In what is perhaps the most astounding vote of confidence in recent Hollywood history, Lucasfilm and Disney recently gave the thumbs-up to a brand new Star Wars trilogy from Rian Johnson, the creative force behind The Last Jedi.
It’s an agreement that will essentially future-proof Lucasfilm’s crown jewel far into the 2020s, while Johnson has also vowed to deliver an original story teeming with new characters. But what makes this deal all the more impressive is the fact that Disney agreed to Johnson’s new-fangled trilogy without being pitched an actual, tangible story. You know, the actual foundation on which a film is built?
Via /Film, The Last Jedi‘s writer-director confirmed that Disney and Lucasfilm pledged their support to his creative vision – even if that vision is yet to really take shape.
There’s not much to talk about, honestly. I’m just at the beginning of the beginning of it.
It’s an agreement that will essentially future-proof Lucasfilm’s crown jewel far into the 2020s, while Johnson has also vowed to deliver an original story teeming with new characters. But what makes this deal all the more impressive is the fact that Disney agreed to Johnson’s new-fangled trilogy without being pitched an actual, tangible story. You know, the actual foundation on which a film is built?
Via /Film, The Last Jedi‘s writer-director confirmed that Disney and Lucasfilm pledged their support to his creative vision – even if that vision is yet to really take shape.
There’s not much to talk about, honestly. I’m just at the beginning of the beginning of it.
- 12/13/2017
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
Jeff Kandyba has been sketching in Colorado courtrooms since the 1980s. But after over three decades on the job witnessing some of Denver’s most high-profile cases, Kandyba’s work has finally been given national attention thanks to Taylor Swift.
The pop star has spent last week in a Denver courtroom facing former radio deejay David Mueller, who was found guilty on Monday of assault and battery against Swift for groping her at a meet-and-greet photo session in June 2013.
Since electronic devices including cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, the closest anyone had to seeing Swift in the trial was through Kandyba’s work.
The pop star has spent last week in a Denver courtroom facing former radio deejay David Mueller, who was found guilty on Monday of assault and battery against Swift for groping her at a meet-and-greet photo session in June 2013.
Since electronic devices including cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, the closest anyone had to seeing Swift in the trial was through Kandyba’s work.
- 8/15/2017
- by Dave Quinn
- PEOPLE.com
The first trailer has been released for Alan Berg's "The Jones Family Will Make A Way," which follows a surprising collaboration between a religious, musical family and an atheist critic. The documentary film follows a rural, Pentecostal preacher, Bishop Fred Jones, whose family has performed on the southern gospel circuit for years, largely unseen by those outside the faith. Despite objections from many within his congregation, the Bishop decides to take his family's musical ministry outside the church. The film appears to be another story of an unlikely alliance, this time between a gospel-singing family and a jaded, atheistic rock critic. While this seems almost unthinkable, the critic notes, "You guys are the perfect gospel group for atheists." "The Jones Family Will Make A Way" will screen at SXSW and make its world premiere at the Paramount Theatre on March 18. Watch the trailer below: Read More: SXSW Reveals Christine Vachon as Keynote,...
- 2/27/2015
- by Jena Keahon
- Indiewire
Amy Schumer and Bill Hader in TrainwreckPhoto: Universal Pictures With Sundance just wrapping up and Berlin starting up in a few days, we are now immersed in the year-long barrage of film festivals. One such festival in South By Southwest. A few weeks back they announced the first seven films of their program, including the opening night film Brand: A Second Coming. Today, they have revealed the rest of the features to be shown in March (except for the midnight program), and some of it has me very excited. The bigger titles announced do not do much for me. Paul Feig's Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, and the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart starrer Get Hard leave a lot to be desired in terms of anticipation, as does a work in progress cut of Judd Apatow's latest film Trainwreck. I'm guessing an Apatow work in progress is probably around three and a half hours.
- 2/3/2015
- by Mike Shutt
- Rope of Silicon
South by Southwest, the multi-faceted film, music and technology festival held annually in Austin, TX will feature such upcoming films as Paul Feig’s Spy, David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, and Ondi Timoner’s Russell Brand profile Brand: A Second Coming as headliners in this year’s film festival lineup.
SXSW runs from March 13 to 21 in Austin and is now in its 22nd year. Variety has details of the 145 films and 100 world premieres bowing at this year’s festival. Brand, as previously reported, will be the festival’s opening night film.
