Oscar hopeful Beasts of the Southern Wild and Artifact , actor Jared Leto ‘s documentary — he’s credited as Bartholomew Cubbins — about his band 30 Seconds to Mars, are among the five films that have made it to the final round of IFP’s Gotham Independent Film Audience Award contest. Beasts, which was directed by Benh Zeitlin , turns out to be the only non-documentary nominated: The other three contenders include Kirby Dick’s Invisible War , about rape in the military; Burn , Brenna Sanchez and Tom Putnam’s documentary about Detroit firefighters, and Jonathan Kalafer’s Once in a Lullaby: The PS 22 Chorus Story , which tells the story of how the fifth-grade chorus at a Staten Island public school came to perform at the 2011 Oscars. The first round voting took place from October 18 – 31, during which 31 audience award-winning films from the top 50 US and Canadian film festivals were narrowed through online voting to the five films with the highest number of votes. Round two of voting will take place until Nov. 18, and the winner will be announced at the Gotham Awards in New York on Nov. 26. Filmgoers can vote online for their favorite film . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Also in Monday morning’s round-up of news briefs, Michael Douglas ‘ And So It Goes proves popular with buyers; Argo heads to Doha Tribeca Film Festival; and Cafe de Flore shines at the Specialty Box Office. Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Terrence Stamp Lead Noms at British Independent Film Awards Stamp, 74, and Redgrave, 75, are cited for Song for Marion , in which they play members of an amateur choir. Dench, 77, is nominated for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel , as is her co-star Dame Maggie Smith, also 77. Broken , starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy, has nine nominations for the awards, which take place December 9th, BBC reports . D.C.’s Million Puppet March to Save PBS 1,000 people took part in a ‘Million Puppet March’ in the U.S. capital in a bid to keep PBS funding. Republican nominee Mitt Romney pledged to de-fund public television in a ‘Big Bird’ reference that became a key catch phrase of this election season, Deadline reports . Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton’s And So It Goes Sells Around the Globe Douglas plays a self-centered eccentric realtor whose life is turned upside down when his estranged son drops off a granddaughter he never knew. But his determined and lovable neighbor (Keaton) enters the picture and unexpectedly helps him to love again. The film is selling well around the world at the American Film Market currently underway, THR reports . Argo Heads to Doha Tribeca Film Festival Robert DeNiro will also be feted with a special event at the festival organized in part with the Tribeca Film Festival. Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist will open the event in the Gulf state of Qatar, taking place November 17 – 24, THR reports . Specialty Box Office: Cafe de Flore , A Late Quartet Lead Pack of Newcomers Specialty movies openers bowed mostly middling at at best, and a couple of pictures may have suffered residual Hurricane Sandy trauma. Adopt Films’ Cafe de Flore took the per-theater-average crown with $10K in one location. Entertainment One’s A Late Quartet bowed in 9 theaters with a fairly solid average of 8,433, although the distributor suggested the figure was lower than it might have been if The Sunshine in Manhattan’s Lower East Side had been able to re-open sooner, Deadline reports .
Also in Monday morning’s round-up of news briefs, Michael Douglas ‘ And So It Goes proves popular with buyers; Argo heads to Doha Tribeca Film Festival; and Cafe de Flore shines at the Specialty Box Office. Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Terrence Stamp Lead Noms at British Independent Film Awards Stamp, 74, and Redgrave, 75, are cited for Song for Marion , in which they play members of an amateur choir. Dench, 77, is nominated for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel , as is her co-star Dame Maggie Smith, also 77. Broken , starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy, has nine nominations for the awards, which take place December 9th, BBC reports . D.C.’s Million Puppet March to Save PBS 1,000 people took part in a ‘Million Puppet March’ in the U.S. capital in a bid to keep PBS funding. Republican nominee Mitt Romney pledged to de-fund public television in a ‘Big Bird’ reference that became a key catch phrase of this election season, Deadline reports . Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton’s And So It Goes Sells Around the Globe Douglas plays a self-centered eccentric realtor whose life is turned upside down when his estranged son drops off a granddaughter he never knew. But his determined and lovable neighbor (Keaton) enters the picture and unexpectedly helps him to love again. The film is selling well around the world at the American Film Market currently underway, THR reports . Argo Heads to Doha Tribeca Film Festival Robert DeNiro will also be feted with a special event at the festival organized in part with the Tribeca Film Festival. Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist will open the event in the Gulf state of Qatar, taking place November 17 – 24, THR reports . Specialty Box Office: Cafe de Flore , A Late Quartet Lead Pack of Newcomers Specialty movies openers bowed mostly middling at at best, and a couple of pictures may have suffered residual Hurricane Sandy trauma. Adopt Films’ Cafe de Flore took the per-theater-average crown with $10K in one location. Entertainment One’s A Late Quartet bowed in 9 theaters with a fairly solid average of 8,433, although the distributor suggested the figure was lower than it might have been if The Sunshine in Manhattan’s Lower East Side had been able to re-open sooner, Deadline reports .
