 | Transsiberian - Film Clip An American couple, Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer), decide to take the long way home from their recent sojourn in Asia on the legendary Trans-siberian Express train from Beijing to Moscow. On their way, they meet another couple from the West, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara), with whom they quickly form a familiar bond that often unites fellow travellers away from home. When Roy accidentally gets separated from the group at a stopover, Jessie begins to realize that their compatriots aren’t exactly who or what they seem to be. The real danger begins to surface as a deceitful Russian detective (Sir Ben Kingsley) and locals terrorize Jessie in this unforgettable journey. Directed by: Brad Anderson Starring: Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega, Ben Kingsley |
Transsiberian – Film Clip
July 7th, 2008Traitor – Trailer 2
July 7th, 2008 | Traitor - Trailer 2 Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) and Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential) star in Traitor, a taut international thriller set against a jigsaw puzzle of covert counter- espionage operations. Traitor is written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (screenwriter of The Day After Tomorrow). When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn (Don Cheadle). A mysterious figure with a web of connections to terrorist organizations, Horn has a knack for emerging on the scene just as a major operation goes down. The inter-agency task force looking into the case meets with Carter (Jeff Daniels), a veteran CIA contractor who seemingly has his own agenda and Max Archer (Neal McDonough), a fellow FBI agent. The task force links Horn to a prison break in Yemen, a bombing in Nice and a raid in London, but a tangle of contradictory evidence emerges, forcing Clayton to question whether his quarry is a disaffected former military operative — or something far more complicated. Obsessed with discovering the truth, Clayton tracks Horn across the globe as the elusive ex-soldier burrows deeper and deeper into a world of shadows and intrigue. Directed by: Jeffrey Nachmanoff Starring: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Jeff Daniels, Neal McDonough |
Short questions, short answers
July 6th, 2008
In the Big Fish Sequence Outline posted in the Library, you have boxes around certain sequences (i.e. sequences 3,5,8 etc.), but not around others. What do these boxes reference?
– Gerald
Mississippi
The boxes indicate which sections of the movie are Edward’s stories. I wanted to show the balance between real-world stuff and fable.
Why did Edward Bloom leave Ashland?
– Anonymous
Because it’s too small for a man of his ambition. That’s what Edward says to Karl the Giant before they head off on their adventure.
Beginner’s luck? Is that supposed to happen?
– Mark
It’s a fallacy. We expect someone trying something for the first time to fail, so when they succeed, we call it “beginner’s luck” to discount it. But depending on the nature of the task, it’s actually just skill or garden-variety luck.
A person who succeeds early and later fails may likewise try to diminish the first success by declaring it “beginner’s luck.” But it’s almost worth looking at the situation in which they were first successful, and what’s changed. Likely the “beginning” was an arbitrary point decided after the fact, and the subsequent efforts are being scored by different and perhaps unrealistic criteria.
Self-distributing an indie feature
July 6th, 2008Todd Sklar, who I know from his work up at the Sundance Labs, wrote in to agree with a lot of the points I raised in my post-mortem of The Nines. His experience with the indie film he made and self-released is alternately inspiring and exhausting, but worth careful attention for anyone considering making a festival feature.
They basically treated their indie film like an indie band, going gig to gig and selling out of the back of their car. It worked, more or less, but it demanded an amazing amount of chutzpah and commitment, which not all filmmakers are going to be able to muster.
While I was at the labs, I was in the midst of making a low budget feature, which I’ve now completed, and also self-distributed throughout 34 markets.
Along with some of my cast and crew, I accompanied the film on the road for 3 months in order to help market the film in each city. We basically set the whole thing up like a band would do for a tour, supplementing the screenings with intensive grass-roots marketing and also using social networking sites to create a viral buzz prior to our arrival.
Our entire model was conceived around the concept of using the theatrical release as a tool for the ancillary benefits it can provide: building a fan-base for future projects, acting as a platform and catalyst for DVD and download releases, and providing a ton of press exposure and validation for the film to name a few.
As such, our overall goal for the tour was to break even. We felt that if we could sustain the touring of the film for the entire 3 and half month tour, the real reward would be the opportunities that would develop by maintaining the film’s limited theatrical life for as long as possible, and in as many different places as possible. I compare it a lot to when companies will build a brand, in order to create a name for themselves amongst their target audience, or when a politician will it the road to raise awareness of his campaign.
In the end, we sold a little over 9,600 tickets, as well as 800+ DVDs, despite only having them available at the last 11 screenings.
We split our ticket sales directly with the theatres, and used niche-oriented marketing to keep promotional costs down, and in the end, we grossed around $32,000 theatrically. After factoring in all the expenses, we found ourselves with a profit near $11,000. As a result, we’ll be touring again in the fall & spring, while also bringing a handful of other films with us in an attempt to make this a repeatable and sustainable distribution model.
You can check out more info on the film here; www.boxeldermovie.com. Plus there’s more verbiage on the aforementioned self-distribution stuff if you’re intrigued. We’re creating a postmortem document similar to your blog post in regards to the tour.
Again, excellent post and viewpoint on the matter, and thanks again for all that you do.
Rupert Grint Plans for the Future, Takes Role in Edgy Indie Drama
July 6th, 2008Filed under: Casting, Celebrities and Controversy, Harry Potter
Harry Potter has got to end sometime, and by "sometime" I mean in less than three years when the second cinematic half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sees release. And some people would like to still have a career when that happens, thank you very much. To that end, Rupert Grint -- a.k.a. Ron Weasley -- has taken a role in an indie film called Cherry Bomb, which sounds about as far from Harry Potter as you can get without developing an erotic fixation on horses.The film, written by acclaimed playwright Daragh Caville, focuses on three teens who set out for a wild weekend of drugs, sex and crime only to see it escalate into something far more serious than they imagined. It co-stars relative unknowns Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon, and is set for release next year.
