Out 14th March 2014. The first trailer:
NEED FOR SPEED could be awesome. Aaron Paul and Michael Keaton in a car chase flick. Enough said. Out 14th March 2014. The first trailer: "I'm not the guy you kill. I'm the guy you buy," Michael Clayton, MICHAEL CLAYTON
Tony Gilroy, BOURNE franchise writer, talking about his career today. Twelve things I learnt: 1. Gilroy has never read a Robert Ludlum novel. Doesn't consider himself an adaptor. Tonight he wanted to talk about the original screenplay. 2. Screenwriting is imaginative work. We make stuff up. It's scary because you can't teach someone to be imaginative. You can kill it though, and magnify it. 3. Curiosity, important for his line of work, in all kinds of things, and staying interested. Gilroy's knowledge of the world is broad but very thin, dinner companion thin. But you're ready to go deep. 4. You have to know human behaviour. Your quality of writing is capped at your knowledge of human behaviour. More than understanding, you have to have empathy. 5. You need to become a journalist, reporting what's in your head. 6. Plotting out a thriller is agony. Goes 50% faster working with someone else - spitballing, role playing, like you're 9 years old. 7. Gilroy spent six years tending bar while figuring out how to write a screenplay. 8. Regarding how directing has altered his style - The more films you get made, the less dialogue you write and the more camera you write. 9. Television is where ambiguity is living, interesting characterisation, shades of morality. 10. You've been sucking up narrative since you were born. You know more about narrative than anything else. You intrinsically know what a movie is. 11. Action sequences are built to locations. Build to limitations. What haven't you seen before? On the page - write as fast as possible. Be energised when you write. 12. A great day of writing trumps everything. "Shoes like these should not be locked in a closet. They should be living a life of scandal and passion," Maggie Keller, IN HER SHOES.
Susannah Grant, writer of ERIN BROCKOVICH, talking about her career yesterday. Seven things I learnt: 1. The popularity of your unique voice is not what matters, it's staying true to it. 2. Grant has written herself over and over in different lives she wants to live. 3. Your job is to protect the story and script, with collaboration in mind. It's a dance. 4. Grant's scripts are 118-120 pages long. The trash pile (containing unused material) is another 200 pages. It is a process of excavation for her. 5. Every scene of POCAHONTAS was re-written 35 times. The nature of that particular project. 6. Grant writes with a standing desk, with a treadmill underneath! 7. Tip for first time screenwriters wishing to get known, enter screenwriting contests; finishing in the upper ranks helps. Regarding getting an agent: Polite persistence. Only one film I can talk about, the other two are embargoed due to being world premieres.
THE ARMSTRONG LIE ★★★★★ Team Gibney has ability to relay large volumes of info, with a compelling through line, pulling you to finish. Plus, we also caught, after missing it at Toronto: METALLICA: THROUGH THE NEVER ★★★☆☆ As concert film, fans will love. As twist on a concert film, the narrative element was undernourished. Finally got to meet Korean acting great Choi Min-sik last night, a.k.a. OLDBOY.
He was articulate and charming, giving full answers to the questions posed to him. Five things I learnt from the Q&A with Choi Min-sik: 1. On the 1st October, Min-sik is meeting writer-director-producer Luc Besson to discuss starring in LUCY with Morgan Freeman and Scarlett Johansson. 2. Min-sik is looking forward to the OLDBOY remake. He admires actor Josh Brolin. 3. Compassion is guiding principle in choosing future work, in part answer to a question on the brutality of some of his previous roles. 4. Min-sik persuasively defends the necessity of having national screen quotas to protect local cinema on a number of levels 5. When reflecting back on roles, Min-sik makes an analogy to past romances - you always regret that you couldn't have been better. He tries his best. LFF 2013 press screenings day four:
ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE ★★★★☆ Entertaining supernatural horror-comedy from Lucky McKee; this time channelling his inner DETENTION. WEEKEND OF A CHAMPION ★★★★☆ F1 fans will go nuts. Intimate and historical. Roman Polanski interviews Jackie Stewart across 40 years. THE FEAR ★★★★☆ Esoteric domestic violence drama. Palpable tension, and an ending that comes out of nowhere. Plus, we also caught at last, after missing it at Berlin and Toronto: DON JON ★★★★☆ Nice one Joseph Gordon-Levitt, on the acting-writing-directing fronts. Julianne Moore and Tony Danza steal it. Only one film I can talk about, the other two are embargoed due to being world premieres.
