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Indie Producer Raphael D. Silver Dies After Skiing Accident
7 hours ago
Indie producer Raphael D. Silver died March 4 in Salt Lake City, Utah, two days after a skiing accident in Deer Valley. He was 83. The real estate developer lived in New York City and East Hampton. The production company Silverfilm, which he ran with his wife of 57 years, director Joan Micklin Silver, produced her 1975 debut film “Hester Street” and others including her 1988 “Crossing Delancey, which earned Amy Irving a Golden Globe nomination, and Boston-area film "Between the Lines," starring Jeff Goldblum and John Heard. Silver directed two micro-budget films, 1978's "On the Yard," starring Heard," and "A Walk on the Moon" in 1987. Silver pioneered the entrepreneurial model of filmmaking that continues to this day, according to Ira Deutchman, the chairman of Columbia University’s film program. Silver was a director of the Independent Film Project. Early on, Silver participated in Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and was also on the board of the Big Apple Circus. »
- Anne Thompson
'Evil Dead' Leads Friday Pack, 'Jurassic Park 3D' Stomps in Second
8 hours ago
"The Evil Dead" opened well enough on Friday to make it a likely fifth horror-related film to make #1 in 2013. The twelve top-ranked horror flicks thus far have kept the year's to-date grosses from falling off more than they might have otherwise due to several underperforming costly would-be tentpoles. The Sony remake of Sam Raimi's classic cult 1980s gorefest should prove an easy #1 for the weekend. The combined Thursday night/Friday gross could be the high end of its performance, however. The total will be significantly above its production budget, and even if it falls fast the ultimate worldwide performance and post-theater appeal should make it a solid success. In second place for the day was the 3-D relaunch of another blast from the past, "Jurassic Park." Its Friday gross looks to be about the same as that of "Titanic 3D" last year. Two key differences -- that reissue opened two days earlier, »
- Tom Brueggemann
Nick Nolte Rocks the House at 'The Company You Keep' Q&A, from Redford to Draft Dodging to Malick
5 April 2013 2:26 PM, PDT
Robert Redford is an impeccably controlled filmmaker who takes his art seriously. While none of his films have been as accessibly commercial as "Ordinary People," which won him the directing Oscar, this movie is Redford's best since "Quiz Show." A brainy thriller in the Sydney Pollack mode, "The Company You Keep" benefits from the imposed rigors of low-budget filmmaking. Redford developed the film for nine years for himself to direct and star in, and shot it in 40 days. The script by Lem Dobbs is a tight with plenty of juicy dialogue for a raft of attractive older actors, from Redford, Julie Christie and Sam Elliott to the always-super Chris Cooper, Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins and Brendan Gleeson. Younger cast members Shia Labeouf, Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick and Brit Marling also carry their weight. Smarter-than-your-average movie, "The Company You Keep" is edge-of-your-seat watchable in its first two-thirds »
- Anne Thompson
Visual Artist Takashi Murakami Brings Weird Feature Film Debut 'Jellyfish Eyes' to Lacma
5 April 2013 1:43 PM, PDT
Known for his ocular aesthetic and pop-art-inspired wall installations, Japanese mixed-media artist Takashi Murakami brings his feature filmmaking debut "Jellyfish Eyes" to the Film Independent at Lacma film series on Monday, April 8th. This is the film's international premiere.Like his contemporary visual art, Murakami's colorful film juxtaposes cute-and-cuddly with the grotesque. Blending CGI and live-action, "Jellyfish Eyes" follows a young boy who moves to a small city in the Japanese countryside. But Masashi soon discovers that inside the apartment he shares with his mother lives a tiny monster, and that beneath this strange city is a sordid bedrock of conspiracies, cults and evil experiments. Allegedly, this ambitious film was ten years in the making. Murakami will be present for a Q&A following the 7:30 Pm show. Get more info about "Jellyfish Eyes" and the screening from Film Independent and Lacma, and watch a very weird trailer below. »
- Ryan Lattanzio
Kristin Scott Thomas Talks Fave Films, Classy Image and Working with Winding Refn and Gosling on 'Only God Forgives'
5 April 2013 1:28 PM, PDT
To kick off the Unifrance-sponsored Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival in London, now in its fourth year and running until 7th April, Kristin Scott Thomas sat down with The Independent film critic Jonathan Romney for a wide-ranging, convivial chat about her film and theater careers. The actress, who resides in Paris, divides her time fairly evenly these days between English- and French-language films and stage appearances (she's coming to the end of a West End run in Harold Pinter's "Old Times" and had to dash off after 45 minutes for that evening's performance). Scott Thomas has a reputation for not suffering fools gladly (least of all those of the journalistic variety) but had an easy rapport with Romney, who asked smart questions and got equally smart and frequently funny replies. Here are a few of the highlights, which include some insights into working with Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling »
