It was shut out of the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature, but Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, now playing in New York City, could easily inspire a Hollywood film about the life of its heroic subject. And that dramatic version could potentially garner multiple Academy Award nominations. It wouldn’t be the first time a figure documented in a nonfiction film was later portrayed in an Oscar-nominated movie. In fact, one of this year’s Best Picture contenders, Milk, is almost like a remake of the 1984 Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk.
To carry on the tradition, we’ve selected nine nonfiction films in addition to Blessed is the Match that would make great dramatic features. …Read more
Catherine Hardwicke hit one out of the park for female directors this past weekend, but she had a lot of help. Not only was she working with a pre-sold property, she also had a very manageable budget of $37 million. Quite different from the $2 million she had to work with on Thirteen a few years back. Of course, she had similar budgets on Lords of Dogtown ($25 million) and The Nativity Story ($35 million), and both were box office disappointments. Still, she’s going to keep on being trusted with more money — if Summit is smart they’ll keep her on for at least the first Twilight sequel, which will surely come with a higher price tag — and as long as she continues with genre films, she’s sure to remain a profitable director.
Not every talented filmmaker does well with more money. Danny Boyle, for instance, typically bombs with bigger budgets. And a lot of foreign auteurs strike out when handed costly studio-produced genre or franchise pics (Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection is a favorite example). But there’s the occasional filmmaker who, like Steven Soderbergh or Christopher Nolan, can make something worthwhile out of any budget they’re allotted. And then there are the many indie filmmakers who quickly find themselves at home with modestly priced broad comedies, such as the case with Seth Gordon easily transitioning from the Slamdance doc The King of Kong to the star-studded Hollywood holiday pic Four Christmases, out this week.
Who will be the next small-scale filmmaker to successfully rise up and prove him or herself worthy of bigger budgets? SpoutBlog has selected five directors we’d like to see given an economic boost, each because he or she would likely deliver something more interesting and popular than the usual Hollywood product.
Twilight has already sold out around 500 midnight shows for Thursday and at least 400 shows throughout the weekend. Thanks to the report from The Hollywood Reporter, I finally understand the appeal: apparently it’s a movie about an “interspecies love affair.”
It’s no coincidence that movie rights for another “vampyre” series of young adult novels has just been optioned. House of Night: Marked will be the link between Twilight and Harry Potter with its plot of pubescent bloodsuckers attending a special school just for their kind.
One-time documentarian Seth Gordon is apparently satisfied directing fiction for awhile. Following Four Christmases, he’s now set to helm a con job caper titled Suicide Squad. However, he’s still reportedly doing a fictional remake of his doc The King of Kong and producing a new doc titled Freakonomics.
Like a video game screen that says “Continue?”, video game documentaries keep popping up with extra lives. Just last week I wrote about the documentary Chasing Ghosts and how it’s a better movie than The King of Kong, and the good news is that Chasing Ghosts is now coming out next month on a cable channel near you. The even better news is that there are a lot more in the pipeline, and a few others worth seeking out and watching. Besides these two retro gaming documentaries, here’s a roundup of new and recent video game films that’ll keep you pushing buttons. Check out the list after the break.
I feel a little bit like Professor Farnsworth from Futurama when I say this, but “Good news, everyone!” Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is coming to Showtime next month. Producer Michael Verrechia emailed me after I wrote the Chasing Ghosts vs. The King of Kong piece to tell me that it had generated a lot of responses. While I can’t claim that I made this deal happen, it’s great to know that people who have been hearing about this movie for almost two years will finally be able to see it. Set your DVRs to “retro” and be sure to watch this and let us know what you think.
Two films about old-school arcade games premiered within a few days of each other in Park City in 2007. One was at Sundance, the other was at Slamdance. Guess which one you’ve never heard of? Ironically, it’s the one from Sundance. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters was the success story when these two films unintentionally butted heads, and the sad thing is that the other movie, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, is a much better film. But chances are you’ll never get to see it.
It didn’t work out so well for Michael Moore, but who is to say other documentarians can’t succeed in fiction filmmaking? Recent notables to make the switch have included Nick Broomfield (whose unscripted yet dramatized Battle for Hadithaopens at New York’s Film Forum next month), Barbara Kopple, Andrew Jarecki and Seth Gordon, who originally seemed to be crossing the line to remake his own The King of Kongas a narrative feature but has instead become attached to other fiction projects.
The latest, though, is a bit of a shocker, even if he is famous for making a dramatization-heavy doc. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Errol Morris’ next project is a comedy, which he’s currently writing. Titled The End of Everything, the script is at least based on a true story and Morris says the film will be, “a new idea of how to blend drama with reality.”
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.
This is nothing like my top ten of 2007. I don’t not do top ten lists because I think they’re stupid, pointless or pretentious. I don’t do them because I never see enough films in the year to feel I’m adequately representing what is the best of the year. I don’t even feel I could represent my favorite of the year, since later on I’ll likely see some great films from this year that would qualify as my favorite(s). So, I’m just going to present some movies (or parts of movies) I really loved this year, and tell you what I loved about them. Because to me best of lists are merely a reminder of movies I still need to see, consider this a list only of things you might have missed and should definitely check out.
