Just moving this note posted by BrianBkyn over from the Forum:  “I think we finally nailed this one down - we have been adding films like mad over the past few days - more than we actually had room for so we had to add two more days. At any rate we like our line-up a lot - and just put the cherry on top by getting Crying Fist - a film that we honestly didn’t expect to get. The site still needs a bit of work but its mainly all there and tickets go on sale mid-next week.”

The schedule of films they have is certainly the most current survey of quality cinema coming out of asia.  WOW! Go there now!

ScreenDaily has a massive list of films that were bought at Cannes for many, many world markets.  One interesting tidbit was the Turkish film Head-On being picked up by Toronto’s Mongrel Media for Canadian (hopefully theatrical) distribution.  (Read Todds Review here)

Other interesting tidbits:  Manderlay was picked up in the UK by Metrodome, Broken Flowers was picked up for the UK by Momentum Pictures, also in the UK, Optimum Releasing grabbed Yes, Last Days, and Wolf Creek and Artificial Eye got Cache, Le Temps Qui Reste, Lemming, Shanghai Dreams.  Seven Swords was picked up for Spain by Filmax. Lemming was picked up by Palace Film for Australia.  And Lions Gate grabbed the horror film Skinwalkers for US distribution.

Full List Posted here (subscription required).

55 Batman Begins Stills.  Gorgeous.

Some of the ‘buff’ shots of Christian Bale make me shake my head in disbelieve that less than 2 years ago he was 130lbs shooting The Machinist.

While I’m only a casual fan of Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (notably, The Fog of War and Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control), I do like to get my quantum mechanic philosophical geek-on.  The True Strangeness of the Universe is an aborted short-doc/IBM commercial made by Morris for a Big Blue conference that never happened.  How very nice that it has turned up on his website in Quicktime. 

Via MovieCityNews.

The name of the company isn’t final yet, but the Weinstein Brothers have finally put out a release schedule of the films acquired by their new $1 Billion company.  As this is the Weinsteins, history has shown us that everything is flexible, and asian films will be delayed...so take this all with a grain of salt.

The current Weinstein Company slate is comprised as follows:

Derailed, Mikael Hafstrom’s thriller starring Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston. Jointly owned by The Weinstein Company/Walt Disney Studios. Oct 21, 2005.

Wolf Creek, Greg McLean’s Australian horror picture that was bought ahead of Sundance and played in Directors Fortnight at Cannes. Dimension Films owns rights. Nov 18, 2005.

The Matador, Richard Shepard’s Sundance hit stars Pierce Brosnan as a world-weary assassin who strikes up a friendship with Greg Kinnear’s crestfallen businessman. Jointly owned by the Weinstein Company/Walt Disney Studios. Dec 2, 2005.

Transamerica, Duncan Tucker makes his directorial debut with this comedy starring Felicity Huffman. Played at Berlin and Tribeca and will be released through The Weinstein Company. Nov 18, 2005.

The Promise, Chen Kaige’s new epic stars Hiroyuki Sanada, Jang Dong-Kun and Cecilia Cheung and got picked up at Cannes under a partnership between The Weinstein Company and IDG New Media Fund. Dec 16 2005.

Mrs Henderson Presents, Stephen Frears’ London-set drama about the legendary Windmill theatre and its all-nude revues stars Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. Jointly owned by The Weinstein Company/Walt Disney Studios. Dec 25 2005.

The Gathering, a thriller from Brian Gilbert starring Christina Ricci, Kerry Fox and Stephan Dillane. Jan 6 2006.

Feast, a Project Greenlight horror title from John Gulager starring Krista Allen, that will go out under the Dimension Films label. Jan 20 2006.

Breaking & Entering, Anthony Minghella’s drama starring Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn and Juliette Binoche. Jointly owned by the Weinstein Company/Walt Disney Studios. February 2006.

Pulse, a remake of Japanese horror picture Kairo will go out under the Dimension Films label. Mar 3 2006.