LATE AT NIGHT: VOICES OF ORDINARY MADNESS ★½☆☆☆ Even worse than the director's previous SHE, A CHINESE. An unilluminating experimental documentary looking at capitalism and global politics. LFF 2013 press screenings day two:
MY FATHERS, MY MOTHERS AND ME ★★★★☆ Benign start, then segues into a disturbing documentary on the impact of being born and raised in a commune. THE SPECTACULAR NOW ★★★½☆ Excellently acted growing pains flick. In the same league, but not as lean or as focused as LIKE CRAZY. [Redacted] - We cannot talk about the third film due to it being an embargoed world premiere. Also watched, the opening night film: CAPTAIN PHILLIPS ★★★★★ Epic. Director Paul Greengrass tweaks style formidably. Tom Hanks brings leading man A-game. (A HIJACKING perhaps the superior though.) "You want to control me, and you can't. But that doesn't make me your enemy," Superman (MAN OF STEEL)
BLADE - THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY - MAN OF STEEL writer David S. Goyer talking about his career yesterday. Five things I learnt: 1. Goyer had an agent at 20, sold a screenplay at 21, and a film in production at 22. Through confidence and perseverance. 2. The three film franchises he has worked on (see above), had no creative interference. 3. Goyer says producer Jerry Bruckheimer is right: "Television won". Re the war with cinema. 4. On the Batman films, director Christopher Nolan trusted him to know canon, and how far they could depart and change. Goyer had 10 sticky things for The Dark Knight and Man of Steel films that had emerged over decades, he discovered, that could not be changed. 5. He doesn't believe in rules outside the narrative of the film, e.g. Superman doesn't kill. The London Film Festival press screenings commence two and a half weeks prior to the start of the festival on the 9th October. From Day One:
AS I LAY DYING ★★½☆☆ James Franco's third and best film behind the camera of 2013. Not saying much. Takes time to get going. MYSTERY ROAD ★★★½☆ The wild, wild East. Almost apocalyptic Australian police procedural. Ending doesn't quite match preceding menace. ELECTRO SHAABI ★★½☆☆ A minor curiosity. Music-politics documentary on rise of new music genre in Cairo. Structurally wanting. Not part of the festival, but managed to squeeze in a preview of Hugh Jackman - Jake Gyllenhaal starrer: PRISONERS ★★★★☆ So close to being up there with MEMORIES OF MURDER and THE VANISHING. It just needed to end two minutes earlier. |
This website is written by Hemanth Kissoon.
Filmaluation is dedicated to arts culture, with a particular focus on film. I care about intelligence, quality and entertainment. Need some movie and TV show recommendations? See the drop down to the right of the Home tab. Enjoy. The vital ambitions of art and entertainment: - Perceptiveness - Illumination - The unexpected - Innovation Brains and soul are key; but adrenaline junkies do not fret, there is also much love for an experience that delivers a sucker-punch to the guts via stunningly delivered thrills. Noun, “filmaluation”: The evaluation of a film Verb, "to filmaluate”: To evaluate a film I am well aware how difficult it is to make a film, put on a stage play, create a television show, write a novel, let alone make something of note. (That appreciation doesn’t stop me from having high standards though.) This online magazine is edited by Hemanth Kissoon. Filmaluation is owned by Filmaluation Limited (Company number 8549302. Registered in England and Wales) Archives
September 2024
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