This past week on indieWIRE witnessed Hole’s 13-years-in-the-making reunion, “Tyrannosaur” director Paddy Considine getting blunt about British film, Lionsgate revealing some microbudget plans and much more.
indieWIRE Wraps Up New Directors/New Films
With so many entries in this year’s New Directors/New Films festival, it could be hard to sort out the good from the well-intentioned. Thankfully, indieWIRE’s Eric Kohn was on the scene to reflect upon this year’s standouts and less successful films.
indieWIRE Launches “Critical Consensus”
indieWIRE launched its new weekly column, Critical Consensus, which highlights the top critics picks from the criticWIRE poll. This week the Italian fable “Le Quattro Volte” beat out the Oscar-winning “In a Better World” to land atop the list.
Filmmaker Toolkit: Meet the San Francisco International Film Festival Programmers (In Their Own Words)
As a resource to filmmakers and anyone interested, indieWIRE continues its series profiling film festival programmers with the latest installment spotlighting the upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival. Other festival programmer profiles include: Sundance Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival.
Reviews: “Hanna,” “Wrecked” and “In a Better World”
Caryn James was lucky enough to catch Joe Wright’s (“Atonement”) first stab at an action thriller and she liked what she saw. “I’ve found Wright’s literary adaptations competent, pretty, and never as moving as they should be,” she wrote. “But his coolness works here, and he displays an unexpected flair for large landscapes and zooming action, which never flags.”
Eric Kohn heaped praise upon Adrien Brody for his commited performance in the indie thriller “Wrecked,” but didn’t think so much of the film itself. “Brody’s engagement with the material prevents ‘Wrecked’ from falling apart,” he wrote. “The actor throws himself into the role, eating worms and roaches, facing down hungry wild life and a gun-toting drifter while dissecting the flashes of memory that pop into his head. He spends most of the time crawling, grunting and moaning, his face caked in dirt.”
Despite winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards, Eric Kohn wasn’t so fond of Susanne Bier’s “In a Better World.” “Bier has done far more compelling work before,” he wrote, “but the globe-spanning, life-affirming, morally upright trajectory of her latest accomplishment weakens its quality while sustaining its popularity. “In a Better World” is heavy, but it’s also heavy-handed.”
Lionsgate Gets Thrifty
Lionsgate chose quality over cost this week as it unveiled its microbudget division, centering around films with budgets under $2 million. In addition, it named the first three films to fall into this category: “Rapturepalooza,” “Gay Dude” and supernatural thriller “6 Miranda Drive.”
Hole Reunites!
Hole reunited for the first time in 13 years this week for the New Directors/New Films premiere of P. David Ebersole’s rock doc “Hit So Hard.” indieWIRE was there to capture a photo of Courtney Love and co. indieWIRE also sat down with Ebersole the day following the reunion to get his thoughts on the ND/NF bow.
Steven Soderbergh Advises Our Youth
Indie stalwart Steven Soderbergh spoke with aspiring filmmakers last week at the Pratt Institute for their annual President’s Lecture Series to dish on what constitutes a successful directing career. Click here to read the best snippets from the talk.
The list continues on page two.
Michigan Earns a Bad Rep
“Michigan’s generous film production tax credits appear to have been too good to be true,” Anthony Kaufman reported in his expose on what causes filmmakers to flee the state.
Five Projects to Champion
indieWIRE used its weekly in-production column to spotlight five projects worthy of success, including an untitled ACT UP documentary, three films from IndieGoGo and a Kickstarter campaign from the Wallabout Film Festival.
Interviews: Paddy Considine, Susanne Bier and James Wan
Paddy Considine, recognized in the States for his acting turns in “In America” and “Hot Fuzz,” makes the leap to directing with his first feature, “Tyrannosaur.” Considine sat down with indieWIRE for a blunt discussion about why he chose to direct this film. “To be perfectly honest,” admitted Considine, “It came out of all the things I didn’t like about directing, acting, cinema or British film.”
Known for launching the seminal torture porn series “Saw,” director James Wan spoke with indieWIRE about his latest horror outing, “Insidious,” and why he enjoys scaring the hell out of audiences. “I always find that the horror filmmakers I’ve met turn out to be the nicest people,” enthused Wan. “You put the things that scare you up on the screen so it’s not in your real life.”
indieWIRE also caught up with Susanne Bier who just netted her first Oscar for “In a Better World.” Click here to read her thoughts on working with kids and how she’s dealing with her post-Oscar fame.
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