Killshot, John Madden thriller based on Elmore Leonard novel. Mar 17 2006.

Scary Movie 4 once again directed by David Zucker and starring Anna Farris and Regina Hall. Jointly owned by the Weinstein Company/Walt Disney Studios and set to go out under the Dimension Films label. Apr 14 2006.

Sin City 2, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are preparing a sequel to this year’s hit adaptation of Miller’s graphic novel. Jointly owned by the Weinstein Company/Walt Disney Studios and set to go out under the Dimension Films label. Summer 2006.

No hard dates for Kill Bill:  The Whole Bloody Affair, The Decameron, Last Legion, Young Hannibal, Hoodwinked!, Outlander, Stormbreaker and Nomad.

Via Screendaily.

It seems that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are joined at the hip these days.  Screendaily is reporting another collaboration, and the possible start of a franchise of exploitation films.  Grindhouse (if I understand the vague details correctly) will be two 60 minute films, one from each director, bundled together in a not-so-neat package.

Personally, I’m more looking forward to Mr. Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards due to it’s wacky cast, as I’ve often wondered when Tim Roth and Eddie Murphy would finally work together (OK, that was sarcasm).

Lars Von Trier’s Trilogy on America will not be complete until at least 2007 due to his taking a time out between Manderlay and the next chapter, Washington, to do a Dogme film ‘Direktoren For Det Hele’ (The Managing Director of It All).  That has not stopped casting and scheduling of Washtington from continuing.  In a strange move, both actresses who have played Grace in the Trilogy:  Nicole Kidman in Dogville, Bryce Dallas Howard in Manderlay will appear in the new film. 
Will they be sisters or some sort of Todd Solondz-Palindromes-style composite?  Bryce Dallas Howard indicates the latter.

I’m giddy about Lions Gate Releasing Manderlay.  I need my provocateur-du-jour fix.  I need it now.

Variety Via Canoe.ca

Todd may use his almighty editor-in-chief superpowers to smite me for posting something which is not strictly news on the main-page.  This is a one-stop shopping place for what Cory McAbee is up to at the moment.

Cory McAbee you may say?  He is none other than the genius frontman of the avant-garde/performance-show/rock-spectacular Billy Nayer Show, and responsible for one of the best American Cult films of the past few years:  The American Astronaut (Todd’s Full review here, My capsule review here)

While McAbee is still touring and there is no sign of a follow-up to American Astronaut at this time, he has been appearing as an actor in several films.  You’ve got to love a guy who’s been playing characters with names like Mr. Salty and Spanky Williams…

Continue Reading "Cory McAbee - Current Projects"...

It seems that Sin City, which is in competition for the Palm D’Or at Cannes, was received with grumblings from various folks due to the level of violence and sexism depicted in the film.  Hmmm, perhaps some of the arthouse crowd are missing the point here as Sin City is genre distilled down to its finest essence.

The good news is that Sin City 2 will be based on the 2nd novel in Frank Millers series, “A Dame to Kill For”: 

“We’d always thought ‘Dame to Kill For’ was the story (for the sequel),” Rodriguez said. “It has all the characters; Mickey’s in it, Clive is in it, so it would be great to bring everybody back.”

I’ve not read this novel, and am curious (as it doesn’t seem radically thicker than any of the three which comprised the first film) how they will pull a 90 minute movie off out of just one story, but there you have it.

Via Reuters.  Also, there are some fine red carpet photos (if you like this sort of thing) at Rope of Silicon.

I was under the impression that the first film from the newly formed “Weinstein Company” would have been Kill Bill:  The Whole Bloody Affair.  But indieWIRE is reporting that the launch film for the company is Wolf Creek.  The film, based on true events surrounding a series of backpacker murders in the early 1990s in the area of Australia well-known for UFO sightings, was a success at this years Sundance Festival and picked up by the Weinstein’s at Cannes, where it was the only Aussie feature-film at the festival.

