Thursday, January 8, 2015

Guilds, Guilds, Guilds/More Anticipated 2015 Film Lists/Upsizing Downsizing/Oscar Podcast

Good Thursday World!

GUILDS, GUILDS, GUILDS

The run up to the Golden Globes on Sunday and Oscar nominations announcement coming next week on Jan. 15 has included a slew of Guild announcements over the past few days.

Producers, Art Directors, Cinematographers, Costumes and Writers...all of which are included in the links below.

The PGA announcement probably gave a much needed boost to "Foxcatcher" as well as "American Sniper", "Gone Girl" and "Nightcrawler".  Harmed by the lack of Producers' nominations were: "Interstellar", "Unbroken" and possibly "Selma" which, again, seems to have suffered from a lack of screeners.





Here's the list and the "take" from The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/producers-guilds-film-nominees-go-761108

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/what-pga-nominations-mean-oscar-761122

Art Directors Guild nominations are here from The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/grand-budapest-hotel-woods-art-760886

American Society of Cinematography nominees from Awards Daily: (Unbroken, Birdman, Imitation Game, Mr. Turner and Grand Budapest)

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/01/the-asc-announces-cinematography-nominees/

Costume Designers Guild from HitFix/InContention:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/selma-interstellar-into-the-woods-pick-up-costume-designers-guild-nominations


Writers Guild of America from Awards Daily:



http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/01/writers-guild-announce-nominations/

Only two films seem to have hit all the Guilds at this point (with the Directors Guild still to announce on Jan. 13th) and they are "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "The Imitation Game".  A number of possible Oscar screen writing contenders were ineligible for WGA consideration: "Birdman", "Selma", "Theory of Everything" for example.


MORE ANTICIPATED 2015 FILM LISTS









More and more outlets are posting their hopes and dreams about films for 2015 and those lists give insight into possible TFF #42 titles.  Today I'm looking at HitFix, Anne Thompson and The Playlist.  HitFix posted an additional list...I had their overall list linked last Monday.  The new HitFix list is what they label 25 "Prestige" titles.  Meanwhile, Anne Thompson posted 45 anticipated 2015 films and The Playlist list is 100 titles long.  I have linked all three sources below.

Telluride possibilities that show up in all three lists are:



Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" Why a TFF chance?  The Weinsteins and See Saw films as its producers.  See Saw has had "The King's Speech" "Shame" and "Tracks" at past TFFs.

Jeff Nichols' "Midnight Special"...I haven't mentioned this film in a Telluride context until now but HitFix's Kristopher Tapley specifically mentions Telluride as a possibility.



"Carol" from Todd Haynes.  Why TFF?  Haynes was at T-ride in 2007, it's from TWC.  There's a lot of thought that it could play Cannes which is often a precursor to a Telluride play.

Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" is on all three lists and on my T-ride watch list despite knowing that the window for QT to have it ready for Labor Day would be tight.  However, as I've written before, I have to believe that if a version of the film is ready and because he's filming 10 miles outside of of the 'Ride...despite the fact that he's never played Telluride...I think it could happen.



And Alejandro G. Ianrritu's "The Revenant".  Just like Tarantino, this is subject to tight timing as it's filming right now but I believe if Inarritu has a workable print, he'll play Telluride as he has for "Babel", "Biutiful" and "Birdman".


Telluride possibles that were named by both HitFix and The Playlist include:
Jean Marc Vallee's "Demolition" (HitFix suggests it's a Telluride possibility),
Gus Van Sant's "The Sea of Trees"...GVS was, at one time, a fairly common fixture at Telluride but hasn't had a film there since 2003's "Elephant",
Cary Fukunaga's "Beasts of No Nation"...HitFix calls it a Cannes possibility,
Derek Cianfrance's "The Light Between Oceans" mostly because Participant Media is one of the production firms behind it (and "Beasts" as well) and their films occasionally play Telluride,
Richard Linklater's "That's What I'm Talking About", his "spiritual sequel" to "Dazed and Confused" which I include here largely because of the HitFix perception that it'll be making the fest circuit,
Scott Cooper's "Black Mass" which HitFix calls a Telluride possibility.




Thompson and The Playlist both list Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert" on their respective lists. (frankly, I'd be more stunned if it DOESN'T play at Telluride) and Tom Tykwer's "A Hologram for the King" originally written by Telluride regular and past guest director Dave Eggers.

Single mentions from The Playlists' much longer list that I think have some T-ride potential:

"Suffragette", "The Last Face", "Forsaken", "Truth", "Tale of Tales", "Icon", "Spotlight", "Our Brand is Crisis" and "Sicario".

Here are the links to all three of these lists:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/25-most-anticipated-prestige-films-of-2015-hateful-eight-knight-of-cups-carol

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/45-films-were-looking-forward-to-in-2015-20150105

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-100-most-anticipated-films-of-2015-20150105



UPSIZING DOWNSIZING



A few weeks back I wrote about Alexander Payne's likely next directing gig.  The film is called "Downsizing" and is set to star Matt Damon and begin shooting this fall.  News broke yesterday that past Payne collaborator Reese Witherspoon (who I was this close to ...holds hands a foot apart...at this year's fest).  Witherspoon starred in Payne's "Election".  I've linked a number of posts about the casting announcement from yesterday:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/reese-witherspoon-downsizing-casting-matt-damon-1201395244/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/reese-witherspoon-reunites-alexander-payne-761716

http://www.thewrap.com/reese-witherspoon-joins-matt-damon-in-alexander-paynes-downsizing/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/reese-witherspoon-is-back-on-for-alexander-paynes-sci-fi-social-satire-downsizing-20150107

Put this one down for TFF #43.

OSCAR PODCAST



As we round the turn toward Oscar nominations check out Sasha Stone's Awards Daily podcast for this week here:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/oscarpodcast/?p=6906




No comments: