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Bonnie and Clyde—40 Years Later
Forty-one years after the fact, it’s difficult, maybe impossible, to fully appreciate the impact Bonnie and Clyde had on moviegoers in 1967. Even if you’re old enough to have seen Arthur Penn’s violent folk ballad during its initial theatrical release, more than four decades’ worth of subsequent cinematic slaughter has very likely immunized you against the shock value of this film’s groundbreaking bloody mayhem.
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Anthony MInghella: 1954 - 2008
Sometimes an artist creates a work you love so much that he or she just become an integral part of your life, etched in your psyche and on your heart, without your ever even having come into actual contact with the person. That is an artist's job—to move and in many ways define you—and when you have a true artist, as Anthony Minghella was, they leave an imprint on your life that never fades.
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MoveOn.org Holding Contest for Best Barack Obama Campaign Ad
User-generated content is all the rage. This Web 2.0 phenomenon sparked by YouTube and Wikipedia has already been utilized for everything from reporting the news to selling Doritos, and now it will even have a hand in deciding our next president. Following the trail set by the YouTube Presidential debates, progressive political organizer MoveOn.org is holding a contest for the best user-created Barack Obama ad.
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Juno Storms the Spirit Awards
Juno cleaned up at Film Independent's Spirit Awards last night, taking home awards for Best Feature, Best First Screenplay for Diablo Cody and Best Female Lead for Ellen Page. Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Male Lead award for Tamara Jenkins' The Savages, with Jenkins herself taking the Best Screenplay Award. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly claimed two of the night's top honors, including Best Director for Julian Schnabel and Best Cinematography for Janusz Kaminski. Irishman John Carney's Once won for Best Foreign Film and Cate Blanchett matched director Todd Haynes' Robert Altman Award with her own for Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There.
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MovieMaker Goes for the Gold
Academy members may have the final say on who will walk away with the gold at this Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. But that doesn’t mean that we here at MM can’t have a little fun getting in on the action, too. Here, five editors and longtime contributing writers weigh in on Oscar’s hits, misses and most egregious snubs!
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Arthur Max Sets the Scene in American Gangster
It took many years and several college degrees before Arthur Max began his work in film. Fortunately, audiences didn’t know what they were missing. Originally a lighting designer for the stage, Max turned his sights to the screen after experimenting with varied forms of theater production. Commercial work shortly led to his first feature film, Se7en, directed by David Fincher. The gritty city streets and the gruesome crimes of the biblically-inspired killer were the bones of this thriller—a genre Max has since become family with, subsequently working on Panic Room and American Gangster. It is this latest movie which brought the art director his second Academy Award nomination.
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Alan Menken is Enchanted by Oscar
Eighteen-time Academy Award nominee goes for gold once more in 2008.
For years Alan Menken has been charming children and adults alike with songs and scores for some of cinema’s most beloved movies. His work, often synonymous with Disney animation, has led to eighteen Academy Award nominations, eight of which he won. From the catchy tunes of Little Shop of Horrors to the cult numbers of Newsies, Menken continually eases himself into the lexicon of movie music. This season he was at it again. With the animation/live action hybrid Enchanted, Menken has earned three of the five original song nominations the Academy bestows each year.
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BAFTA Award Winners Announced
This year’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award winners are official. In addition to the results that have become commonplace this awards season (Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem winning Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively), there were a few surprises, namely Atonement’s win for Best Picture. The British romance certainly benefited from a little home field advantage, beating out consistent frontrunners No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood to reclaim some of its post-Golden Globes momentum, right in time for the Oscars.
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Paul Devlin Blasts Off
For his latest film, BLAST, a documentary about a group of ultra-adventurous astrophysicists and their (often futile) efforts to launch a highly advanced telescope into space, Award-winning director Paul Devlin is counting on fans to put up some cash.
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No Country For Old Men Wins PGA Awards Top Honor
International Film & TV Finance Summit Takes Los Angeles
It’s a familiar scenario in the moviemaking industry: A producer has a great script but not the steep finances necessary to get the project off the ground. But there’s hope for producers looking to hone their business acumen, as Atlas Information Group hosts its eighth annual International Film & TV Finance Summit, to be held in Los Angeles on February 4-6 at the Intercontinental Hotel.
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Top 10 Movie Cities 2008
MM’s eighth annual countdown of the best places to live, work and make movies
From Austin to Albuquerque and plenty of places in between, MovieMaker's eighth annual countdown of the 10 best places to live, work and make movies in the U.S.
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Craig Zobel’s Great World of Sound
Growing up in Atlanta, first-time writer-director-producer Craig Zobel had a bevy of artistic inspiration around him. Enough, in fact, to help launch the popular online site HomestarRunner.com with friends Mike and Matt Chapman and land production positions on three films by southern moviemaking darling David Gordon Green. In 2005 he channeled the area’s long music history into his first feature, Great World of Sound, a largely improvised, highly diverting tale revealing the southern tradition of sound sharking. The movie, about two aspiring music producers who are inadvertently brought into a scam company, played at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and just recently brought home the honor of Breakthrough Director from IFP’s Gotham Awards and a nomination for Best First Feature from the Independent Spirit Awards.
