So, Aaron Sorkin, writer of such films as A Few Good Men, The American Presidentand Charlie Wilson’s War, and, of course, creator of TV’s The West Wing, is apparently now working on a movie about Facebook for Sony Pictures and producer Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men). Yes, that’s right, a Facebook movie. News comes to us directly from the social networking site, as Sorkin himself announced the project by admitting that he has absolutely no clue what Facebook is. And I guess he’s looking for assistance or questions or something. Obviously he’s the perfect guy to be scripting a film about the founding of the site.
I’m drawing a blank right now as to whether or not any websites have officially spawned movies (does AOL count?), but I do recall an idea from 3 years ago to make an internet dating movie sponsored by Friendster, which was to be directed by Harold Ramis and star Topher Grace. I guess the fact that Friendster faded from popularity in favor of MySpace and then Facebook ruined those plans. But is it possible that this new project will fare any better? Social networking sites have a habit of falling out of fashion rather quickly. Oh well, if Facebook: The Movie doesn’t work out, Rudin and Sorkin are welcome to go with any of these other ideas:
10. Friendster- Just because the other Friendster project didn’t pan out doesn’t mean the site can’t still inspire another movie. This one would be all about how Friendster rose to the top quickly and lived the good life until attempts to get even higher went awry and its fans abandoned it. You know, the age old story of celebrity. Sorkin might be interested because of the way it could parallel his hit stage play (and upcoming film) The Farnsworth Invention.
It’s been all-but-confirmed for awhile, but thisVariety story nails it: Magnolia will self-distribute What Just Happened?, Barry Levinson’s Hollywood satire which the studio produced through 2929 Entertainment but were hoping to unload at either Sundance or Cannes. “There were offers,” Eamonn Bowles told Anne Thompson, “But we can make more money doing it ourselves.” They’re planning a platform to medium-wide release for October.
Brazillian novelist Paulo Coelho is a MySpace addict! But at least the one-hour-a-day user has found a way to funnel his obsession into something productive: he’s planning to “‘curate’ a Web-generated film based on The Witch of Portobello from MySpace video and music submissions.”
There’s a really strange moment in the above Artist on Artist video with Diablo Cody and John Cusack, where Cusack is all, “The mainstream media don’t understand my my shitty war satire movie, so I gave Liz Phair a copy and she gave me a blurb for my website,” and Diablo’s all, “Uh, yeah, I’ll give you my quote soon,” and she has this look on her face like, “Shit, people are actually doing that? Liz Phair’s actually doing that? I have as big a crush on Lloyd Dobbler as anyone but … seriously?” Maybe we like Diablo Cody better than we thought. Although this does come right after she says something about how blogging=good because “you don’t have to contend with The Man,” which is about as fresh a sentiment as any in War, Inc, so maybe her pullquote really *is* on the way…
Exciting times! Azazel Jacobs’ Momma’s Man has spread through the festival circuit like a deadpan, unexpectedly emotionally resonant virus (see our interview and review from Sundance) on its way to eventual theatrical release via ThinkFilm. Now, Jacobs’ previous film, The GoodTimesKid, is screening in Brooklyn for free on Monday night, as part of the Brooklyn Independent Cinema series at Barbes.
The GoodTimesKid, which stars Jacobs himself opposite girlfriend Sara Diaz, was famously shot on 35mm stolen from the truck of a big Hollywood production; the film’s tagline works the procurement of the tools of production into the narrative by branding it “a story about stolen love and stolen identities, shot on stolen film.” The fact that this is a DIY production even becomes the subject of the trailer, which consists of a montage of shots of the actors, slating each scene with a hand clap.
I’ve embedded that trailer above; theoretically, there are a number of clips from the film on MySpace, but due to the, um, ideosyncrasies of MySpace video, I haven’t been able to get any of them to load.
George Romeo (Night of the Living Dead) is here at Sundance with Diary of the Dead. Ronald and Joe speak filmmaker to filmmaker with him and discover an almost spiritual connection.
The second episode of Joe and Ronnie’s Sundance video coverage is live at MySpace, and embedded above for your viewing pleasure. In this clip, our intrepid twosome battle misinformation and confusion at the opening night premiere and Park City party.