- Matt Mueller
Trailer Watch: Kim Ki-Duk's Venice Golden Lion Winner 'Pieta,' Plus New Mondo Poster
5 April 2013 12:39 PM, PDT
The new trailer for Kim Ki-Duk's 2012 Venice Golden Lion winner and South Korea's Oscar entry "Pieta" has arrived, along with a poster by Mondo artist Jay Shaw (Mondo's parent company, Drafthouse Films, is distributing the film). Jo Min-soo gives a knockout performance as a woman claiming to be the long-lost mother of a lone shark (Lee Jung-jin) who collects bloody paybacks for his moneylender boss. He literally takes limbs in payment. This must-see for any cinephile who can handle the violence is a driving nasty propulsive drama with unexpected emotional confrontations: between ruthless torturer and hapless victim, vengeful survivor and quarry, and would-be mother and son. The film hits theaters May 17, but will be available via iTunes and VOD April 12. »
- Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
Watch: Sam Raimi's Resurrected Short Film Precursor to the Original 'Evil Dead'
5 April 2013 12:18 PM, PDT
As Sam Raimi has long hence entered the big-studio realm and we brace ourselves for Fede Alvarez's upcoming revamp of "The Evil Dead," a rarely seen early-80s short film by Sam Raimi has resurrected online. A bonus feature on many of the endless DVD iterations of Raimi's gory anthology, "Within the Woods" is a kind of short film treatment of "The Evil Dead." Here, you can see Raimi, shooting on Super 8 with budget of less than $2,000, and the famously chainsaw-wielding Bruce Campbell in their early heydey before "Dead" became a three-part franchise. Before Alvarez's "Evil Dead," which hits theaters today, there was Raimi's 1981 seminal B-horror classic, a film that laid the groundwork for all schlocky low-budget scarefests that followed. Though Raimi's latest film, Disney's "Oz the Great and Powerful," couldn't be farther from the horror movie geek-land the cult American director often inhabits, "Dead"-heads will get »
- Ryan Lattanzio
Why Roger Ebert was Unique; The Web Says Goodbye to Our Most Famous Critic: Memories, Writing and Video
5 April 2013 12:03 PM, PDT
The reaction to Roger Ebert's death has been overwhelming and gratifying. The major news networks, CNN, Frontline, you name it, they covered it. Every single movie site or reviewer or blogger or anyone who cared about movies weighed in. Here's the deal. Ebert was the most famous movie critic who ever lived. No critic will ever be as famous again, because his need to share his passion for films via television and text was so huge that there was no room for vanity or putting on a fake face. Audiences responded to his honesty--and the fact that he and Gene Siskel were genuine rivals. That was lightning in a bottle. Ebert was the new model film critic who took to the web like a duck to water because he was always about honest, forthright engagement. He wasn't speaking to film fans from on high, lecturing to them about what they should like. »
- Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
Cannes Palme d'Or-Winner Jane Campion To Get Carrosse d'Or
5 April 2013 11:25 AM, PDT
New Zealand director Jane Campion, whose superb neo-noir "Top of the Lake" series is running on Sundance Channel, will receive the Carrosse d’or at Cannes this year. The Society of Film Directors (Srf) will award her with their prize during the opening ceremony of the 45th Directors' Fortnight (May 16 - 26), a sidebar of the 66th Cannes Film Festival. Winner of the Palme d'Or for 1993's"The Piano," Campion is heading to Cannes next month anyway as head of the shorts jury. According to CineEuropa, the Carrosse d’or rewards innovation, boldness and intransigence in directing and production. Since 2002, winners include Clint Eastwood, Nanni Moretti, Ousmane Sembene, David Cronenberg, Alain Cavalier, Jim Jarmusch, Agnès Varda, Jafar Panahi and Nuri Bilge Ceylan. »
- Anne Thompson
Deadlines Approaching for 2013 Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Competition
5 April 2013 11:22 AM, PDT
Deadlines to submit entries to the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition are coming up: the regular deadline is Wednesday, April 10, and the final deadline is Wednesday, May 1. As many as five $35,000 fellowships will be awarded in November. The competition is only open to any individual who has not earned a total of more than $25,000 from the sale or option of screenplays and teleplays. Previous Nicholl fellows recently in the news include Destin Daniel Cretton, whose "Short Term 12" won the Grand Jury and Audience awards at SXSW, and Creighton Rothberger, who co-penned White House-in-peril box office success "Olympus Has Fallen." Online applications and rules are here. »
- Beth Hanna
Czech That International Film Festival Comes to UCLA Film & Television Archive
5 April 2013 10:55 AM, PDT
