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- Breaking! Kevin Smith to Self Distribute Red State!
- Sundance 2011: Kevin Smith’s Red State- From the Theater Review!
- Sundance 2011: Kevin Smith’s Red State Auction Live from the Eccles
- Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions Acquire Margin Call
- Sundance 2011: Here Movie Review
- Sundance 2011: Reviews–’I Saw the Devil’ is Gory as HELL
- Sundance 2011: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Movie Review
| Breaking! Kevin Smith to Self Distribute Red State! Posted: 23 Jan 2011 09:00 PM PST
Tonight at the Sundance premier of Kevin Smith’s Red State, after weeks of hyping a public auction of distribution rights inside the theater immediately following the screening, with speculation floating around that the movie already had a deal lined up in advance, and criticism that it was all a big spin for the sake of publicity, Smith announced the big reveal himself: He’s not going to hand this film over to a distribution firm. Rather, he’s going to create a brand new branch of his own Smodcast network called Smodcast Pictures, and distribute the film without the help of a studio. This is a very, very big deal. Find out more about the story that allegedly sent Harvey Weinstein fuming out of the theater midway through the announcement, after the jump… Smith made a big point of the fact that his life took the turn it did when he took a chance with Clerks at Sundance. He put his livelihood on the line, and it paid off in a major way. But the last few of his movies, which were released with the benefit of studio backing, still lost money because no matter how well they did in the box office, they had spent so much on marketing the films, they would never make a significant profit. However, since he’s built up his own fan base over the last two decades, he now has the means to reach out to audiences on his own. The movie’s official release date will be October 19th, 2011 (the 17th anniversary of the theatrical release of Clerks). In the mean time, he’s going to take the film on a tour of the country to build word of mouth awareness, complete with live Q&A’s from himself and the film’s breakout star, Michael Parks. Who knows, he might even sing a song or two! The tour will start in New York, go to Chicago, Boston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Seattle, and Austin, to name a few. They will not make TV ads or theatrical trailers for the film, but rather rely on word of mouth and audience enthusiasm. “The fans are the ones who got us to make this film, and they’re going to be the ones who help us get it seen,” was the sentiment he expressed. “Independent film has shown the world that we can make our own movies, but now we need to show them that we can release our own movies. True independence does not involve handing your work over to some jackass at the end of the day.” I think it’s safe to say that he’s burned more than a few bridges. But he’s also announced his retirement. His tenth and final film, Hit Somebody, will be released in 2012. “I will have made my movies, now I’ll help make your movies.” So at least if this fails, he doesn’t have to worry about it spoiling whatever remains of his career. However, if this experiment works, then he could rock the movie industry. Media has become so much more accessible, and everyone has talked about finding a new distribution model for years now. However, people seem to limit the scope of this discussion specifically to YouTube, which keeps the distribution on the internet. If Smith can prove that his podcast network has the ability to reach audiences and bring them to movie theaters, then he may be able to create a new model which will expose audiences to new filmmakers by cutting out the middlemen who have refused to grow with the times and technology. We will all keep our fingers crossed for Smith. Check out ScreenCrave’s live blog of the event with some quotes from Kevin Smith Himself here. You can also read our spoiler free, knee-jerk review of the film here. And check out Red State when it comes to a city near you! Related Posts
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| Sundance 2011: Kevin Smith’s Red State- From the Theater Review! Posted: 23 Jan 2011 07:36 PM PST
***Also Update: Check out the live blog of the “sale” of the film*** It’s here! Kevin Smith has kept his latest project under tight wraps (that is, unless you listen to his podcast or follow him on twitter, in which case you know more about it than 90% of press outlets), and everyone has been chomping at the bit to see Smith’s first Sundance offering since Clerks, almost twenty years ago. Well, we here at ScreenCrave managed to get coveted tickets to the premier, and here is our knee jerk response to what we saw! Check it out after the jump…
The Players:
I’ve been waiting for a film to impress me, to blow my hair back. Despite that this was the hardest ticket to get and everyone was saying that the protests outside were all a promotional stunt…
…and I would like to say it was “just ok” — right now, while still sitting in the theater listening to Smith speak, I can say this is THE best, strongest, fucking ballsiest and well made film at Sundance 2011 so far. Kevin Smith walked on stage before the film and said “this is not a comedy, it’s a REAL horror film” and he wasn’t fucking joking. Words like shocking, merciless, relentless, angry come to mind immediately, but what I loved about it the most is it’s unforgiving stance. People who hate others for no good reason are fucking nuts. Who knew that Smith knew how to direct actors? John Goodman, fucking amazing. Melissa Leo, dare I say, she’s never been better, she will blow you mind, she will scare you shitless and leave you horrified in the most magnificent way. Michael Parks gives one of the most sinister performances ever seen, he gives Christoph Waltz a run for his money. The film takes its time in a number of scenes. It doesn’t rush but builds tension. Much like the opening scene in Inglourious Bastards with Christoph Waltz, the first church scene in this film moves slowly but the tension just keeps building and building until it finally explodes and then doesn’t give up until the end… and the once the credits role, it keeps going. Don’t plan on leaving the cinema when the film “ends” these are some slow credits that you need to chill out and let creep you out. Despite the graphic violence and dramatic nature, this film had bigger laughs than any of the comedies here. It’s smarter, more relevant and frankly when you have so much crazy honesty, it comes off as either fucking scary, or fucking funny and this film managed to pull off both. This film was made for less than $4 million in about 4 months, shot in about 25 days and it’s phenomenal. Now lets let the bidding begin… oh wait. He just bought it himself for $20…. SWEET! Film in theaters October 19th by Kevin Smith and Smodcast! And for all your asshole protesters — what what in the butt! Check out Smith’s sign….
