Paramount is putting together a new division designed to craft new video games based on both current and classic Paramount films. You know what that means…”I Drink Your Milkshake” for the Wii!!!
New York’s state Senate and Assembly are expected to soon announce a compromise on the tax credit issue that was left in the lurch when governor Eliot Spitzer resigned to spend more time with his soul-crushing self-hatred. The new deal will favor the Democrat-led Assembly’s plan, which aimed to increase tax credits on below-the-line costs, thus supporting the state’s filmmaking infrastructure over luring flashy out-of-town productions.
2008’s total box office is so far 3 percent above 2007’s, but that’s mostly due to that 3D Hannah Montana thing, and 2007 holdovers like Alvin and the Chipmunks––not a single action film has grossed over $100 over the past three months. And that’s not going to change this weekend, although both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter seem confident that 21 will do well, and Stop-Loss will not.
Director Alexis Spraic, producer James Scurlock, and Bunim-Murray Productions are joining forces on a documentary about the “globalization pioneer” who founded DHL.
Last week, I wondered when the presidential campaign and Warner Brothers’ campaign for The Dark Knight would merge. Today, the political and the movie promotional have become fully intertwined, although on a much more local scale than I had originally predicted.
According to the Village Voice (via Gothamist), Queens Councilman Hiram Monserrate is lobbying to officially brand New York City with the nickname Gotham City in time for The Dark Knight’s July release. Apparently, Monserrate thinks associating his city with a fictional flying crime fighter and a deranged, make-up wearing lunatic will be good for tourism. “I see that as a marketing tool,” he told the Voice. “‘Come visit the real Gotham City,’ taking advantage of this movie which will be one of those gate-breaking, record-selling movies like it always is.” He then mumbled something about how how Christopher Nolan’s Chicago-shot movie will help New York’s “art community to strengthen its reconnection to being a Gotham City,” and also something else about how frappuccinos embody the spirit of Batman.
Check out the full crazy at the link, and then tell us: if a studio were to, uh, make it worthwhile for a city official to sponsor a crackpot resolution involving one of their films, would that be bribery, or just really, really good viral marketing?
New Directors/New Films, The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual Spring retrospective of hits, overlooked gems and conversation starters from the recent festival circuit, opens tomorrow night with Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Frozen River. I won’t be covering the series extensively this year, partially because I was in Austin when the press screenings started and partially because we’ve already covered several of the films on the schedule at previous festivals. For full coverage, I’d recommend Slant Magazine; I imagine we’ll see some stuff from our friends at The House Next Door as well. After the jump, you’ll find a look at some of the films on the schedule that we’ve had previous encounters with.
You knew this was coming: The Hollywood Reporter reveals that in addition to apparently ending his political career, Eliot Spitzer’s date with call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre may have a lasting impact on New York state’s recently-resurgent film industry. Gregg Goldstein notes that although both the Repblicate state Senate and the Democrat state Assembly are in favor of upping the tax credits, they have wildly different visions of how the new plan should look. The Senate plan, in putting more emphasis on breaks for above-the-line costs such as actor salaries, would seem to benefit visiting, big-budget studio films; the Democrat Assembly plan, in focusing specifically on below-the-line costs, is more concerned with supporting homegrown talent, and is “meant to help build New York’s film industry infrastructure by supporting and establishing ongoing production jobs.”
So who’s gonna win? Right now the safe money says Spitzer’s replacement David Patterson will do everything he can to rebuild bridges broken by Spitzer’s scandal by playing nice with the Republican Senate. Also, he’s apparently BFF with Spitzer-hating Senate leader Joseph Bruno, which makes it all the more likely that he’ll turn his back on his own party in the name of post-prostitute reconciliation.
I wonder why the grassroots film community hasn’t made a bigger deal out of this yet. It’s enough to make a girl wish that Jem Cohen would start blogging.
Scott Macaulay reminds that Ronnie Bronstein’s Frownland begins a one-week run at the IFC Center in New York this Friday. More than that, he explains why it’s a must see:
If you’re someone who follows and cares about American independent cinema, you’ve noticed that what passes for independent film today is often markedly different from what we thought of as independent film 20 years ago. In films today, scenes have buttons. Second acts have set pieces. Characters are given “petting the dog” moments to make them more likeable. Films are crafted to appeal to quadrants. In other words, many of them are forced by the brutality of the marketplace to assimilate the same storytelling logic as a studio film. More so than just about anything I’ve seen in the last year, Frownland defies all of this.