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American Humane Ensures Animal Safety On-Set
While filming a scene on the set of James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma last fall, in Diablo Canyon near Santa Fe, New Mexico, a horse collided with an “ultimate arm” camera car, bringing extreme harm to itself and its rider, a professional stuntman. The accident landed the rider in the hospital in critical condition and the horse ultimately had to be put down.
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Julie Taymor’s Golden Rules
Director Julie Taymor shares her secrets for success at everything from Hollywood to Broadway.
From Oscar to Tony, Julie Taymor has found success in Hollywood and on Broadway as a writer, director, producer and costume designer. In 2003, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for Frida, which she also directed. Her latest film, Across the Universe, starring Evan Rachel Wood, is on DVD now. Here she shares her secrets for success at everything from Hollywood to Broadway.
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Robin Swicord: Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
"When possible, bake cookies in the editing room" and other lessons from one of Hollywood's most prolific writer-producer-directors.
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Robin Swicord Takes on Jane Austen
The longtime writer-producer helms her first feature film with The Jane Austen Book Club
Even as one of Hollywood's most powerful writer-producers, it has taken 15 years for Robin Swicord to get the chance to direct. But she's doing it now with The Jane Austen Book Club.
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Jennifer and Suzanne Todd’s Sister Act
The dynamic duo behind Team Todd brings The Beatles to life in Across the Universe
Founded by sisters Jennifer and Suzanne Todd, Team Todd has been responsible for pushing a number of incredible projects through the stranglehold of production.
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Other People’s Money
How to make a living while building a name in Hollywood
You've learned how to block a scene, move a dolly, mix a soundtrack, cut a negative, color-correct a work print, watch Hitchcock and critique Spielberg - but you don't know how to make money. Here's how.
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Casting is Everything: Expert Advice on How to Cast for Success
Warren Beatty may have said it best when he declared that "Casting is everything." And sometimes type-casting is the way to go.
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The Context of Innovative Film Finance
You have a great script, an incredible director, cast and team and you're passionate about making this film. Sounds like a slam dunk, right? Wrong! You still need the money - and, in an ideal world, the distribution to pay it back.
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Jodie Foster: The Brave One
Still on top after more than four decades in Hollywood, the two-time Oscar-winner takes a "monstrously existential journey" in Neil Jordan's The Brave One.
An Oscar nominee at 14 and still at the top of her game after more than four decades, Jodie Foster knows how to get what she wants--like director Neil Jordan and a killer script for her latest thriller, The Brave One.
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John Carpenter’s Business of Insanity
With five remakes of his work in two years, John Carpenter is happily riding the Halloween gravy train
In Hollywood these days, it sometimes seems easier to find an actor who’ll admit to having had plastic surgery than it is to find an original idea for a movie. Case in point: Legendary horror director John Carpenter.
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Silent Movies Are Still Creating an Echo
With silent films more available than ever, now is the time to remember the era's most influential directors
From Griffith and Eisenstein to Chaplin and Keaton, MM revisits the 15 greatest directors of the silent era.
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Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris
Richard Linklater's muse offers her own quirky take on cross-cultural romance with her directorial debut, 2 Days in Paris
After sharpening her multi-tasking skills with Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy is writing, directing, producing, editing, scoring and starring in her own take on cross-cultural romance with 2 Days in Paris.
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Random Thoughts From the Set of Jeff Garlin's I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
Star of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" turns his attention to the big screen
From soundless filming to nausea on the set, Jeff Garlin relives the experience of writing, directing and starring in his directorial debut, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.
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Master of the Movie Prop
Kevin Hughes makes a career out of putting things in their place
Just about anything an actor touches in a film that isn’t nailed down is a prop. Props serve to enhance a character’s backstory, improve the look of a location or, in the case of fake projectile vomit, simply gross out the audience. The talented artists who furnish the canvas of cinema with their treasures are called property masters. MM spoke with Kevin Hughes, an industry veteran who began his career as an assistant on Apocalypse Now, and more recently has worked on such films as Boogie Nights, Borat and Bobby.
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Hollywood Goes Green
Is today's environmental consciousness a trend that will continue?
From Leo in his Prius to Daryl up a tree, MM looks at how the movie industry is leading the nation's new green revolt.
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Confessions of the Adrenaline Junkies
Stuntmen and women are the unsung heroes of the motion picture industry. Why do they do it?
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Latest from the blog:
Notes from Movieland: 14: Sundance, 28: Hollywood High
I promised to write about Antonio (Tony) Manriquez a few blogs ago. He’s one of the cinematic child wonders currently coming up through the ranks. Though still pursuing his own moviemaking expression on some level, Tony, 28, now teaches other youngsters the magic of moviemaking. One of the reasons I wanted to write about Tony was his incredible passion for and knowledge of not only the craft of moviemaking, but the world of film.
Posted 10.12.08 | Notes From Movieland | No comments yet...
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