Trade Roughage 01/10/08

Coverage of what is truly interesting in the film world

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By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

In a piece that reads like AMPTP damage control, Variety quotes a number of sources who burst the bubble on the interim side deals the WGA has been brokering with independent producers. A former TV exec sniffs that the UA deal “isn’t generating much in terms of employment” asmidst predictions that instead of brokering deals to produce new content, studios would rather go to Sundance and buy up anything half-way releasable that’s available.
The Online Film Critics Society broke from convention by awarding their Best Documentary prize to Seth Gordon’s The King of Kong, which was one of the best reviewed non-fiction films of 2007 but has failed to drum up much end-of-year awards attention. Other than that, the OFCS bestowed awards on the usual suspects: No Country For Old Men, Daniel Day-Lewis, Julie Christie and Diablo Cody.
HBO may back out of their day-to-day participation in Picturehouse, the indie arm that currently operates as a joint venture between the cable giant and Time Warner’s New Line. One issue is that films produced with HBO funds and distributed by Picturehouse are not performing as well as films that Picturehouse has acquired at festivals. Another, is that HBO is denying their partners the first chance to distribute Sugar, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s anticipated follow-up to Half Nelson, so that they can premiere the film for other buyers at Sundance.