Coverage of what is truly interesting in the film world

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Judging Affleck. Trade Roughage 08/21/08

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 2 weeks ago
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  • Ben Affleck will probably star in Mike Judge’s Idiocracy follow-up, Extract. The film “centers on a flower extract factory owner (Jason Bateman) who’s dealing with workplace problems and a streak of bad luck, including his wife’s affair with a gigolo.” Affleck play not the gigolo, but “an ambulance chasing lawyer.”
  • Orphaned by the demise of Warner Independent, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire will now be distributed jointly by Warner Brothers and Fox Searchlight.
  • Screenvision, a company previously noted for screening baseball games and opera performances in movie theaters, is bringing a BBC adaptation of the classic girls novel Ballet Shoes (one of my favorites at age 7) to US multiplexes. The film stars three veterans of the Harry Potter franchise: Emma Watson, Gemma Jones and Richard Griffith.
  • Heaven’s Gate superfans, take note: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is going to help MGM preserve the MGM/United Artists archive.

Baby Boom: Trade Roughage 04/28/08

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 4 months ago
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  • Baby Mama had a big weekend. The Tina Fey comedy made $18 million dollars, beating Harold and Kumar’s take by about $4 million and easily enough for the top box office slot. Still, the stoner comedy more than made back its production budget in its first weekend, and that’s cause enough for Warner execs to take credit for handling their first post-merger New Line release successfully.
  • The Hollywood Reporter says IFC is in “final negotiations” to distribute The Pleasure of Being Robbed, the Josh Safdie feature which has been the subject of much chatter since it was announced as the only American film to screen at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.THR’s Gregg Goldstein is calling this turn of events ” a final triumph for SXSW producer Matt Dentler,” who selected the film for his final Emerging Visions sidebar before departing for Cinetic.
  • Idiocracy is not even mentioned in this Variety story about Mike Judge’s next project, a workplace comedy called Extract which is set to star Jason Bateman. Pay no attention to the political satire which spawned an energy drink even though the film itself was barely released––me want more Office Space!!!