The "Czech That Film" International Film Festival, the second annual touring program of the best new films out of the Czech Republic, is coming to Los Angeles. The series is organized and curated by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and will be running May 10 - June 3 at the Hammer Museum's Billy Wilder Theater. The fest kicks off with first-time director Zdenek Jirasky's "Flower Buds," winner of four Czech Lions in 2012, centering on the struggles of a small-town family. Closing the series is David Ondricek's brilliant neo-noir and Czech Oscar entry "In the Shadow," starring a top-notch Ivan Trojan as a detective in currency reform-era Prague investigating a mishandled burglary case. (Our Toh! review of the film is here; Ondricek was named by Variety as one of the directors to watch in 2013.) Both Jirasky and Ondricek will be in person at the fest. You can buy tickets via the UCLA Film & Television Archive site. »
- Beth Hanna
Mikkelsen's 'Hannibal' Gives NBC Much-Needed Ratings Boost, 'The Hunt' Opens July 12
5 April 2013 10:36 AM, PDT
Looks like Danish star, former dancer Mads Mikkelsen, has boosted his stateside star power and NBC's Thursday night ratings at the same time with crime drama "Hannibal," which earned 4.3 million viewers and a 1.6 with adults. "Hannibal," based on the Thomas Harris character so memorably played by Anthony Hopkins in Jonathan Demme's Oscar-winner "Silence of the Lambs" and the Ridley Scott sequel, earned stronger reviews than any other of the beleaguered network's new dramas. "Hannibal" did remarkably well considering its 10 Pm slot and competition, coming in third behind original episodes of ABC’s "Scandal" and CBS’ "Elementary." It's NBC's best rating in that Death Valley period in a year. Here's Indiewire's interview with the showrunner Bryan Fuller. Thirteen episodes are already in the can. Win-win for NBC, which could use some good news right now as they get lambasted for mishandling yet another Jay Leno exit. (Best report on this is from THR's Kim Masters, »
- Anne Thompson
Full Lineup Announced for EW CapeTown Fest: Gilliam and Donner Join Nimoy, Carpenter, Russell, Wright, Plus "Special Announcement" Screening -- 'Iron Man 3'? Updated
5 April 2013 9:56 AM, PDT
Entertainment Weekly's new CapeTown Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood (April 30 - May 5) will run 14 screenings in six days for some 8,500 fans. Filmmakers Terry Gilliam and Richard Donner and author Neil Gaiman will join the fest with screenings of their classics "Twelve Monkeys," "The Goonies" and "Coraline," respectively (Laika chief Travis Knight will fill in for filmmaker Henry Selick). EW will record all the Q&As by Capetown programmer Geoff Boucher and his EW colleagues Jeff Jensen and Anthony Breznican to run as video on EW.com and audio on the new EW SiriusXM channel. We'll see how much coverage winds up in the magazine itself. (I was amazed at how much the magazine's SXSW coverage favored music over one teeny paragraph about film award-winners.) EW is giving all profits from ticket sales and concessions to benefit nonprofit American Cinematheque.Meanwhile the L.A. Times is opting to »
- Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
In the Works: Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mikhail Gorbachev Teaming for HBO's 'Gorbachev'
5 April 2013 9:30 AM, PDT
Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev will be collaborating on HBO film "Gorbachev," chronicling the last years before the Soviet Union's fall. Hanks and DiCaprio will both be taking on executive producing roles. John Shiban ("Hell on Wheels") is penning the script. Per Deadline, the film came together via DiCaprio's relationship with the famous leader; Gorbachev had appeared in his documentary "11th Hour." Jennifer Killoran, Gary Goetzman and Keith Addis are also signed on as executive producers. No word yet on casting. »
- Beth Hanna
Trailers from Hell: Max Landis on Andrzej Zulawski's Marital Nightmare 'Possession,' Starring Isabelle Adjani
5 April 2013 8:26 AM, PDT
Euro Horror Week! concludes at Trailers from Hell with screenwriter Max Landis introducing Andrzej Zulawski's "Possession," starring Isabelle Adjani in a ferociously committed, award-winning performance.Adjani anchors this most unusual and little-seen marital nightmare from Polish director Andrzej Zulawksi, which won plaudits in Europe in its 123 minute version but played off as a horror programmer in America after losing 26 minutes. Imagine Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage set in Berlin with special effects by Carlo Rambaldi. The seldom astute Vincent Canby of The New York Times characterized it as "a veritable carnival of nosebleeds", which is pretty typical of the Us critical reaction. »
- Trailers From Hell
Review: In Documentary 'Maidentrip,' Laura Dekker Looks for Paradise in a Sea that Never Ends
5 April 2013 4:05 AM, PDT