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| Sundance 2011: Kevin Smith’s Red State Auction Live from the Eccles Posted: 23 Jan 2011 07:29 PM PST
Holy Hell! We just finished the screening of Kevin Smith’s Red State, and was that a shocker! Now, immediately following the premier, he’s holding a public auction inside the sold out 1,200 seat Eccles Theater in Park City. While rumors abounded that the film had been sold well beforehand and that this was all a publicity stunt, Smith insists otherwise, and the auction will begin any moment now, live before we, lucky enough to get into the premier of his new film. To find out who won the rights to distribute the flick, check out the rest of the story after the jump… UPDATE: Okay, we’re out of the theater now, and I’m going to touch this up a little bit so it’s more coherent. But the big story of the night…and maybe the festival…can be found at the end of the live blog, after the jump…
AUCTION LIVE BLOG: 8:28 – Kevin Comes out holding a Wayne Gretzky Stanley game winning hockey stick for good luck. He’s changed his life philosophy to adapt tothat of Gretzky’s…”Go where the puck is going to be, not where it is.” 8:30 – “Seventeen years ago, I took my shot here with clerks….and the last movie I made was Cop Out, so you know I had to come back here fucking quick…” 8:31 – “This is the first independent movie I’ve made since clerks, where we didn’t have a studio behind it…it cost us $4 million to make…we’re thinking, maybe Harvey will say, ‘here’s $6 million, lemme get back to the fucking Jets game!’” 8:35 – “If say, Lions gate, buys the movie for $6 million, they’re going to have to spend $20 million advertising it, so now the movie has to make $26 million to make a profit…and I never wanted to get into the movie BUSINESS. I’m a fat masturbating stoner!” 8:38 – “Harvey always said to me, when he looked at other studios movies, when they would open well, Harvey would go ‘fuck…they just keep buying it…anyone can buy the opening weekend of a movie…he was a genius…and we named our company ‘The Harvey Boys,’ after him.” 8:40 – “I look at the film world today, and think ‘I never would have even fucking tried in this world now!’” 8:41 – Kev is explaining that he’s built his own audience through his development of the Smodcast network, and explaining exactly how many people he can reach just by himself. 8:42 – Producer John Gordon joins him on stage to conduct the auction…here we go. 8:43 – Kevin Smith bought his own movie for $20! that was quick! They are going to release the picture themselves under the Smodcast Pictures Banner. It will be officially released October 19th, on the 17th anniversary of Clerks “We’re staring over. It’s not just about making the movie, it’s about releasing the movie. True independence is not about handing your work over to some jackass.” 8:45 – “We’ll be taking it on the road, the way Gone with the Wind style. We’ll be kicking off the Red State tour, beginning March 5th, at Radio City Music Hall. March 6th, Wilbur, March 8th, Harris In Chicago, March 11th, indianapolis, March 12th in Kansas City….” He’s moving too quickly for me to list all the tour dates. We’ll transcribe our tapes immediately following the 8:47 – “All it takes is a little creativity and ingenuity…and I am happy to take this flick from place to place…until we release it on October 19th…When it opens, we’re not going to spend to open it. We’re not going to be doing TV spots or advertisements.” 8:50 – “I’m sorry to all the distributors in the room…well I’m not that sorry, because it’s a film festival. come see a fucking movie.” 8:51 – “You don’t need a fucking studio to release a movie, you need an exhibitor!” 8:52 – “Indy film isn’t dead, it’s being reborn. We’ve proved that anyone can make a movie, now we need to release anyone can RELEASE a movie…” 8:53 – “This is my second to last movie. I’m going to make one more movie, and then I’m done making my movies, and we’re gonna make yours. Smodcast Pictures is going to release your movies without you having to spend a fucking dime.” THIS IS AMAZING NEWS! I hope the hype this film built leading up to Sundance explodes out of it, and builds stronger and stronger to prove that this guy can create a new model and get rid of the industry standard that discourages and prevents so many filmmakers from even starting to make their own movies for fear that it will never see the light of day anyway. We’ll be doing a followup post to discuss the implications of this. Thanks for following this story, and have a great night! Related Posts
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| Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions Acquire Margin Call Posted: 23 Jan 2011 03:05 PM PST
Over the past week, Hollywood insiders have been rubbing elbows with filmmakers from all over the world to view the latest up and coming movies. One of the most talked about features to play at this year’s Sundance is the financial drama Margin Call. The film is written and directed by J.C. Chandor and stars a roster of talented actors led by Kevin Spacey. Thanks to that winning combination, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have joined forces to acquire the film for distribution!