Other notable titles on the list are the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, a rough cut of Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina, and a new comedy by Michael Showalter, Hello, My Name is Doris.
On the small screen,...
SXSW runs from March 13 to 21 in Austin and is now in its 22nd year. Variety has details of the 145 films and 100 world premieres bowing at this year’s festival. Brand, as previously reported, will be the festival’s opening night film.
Other notable titles on the list are the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, a rough cut of Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina, and a new comedy by Michael Showalter, Hello, My Name is Doris.
On the small screen,...
- 2/3/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
Variance Films will partner with Chris Eska for the theatrical release of Civil War drama The Retrieval.
Following a preview engagement starting on March 14 in Atlanta, the film will open in New York on April 2 prior to expansion on April 18.
Eska wrote and directed the 1864-set tale of a fatherless 13-year-old boy who corrals runaway slaves and freemen for a white bounty hunter gang.
Newcomer Ashton Sanders and Tishuan Scott star and Scott earned the breakthrough acting prize at SXSW 2013.
Jacob Esquivel and Jason Wehling produced The Retrieval and Alan Berg, Tom Borders and Sibyl Avery Jackson served as executive producers.
Yerka has teamed up with Random Media to distribute recent Sundance documentary selection Mirage Men across digital platforms.
Following a preview engagement starting on March 14 in Atlanta, the film will open in New York on April 2 prior to expansion on April 18.
Eska wrote and directed the 1864-set tale of a fatherless 13-year-old boy who corrals runaway slaves and freemen for a white bounty hunter gang.
Newcomer Ashton Sanders and Tishuan Scott star and Scott earned the breakthrough acting prize at SXSW 2013.
Jacob Esquivel and Jason Wehling produced The Retrieval and Alan Berg, Tom Borders and Sibyl Avery Jackson served as executive producers.
Yerka has teamed up with Random Media to distribute recent Sundance documentary selection Mirage Men across digital platforms.
- 2/13/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Here's the latest Austin film news, plus an Austin-shot short film at the end.
Ain't It Cool News reports that Austin producer/Txmpa rep Paul Alvarado-Dykstra and local animator/actress Samantha Inoue-Harte have formed a new production company called Animetropolis. Their first project will be producing an animated feature adaptation of Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. Check out the AICN link above for some interesting concept art for the movie. The Boston Globe and Roger Ebert have both been publicizing the fact that many theaters are now projecting 2D movies using 3D lenses, making the movies look darker and murkier. On some digital projectors, the 3D lenses are very difficult to remove, so theaters don't bother. Now Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League has stepped in to talk about how the Drafthouse theaters, which use the Sony projectors under discussion, deal with the problem. I'm hoping that his article inspires other...
Ain't It Cool News reports that Austin producer/Txmpa rep Paul Alvarado-Dykstra and local animator/actress Samantha Inoue-Harte have formed a new production company called Animetropolis. Their first project will be producing an animated feature adaptation of Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. Check out the AICN link above for some interesting concept art for the movie. The Boston Globe and Roger Ebert have both been publicizing the fact that many theaters are now projecting 2D movies using 3D lenses, making the movies look darker and murkier. On some digital projectors, the 3D lenses are very difficult to remove, so theaters don't bother. Now Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League has stepped in to talk about how the Drafthouse theaters, which use the Sony projectors under discussion, deal with the problem. I'm hoping that his article inspires other...
- 6/1/2011
- by Jette Kernion
- Slackerwood
We created a monster ... It's just sensory overload ... like the first day of school times twenty thousand people.
Prophetic words from Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW, Alan Berg's documentary about how four guys living on next to nothing created one of the largest benchmarks of alternative culture. Check out my interview with director Alan Berg for an insight of how it all began for South by Southwest.
Everything was bigger this year -- the number of attendees and campuses for SXSW Interactive, the crowds of people lining up at the Paramount Theatre for movie premieres, and the swell of music fans filling the streets of downtown and beyond for SXSW Music. Despite years of volunteering in "the belly of the beast" as I call downtown Austin during SXSW Music, I found it overwhelming. I joked that I'm no longer a SXSW veteran, I'm a SXSW old-timer as I...
Prophetic words from Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW, Alan Berg's documentary about how four guys living on next to nothing created one of the largest benchmarks of alternative culture. Check out my interview with director Alan Berg for an insight of how it all began for South by Southwest.
