Hot Button – TIFF Preview, Pt 2
The 35 other titles I am quite interested in seeing… which makes a total of 59… and a lot of stuff that I will be looking for advice on.
The titles…
American Swing
April 26, 2024
The Hot Blog
amit on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
Christian on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
YancySkancy on: Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Hcat on: Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: I Should Be Doing Box Office
Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
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Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” ā some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it ā I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury ā he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā I was with her at that moment ā she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy namedā” “Yeah, sure ā you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that Iām on the phone with you now, after all thatās been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didnāt seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereās not a case of that. He wasnāt using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā if that were what the accusation involved ā the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. Iām not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, āYou know, itās not this, itās thatā? Because ā let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatās what it lacked. Thatās what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
re: ‘me and orson welles’…. i was/am a huge fan of kaplow’s novel (if you haven’t read it, you might want to consider it for a travel read on the road to toronto)…. linklater seems like the right guy for this…i hope you don’t blow it off because of the efron thing…..
I have been stating as much for like a couple of years, but here I go again. Here’s to seeing some of these movies one of these days. There does seem to be a lot of interesting flicks among this lot this year.
as usual, that makes no sense….most of these movies will see theatrical release……
N&N’s Infinite Playlist looks better than Juno though. Shouldn’t be too hard to beat.
Actually, Scoot, just because a TIFF movie already has a distributor attached doesn’t necessarily mean it will be, well, you know, distributed. I wonder what ever happened to what appeared to be one of the more promising, and yet turned out to be one of the more disappointing, docs screened at TIFF last year: Michael Moore’s Captain Mike Across America.
And speaking of Weinstein Company: I’m glad I saw Death Defying Acts at TIFF last year, because the movie never made it to Houston during its, ahem, limited theatrical run.
I think your use of “limited theatrical run” is a big generous, don’t you Joe? š
Scoot, a lot of the higher profile movies that people desperately try to get into will get released, but so many festival movies do not even see DVD releases, which is very odd in this day and age, I must say.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2612613/Cher-to-play-Catwoman-in-next-Batman-film.html
Hahahahah.
Okay, that’s enough.
…hahah.
…what happened to Cantet’s “The Class”?
It was one of the first announced TIFF titles–supposedly going into their “Special Presentations” subdivision–but it’s nowhere to be found (by me anyway) on the schedule.
Did the New York Film Festival demand that Sony Classics remove it from Toronto–or risk losing a coveted opening night slot?
Sure looks that way.
Major bummer.
RE: “Not Quite Hollywood”
Could they have finally made a movie celebrating the genius of “Razorback,” “Thirst,” “The Cars That Ate Paris,” and “Mad Max?!” Amazing.
i had to cover the toronto fest for almost twenty years before finally turning it over to someone more willing to put up with film fest nonsense than i was….
my point in the previous post was that toronto is probably the most ‘mainstream’ of all the fests and almost all of it’s entries see release in some form (and most will be in theaters)…..
The maddening thing about Toronto is that no matter how many films you “absolutely, positively, totally have to see,” you can only see a finite number of titles on your wish-list.
Between the scheduling conflicts (six movies roughly screening at the same time that you really want to see) and the necessity of queuing up a minimum of 45 minutes before each screening (90 minutes or more during the first weekend), it’s physically impossible to see even a fraction of the stuff you vowed to see before leaving town.
Adding second p/i screenings for some of the more popular titles is a help, but only if you can stay awake. Most of them don’t even start before 10:30 P.M.
Actually, the worst thing about TIFF — like the worst thing about Cannes or Sundance or even SXSW — is the gnawing fear you experience even while you’re watching a movie you like, even love, because there’s always the possibility that, at that very moment, in another theater nearby, they’re having the world premiere of THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE — a movie no one heard about before the festival — and YOU’RE NOT THERE.
At first, that “Cher as Catwoman” story sounded like a way too early April Fool’s joke, but now I’m thinking Nolan is crazy like a fox. It could work, unless the ads resort to Oscar-whoring, of course (“Academy Award winner Cher”). Just wanted to beat Chucky to the punch. š
It also says Johnny Depp (Academy Award nominee Johnny Depp) as the Riddler? Sounds like somebody got carried away on rumors.
Yancy,
I think it is probably just a rumour at the end of the day, but the one thing Nolan has done masterfully is to rethink the Batman universe for the real world. To go in directions that they haven’t really gone yet.
Scarecrow as a drug peddler, Ra’s Al Ghul as the leader of a cult/terrorist organization, Joker as terrorist/anarchist, Two Face as tragic hero.
While I love the thought of seeing an Angelina Jolie-type in skin tight latex or leather, I can’t see her doing anything radically different than Pfeiffer…I could be wrong.
Having a Cher would take the film in a different direction and we can see how she could be someone angry and bitter at a culture that values youth etc.
Now, I suspect this is all just rumour and I will put no stock in it until Nolan says something…but Cher can act and it is not the worst rumour I’ve heard.
Unfortunately saw “Religulous” during its short release in the worst shithole theater in Washington Heights last week. It’s not a great flick. Many of the jokes fall painfully flat, and it’s actually at its best when he’s playing it straight and asking rational questions of people who have no rational answers.
It was also badly edited. It had no form and wandered aimlessly from one church/mosque/temple setup to the next with little structure. It didn’t feel like it was going anywhere and it didn’t feel like it had arrived anywhere by the time it was over. I really wanted to like it more than I did.
While I think it’s clearly a rumour, I do like the idea of making Catwoman an older out of her superhero prime character. Perhaps even Nolan realises nobody can top Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance.
Runinstein, yes they have! And it’s great to boot!
http://stalepopcornau.blogspot.com/2008/08/miff-review-not-quite-hollywood.html