Press Releases Archive for August, 2017

Telluride Sets The Big Show

44th TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2017 PROGRAM LINEUP Telluride, CO (August 31, 2017) – Telluride Film Festival, presented by the National Film Preserve, today announced its official program selections for the 44th edition of the Telluride Film Festival. TFF’s annual celebration of artistic excellence brings together cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and artists to discover the best in…

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Marc Webb, Nick Hornby, Bill Pohlad, Condé Nast, Bruna Papandrea And Reese Witherspoon Team Of Bio Of Westboro Baptist Escapee

 MARC WEBB TO DIRECT AND NICK HORNBY TO WRITE THE SCREENPLAY FOR “THIS ABOVE ALL”—THE TRUE STORY OF MEGAN PHELPS-ROPER, A WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH CONVERT River Road and Condé Nast Entertainment Producing along with Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea and Marc Webb The Script to be Adapted from a New Yorker Article by Adrian Chen and…

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Chicago Underground Sets Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Celebration

CALLING ALL STARS: CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL (CUFF) ANNOUNCES CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR 25 ANNIVERSARY EDITION Still Alive at 25: Special Events, Special Screenings, Art Exhibits and Celebrity Guests of Honor Kick off the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Longest Running Underground Film Festival in the World. In 1994 a gallon of gas was $1.09,…

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Focus Features Live-Streaming Three Older Features On Facebook Live On Friday

  [PR] A trio of film favorites from Focus Features will be streamed on Facebook Live over the next three Friday nights in August and September. #FocusFridays will take place each Friday night on the Focus Features Facebook Page, beginning 6:00 PM PT. The lineup of movies: Friday, August 25: The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) won the Academy Award…

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Here Comes The 53rd Chicago Int’l Film Festival

[PR] Mimi Plauché, recently named Artistic Director of Cinema/Chicago and the Chicago International Film Festival, today announced the first 25 films to be shown at the 53rd annual event, running October 12 – 26, 2017. The roster of films is wih an array of electrifying, challenging and entertaining feature and documentary films, including likely awards-season contenders, the work of highly acclaimed directors, indie…

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Clooney Foundation for Justice Grants $1 Million To SPLC To Counter Hate Groups 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – In the wake of the deadly violence at a white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is partnering with the Clooney Foundation for Justice to increase the capacity of the SPLC to combat hate groups in the United States. Through the generous support of George & Amal…

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Int’l Documentary Association Makes Statement About Terrorism

A Message from the IDA As documentary storytellers, artists, activists, and journalists, we believe in the power of images, and also of words. We believe it is important to identify the acts of racist violence committed in Charlottesville last weekend by white supremacists not merely as examples of extremism, but as terrorism. The International Documentary…

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Writers Guild President Howard Rodman Remarks On Writing And Responsibility; Calls For Trump Resignation

  August 16, 2017 Dear fellow Guild members, Writing in 1915, Theodore Roosevelt reminded us that Dante “reserved a special place of infamy in the inferno for those base angels who dared side neither with evil nor with good.”  It’s a caution that hits with shocking immediacy when the President of the United States can…

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NEON Launches New Label, Super LTD, With Anthony Bourdain-Produced Doc

  Super LTD, the newly announced boutique division and incubator from NEON headed by industry veterans Dan O’Meara and Darcy Heusel, officially opened for business with the acquisition of Anna Chai and Nari Kye’s WASTED! THE STORY OF FOOD WASTE executive produced by Anthony Bourdain who makes several cameos in the film.  The documentary, which had its…

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Lalo Schifrin Gets An 85th Birthday Concert

Musicians at Play, Musicians Fund Los Angeles, in association with Varese Sarabande present Mission: Impossible’ Composer Lalo Schifrin’s 85th Birthday Concert October 7 at the Alex Theater in Glendale, CA Legendary composer, musician, conductor and six-time Oscar nominee Lalo Schifrin (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE) will celebrate his 85th birthday with a special concert in his honor Oct. 7 at the Alex, 216 North…

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Sony Pictures Classics Takes EON Int’l’s Latest, Slated For Toronto

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS ACQUIRES PAUL MCGUIGAN’S FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL Sony Pictures Classics announced that they have acquired all rights in North America, Eastern Europe, Germany and Asia Pay Television to Paul McGuigan’s FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL. The film is premiering in Gala Presentations at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. FILM STARS DON’T…

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Seattle’s SIFF Names Beth Barrett Artistic Director

Beth Barrett Named SIFF’s Artistic Director SEATTLE – August 2, 2017 – Beth Barrett, former Director of Programming, has been named SIFF’s new Artistic Director. With her advancement, Barrett becomes SIFF’s first female Artistic Director, one of only a select few women in the United States holding this position for a major film festival. Barrett…

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Plan B, MACRO And Annapurna Producing Coming Of Age Drama On Black, Queer Debate Champion Ryan Wash

PLAN B, MACRO AND ANNAPURNA PARTNER ON UNTITLED RYAN WASH PROJECT The new project tracks the remarkable journey of black, queer debater Wash Los Angeles, CA (August 1, 2017) – Plan B Entertainment has partnered with Annapurna and MACRO to tell the true-life story of unlikely debate champion Ryan Wash, it was announced today. Annapurna will…

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Press Releases

Quote Unquotesee all »

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” — 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 — 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 — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — 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 named—” “Yeah, sure — 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 I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s 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 didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — 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. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s 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