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George Clooney & Unintentional Blurb Whoredom: BlogNosh 04/04/08

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 5 months ago
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  • Was George Clooney’s decision to go “fi-core” over the WGA’s decision to deny him a writing credit on Leatherheads akin to using “a chainsaw to operate on a papercut”? David Poland thinks so. “The guy who took out an ad in the trades telling SAG to move faster seems like just the kind of guy who belongs leading the way inside the WGA, trying to improve the arbitration process, rather than walking away in a huff.”
  • “It’s as if the PR people said, “so, Mr. Don R. Lewis didn’t like our comedic gem? Let’s see how he likes THIS!” Cut cut…snip snip.” Don Lewis tells us what it feels like to be blurbed on the DVD cover for a film he negatively reviewed.
  • “The New Beverly has scored probably its greatest coup yet in terms of presenting filmmakers and the movies they love to eager audiences,” writes Dennis Cozzalio. He’s talking about Dante’s Inferno, a two-week program of films made and selected by Joe Dante. Dennis has a special fondness for the one Dante film that will be shown in a non-midnight slot, Hollywood Boulevard.
  • I wish I was at Full Frame, the doc fest that’s taking place this weekend in Durham, NC, but alas, The Cinetrix’s dispatches for GreenCine Daily will have to suffice. So far she’s been “blown away” by Forbidden Lie$, which was the best film I saw last month at True/False.

Beautiful Sales: Trade Roughage 03/04/08

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 6 months ago
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  • bock.pngWarner Independent Pictures has picked up adaptation rights to Beautiful Children, the hot-right-now literary debut of Charles Bock. Bock, who was the subject of much high-profile press earlier this year, managed to finish his novel in just ten years by ignoring his girlfriend five nights a week.
  • Trumbo, a documentary on blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, in which the writer’s letters are read by stars like Joan Allen and Paul Giamatti, will open the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on April 3.
  • IFC has picked up Fear(s) of the Dark, a French animated film which “presents the stylized interpretations of nightmares from six graphic artists and cartoonists.”
  • Bob Marley’s ex-wife wants Lauryn Hill to play her in the biopic she just sold to The Weinstein Company. Oddly, the adaptation of Rita Marley’s autobiography is being handled by Working Girls director Lizzie Borden who, according to IMDb, hasn’t worked since directing an episode of Red Shoe Diaries a dozen years ago.

Trade Roughage 12/19/07

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 8 months ago
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  • The MPAA has rejected a proposed one-sheet poster for Alex Gibney’s documentary Taxi to the Dark Side. The original design incorporated an image from a news photo, of a hooded detainee flanked by two soldiers. The MPAA says since they won’t allow hoods on posters for torture porn, they can’t allow similar imagery to promote a torture doc. Distributor ThinkFilm plans to appeal.
  • Brad Pitt is in talks to replace Heath Ledger, who was previously cast opposite Sean Penn, in Terrence Malick’s upcoming drama, Tree of Life. There are still few details to report about the project itself, although I guess we can reasonably deduce that whatever character Ledger was going to play has suddenly become about 14 years older.
  • Midwestern exhibition chain Marcus Theaters has declined to book Sweeney Todd on any of its 49 screens, on the grounds that Paramount is asking for too much money for the prints. This seems like a late-game decision, considering the film is scheduled to open semi-wide on Friday, but Paramount says the release will be unaffected.
  • Nancy Buirski is stepping down from her role as head of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, in order to create and manage “a fund to incubate and produce independent docus and fiction films.”