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From the "Biz" Archives: Peddling DVDs on the Street (Legally); "Detective Fiction" Deal; Dead Dogs; Fellini Retrospective & More by Wendy Mitchell
INDUSTRY MOVES: mPRm is closing its New York office. Jessica Manzi will stay with the company and movie to the Los Angeles office, while others, including John Murphy, Sara Finmann and David Kleinberg are departing the outfit. Eric Besner has been named VP of business and legal affairs for Home Vision Entertainment, a DVD company that serves as distributor for The Criterion Collection. Besner had been VP of biz affairs and general counsel for Image Entertainment. He will now work with Home Vision's Steve Riforgiato, VP of acquisitions and marketing, in negotiating new acquisitions. Brette Goldstein and Andrea Shane have merged their independent offices to create the partnership of Shane/Goldstein Casting, with a new office at 311 West 43rd St. The company will cast film, theatre, television, and commercials. Upcoming projects for Shane/Goldstein Casting include the indie films "Blue Rinse," "Mamzer," "Ring Liberty," and "Homecoming." TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS: Filmmaker Jason Rosette, who directed the well-received festival fave "Book Wars" (2000), is taking his film to the streets, literally. The doc, which looks at the world of New York's street booksellers, is now available on DVD, which Rosette is -- you guessed it -- peddling on the streets of New York. We recently ran into Rosette in Soho, where he had a tiny table full of his DVDs for sale, alongside other vendors selling incense and hand-crafted jewelry. Rosette even has a shiny silver pen to autograph the flick on the spot. The director, who was formerly a street bookseller himself, said he thought it would be fun. Special features include commentary by the director and bookseller Peter Whitney, plus two featurettes, production notes, and more. For details on the DVD, visit http://www.camerado.com. DETECTING A DEAL: Festival fave "Detective Fiction," which debuted at Sundance 2003, now has a theatrical deal. Landmark Theatres will present Patrick Coyle's feature for limited release at Minneapolis' Edina Theatre for a one-week run starting today, with possible other cities to follow. The Sundance Channel has acquired North American cable rights, and it will feature Coyle in its "New Voices" series in December. The film, a noir-ish tale about a troubled marriage, stars Coyle alongside Mo Collins. DOG GONE: So BUZZ was busy, uh, surfing the Internet at work, checking out the recently launched New York site of online film community Shooting People (ny.shootingpeople.org) when we came upon this absolutely priceless request from one filmmaker: "Can anyone suggest how I create a dead dog for a shot where a dog gets run over by a car and lies all bloody and dead in the street?" the fellow named Tom asked the online experts. He continued, "It doesn't really matter what kind of dog - just not a really really small Manhattan-style dog - so if anyone has a dead dog lying around I could borrow that would be good. Seriously how can I do this without hurting a dog? Even a brilliant dog actor that could 'play dead' won't work because we'll see the breathing." Ah, the dilemmas of filmmaking. FELLINI FEST: To honor the 10th anniversary of the death of Federico Fellini, New York's Guggenheim Museum will offer a retrospective of his films and drawings, from October 31 through January 25. The Fellini! show includes rarely seen drawings, newly restored film prints, short films, exclusive interviews, and commercials Fellini created in the 1980s, as well as several new documentaries about the director, including "The Last Sequence" by Mario Sesti, which boasts recently discovered scenes shot for "La Dolce Vita." Fellini fans and collaborators including Woody Allen and Roberto Benigni are expected at the gala opening on October 30. SAMURAI STYLE: Film fans that share Quentin Tarantino's love of action flicks can tune into IFC for a "Samurai Action Fest," which will feature QT himself introducing several of the films. The series starts today; a week ahead of Tarantino's "Kill Bill" opening. Films in the fest include Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" and "Seven Samurai," plus a behind-the-scenes special about the making of "Kill Bill." SHARIF IN L.A.: The AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, which runs November 6-16, announced that it will honor legendary actor Omar Sharif at its annual AFI FEST Tribute on November 11. Sharif will be on hand for a presentation of clips as well as a conversation with Variety's Peter Bart. The fest will also host the U.S. premiere of Fran¨ois Dupeyron's "Monsier Ibrahim," starring Sharif. Also, the Skirball Cultural Center will host a Sharif retrospective on November 12-13. The AFI Fest will also pay tribute to director Anthony Minghella on November 13, with a presentation of clips, an interivew, and a showing of 20 minutes of footage from his forthcoming Civil War epic "Cold Mountain." PANASONIC DIGITAL GRANTS: Panasonic has announced a new digital filmmakers grant program, which will reward a production package to a doc or feature indie filmmaker each quarter. Winners will be the use of a fancy 24p dual-mode camera package, a Final Cut Pro 4 editing system, and a digital deck from Apple. Applications are being accepted at www.panasonic.com/dvcpro/ through December 31. ACADEMY GETS DIGI: While the MPAA may be running scared from digital technologies, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has created a new Academy Science and Technology Council that will "monitor the current state of the technological arts, one that can work to facilitate understanding of new developments both within the industry and by the wider public audience." The council will also chronicle the history of film technology. Funds have been allocated to hire a director and staff. PALM SPRINGS SHORTS: The Palm Spring International Festival of short films wrapped its seven-day festival on September 22, with winners as follows: Bobby Garabedian's "Most" (best of festival), Andrij Parekh's "Dead Roosters" (future filmmaker award), Masanobu Takayangi's "Shui Hen" (Kodak award for best student cinematography, first place), Jens Jonsson's "The Spade" (best live action under 15 minutes), Aaron Schneider's "Two Soldiers" (best live action over 15 minutes), Sam Chen's "Eternal Gaze" (best animation), Bill Brown's "Buffalo Common" (best documentary), Mim Gan's "With Honors Denied" (audience favorite doc), Brett Hershey's "Fast Cars & Babies" (audience live action), and Aristomenis Tsirbas' "Terra" (audience animation). For honorable mention and student winners, visit www.psfilmfest.org. RHODE ISLAND SCRIPTS: The Rhode Island Film Festival recently announced the winners for its fourth-annual screenplay competition. Taking the grand prize from the 217 submitted screenplays was Lance Hammer's "The Imperfect Cell," about a young composer and an aging L.A. waiter. Hammer received more than $6000 in cash and prizes. First prize winners were Barbara Marshall's "Bach Double," Nicholas Kataspetses' "The End of Grace," and Ellen Maria Gavin's "Rebels and Roses." Finalists were Robin Catalano's "The Connection," Wrenn Bartlett's "Portrait in Clearing," and Michael Gray's "Pray for Rain." CANADIAN CROWNS: The Directors Guild of Canada will host its second-annual awards ceremony on Sunday at The Carlu in Toronto. Nominees that are confirmed to attend include Atom Egoyan (for "Ararat"), Shawn Alex Thompson (for "An American In Canada: True North Strong & Free"), Nicholas Campbell ("Da Vinci's Inquest: For Just Bein Indian"), Jerry Ciccoritti ("Trudeau"), and Bruce McDonald ("Degrassi TNG: When Doves Cry & White Wedding"), and Lynne Stopkewich ("The Atwood Stories: Man From Mars"). Awards will be presented in 15 categories. Daryl Duke will receive the group's lifetime achievement award. UNDERGROUND NO MORE: Boston's Allston Cinema Underground is closing, following the Boston Underground Film Festival on October 8. Organizers cited "rising costs for use of the theatre and diminishing returns of programs." Any films scheduled after the 8th will be cancelled. The Allston Cinema will remain open as the Allston Bombay Cinema 2, showing first-run Bollywood films on both screens; its Wednesday night kung-fu series will continue at least through November. [Eugene Hernandez contributed to this report.] | |