Via the press release:
Watch out for ScreenCrave’s Margin Call Movie Review and be sure to check back for more of the latest happenings from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival! Related Posts
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| Sundance 2011: Here Movie Review Posted: 23 Jan 2011 02:05 PM PST
Here is one of those films that I want to respect because the director took a number of creative risks and attempted to try to incorporate art into the story — unfortunately, many of the artistic choices just didn’t work. Thankfully there is one huge redeeming factor to this film, Ben Foster. For some time he has been the supporting character who is in some way, shape or form, crazy. He’s proved that he can not only cross genres but carry a film as the lead…
The Players:
As I said before there are a number of great qualities to this film and some great attempt by King to do something different. From starting the film from “behind the scenes” to a 3 minute visual, psychedelic intro with a poetic monologue, the problem is — they only kind of tie into what the film is actually about. It’s like he was trying to take a romantic drama and make it more than it was when he would have been better off either making an art film or making a drama. One of the big problems is that the intro of the film loses audiences. The visuals are so intense that it’s too hard to focus on the monologue which I’m guessing was important to the film, but I can’t really tell you because all I was thinking is “please don’t let these swirling images keep going.” The fact is, there was no real need for it. And though I like the idea of starting the film with us hearing the crew get ready and hearing the director yell “action” — it just didn’t work for this film because it had nothing to do with the plot. There were all these extra things tagged on, and I think that with some hefty chopping there is actually quite a good story in here. If the film would have just lets us watch the amazing performances by Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal and their story unfold, this could have been a great film. It’s great to see Foster in a lead role doing well and coming off as both charming and sexy. Let’s see some more of it! Overall:There is a great film within this film, but it’s just not ready for audiences yet. There were a number of bold choices added that though were interesting were not needed in order to best tell the story in this film. On thing is for sure, Ben Foster, it’s time for some leading roles for you. Video Review:
Watch more video review from the Festival on ScreenCrave’s YouTube Channel! Related Posts
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| Sundance 2011: Reviews–’I Saw the Devil’ is Gory as HELL Posted: 23 Jan 2011 01:22 PM PST
If you like Chan-Wook Park’s Vengeance Trilogy, you’ll love I Saw the Devil. Director Kim Jee-Woon’s latest thriller doesn’t hold back and doesn’t hesitate to go where you really don’t (but secretly do) want it to go. Everyone endures torture (whether physical, emotional, or psychological) and nobody really comes out on top. But unlike Saw or Hostel, I Saw the Devil is a game of torture you can really get behind. It has all the makings of a classic gore-fest. Its inventively sick and twisted violence builds into a crescendo of mayhem comparable to Old Boy. Read on for the review.
The Players:
The Plot:This is a revenge tail in which a young special agent’s fiancee is brutally murdered by a serial killer/rapist. He takes his revenge on him not by simply killing him, but by implanting a tracking device inside the killer and attacking him every time he tries to take another victim. It turns into a game of terror as he stalks the serial killer, breaking a wrist in one brawl, slicing his tendon in another – and taking him to the hospital to get bandaged up so he can do it again later. Of course, the tables turn on our hero when the killer gets wise to his tracking device. It ends with a gut-wrenching guillotine scene, after which it’s hard to decide the victor. Review:This film is definitely up to snuff in the Korean horror/thriller genre. It engages and manipulates the audience very insidiously and effectively. The world of the film seems to be peopled with serial killers who know each other– and at one point, it seems to turn into more of a villains versus villains type of story – which bad guy is a worse bad guy? Do we want our central villain to get killed by this new villain? NO! We want to see our hero maim our central villain more! And wait a second, our hero is far more violent than the serial killers; why am I okay with that…? Every shot from beginning to end flawlessly conformed with the tone and purpose of the film. There were only a few “jump-out-at-you” moments, which can seem cheap if they’re over-numerous. But this film uses them very well, and they were far from the scariest scenes in the film. Kim Jee-Woon is a master craftsman of the well-built horror scene. One thing to note is that this film is 141 minutes, and generally I have a hard time being exposed to violence for such a prolonged period. However, for the purposes of this film, it really worked. The length itself actually played a large part in the psychological horror of the film, which is the persistence of the hero to drag out his terrorism of the serial killer. It hooked me from the beginning and sustained momentum through the end. Overall:The movie takes everyone’s worst nightmare and then matches it with everyone’s worst revenge fantasy. If you like gore and violence, you have to see this film. Rating: 7.5/10Related Posts
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| Sundance 2011: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Movie Review Posted: 23 Jan 2011 11:34 AM PST
