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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Malick officially shooting in Smithville
The Statesman’s Michael Corcoran — sort of a blend of Bob Woodward and Kelso — shoots us this crackling dispatch straight from the perilous terrain of Smithville:
It’s official. After weeks of rumors and speculation, the location manager of “Tree of Life,” the Terrence Malick project starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, addressed the Smithville City Council on Monday night to talk about filming there, which will begin at the end of March.
The shoot will last approximately three months, location manager John Patterson said.
“Security is going to be a big issue with( the film company),” says Smithville city manager Tex Middlebrook, who laughed and said he’d met notoriously private director Malick a few times without knowing who he was until recently.
Middlebrook says he helped the crew find and move a 60,000 pound live oak — the title tree — to a back yard in Smithville last week. Many of the cast and crew on the film, a 1950s period piece, have rented houses in Smithville, a town of 4,000 located 45 miles east of Austin.
Although Pitt has not been officially confirmed, he recently told Charlie Rose in an interview that his next project would be “Tree of Life.” It’s not known if Angelina Jolie and the kids will accompany Pitt to the town that might as well be called “Pittville” for the next four months.
Malick, shooting ‘Badlands’ in the ’70s
A tree
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‘Taxi’ driver screens his Oscar-nominated doc
Oscar-nominated doc director Alex Gibney will hold a Q and A following the 7:30 p.m. Friday screening of his film “Taxi to the Dark Side” at the Arbor.
The official line on the film, which opens for a full run Friday:
A stunning inquiry into the suspicious death of an Afghani taxi driver at Bagram air base in 2002, the film is a fastidiously assembled, uncommonly well-researched examination of how an innocent civilian was apprehended, imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately murdered by the greatest democracy on earth. Combining the cool detachment of a forensic expert with the heated indignation of a proud American who holds his country to a high standard, Gibney’s film reveals how the Bush administration has systematically betrayed the very ideals it professes to uphold.
“Taxi” is nominated for an Oscar this year, as his movie “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” was in 2006. His latest documentary, “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson,” earned raves at Sundance and will play SXSW in March.
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SXSW Film announces more panels
The folks over at SXSW Film, which kicks off on Friday, March 7, have announced a few more panels for the festival. Among the newly-announced additions to the schedule are:
- “A Conversation with Billy Bob Thornton & Dwight Yoakam”
- “Coming Soon: The Making of a Trailer”
- “An Actor’s Workshop with Jeffrey Tambor”
- “Drugs, Politics, and Race: A ‘Harold & Kumar’ Panel”
- “What the Writers’ Strike Taught Us”
These panels join the following (with descriptions from the SXSW site):
Filmmaking used to be an elite club and up-front financing was a necessity. But with advancement in digital technology, and more alternative distribution routes, the options are virtually endless. These days, no budget equals no problem. Come listen to filmmakers and experts talk about the subject and learn how to jump start your film without the help of financiers and rich uncles.
You can get paid to create a videoblog (vlog)? Meet some the people who have made internet video a full-time endeavor, and find out how they got that job, where they think it’s all going, and how you can get into it, too.
Jeffrey Tambor - the acclaimed TV, film and theater actor - explores different avenues leading to a great performance. Tambor will rehearse and refine scenes with actors onsite, to break down the performance process. This workshop is intended for those interested in bridging the gap between actor and director. Attendees are encouraged to bring questions.
Sophisticated visual effects and computer-generated animation used to be big-ticket items, best left to the $100 million blockbusters from Pixar and the Hollywood majors. But new tools are making visual effects and CG-animation more accessible to independent filmmakers, and also spawning smaller VFX and CG shops willing to work with indies. We’ll get an update from several innovators on the front lines.
When it comes to making a film, “nobody knows anything,” and novice filmmakers know even less. Poor choices can ensure that no one will watch what you’ve made. Early attention to legal and technical issues could mean the difference between having a viable film, or just an expensive calling card. Are you ready to talk about your project? Who should you talk to and what should you say (or not say)? Veterans of the industry discuss how filmmakers most often sabotage themselves, and discuss how to avoid it by doing your homework.
How can indie directors/producers get their work onto the growing number of digital screens in the US, and what are the economics of encoding your film so it can be downloaded digitally and onto a cinema’s server? We’ll also explore how digital cinema is changing the balance of power between Hollywood studios and independents, and what new developments lie ahead.
