just can't seem to land a role that fits. As Baby Mama hits theaters, MM takes a look at the what the future holds for "SNL" graduates and their devoted audiences.
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The Dark Knight Wins MovieTickets.com Challenge
This summer is unusually packed full of comic book and graphic novel adaptations, starring old favorites and some fresh faces. In light of this trend, MovieTickets.com ran a poll asking which superhero will win the summer's number one spot. Here’s what the online community had to say:
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Roger Ebert Celebrates 10 Years of Overlooked Movies
He may be the world's best-known film critic, but the movies that Roger Ebert is most interested in celebrating at his annual Ebertfest are far from household titles. In fact, "overlooked" is the adjective Ebert himself would use to describe these films, which make up the program of the five-day fest, which kicks off on April 23rd at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois.
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Jason Segel Takes the Lead in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Jason Segel isn’t a typical Hollywood leading man—especially not for a romantic comedy. But then again Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the movie in which the 28-year-old has his first leading role, is not your typical romantic comedy. Inspired by the likes of Albert Brooks and Woody Allen before him, Segel wrote a script that turns convention on its head.
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Steven Sawalich Finds His Music Within
Eight years ago, director Steven Sawalich was so inspired by hearing Richard Pimentel, the Vietnam veteran who helped to pass the Americans With Disabilities Act, give a speech at a conference that he introduced himself to Pimentel after the engagement and told him that they should make a movie of his life. And so Music Within, Sawalich's directorial debut starring Ron Livingston, Melissa George, Hector Elizondo and Rebecca DeMornay, was born.
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Tanna Frederick Lives the Hollywood Dream
It seems appropriate that actress Tanna Frederick's breakthrough came in a film called Hollywood Dreams, Henry Jaglom's tale of an aspiring actress who takes Hollywood by storm. With absolutely no connection to the movie business, the Iowa native has proven herself a force to be reckoned with—"determined" would be an understatement—and has found a kindred spirit in Jaglom, who can't say enough kind things about his new muse.
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Nancy Oliver Gets Real
The story of a man and his blow-up doll isn't the first logline that comes to mind when thinking "Oscar nominee," but that's been the real-life experience of screenwriter Nancy Oliver. "It’s been a total trip and surprise and my mind is blown that it all happened," admits Oliver of her script for Lars and the Real Girl, which scored a nomination for Best Original Screenplay earlier this year. Though it's her debut as a feature film scribe, Oliver is no stranger to the writing game. In 2005, she became a co-producer and writer on HBO's "Six Feet Under," a show created by her longtime friend Alan Ball. Today, Oliver's busy collaborating with Ball once again, this time on the new HBO series, "True Blood," and is in the early stages of another film project.
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Los Angeles United Film Festival Kicks Off
At its core, the Los Angeles United Film Festival believes that a film festival can unite people from diverse backgrounds through their love of motion pictures. The LAUFF is one of three “united” film festivals that documentary moviemaker Jason Connell has founded in the past six years.
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Going Green on the Set
The pile of garbage bags grows as we’re about to wrap out on another Bay Area “low-budget feature for festivals.” Somewhere a P.A. waits for instructions on where to take it. I have to admit, I did ask for it: “I’ll do the recycling.” I sift through garbage removing water bottles and soda cans. I post signs: “This is Garbage,” and “This is Recycling.” It takes seven days to break a habit. This two-week feature gives me hope.
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Video Views Pick: Wanted
The editors of VIDEO VIEWS magazine pick Wanted, based on the Mark Millar graphic novel, as the best new DVD this week. Featuring eight bonus featurettes and a cast that includes James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, home video watchers can't go wrong.
Posted 12.3.08 | Video Views Pick | 1 comment
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