Eating nothing but McDonalds is bad for you; the U.S. government, with all it’s resources, hasn’t found terrorist boogeyman Osama Bin Laden; the prevalence of advertising in our daily lives has gotten out of hand: File these in the “No Duh!” section of most of our collective brains. If you arrived at these conclusions on your own, but could use an affirmation and maybe a little bit of evidence to support your arguments, then rejoice! Morgan Spurlock is back to affirm things you already knew! At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Spurlock trots out his new movie, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. It is a documentary about advertising and product placement in films, which he financed entirely with revenue from product placement–how meta. Find out more about the latest experiment in irony from the mustachioed doc director, after the jump… If you’ve ever watched a movie with a budget upwards of seven figures (don’t worry, you have), then there there is a 99.9% chance that there is advertising embedded in the film. For example, the Transformers franchise is a giant ad for Chevrolet, among several other things, as are any number of blockbusters like Iron Man, X-Men, The Fast & the Furious, and all of James Bond flicks (Remember when Pierce Brosnan specifically orders a Smirnoff martini in one of the latter Bond flicks he was in? You’d think he’d be classy enough to go for at least Stoli, or something). This product integration is rarely subtle, due to the fact that advertisers are paying through the nose for the privilege to have their wares featured among the movies that are guaranteed millions of eyeballs. But what are the implications of this? Are people even aware they’re being advertised to? Do the morals of this ever come into play for the artists involved? How much influence do these advertisers hold over the final products being made? These are some of the questions explored in Morgan Spurlock’s new film, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Once again, Spurlock throws himself directly into the middle of the issue at hand, and attempts to create a movie about product integration, funded entirely by corporate sponsorships in exchange for the opportunity to be featured in it. He takes meetings with ad agencies and corporate PR representatives, and has to sell himself and this project to them as relentlessly and hyperbolically as they advertise their goods and services to consumers. These pitch meetings provide great insight into the development of a commercial idea, and shed some light onto the decision making process that leads to sponsorship. And Spurlock nails it. He is so articulate, enthusiastic, and well prepared for these encounters that a great number of the people he meets with jump on board. His infectious enthusiasm garners him sponsors like Jet Blue, POM Wonderful, Mini Cooper, Amy’s Organic Pizza, Hyatt Hotels, and Sheetz (an east coast gas & food station chain). He has the perfect response for any questions they raise over the course of the meetings, and his confidence and humor endears him to both the advertisers and the audience. Hence, the film is made, viewed by audiences, reviewed by news outlets, and therefore advertised to you, the public. Woah! That’s happening right now! But what does that mean for the potential criticism of advertising in general? It seems logical that the impetus for such a project would be just that. Why would he point out to the world that we are being advertised to at just about every waking moment if you didn’t feel that it has some negative effect? This is certainly the case in his earlier film, Super Size Me (I wonder if he even bothered to pitch the idea for this film to McDonalds). But with the same corporations he’d be criticizing putting up the money for him to do this, how does he keep himself from coming off as a hypocrite, and out of the sights of their enormous legal departments? Simple. He lets other people do it. The film features interviews with linguist Noam Chomsky, politician Ralph Nader, film director Peter Berg, and scores of individuals on the street whose opinions he cannot deny. He visits an urban planner and the mayor of Sao Paolo, Brazil, where outdoor advertising has been outright banned. All of these guests point out the insidious nature of advertising, and express a general public mistrust towards its practices. Incidentally, the most satisfying moment of the film comes from director Brett Ratner proclaiming, “Artistic integrity? Whatever.” But Spurlock maintains his trademark sense of humor throughout, and the film focuses more on the actual production of the film than this social criticism. He also takes care to get sponsorships specifically from companies whose products he enjoys and believes in, softening the blow of the notion that he’s compromising his values as an independent filmmaker by accepting their money. However, it definitely feels like he’s only scratching the surface of a much larger issue. With the exception of a scene in which they analyze brain activity through an MRI while he is being inundated with ads, as well as a segment in which he sponsors a school district to help advertise the final product of his film, there is nothing especially revelatory about the ideas being presented. But The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is an energetic, funny, and generally enjoyable glimpse into the minds of marketers and their collaborators. P.S. Don’t worry, I am aware of the irony of writing a piece critical of advertising for a blog which contains, quite possibly, the greatest number of ads I’ve ever seen on a website. Related Posts
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