Jillian Schlesinger’s “Maidentrip,” which debuted at SXSW and screens this weekend at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, chronicles Dutch teen Laura Dekker’s sail around the globe at age 14, a feat which would win her the title in 2012 of youngest person in history to make the voyage alone. Observant and unassuming, the documentary looks at the significance of Laura’s trip not in terms of records, but as a rite of passage, and as a way for the teen to negotiate her past. The film gets the ugly stuff out of the way first. Following Dekker’s announcement to sail in 2009, she and her father were embroiled in a ten-month legal battle. Dutch authorities claimed that Laura needed a custody transfer, while the internet tossed words at her including “arrogant,” “spoiled” and the particularly nasty sentiment: “I hope she sinks.” After a year of warring with the courts »
- Beth Hanna
Montclair Film Festival Announces 2013 Program, Includes 'In a World' and 'Frances Ha'
4 April 2013 5:54 PM, PDT
The second annual Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey has announced its 2013 lineup.Running from April 29th to May 5th, the festival is curated by Thom Powers, who programs the Toronto International Film Festival's International Documentary area, the Miami International Film Festival and runs the IFC Center's weekly doc series Stranger than Fiction. Montclair's opening night selection is Morgan Neville's "Twenty Feet from Stardom" -- which was also the opening night doc at this year's Sundance -- a film profiling various underdog back-up singers who have performed onstage with bands such as the Rolling Stones and Talking Heads (more about the film, picked up by RADiUS-twc, here). Also hailing from Sundance is Montclair's centerpiece "In a World," the feature film directorial debut of Lake Bell, who stars as a vocal coach with aspirations of becoming a voiceover star. Read Indiewire's interview with triple-threat Bell here. Other films on the docket include. »
- Ryan Lattanzio
In the Works: Jason Clarke and Omar Sy Set to Star in 'Syriana' Writer/Director Stephen Gaghan's 'Candy Store'
4 April 2013 5:48 PM, PDT
Good Universe and Lionsgate announced today that actors Jason Clarke and Omar Sy are set to star in the new film by Oscar-winning writer/director Stephen Gaghan, "Candy Store." Both actors have been cast on the heels of a successful 2012. Clarke recently starred opposite Jessica Chastain in Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," and will appear next month in Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby." French co-star Sy starred last year in the official French Oscar submission "The Intouchables," and beat eventual Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin for the best actor Cesar. Gaghan nabbed a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 2001 for Steven Soderbergh's ensemble drama "Traffic," and was nominated again in 2006 for his original screenplay of "Syriana," a film Gaghan also directed. Like those films, "Candy Store" interweaves disparate storylines amid a criminal milieu. Clarke will play a covert operative up against a king pimp (Sy) in Brooklyn. Gaghan will direct »
- Ryan Lattanzio
HBO's 'Game of Thrones' Season Premiere Breaks Online Piracy Records
4 April 2013 1:58 PM, PDT
The third season premiere of HBO's fantasy television series "Game of Thrones," which was just renewed for a fourth season, has broken yet another record after a wildly successful broadcast on the premium network last Sunday, March 31st. It was reported that mere hours after the episode's original 9 Pm airtime, over 160,000 viewers had shared a single download using the peer-to-peer program BitTorrent. Simultaneously, over 50,00 were still downloading the premiere. This is a new record for online piracy, as the last placeholder was the 2008 season three premiere of late NBC sci-fi series "Heroes" with nearly 145,000 peers sharing on the network. Despite competition with illegal downloading, HBO still did very well, racking in 4.4 million viewers during the original broadcast (read Toh's review and recap here). Two subsequent broadcasts brought the total to 6.7 million. The cable channel will likely continue to contend with online piracy, as Time Warner has yet to make HBO's OnDemand. »
- Ryan Lattanzio
Obit: Roger Ebert was a Superman
4 April 2013 1:01 PM, PDT
Sad news. Roger Ebert has died of complications of cancer. The legendary and indefatigable Pulitzer-prize-winning film critic had announced Tuesday that he was taking a "leave of presence," per his journal on the Chicago Sun-Times. Since December he had been recovering in a Chicago rehab facility from a hip fracture. It turned out that the cancer he had been fighting since 2002 had returned. He is survived by his loving wife Chaz. Only Ebert would continue to insist that he was going to continue reviewing, even if in a limited capacity. I remember at a tete-a-tete Sundance dinner marveling at his competitive drive and intense devotion to sharing his love for movies. That's what kept him alive and kicking this long. Ebert was able to hang on tenaciously to Disney/ABC's "Ebert & Roeper" after the death of his best and most evenly matched sparring partner, rival Chicago critic Gene Siskel of The Chicago Tribune, »
- Anne Thompson
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