The Traverse City Film Festival, founded in 2005 by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, photographer John Robert Williams and New York Times bestselling author Doug Stanton, brings films and filmmakers from around the world to northern Michigan. The festival counted 50,000 admissions in the summer of 2005 and looks to grow this year.
The festival will feature 60 films and will be headlined by a mock-documentary produced by Jeff Goldblum and the latest comedy from Woody Allen. The festival will also include panels with the actors and filmmakers and a tribute to Stanley Kubrick on the 50th anniversary of his first film. It will include screenings of all 11 of his movies, such as A Clockwork Orange, Lolita and 2001: A Space Odyssey. An added bonus is the outdoor 65-foot screen which will offer free outdoor evening showings of Ghostbusters, Napoleon Dynamite, The Wizard of Oz and other films.
I share with you a scene from the soon to be cult classic Snakes on a Plane. You can download more clips and goodies (wallpapers, etc) from the official web site.
Hollywood studios are resisting Apple Computer's plan to sell feature-length films at a flat rate of $9.99 and are refusing to license any content to iTunes unless the company agrees to allow flexible pricing. The studios apparently want consumers to pay significantly more for new releases fresh out of theatres. The debate over prices is similar to the dispute with the major record labels. The record labels had wanted iTunes to raise the price of some songs from the flat-rate 99 cents. The labels eventually caved in as iTunes is the biggest player in the digital music industry.
Hollywood studios will do their utmost to prevent Apple from becoming the major player in film download and some are pressing for the introduction instead of digital rental services, rather than buy-to-own downloads. Netflix, which currently rents DVDS through postal mail, is investing in infrastructure to become a major competitor to Apple, and studios such as Universal are working toward their own movie download websites.
This festival opened on Friday with the film "Strangers with Candy" -- a prequel to the critically acclaimed series featuring Jerri Blank, a 46 year-old ex-junkie, ex-con who returns to high school in a bid to start her life over. The film features appearances by Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The other film screening at the festival that I am looking forward to catching (most likely on DVD) is "Once in a Lifetime" -- a documentary about the rise and fall of the N.Y. Cosmos soccer team that brought Pele to America. The story plays out against the backdrop of the N.Y. City party scene in the 70's. The players would often head out to Studio 54 and as they gained in fame, more celebrities began hanging out with the players. Looks fascinating and fun.
Check out the official site for trailers on these and other films.
Just wanted to mention that well-known and respect film critic Roger Ebert is again battling cancer. Ebert, soon to turn 64, underwent surgery and radiation in 2002 and 2003 for cancer on his thyroid and salivary glands. Further cancer has been found in his salivary glands and he will be undergoing surgery to remove the growth.
Good luck Roger. I hope you have a full and speedy recovery!
Tempermental actor Russell Crowe has departed from director Baz Luhrmann's untitled Australian period epic. This has caused rumours to emerge linking a number of actors to star opposite Nicole Kidman in the movie. The name most often mentioned and the one most likely to receive the role is Hugh Jackman (X-Men), though Heath Ledger, country singer Keith Urban and others have also been discussed.
The film is to be a romantic/action-adventure which takes place in Northern Australia before the start of the Second World War. Kidman will star as an English aristocrat who inherits land and teams up with a cattle driver (formerly Russel Crowe's part) to take 2,000 cattle across the country, only to face the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by Japanese forces.