While Daniel Radcliffe has tried more extreme methods of branching out (mainly by taking that infamous role in Equus, which is coming to Broadway per the above link) and Emma Watson hasn't done very much at all (she voices a character in this year's The Tale of Despereaux, but that seems to be it), Grint has spent what spare time he has toiling away in indieville. Cherry Bomb was preceded by the reasonably well-received and much less racy Driving Lessons, about a troubled boy's friendship with a retired actress.
Continue reading Rupert Grint Plans for the Future, Takes Role in Edgy Indie Drama
Madonna is Not Planning on Divorcing Guy Richie
July 6th, 2008
Madonna has released a statement, denying that she is divorcing Guy Ritchie or having an affair with Yankee star Alex Rodriguez.
In it, she says: “My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce. I know Alex Rodriguez through Guy Oseary, who manages both of us. I brought my kids to a Yankee game. I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez. I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study.”
Alex Rodriguez’s wife Cynthia blamed the rumored affair for the demise of her marriage to the slugger, sources say.
Amid growing buzz of divorce, the singer’s rep had earlier issued a denial that the singer and her husband of over seven years, Guy Ritchie, were splitting.
The singer, who is no stranger to rumors, also says: “I have learned over the years not to take accusations and the many false reports about me very seriously. I also appreciate how fiction and fact seem to be perceived as one and the same by people who read both newspapers and the Internet.”
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Pete Wentz Talks to the Baby All the Time
July 6th, 2008
These days when he isn’t rocking out with Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz can often be found speaking to his unborn child or reading books about fatherhood.
“I talk to it all the time,” he said on Saturday at the Ultimate Fighting Championship 86 afterparty in Las Vegas. “The Expectant Father tells you that the woman, when she speaks, the baby hears her all the time. And the father’s voice isn’t familiar unless you talk to it, so I talk to it all the time.”
Armin Brott’s parenthood tome is just one of the books the bassist is reading to prepare himself for his and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz’s first child together.
“It tells you your partner’s moods month-by-month and week-by-week,” says Wentz, who is also getting advice from both his father and Joe Simpson. “It tells you why you’re feeling the way you are, how you can feel more involved in the pregnancy.”
And while Ashlee often has cravings for ice cream, pickles and green olives, everything is “going well,” says Wentz, who performed a two-hour DJ set at the House of Blues following the UFC match.
In fact, he is already hinting at more children in the future: “This is the first one so we’ll have to base the next one on how we do on the first one.”
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Christie Brinkley Hangs with Ex Billy Joel
July 6th, 2008
Christie Brinkley spent the Fourth of July “blowing off some steam” at ex Billy Joel’s Sag Harbor, N.Y., house, a source said.
Brinkley, whose ugly divorce from Peter Cook has been heating up in court, arrived with daughter Alexa Joel, 20, and “seemed good,” says a friend of the supermodel’s. “She was just blowing off some steam, being with family. It was just a relaxing little get-together. Nothing special. Just what everyone does on the Fourth.”
Another onlooker says Brinkley, Alexa, Billy and about a dozen friends “were having a blast,” eating barbecue ribs and corn and sipping white wine.
At one point Alexa dropped her first plate of food – “they were all laughing about that,” says the source.
As for Brinkley, “she was hugging the kids there, they were all laughing and eating. They seemed really relaxed.”
The day before, Brinkley also surrounded herself with family and friends, enjoying a midday lunch with her son Jack, 13, and a girlfriend at Gosman’s Dock in Montauk, N.Y.
“Christie looked beautiful in a white floral sundress, but she wasn’t exactly upbeat,” says a fellow diner. “Maybe just a little tired but she seemed relaxed – kind of just getting away from it all and having a nice lunch.”
“She seemed OK, said hi to a few friends,” says the source. “She was very pleasant – calm and casual.”
Meanwhile, Cook spent the holiday with his 13-year-old son Jack and girlfriend Suzanne Shaw. After picking up Jack from Brinkley’s house, the trio went for a ride on Cook’s boat, The Sweet Freedom.
“He seemed fine, relaxed,” says an onlooker at Island Surf shop in Sag Harbor, where Cook stopped in with Jack to pick up T-shirts and “stuff for camp.” Adds the source: “He’s always in here with his son. He’s a good guy – and a great dad.”
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Nick Cannon Is Loving The Married Life
July 5th, 2008
The honeymoon may be over, but Nick Cannon is enjoying the married life even more.
Although his wife Mariah Carey wasn’t in Las Vegas with him, the “Wild ‘N Out” host said his marriage to the singer is anything but rocky, despite Internet reports to the contrary.
At the opening of Las Vegas’s Christian Audigier The Nightclub Friday, Cannon said his marriage is “amazing.”
“It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Cannon, who was sporting his wedding band, said.
Arriving just before midnight, Cannon quickly made his way to the club’s turntables where he began a two-hour set, spinning hip-hop, techno and rock.
At one point, he put on Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know.” Bobbing his head to the song, Cannon raised his hand high in the air and shouted the lyrics “Big ups, to all my haters.”
Carey and Cannon met on the set of her video “Bye Bye,” and after a whirlwind courtship tied the knot in May.
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WALL•E (2008)
July 5th, 2008
Every time Pixar, that is now officially part of the House of the Mouse, pitches a new film to its audience by the means of releasing an excruciatingly small teaser or just some conceptual art, I can’t help but wonder how they are going to pull it off this time. WALL•E, as their latest effort is called, was a project that evolved even before Pixar scored big time with Toy Story that initially sounded and felt rather cold and machine-like. Like good wine, the film was shelved for nearly ten years, turning it into Pixar’s most ambitious and tender project to date. (more…)