Here it is, the first installment of our Sundance video coverage, produced by Butterknife’s Joe Swanberg and Ronnie Bronstien, and presented by MySpace. In this clip, Joe and Ronnie introduce themselves, and explain why we’ve dragged them and their cameras out onto this snowy mountaintop of dreams.
We’ve been teasing for months, but now we have an official release date: Butterknife, Joe Swanberg’s latest web series, starring Ronnie and Mary Bronstein, will premiere on Spout on Monday, January 28. That’s four weeks from today, and on each Monday between then and now, we’ll have a new, special, Butterknife-related video here on SpoutBlog. Since it’s New Years Eve and you’re probably already halfway in the bottle, we’ll start the party with a re-run of Michael Tully’s contribution to the Butterknife promo canon, which originally premiered here. Check it out above, and check back next week for a new short directed by and starring Butterknife collaborator and Low and Behold writer/star Barlow Jacobs.
Paul on A Woman in the Dunes: “It seems the premise of a man trapped, living in poverty against his will with a cruel and unusual brood of villagers in control would make for a downer of a flick. But I found Woman to be as much ecclesiastical as it is existential.”
Oh, what a difference a weekend makes. News broke on Friday that Wes Anderson was video taping an interview with Owen Wilson for MySpace, to promote The Darjeeling Limited. It was to be Wilson’s first interview since his apparent suicide attempt this summer. The clip wasn’t scheduled to debut until midnight that night, so there was plenty of time to speculate as to what it all meant, and especially whether or not the two old friends would broach the topic of Wilson’s health and sobriety. Jumping the gun just a tad, Nikki Finke ran with the headline, “Hey, Barbara & Diane: You’re Obsolete. Owen Tells All Post-Meltdown To MySpace.” In the post, she pointed to what she described as “a really angry article about this on ABC News,” in which the network that owns Barbara Walters, who in turn owns the patent on teary celebrity confession, kvetches about changing paradigms. We’ll have to take Nikki’s word on that — the story no longer exists at the link in her story.
While Tom Cruise continued to abstain from publicizing his own politics on theLions For Lambs press tour, the film’s director and co-star Robert Redford “lash[ed] out against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq” at a press conference in Rome yesterday. “We have lost lives, we’ve lost sacred freedoms, we’ve lost financial stability; we’ve lost our position of respect on the world stage,” said the sometime Sundance Kid.
“The world’s first user-generated movie” begins shooting this week in London. MySpace users picked the director and some of the stars; Ewan Bremner’s in it, too. Be very afraid.
I’m not sure exactly what “two-way plug-and-play technology” entails, but the MPAA thinks it puts their copyrights at risk, and they want the FCC to ban consumer electronics manufacturers from making and selling it.
1. “We’re going to create a relationship with all of you, our friends on MySpace.” Wow, un-obfuscated marketing language right in the intro!
2. They peek out the window at the “cute” paperboy? Are they going to invite him in to fix their plumbing?
3. There’s no timecounter on the video player, but I’m guessing that first “accidental” bra-and-panties shot happens less than two minutes in.
4. “Living in a house with these girls is gonna be wild, and sexy.” Oh my god–it’s not even soft enough to be softcore. It’s Playboy Confessions for cybertweens!
5. Multiple fart jokes? Check.
6. If the comments garnered by the first episode are to be believed, then a substantial portion of the audience missed the memo that this is scripted.
7. When they get that memo and realize that MySpace plans to “take input from viewers from Seattle to Stuttgart who will have a say on where the show should go,” it’s hard to imagine any suggestion trumping “more catfights.” Except for maybe “less clothes.”
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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It’s been all-but-confirmed for awhile, but thisVariety story nails it: Magnolia will self-distribute What Just Happened?, Barry Levinson’s Hollywood satire which the studio produced through 2929 Entertainment but were hoping to unload at either Sundance or Cannes. “There were offers,” Eamonn Bowles told Anne Thompson, “But we can make more money doing it ourselves.” They’re planning a platform to medium-wide release for October.
While Tom Cruise continued to abstain from publicizing his own politics on the 