Use the Internet before the Internet uses you. Thanks to blogs, web-video, and social networking sites, the online universe is a valuable (but no less intimidating) landscape for artists. How do you get the best out of blogs and other sites, to maximize your potential for an audience? Or, how do you get yourself introduced to the booming industry of online journalism and video sharing? These experts will dig deep into these ever-changing trends.
For some filmmakers, getting their work to the masses becomes a very personal task. And, even when a conventional DVD or cable deal is part of the equation, some decide to take on the theatrical release solo. What is this process like? Seasoned filmmakers and members of the industry chat about the complicated world of “self-distribution,” and whether or not they would do it again.
SXSW is happy to announce the inclusion of acclaimed musician Moby, as part of the 2008 SXSW Film Conference. Moby will participate in a session entitled “A Conversation with Moby,” hosted and moderated by Doreen Ringer-Ross of BMI. The session, scheduled for Tuesday, March 11, will take a look at the musician’s relationship with cinema, from composing original scores (Southland Tales) to contributing and licensing his music for film and TV projects (The Bourne Ultimatum, Heat). In addition, it will include a look at “moby gratis,” the musician’s new endeavor to offer some of his music, free-of-charge, to independent filmmakers.
Documentarian Stanley Nelson, one of the most prolific nonfiction filmmakers working today, will attend SXSW 2008 next March to take part in a discussion of his work and his process. The acclaimed filmmaker (Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, The Murder of Emmett Till) will showcase samples from his award-winning career as part of the 2008 SXSW Film Conference. Nelson’s career includes a bevy of lauded historical documentaries, and he will share how he’s achieved such an impressive body of work. Nelson will also dissect the way he approaches historical documentaries with a fresh and inventive sensibility. From the gripping portrait, The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, to the popular music doc, Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice, Nelson’s filmography speaks for itself as a glimpse into the sometimes-overlooked aspects of American history. Join Stanley Nelson for his panel session, “Stanley Nelson: History in the Making,” at SXSW 2008.
The entire lineup of panels and schedule will be available on the SXSW Web site on Friday, Feb. 15. Buy film passes now at Waterloo Video for $70. Check out the official SXSW site for more information.
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Swatting ‘Fireflies’
Remember last year when locals gasped and google-eyed at downtown spottings of Ryan Reynolds (and girlfriend Scarlett Johansson), Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie-Anne Moss and some aspiring actress named Julia Roberts?
That constellation of stars was shooting the small family melodrama “Fireflies in the Garden,” written and directed by relative newcomer Dennis Lee, in Austin, Bastrop and Smithville. The film’s cinematographer is Danny Moder, Roberts’ husband, and a clue as to why she’s in this minor movie.
The film opens later this year, but the trades have filed harsh reviews from the Berlin International Film Festival, where “Fireflies” world-premiered this week.
Writes Variety:
Despite the mega-wattage of pic’s starry cast, theatrical prospects seem dim for this clumsy melodrama, which looks and sounds no better than an average made-for-cabler. U.S. market potential looks best in ancillary. …
[It’s] set in an unnamed Midwestern suburb that the pic implies is near Chicago (but filmed in Texas, so the landscape looks totally wrong) …
Apparently aspiring to the dark comedy of “Igby Goes Down,” Lee’s semi-autobiographical script fails to sustain any tone convincingly. Dialogue lacks wit, relying overmuch on vernacular (“It sucks” is a frequent comment) and the F-word. False happy ending is in no way earned.
Perfs are all over the place, from Dafoe’s one-note monster dad to Boyd’s simmering resentment. On the distaff side, Roberts and Watson at least come off as warm mothers. Moss is a cipher treated as a deus ex machina.
Flat lighting and wan lensing by Roberts’ husband, Danny Moder, doesn’t do the actors any favors. Low-rent look of other tech credits leads one to suspect the major portion of budget was spent on the cast.
Writes The Hollywood Reporter:
In his film “Fireflies in the Garden,” Dennis Lee comes up empty. Kids, parents, siblings, an aunt and an estranged wife all bicker and yell, but the noise cancels itself out. The movie is one long argument, tiresome and repetitive, that produces more heat than light. The wonder is that the first-time writer-director rounded up a cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie-Anne Moss and Julia Roberts. …
Dafoe never gets a handle on his overbearing character. Similarly, Roberts spends her rather brief screen time trying to pacify other people, her husband, her son and then her sister without ever getting a chance to define who her character is. The movie pretty much wastes Watson, and Moss seems to have dropped in from another movie.
To which we respond: Oof!
Dafoe and Roberts