Sunshineand The Last Winter- Two incredible science fiction stories that each ends rather disappointingly. Fortunately both are good enough until their denouements that they are completely recommendable to serious sci-fi fans and anybody else who wants to spark up some discussions about environmental issues and/or psychological implications of being out in the middle of nowhere.
The Boss of It All- Not the most remarkable Von Trier film, but proof that he can make a simple comedy if that’s what he wants to do. I especially enjoyed it because I’ve had a passive boss who was exactly like the one in the film. Also, Ibn Hjejle has now been redeemed for her awful, out-of-place presence in High Fidelity.
Over the weekend, a few critic groups united in naming No Country for Old Menthe best movie of 2007. St. Louis, Utah and Florida all love the Coen Bros. movie, as well as Ellen Page, Amy Ryan, Daniel Day-Lewis and Ratatouille. They managed to mix it up a little bit, though, so as not to be completely identical/redundant/unnecessary. I’d give the most hugs to the gang in Utah for honoring The King of Kongif only they hadn’t disappointed me with their choice for best actress runner-up: Amy Adams. If I was booked to attend that little film festival of theirs next month, I’d totally change my mind and boycott. People just don’t know the lengths I’ll go to complain about this Enchantedkudos crap.
Not surprisingly, National Treasure: Book of Secretstopped the holiday weekend box office with $65 million. I would have gone to see it, but instead I hung out at JFK airport for hours on end Sunday night and watched parts of Con Air on my iPod. I’ve decided that Nic Cage is a lot better suited for the small-small screen. Too bad such a strong opening means he won’t be making direct-to-iPod movies any time soon.
Perhaps this is a sign that studios will stop trying to find “the next Harry Potter franchise” and begin trying to find “the next I Am Legend.”: Potter actor Robert Pattinson (”Cedric Diggory”) will star opposite Kristen Stewart in Catherine Hardwicke’s teen vampire flick, Twilight. Too bad the Hollywood Reporter already gave us this story two weeks ago; too bad vampire movies have already been a monstrous trend in Hollywood; and too bad studios will never stop looking for “the next Harry Potter franchise.”
It’s pretty upsetting when you see more documentaries than most Americans, and yet you haven’t seen any of the 15 docs deemed best of the year by the Academy. This is my case this year, and I guess I was slacking. Or maybe the real problem is that Oscar has shortlisted too many films that haven’t been released commercially. In his IN DEPTH look at the shortlisted docs, Kurt Cobain About a Sonfilmmaker AJ Schnack points out that only 6 of the films have pursued a true theatrical release and 2/3 have not been available for review by critics nor have they reported their box office. For commentary on Schnack’s earlier analysis of both this year and last year’s eligible docs, check out Karina’s post from last week.
So, there’s my excuse. Anyway, I still have many months to see the docs that are most likely to receive the five nominations. My guesses of what I need to see before Oscar night: Sicko, No End in Sight, Lake of Fire, Body of Warand War/Dance (or Taxi to the Dark Side, if the Academy allows so many Iraq War docs). Of course, if I want to be a true doc fan, I should make sure to see all 15, as well as a lot of other films left outside the shortlist.
On the eve of the release of the documentary shortlist, the Academy’s list of semi-finalists for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar nomination, AJ Schnack does the math to rank the 30 best reviewed documentaries of the year. His findings might surprise you. Although the race’s obvious heavyweights (particularly Michael Moore’s Sicko, and the two Iraq docs produced by Alex Gibney No End in Sightand Taxi to the Dark Side), do make the cut, data provided by Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic reveals that the most critically beloved documentary of the year is none other than The King of Kong, directed by Seth Gordon, who we interviewed back in August.
Gordon’s video game rivalry doc certainly has come a long way since opening at Slamdance, where it competed for the attention of Park City with Chasing Ghosts, a Sundance entry covering some of the same ground and featuring some of the arcade all-stars. But Kong’s eventual dominance over that film by way of critical reception (99% on Rotten Tomatoes) and relative box office success ($678,000 so far, making it the eighth highest grossing doc of the year and one of the Top 100 docs of all time) may just have to be victory enough. With so many semi-high-profile non fiction films out this year about serious global crises, AJ implies that AMPAS might decide that Kong is too fluffy to make the shortlist.
This might be the perfect example to reveal the growing chasm between film critics and the Academy.
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 didn’t work out so well 
In a piece that reads like AMPTP damage control, Variety quotes a number of sources who 
This is nothing like my top ten of 2007. I don’t not do top ten lists because I think they’re stupid, pointless or pretentious. I don’t do them because I never see enough films in the year to feel I’m adequately representing what is the best of the year. I don’t even feel I could represent my favorite of the year, since later on I’ll likely see some great films from this year that would qualify as my favorite(s). So, I’m just going to present some movies (or parts of movies) I really loved this year, and tell you what I loved about them. Because to me best of lists are merely a reminder of movies I still need to see, consider this a list only of things you might have missed and should definitely check out.
Over the weekend, a few critic groups united in naming 
It’s pretty upsetting when you see more documentaries than most Americans, and yet you haven’t seen any of the 15 docs deemed best of the year by the Academy. This is my case this year, and I guess I was slacking. Or maybe the real problem is that Oscar has shortlisted too many films that haven’t been released commercially. In his 
