MCN Curated Headlines Archive for January, 2019
'#Roma' star's petition for US visa ahead of #Oscars gathers pace https://t.co/plEHLKSyot
— The National (@TheNationalUAE) February 1, 2019
An excellent movie. Brilliant script, wonderful actors, directed superbly. https://t.co/bj9zt0Te5Q
— Eric Idle (@EricIdle) February 1, 2019
To save time, all five songs will be squeezed into a two-minute medley called “The Shallow Place Where I’ll Fight All the Stars Who Trade Their Spurs for Wings.” https://t.co/9OMpbfTSel
— Justin Chang (@JustinCChang) January 31, 2019
Weird labor fact of the day: Movie theater employees don’t get overtime. https://t.co/HbkZJS07YM pic.twitter.com/b9jevblR6q
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) January 31, 2019
.@jghorn: How do you get backers on board with your vision when your vision flies in the face of how it’s always done? @lennypane: “I feel like I’m starting over every time … My secret is that I’m a tenured college professor. I don’t need movies to be successful.”
— SundanceFilmFestival (@sundancefest) January 31, 2019
So it seems like the Bezos leaker is Michael Sanchez, the brother of Bezos mistress Lauren Sanchez and a personal and business associate of Trumpworld figures including Roger Stone, Carter Page, and Scottie Nell Hughes. https://t.co/xSNlYhPKEp
— Gary Armstrong (@vanityman) January 31, 2019
“How do you make a movie about a horrible person without becoming a vessel by which he can broadcast his horrible ideas?”
Bilge Ebiri On Alison Klayman’s The Brink
“The biggest change is just the endurance to do a 16-hour movie in the case of ‘Too Old To Die Young.’ It’s ten episodes around 90 minutes apiece. I warned Nic Winding Refn, you better drink a lot of coffee and get a lot of sleep. ‘Too Old To Die Young’ has gone on for a year; for me the challenge has been to not get burned out and jaded and complacent, but to stay engaged and focused for that much time.”
Composer Cliff Martinez On His Three-Decade Career

“The marketplace for collecting entertainment content was very small when Ultraviolet started. It was siloed into walled gardens at the time.”
Ultraviolet “Movie Locker” Deep-Sixed

“We tested and retested the film — with audiences and critics alike — and the data demonstrated that the film was not going to be able to perform at our initial expectations, so we adjusted our budget and marketing tactics accordingly. Regardless of the spend, it’s next to impossible for an adult-skewing drama to overcome a 23% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a D+ CinemaScore. To have spent more would have been irresponsible to our capital partners and wouldn’t have made prudent business sense for an independent distributor. “
Stars Displeased With Distributor Failing To Put Cash Dollars Behind Serenity
Dear @MichaelKeaton, I'm making my new film in Utah in March and I wrote a part for you in it. You are one of the reasons why I make movies at all, I don't think it can be played by anyone else, and I would love for you to consider it. I hope you're well, Jim.
— Jim Cummings (@jimmycthatsme) January 31, 2019

“I believe that art in the face of censorship is like water in the face of a stone. The water will find a way to flow around it.”
Asghar Farhadi In The NYT Magazine