Everything was bigger this year -- the number of attendees and campuses for SXSW Interactive, the crowds of people lining up at the Paramount Theatre for movie premieres, and the swell of music fans filling the streets of downtown and beyond for SXSW Music. Despite years of volunteering in "the belly of the beast" as I call downtown Austin during SXSW Music, I found it overwhelming. I joked that I'm no longer a SXSW veteran, I'm a SXSW old-timer as I...
- 4/12/2011
- by Debbie Cerda
- Slackerwood
Twenty-five years ago, four guys organized what they expected to be a small gathering for local musicians to perform and get some exposure. Running it from the offices of the Austin Chronicle, the four -- Louis Black, Louis Meyers, Roland Swenson and Nick Barbaro -- didn’t expect that 700 people would show up for that first fest. Since then, South By Southwest has grown into the largest annual event in Austin and one of the largest and most recognized of such festivals in the world.
In Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW, producer/director Alan Berg chronicles the rise and history of SXSW through photographs, old footage and interviews not only with the founders, but also writers Michael Corcoran and Joe Nick Patoski, Creative Director Brent Grulke, entertainer Mojo Nixon and many others.
Set to a rocking soundtrack, the movie begins with a nostalgic look back at shows at Liberty...
In Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW, producer/director Alan Berg chronicles the rise and history of SXSW through photographs, old footage and interviews not only with the founders, but also writers Michael Corcoran and Joe Nick Patoski, Creative Director Brent Grulke, entertainer Mojo Nixon and many others.
Set to a rocking soundtrack, the movie begins with a nostalgic look back at shows at Liberty...
- 4/12/2011
- by Mike Saulters
- Slackerwood
One of the great pleasures of attending the SXSW Film Festival, is that it’s not rare to run into filmmakers, and get the chance to chat with them about their respective pieces, showing at the festival.
A film that I admittedly loved from this year’s festival was the Alan Berg directed film, Outside Industry: The Story Of SXSW, and I had the chance to chat with the man himself. It isn’t the longest interview, but it’s one that is relatively insightful, particularly with the really interesting and engaging piece of documentary filmmaking that Berg was able to create with this feature. An Emmy award winner for a shorter look at the festival, this isn’t new ground for Berg, which itself is a topic that we briefly touched on during our chat.
So, without further ado, here’s my chat with director Alan Berg. Also, stay...
A film that I admittedly loved from this year’s festival was the Alan Berg directed film, Outside Industry: The Story Of SXSW, and I had the chance to chat with the man himself. It isn’t the longest interview, but it’s one that is relatively insightful, particularly with the really interesting and engaging piece of documentary filmmaking that Berg was able to create with this feature. An Emmy award winner for a shorter look at the festival, this isn’t new ground for Berg, which itself is a topic that we briefly touched on during our chat.
So, without further ado, here’s my chat with director Alan Berg. Also, stay...
- 3/25/2011
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
I think I can safely say IFC covered the crap out of South by Southwest 2011. Stephen Saito and I reviewed over fifteen films and interviewed over forty filmmakers during our ten days in Austin. That's way more films covered than hours either of us slept. Here now is a complete archive of everything we did: reviews, video interviews, and print interviews. At the bottom, you'll also find mine and Stephen's picks for the five best films at this year's SXSW. Enjoy. I know we did.
Reviews
"Attack the Block," directed by Joe Cornish
"The Beaver," directed by Jodie Foster
"Bellflower," directed by Evan Glodell
"Bridesmaids," directed by Paul Feig
"Convento," directed by Jarred Alterman
"The Fp," directed by The Brothers Trost
"The Greatest Movie Ever Sold," directed by Morgan Spurlock
"Insidious," directed by James Wan
"Last Days Here," directed by Don Argott and Demian Fenton
"The Other F Word," directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins
"Paul,...
Reviews
"Attack the Block," directed by Joe Cornish
"The Beaver," directed by Jodie Foster
"Bellflower," directed by Evan Glodell
"Bridesmaids," directed by Paul Feig
"Convento," directed by Jarred Alterman
"The Fp," directed by The Brothers Trost
"The Greatest Movie Ever Sold," directed by Morgan Spurlock
"Insidious," directed by James Wan
"Last Days Here," directed by Don Argott and Demian Fenton
"The Other F Word," directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins
"Paul,...
- 3/23/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
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