I wish I was going to be in town this weekend––I’ve only seen a screener of Frownland, and have been trying in vain for a year to see it on a big screen. Alas, I’ll be at SXSW, where Mary Bronstein’s Yeast premieres on Monday. If you’re in New York and not making the trip to Austin, you can buy Frownland tickets here. And if you’re only familiar with Mary and Ronnie’s work in Butterknife, definitely check out the Frownland trailer above.
We’re joining forces with our friends at The Reeler to throw an Oscar viewing party, this Sunday in New York City. If you’re in town, do come out and enjoy free fondue, a cash bar, special prizes (including a set of Eleni’s Oscar cookies, pictured above, to the smartest prognosticator in the room), and much drunken yelling at the screen. All pertinent details can be found here. See you there!
With almost three months to go before opening night, the Tribeca Film Festival launched a publicity blitz this morning designed to rehab the festival’s troubled image. Before a press release hyping lowered ticket prices and a concentration of venues landed in my inbox around 9:30 AM, I had already read two interviews with the festival’s co-executive director Nancy Schafer, in the New York Post and the New York Sun. Why this much media, and why now? Who knows. But as Schafer acknowledges in the Post story that her festival has to compete with SXSW for post-Sundance premieres, it might be reasonable to assume they wanted to make a little bit of noise the day before South By releases their full lineup and proceeds to commandeer the attention of a certain sector of the blogosphere for a month and a half. They may not have the films, but they sure do have the publicists!
The WGA has refused to grant waivers to allow guild members to script the Golden Globe and Academy Awards during the strike. Unless the strike miraculously ends by the end of January–or the producers of the shows manage to negotiate with the WGA as independent contractors–this will effectively make any star who attends either award show a picket-line crossing rat. The guild has also denied the Academy the right to use clips involving the work of their writers during the telecast.
United Artists has pushed the release of Valkyrie, the controversial WWII drama directed by Bryan Singer and starring Tom Cruise, from July 4th weekend to October 2008. Such a move from a normal studio might indicate plans to push the film as an awards contender rather than as a summer blockbuster; in this case, it appears that Singer just hasn’t finished shooting.
Fox is “Simpsonizing” Manhattan today, as part of a marketing blitz to promote the DVD release ofThe Simpsons Movie. There will be a Simpsons on Ice show at Bryant Park today, the Empire State Building will be illuminated in yellow tonight, and “giant inflatable Homers” will be sprinkled through out the city.
Nicole Holofcener will once again team with Catherine Keener for a still-untitled dramedy about “life, death and real estate” in New York City.
John Edwards hijacked the pulpit to make campaign promises, Tim Robbins rocked a new pair of hipster glasses and a sort-of Lynchian haircut, and Gilbert Gottfried made a half-way decent joke about Jews. What more could you want from a writer’s strike rally? Eat the Press has it on video. And if you can find a better clip of Tuesday’s WGA exorcism at Warner Brothers, do forward it along–the one embedded above is not nearly sensational enough for my tastes.
As I type this from my living room/office in Long Island City, on the Southeastern tip of Queens, through the window I’ve got a prime view of the luxury real estate company setting up shop in the abandoned paper factory immediately across the street. Yesterday, they boarded up the upper windows and hung signs; today, they’ve parked three pedicabs with their logo on the sidewalk–because buyers who have been priced out of the Manhattan condo market are apparently so humbled by the experience that they couldn’t bear to walk a block and half from the sales office to the property.
Yes, the neighborhood’s changing, which is not altogether a bad thing–after almost a year and half in this apartment, the novelty of having to take the subway into another borough to get to the supermarket, the gym or a halfway decent bar has worn off completely. So I’m comfortable with the forward motion of gentrification. I just never thought Lloyd Kaufman would be one of the gentrifiers.
Paramount is putting together 
Last week, I wondered when the presidential campaign and Warner Brothers’ campaign for The Dark Knight would merge. Today, the political and the movie promotional have become fully intertwined, although on a much more local scale than I had originally predicted.
New Directors/New Films
The WGA has 
As I type this from my living room/office in Long Island City, on the Southeastern tip of Queens, through the window I’ve got a prime view of the luxury real estate company setting up shop in the abandoned paper factory immediately across the street. Yesterday, they boarded up the upper windows and hung signs; today, they’ve parked three pedicabs with their logo on the sidewalk–because buyers who have been priced out of the Manhattan condo market are apparently so humbled by the experience that they couldn’t bear to walk a block and half from the sales office to the property.