“I have got a reason why I doubt that he has done it.”
Avi Lerner Avers All Of Hollywood Gets Behind His Bryan Singer Hire
”Instead of apologizing for the show’s length, the academy should resolve to pack the Oscar broadcast full of major moments, no matter how long it goes. Instead of antagonizing the craftspeople who should be celebrating the biggest night of their careers, the Oscars should find a way to honor them by making every presentation a blockbuster event.”
A dead-on piece from the NYTimes' @kylebuchanan about how this year's Oscars are becoming "an entertainment show determined to divest itself of all entertainment…Does the academy understand why we still tune into this show?" (Spoiler: Nope.) https://t.co/G0sqKPEMcn
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 31, 2019
RIP Dick Miller, surely the king of character actors. A friendly, funny face in Gremlins (1&2), Piranha, the original Little Shop Of Horrors, Not Of This Earth, After Hours & my personal beatnik fav, Walter Paisley in 'A Bucket Of Blood'. Any role of his was cult movie nirvana. pic.twitter.com/StRqrWHgBS
— edgarwright (@edgarwright) January 31, 2019
Farewell, Dick Miller pic.twitter.com/8VdHRuhpdP
— Kim Morgan (@SunsetGunShot) January 31, 2019
The HEAT sequel/prequel *NOVEL* co-written by 5-time New York Times bestselling author @ReedFColeman & 4-time Oscar nominated filmmaker Michael Mann will be out later this year.
This will be the second book from @MannBooks & Harper Collins.
The first is Hunting Leroux out 2/19. pic.twitter.com/gkdWwseLQu
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 30, 2019
BREAKING: Chicago police officials have surveillance images that show two persons of interest in the alleged racist and homophobic attack on "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett, @NaderDIssa reports. Check back for more on this developing story: https://t.co/n15lr8uRCa.
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) January 30, 2019
I just realized the new Criterion Channel service appears to be using Vimeo OTT / VHX, which I find personally very exciting as I was an early angel investor in VHX! https://t.co/fRmqsRR29Y
— Keith Calder (@keithcalder) January 30, 2019
A solid NY Times profile on my @soundopinions colleague @JimDeRogatis, and his ongoing R. Kelly reporting. But "cantankerous"? Nah, just persistent.https://t.co/XrfxtdfUwd
— Greg Kot (@gregkot) January 29, 2019
We never safe.
— tarell 'wilding' (@octarell) January 29, 2019
— Empire (@EmpireFOX) January 29, 2019

“I built my name on two people talking in a room. And I still believe in the power of something seemingly so small as two people talking in a room. I still think that is how everything begins. You can look at the largest global narrative that you can find, and you can trace it back at some point to two people in a room.”
Steven Soderbergh
Michael Jackson family calls Sundance doc a 'public lynching' https://t.co/vCD0rRznHI pic.twitter.com/BKVyhmybAW
— Screen International (@Screendaily) January 29, 2019
At this point, I would not be at all surprised if someone on the Oscars–presenter or winner–goes off script during the show and says, "This is wrong and insulting." And if they go through with this plan, I'll be rooting for that moment. pic.twitter.com/PEKarqOS2g
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 29, 2019
There are so many things I want to say on Twitter that I just…can’t pic.twitter.com/qoR0yKtQlR
— Megan Ellison (@meganeellison) January 29, 2019
Hear, hear! It also doesn’t help when actors and presenters make easy jokes about how dull the “technical” categories are. ALL categories are interdependent and vital to the power of cinema. https://t.co/Reo5VS8LpO
— Brad Bird (@BradBirdA113) January 29, 2019
Weegee’s photo of Stanley Kubrick on the set of DR. STRANGELOVE (1964). pic.twitter.com/haZDEVL1yi
— The Daily (@CriterionDaily) January 28, 2019
BuzzFeed’s director of quizzes, who was laid off: https://t.co/jEfFUleTCv pic.twitter.com/NL4tGRUQ18
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) January 28, 2019

Amazon Flows $14 Million To Scott Z. Burns’ Starry The Report, Depicting Bush-Cheney Torture Program
“There’s something about advertising on an Instagram account that got successful for posting stolen jokes—and spending ad money to run sponsored posts stylized like stolen jokes, no less—that feels antithetical to everything Comedy Central stands for.”
“Comedy Central Is Advertising With Every Comedian’s Worst Enemy”
If @TheAcademy doesn't air Best Cinematography I won't be watching the Oscars, and I hope my fellow DPs won't be either. I also stand in solidarity with the other below the line folks whose work is disregarded. Film is a collaborate medium. Directors are nothing without the crew.
— Elle Schneider (@elleschneider) January 28, 2019
Deadline has long had an unacknowledged right-wing lean, but this take, positing that Roma is by definition a political vote cast by "virtue signalers" that will "split and diminish" the Oscar audience, is another low in a very low season. pic.twitter.com/luDm0tRO6B
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 28, 2019