Unfortunately, there was no North American release date given.  It has been playing in Australia since March.  Any folks down under (or Sundance/Cannes attendee) with a take on the film?

The Weinstein Company has also secured the North American rights to Kaige’s The Promise, (reported earlier on Twitch), a feature length CGI Red-Ridinghood comedy called Hoodwinked!, Nomad (which I couldn’t find any info on), the Beowulf Science-fiction picture Outlander, the superspy flick in preproduction called Stormbreaker and Transamerica, a road-film about a pre-operative transsexual which was picked up earlier at the Tribeca festival in New York.

Various bits from indieWIRE, ComingSoon and Darkhorizons.

Apologies for the run-on sentences.

It has been known for a while that after the failure of Jersy Girl, Kevin Smith is retreating back to what he knows.  Shooting doesn’t begin until at lest September, according to the View Askew Website, where there is a larger version of the one-sheet posted. 

Regardless of Kevin’s less-than-ambitious film-career choice, I look forward to seeing what Dante and Randal have to say 12 years (and a New Star Wars Trilogy) later.

Via CHUD.

Just the smallest tidbit of inforamation out of Cannes.  The film has been green-lit by the Weinsteins.  So, Old Cast?  New Cast? What Stories? (the four remaing graphic novels, or if 3, which 3).  None of these questions are answered yet.  Just that it will be made on using the same digital backlot techniques (almost 100% green-screen) by Robert Rodriquez and Frank Miller, like the original.

Via ComingSoon, TimeOut and Screen Daily (subscription only).

The Seattle International Film Festival runs for the next few weeks.  I’ve never been, but from the collection of films showing it looks like a Festival of Festivals. There are a huge number of films showing there, most of which have been touring festivals for a while.

One day, I’ll have to get to the Rainy City and have a spring feast on world cinema.  Hey, Seattle’s fest a lot cheaper and easier for the non-industry people (heck, probably for the industry people too) than a certain town in France.  All said, it looks like a good chance to catch things which not will likely to show up on many North American Screens:

Let’s Start with their Midnight Adrenaline Program:

Banlieu 13
Izo
Godzilla Final Wars
R-Point
Three...Extremes
and something from Germany amusingly titled Night of the Living Dorks

But there are many other points of interest:

Reedemer (Brazilian Black Comedy)
Dead Mans Shoes (Paddy Considine Tour de Force)
3-Iron (Genius Ki-Duk, playes even better on the big screen)

2046 (Sumptuous wkw, ditto above)
Howl’s Moving Castle (North American Premiere?)
Ferpect Crime
Marebito (A Twitch favorite, check the archives)
Vital (Best film I saw in 2004)
Mysterious Skin (new Araki)
Lonesome Jim (Steve Buscemi directing, debuted at Sundance)
Layer Cake (soon playing at a Theatre Near You!)
Niceland (Fridrik Thór Fridriksson’s modern icelandic fable)

A World Without Thieves
The World
Tony Takatani

Via the ever-useful Greencine Daily.

Todd’s post of the trailer for Imposture reminded me of a prolific young French director, Francoise Ozon.  Turns out he has Le Temps Qui Reste, a film sounding remakably similar in concept to the Canadian film, My Life Without Me in that it is about a person with a terminal illness who hides the fact from their loved ones while quietly closing ties.  Ozon has directed several fantastic films spanning multiple genres (5x2 - Memento style Backwards Structure, 8 Women - Mystery/Musical, Sous le Sable - Psychological Thriller, Swimming Pool - Thriller-with-a-Twist).
I’m curious to see what he can do with this subject.  And its always nice to see Mademoiselle Jeanne Moreau.

Via Cannes Official Website.
Provocative One-Sheet here.

Say what you will about To’s films, his people can cut a fine one-sheet.  Click here for a larger image.

(Note:  In the text on that page, it says there is a Kill Bill style 3-hour-in-2-parts version in existence.  That is the first I’ve heard of this.)