Turks & Caicos Int Film Fest – Day III

Kinda Amusing

I don’t have the software to capture the screen on this laptop, but was just visiting Risky Thompson’s blog and noticed that while she is ripping away at the Hollywood Film Festival Gala below, there was an ad from Universal congratulating those who are getting awards on Monday night.
Tee-hee.

20 Weeks To Oscar

You have folks who consider those two frontrunners weak. (Recently, someone close to one of them, who really loves the film, still doubted its likelihood of winning Best Picture.) So who should the frontrunner be?
Shrug.
Four of the five nominees last year cost less than $20 million to produce. The options to match that stat this year are Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen and…. and… anyone… anyone?
In an interesting side note, Little Miss Sunshine’s gross is almost identical to Crash’s and The Queen is headed to the same neighborhood.
The Rest, plus new charts

TCIFF Day II

Christian Science Monitor’s Peter Rainer Adapts To The Local Ways


Political Correctness Is Not On The Menu… Maybe It Should Be

Taking On False Prophets In The Hot Button

No one has looked over this Hot Button column, so I am afraid there will be some typos that I missed, but I am here on the island and felt it was worth pushing this out… not only so you could have something to discuss, but because this scam needs some calling out…
The Hot Button, Oct 18

TCIFF Opens

Ambassador Andrew Young being interviewed at the local radio station by Mr. Freaky

The Screen On The Beach

The U.K.’s Minister, Andrew Young, The Premier of Caicos, Jasmine Guy, Gospel Legend & Focus Of The Opening Night Film, Donnie McClurkin, and the film’s director, Stephanie Frederic

Release

Yes, here for the film festival. More info below…
Fortunately, not much seems to be happening in L.A… fortunate because my internet connection here is hanging by a thread. The unfortunate part is that there are a few really nice opportunities comng through hometown this week that I will simply miss.
Let me state again that in spite of some piling on or piling off of Marie Antoinette, my sense of the reality is that it is half an accomplished movie and half – pun intended – lost in translation. Ms. Coppola is clearly talented and tasteful and able to get interesting work from a wide array of unexpected actors. What is missing is any interest to far beyond her own sense of personal ennui, which also precludes her from taking real advantage of talent on her set the level of Judy Davis or Steve Coogan.
I think what marks the supporters of the film is an embrace of the style, which is both skilled and unique, and a willingness to overlook any lack of depth in a young, promising director’s work. I think what marks the attackers of the film is anger over someone else’s precociousness, success, and freedom to fail and an unwillingness to acknowledge any of the values the film offers. Very few I have read are really being generous and tough in equal and fair measures. It

Landing In Turks & Caicos

Sorry I dissapeared today… long travel day to T&C and expected to have time to write during the layover in Miami.
Nothing all that interesting seems to be going on… what do y’all think?

Hmmm…

I hadn’t thought about this, but…
Doesn’t Robert Downey, Jr. getting Iron Man suggest that now, after what seems to me might be 5 full years of sobriety, that he is insurable?
I can’t imagine that Parmaount or anyone else would greenlight a movie of this size without a completion bond tat includes its central star. So, a landmark for Downey, no?

Fest Foible

There are now almost 500 film festivals in the United States every year. That

Pulled Back In…

I was pretty much done writing about “Scriptland,” the L.A. Times’ gossipy script review column, that after launching by giving the finger to Charlie Kaufman, settled into a steady diet of “so what?”
But this week’s column was called back to my attention by a note from a fan of J. Michael Straczynski, whose script “Changeling” was given the Fernandez this week, as the Ron Howard movie back burnered for Frost/Nixon, which is currently a stage play by the white hot (thanks to The Queen) Peter Morgan.
But when you read the piece, you realize that Fernandez neither spoke to nor even tried to speak to Imagine or Howard or Straczynski. (He clearly also has no idea how the Universal/Imagine relationship works.) And this led to Straczynski addressing the issue in a fan newsgroup.
In part, he writes,

Sunday Estimates by Klady

What else is there to say?
The Grudge 2 suffered mightily as the weekend progressed. Everything else was kind of as expected from the Friday numbers.
The Queen continues to impress, though it is worth pointing out that The Illusionist, which has been a bit of a surprise hit, did nearly the same number on 51 screens on its opening weekend ($927,956 on 51 screens) and Little Miss Sunshine did a little bit better ($1.48m on 58 screens) in its second weekend. Will that put The Queen at a between-the-two $45 million domestic? Miramax sure hopes so!
Deliver Us From Evil is getting a lot of well-deserved attention from the media, but in its first weekend, it did not translate to much box office. It

Not So Much, Virginia…

After many twists and turns, one more major turn to the inevitable in the casting of this film… the break will come soon…
EARLIER – Sacha Baron Cohen will be in Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp, as will the great Jim Broadbent. It’s kind of a brilliant move for Cohen, whose days of being unrecognizable enough to get people to play with him unsuspectingly are about to end forever.
And as Mrs. Lovett, after a turn down from one Oscar goddess, they are close to casting the role, which looks like it will be yet another Toni winner, sunshine.
(Oy… when I get gossip competitive it hurts my head.)

A Quality Idea At The LAT

The LA Times is running a Sunday two-parter on Borat this week.
The idea of combining cultural ideas from a critic on a culturally significant film and a reported story about the context of the film in the industry is actually a great idea and a smart use of resources by the LA Times. Congrats on that.
The next step is to be confident enough about The Tan LAdy

Klady's Friday Estimates – 10/14

Looks like The Grudge 2 will be off about a third from The Grudge, which seems like a victory to me, given that it looks like an even crappier film than the original remake. Even with that drop, it will become (for now) a Top 20 opening in this year, like to come out around the same place as Underworld: Evolution, both in opening ($26.9m) and final number ($62).
The Departed will be close to $55 million after two weekends and will probably be behind both Flags of Our Fathers and The Prestige next weekend. But WB would be well advised to invest in a second wind campaign the week after, finding itself in position to get 3 more strong weeks out of November before Bond. (The most dangerous film for The Departed is, oddly, Borat, though it may not hit the adults squarely for its first few weeks.)
The opening of Man of the Year may seem disappointing, but it will probably be bigger than any two weekends for Wag The Dog, back in 1997. Wag was a truly great film and I haven