Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Distribution: The Weinstein Company/Fassbender Takes on The Dude/First International Trailer for "The Club"

It's Wednesday people...getting marginally closer to Labor Day weekend.


We continue our look at film distributors with Telluride track records...



DISTRIBUTION: FREQUENT DISTRIBS AT TELLURIDE: THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY



Tracking the Weinsteins as distributors at Telluride for the past decade shows us that they've been a part of The SHOW for a good long while.  Here's their Telluride slate as Miramax or The Weinstein Company or Radius-TWC since 2006:


2006: Venus
2007: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, My Enemy's Enemy, I'm Not There
2008: Happy-Go-Lucky
2009: The Road
2010: The King's Speech
2011: The Artist, Butter
2012: The Sapphires  (also was represented during the Marion Cotillard tribute by James Gray and 5 min. of The Immigrant)
2013: The Unknown Known, Salinger, Tracks
2014: The Imitation Game", "Escobar: Paradise Lost"

15 films in nine years.  That's an average of 1.7 films per year with at least one film every year of the nine.  Also, they had a great back-to-back Telluride run in 2010 and 2011 with ultimate Oscar Best Picture winners "The King's Speech" and "The Artist" playing in Telluride.  Last year's "The Imitation Game" was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won for Graham Moore's adapted screenplay.

So, what might we see from TWC in eight weeks time?

They have Todd Haynes "Carol" which wowed at Cannes as well as Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" which also played in competition at Cannes and received excellent notices for stars Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender.  Additionally, Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight", "John Wells' "Adam Jones".

Radius-TWC doesn't currently list any project on IMDb that would be Telluride ready.

So where does that leave us?

I think "Carol" is a pretty solid guess for Telluride.  "Macbeth" is also a real possibility.  Everything is else is less so.  "Hateful" is not likely to be ready.  "Adam Jones" doesn't seem, to me anyway, to have the gravitas for T-ride.

Chances with current "Ten Bets" status listed in parenthesis where applicable:

"Carol" 75% (#3)
"Macbeth" 55%
"The Hateful Eight" 25%
"Adam Jones" 25%

Tomorrow a look at Sundance Selects/IFC FIlms.


FASSBENDER TAKES ON THE DUDE



For a while now, Telluride favorite Jason Reitman has staged live reads of various films.  He's mostly done it in L.A. but has occasionally ventured to other places.  In the past few days we have learned that he will stage a live read of the Coen Brothers' "The Big Lebowski" in Montreal for a comedy festival there on July 24th.

And we know now who will be reading "the Dude", none other than Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender.  Patton Oswalt has also been announced as Walter Sobchak, the John Goodman role with other roles/actors to be announced.

Also, we learned via The Playlist (story below) that Fassbender was up for and auditioned for the title role in the Coen's 2013 Telluride-selected "Inside Llewyn Davis".  That would have been interesting, though, as bog a fan as I am of Fassbender's work, and I am a huge fan, I can't imagine the role in any other hands but those of Oscar Isaac.


http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/michael-fassbender-will-play-the-dude-in-jason-reitmans-live-read-of-the-big-lebowski-20150707



FIRST INTERNATIONAL TRAILER FOR "THE CLUB"



Pablo Larrain's "The Club" won the Silver Bear at Berlin in February and that combined with Larrain's play at Telluride in 2012 with "No" (he was also a producer for 2013's "Gloria") makes me think we should consider it as a potential lineup choice for TFF #42.

Additionally, U.S. distribution is in the hands of Music Box Films which has a small but notable Telluride resume including Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film "Ida" and "Fifi Howls from Happiness" in 2013 and "The Story of Film" in 2011.

"The Club" deals with secrets in the Catholic Church in South America.

The Playlist covered the release of the film's international trailer yesterday and the story and the trailer are here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-first-international-trailer-for-pablo-larrains-berlin-film-festival-award-winning-the-club-20150707


That's all for today...more on Thursday...

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