FALLBROOK, Calif., Jan. 28, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- For the past 10 years, the nation's top watercolor artists have converged on Fallbrook, Calif. for a special five-week show that not only showcases the best of the best but helps train the next generation of painters.

So the Screen Actors Guild Awards happened (I forgot, honestly, but thankfully some of us did not).

Robert Elswit rightly won the American Society of Cinematographers' feature film award for "There Will Be Blood."

And, oh my word: "Crash" has threatened to become a real-live TV series. On Starz (the network's first drama). The press release credits a bunch of producers, who presumably won't be fighting in court for credit. One of those producers is also the movie's writer and director, Paul Haggis. He says he wanted the thing to be on TV in the first place. ?Ironically, my initial impulse was to present the material in a format for television. I am thrilled it's coming full circle and can't wait to see how it expands and transforms.? Cable show or Sea-Monkey? You decide.

Here's Don Cheadle, one of the producers, enthusing in the press release. "This series will present an opportunity to delve into many subjects, not just race relations in LA,? said Cheadle. ?I don't think you can do 13 episodes on that subject and keep people interested. The challenge will be to craft the series characters in such a way as to get beneath the skin that supposedly differentiates them and create entertaining story lines that show the hurdles and obstacles we all struggle to overcome day to day."

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom

It's been just about a week since the world was hit with news of Heath Ledger's untimely death. While folks still try to come to terms with how and why he died, those who last worked with him are starting to share their thoughts. Though he wasn't the last man to direct Ledger (that was Terry Gilliam), Christopher Nolan is the director of the last feature film Ledger will ever appear in ... The Dark Knight. As he notes in an article for Newsweek, Nolan is still in the editing room, piecing together the last bits of his film with the face of a young star who died too young staring back at him each and every single day.

Nolan says, "Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them."

Nolan also shared that Heath had been working on two short films at the time of his death; that, while shooting The Dark Knight, he would bring his laptop to the set and show Nolan what he was working on. Nolan continues: "When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we'd have to show him the finished film-sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we'd done with all that he'd given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly."

Head over to Newsweek to read the entire tribute.

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Saturday and Sunday I saw some pretty amazing things and the festival finally seems to hit me (besides serious lack of sleep). One of the films I saw, No Country for Old Men, by the Coen brothers was already reviewed by my colleague Denise a little while ago. I throroughly enjoyed it even though I am not a huge Coens aficionado. For me Saturday started with the French animated compilation Fear(s) of the Dark, followed by the much anticipated Iranian/French animated film Persepolis. Sunday began with the new Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited, followed by the experimental rubbish of Lucky 7 (not reviewed in this report - it was really that bad). The weekend ended with a documentary about David Lynch, simply called LYNCH (more…)

Technorati tags: chokingonpopcorn movie Reviews IFFR REPORT #4

DETROIT, Jan. 28, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Montreal based singer-songwriter Chantal Chamandy, will premiere her new PBS special, Chantal Live at the Pyramids, on Saturday evening February 9th, at the Arab American National Museum, 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI, 48126.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Jan. 28, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Auri Footwear, a new design and manufacturing house of stylish footwear for men, launched last night as one of the exclusive items in the 1,500 Screen Actors Guild(tm) (SAG) Awards attendee gift bags. The shoe brand was chosen as one of the exclusive items in the SAG gift bag based on its contemporary sense of style and appeal to fashion-forward men.

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 28, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Virgin America and Revision3, the groundbreaking Internet TV network built for the web generation, are partnering to bring original, cutting-edge web-based television programming to guests on the next generation carrier's flights. Revision3 programming on Virgin America will make its debut this March and will be available on the airline's flights to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, San Diego and Seattle.

Tonight they handed out the trophies at Sundance: Unprepossessing plexiglass widgets that nevertheless carry a lot of weight. As expected, major awards were won by ?Trouble the Water,? (Grand Jury Prize for Documentary), "American Teen" (Best Directing: Documentary), and "Ballast" (both Directing: Dramatic and Excellence in Cinematography). Flying in under the radar was Courtney Hunt?s ?Frozen River,? about a desperately poor single mom (Melissa Leo) and a Mohawk girl (Misty Upham) who smuggle immigrants from Canada; it won the grand jury prize for dramatic film but until halfway through Quentin Tarantino's announcement of the award (see below), most people in the audience thought he was talking about "Ballast."

?Sleep Dealer,? a cyberpunk drama set in the near-future, won both the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and the Alfred P. Sloan for outstanding film focusing on science or technology. The audience award for documentary, voted on by festivalgoers, was ?Fields of Fuel,? about the alternative-fuels movement, while ?The Wackness? won the audience award for drama for its baroque comic look at a high school drug dealer (Josh Peck, of Nickelodeon?s ?Drake and Josh?) and his pothead therapist (Ben Kingsley).

One of my festival favorites won two awards in the world cinema categories. ?Man on Wire,? a poetic essay about tightrope walker Philippe Petit?s 1974 crossing of the World Trade Center towers, won both the audience award and the grand jury prize for documentaries. The Swedish coming-of-age drama ?King of Ping Pong? won the grand jury prize for drama as well as a cinematography prize, while ?Captain Abu Raed,? the first feature film to be made in Jordan in 50 years, won the world cinema audience award for drama. The full list of winners is at the Sundance site.

The Sundance awards aren?t a high-profile glamour sweepstakes like the Oscars or the Golden Globes. Actually, they?re more important: a crucial vote of approval to the filmmakers who need it most, those toiling in the fields of low-budget, independent fiction films and documentaries. Or as ?Ballast? cinematographer Lol Crawley said as he regarded his trophy with stunned bemusement, ?Well, this is going to help.?

Okay, now for some video, and time to put the kids to bed, 'cause some of this stuff is what your grandma would call salty. The awards ceremony was emceed by William H. Macy, who got well and truly risque in an opening riff that managed to tie half the titles of movies playing in the festival with an anecdote about hotel self-pleasure. And his wife was in the audience! Not all of it worked but points for trying, and more points for carrying off the ridiculous western outfit with aplomb.

Here's gentle giant Lance Hammer saying thanks to the jury for voting him best director in the U.S. dramatic category.

Here's "Trouble the Water" directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal tearing up while accepting the grand jury prize for U.S. documentary.

Cover junior's ears again: Quentin Tarantino hands out the grand jury prize for U.S. dramatic film with what's for him a reasonably sedate monologue.

"Frozen River" director and grand jury prize winner Courtney Hunt accepts her award.

I go home, go sleep now.

Filed under: Action, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

I was on a shuttle bus at Sundance when my wife text messaged me the news about Heath Ledger. By the time I made it off the bus, everyone was buzzing -- his death had hit the fest like a virus. It didn't take much time, and only a few hours later I started seeing stories from people wondering whether Ledger's death had anything to do with the amount of work he put into the role of Joker in this summer's The Dark Knight. When the New York Times interviewed him last month, Ledger admitted to locking himself in a hotel room for a month to get into character, then downing sleeping pills afterward to catch up on some much-needed rest. Though we're not entirely sure yet, it was most likely a combination of sleeping pills and other medication that did him in.

Warner Bros. has already toned down their aggressive Dark Knight marketing plan, turning the movie's official website into a make-shift shrine dedicated to the actor. So if it was this role that ultimately sent Ledger off in an unhealthy direction, why did he take it on in the first place. ComicMix currently has up an exclusive audio interview with Ledger, conducted last month, in which the actor explains why, exactly, he decided to take on the part. According to the actor, he had no interest in re-creating what Nicholson had so expertly displayed earlier, and that if Burton was directing this film he probably wouldn't have done it. But when Christopher Nolan asked Ledger to play Joker, he watched Batman Begins, saw a different angle he could take and jumped right in. You can check out the interview over here.

Personally, I think it's a cop out to blame a role in a movie for a person's death. Obviously actors and actresses take on all kinds of roles in any given year -- some of which are a lot more demanding than the Joker -- and they come away just fine. What it boils down to is the kind of person you are; how much pressure you put on yourself and what you do to alleviate that pressure. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family this weekend as they say goodbye to a man so many people loved dearly.

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Friday started with You, The Living by the director of the hilarious Swedish Songs from the Second Floor, Roy Andersson. Second was the critically acclaimed pregnancy drama/comedy Juno, starring Ellen Page and Jennifer Garner, that is destined to become the favorite for the KPN audience award that is presented on Friday February 1. This rather modest day (due to some changes in my program) ended with the much anticipated but disappointing Thai horror flick The Unseeable. (more…)

Technorati tags: chokingonpopcorn movie News IFFR REPORT #3