A decent weekend overall, Paranormal Activity 4 lead the pack though its debut came in rather slow compared to previous installments. Argo held strong in its second weekend, showing word-of-mouth is cementing its box office prowess, while Hotel Transylvania , Taken 2 and Alex Cross rounded out the top five at the weekend box office. 1. Paranormal Activity 4 Gross: $30.2 million Screens: 3,412 (PSA: $8,851) Week: 1 The latest installment of Paranormal Activity lead a robust box office weekend. Still, it debuted comparatively lower to last year’s Paranormal Activity 3 , which opened with over $52.5 million in 3,321 theaters and a $15,829 average. Paranormal Activity 2 bowed with just under $40.7 million its opening weekend in October of 2010, averaging $12,649. 2. Argo Gross: $16,625,000 (Cume: $43,191,489) Screens: 3,247 (PSA: $5,120) Week: 2 (Change: – 14.6%) Debuting second to Taken 2 last week, Ben Affleck’s Oscar-buzzed political thriller held strong adding just 15 more theaters in its second run, holding solidly in the number two position again. Word-of-mouth is clearly propelling the title as it continues its run. 3. Hotel Transylvania Gross: $13.5 million (Cume: $119 million) Screens: 3,384 (PSA: $3,989)a Week: 4 (Change: – 21.7%) One month into release, the animated title is holding strong. It placed fourth in its third weekend and managed to up one spot in its fourth weekend out. The title added nine theaters in its fourth run. Last weekend the title grossed $17.3 million. 4. Taken 2 Gross: $13.4 million (Cume: $105,971,000) Screens: 3,489 (PSA: $3,841) Week: 3 (Change: – 38%) The number one film when it debuted, it tumbled over 55% in its second weekend, but managed to stem the fall a bit in the current round. The pic lost 217 theaters compared to the previous weekend and dropped from 1st to 4th place. 5. Alex Cross Gross: $11.75 million Screens: 2,539 (PSA: $4,628) Week: 1 Word had given the title based on crime novel I Alex Cross by James Patterson reaching the $20 million mark in its debut. Its the lowest debut for a movie starring Tyler Perry and it compares to a $13.2 million debut for Alex Cross title Kiss the Girls at $13.2 million and $16.7 million for Along Came a Spider . 6. Sinister Gross: $9.03 million (Cume: $31,950,168) Screens: 2,542 (PSA: $3,552) Week: 2 (Change: – 49.9%) The title had a hefty nearly 50% fall from its initial run, but it should be noted that it also faced a new challenger in the form of Paranormal Activity 4 . 7. Here Comes The Boom Gross: $8.5 million (Cume: $23,224,328) Screens: 3,014 (PSA: $2,820) Week: 2 (Change: – 28.1%) The title placed seventh after debuting in fifth place and held at the same number of theaters. Its 28% drop shows some momentum. It averaged $3,981 in its bow. 8. Pitch Perfect Gross: $7,009,100 (Cume: $45,769,448) Screens: 2,660 (PSA: $2,635) Week: 4 (Change: – 24.4%) The title dropped two places from its third weekend sixth position, but its b.o. change of just under 25% was much less steep than its 37.6 per cent drop from its third weekend. The title lost 127 theaters from the previous week. 9. Frankenweenie Gross: $4,434,000 (Cume: $28,343,000) Screens: 2,362 (PSA: $1,877) Week: 3 (Change: – 37%) Tim Burton’s latest stop motion animation had only a slightly lower drop in its third weekend than last week. It lost 643 locations, after holding in 3,005 theaters in its first two weeks. Last weekend it averaged $2,348 and debuted with a rather weak $3,798. 10. Looper Gross: $4.2 million (Cume: $57,840,132) Screens: 2,223 (PSA: $1,889) Week: 4 (Change: – 32.3%) The drop in receipts was less than the previous weekend’s nearly 50% drop and the film’s second run drop of nearly 42%. Looper lost 382 theaters in its fourth weekend. [ Sources: Box Office Mojo , Rentrak ]
Calling Ben Affleck ‘s Argo a “terrific thriller,” one of the six Americans who managed to escape the U.S. embassy just as student radicals took over the compound by fleeing into Tehran’s streets has set a bit of the record straight. Mark Lijek, who’s portrayed by Christopher Denham in Affleck’s awards contender, spoke out after attending the film’s L.A. premiere, giving his detailed version of events. And while there are strong parallels with the film, which began its release last week and has garnered Oscar buzz, the timeline of real-life events had some significant departures from the film, which Affleck starred in and directed. Still, Lijek did learn one thing from the film, which surprised him all these years later. ( Caution, spoilers if you have not seen the movie ). The backbone of the story – namely, the idea of posing the six Americans as movie-makers in order to dupe Iranian officials and sneak them of the country – is in fact true. The movie version of events suggest the six “house guests,” who were holed up in hiding in the Canadian Ambassador’s residence, needed convincing to go the route of posing as Hollywood insiders. But the plan’s CIA mastermind, Tony Mendez (played by Affleck) had in fact presented three ideas, which the group accepted as the best option straight away. “We liked the idea enough, in fact, that we chose it over two other scenarios that Tony also brought to us,” said Lijek in a first-person account of their ordeal in Slate magazine. “In one of them, we would pose as businesspeople, in something petroleum-related, if I remember correctly. In the other, I think we were meant to be teachers looking for employment at an international school. But those two seemed like throwaways, and Tony did not try too hard to sell us on them.” After considering the three options, Lijek noted, the group accepted the plan whereas in Argo it seemed to split the group, with dissenters reluctantly agreeing to go along. “It was clear the organization and energy was focused on the Hollywood option. And they were right to be: While the movie presents myriad dramatic complications and last-minute twists and turns, the plan actually went off without a hitch. Lijek’s account focuses on the drama the group had going from place to place in the lead-up to Mendez’s arrival. The six managed to evade capture, going from one temporary safe space to the next before ending up in the safe hands of the Canadian compound and in the care of Canadian John Sheardown, who was critical in safeguarding them. “When Tony Mendez arrived on Jan. 26, 1980, we were ready to leave,” writes Lijek. “The hostage crisis was no closer to resolution. We had asked [Ambassador] Taylor in early January to tell Washington we wanted out. Each day we stayed in Iran added to the risk of capture.” Continuing, he gives credit to Sheardown, who didn’t make the script in the movie version of events. “It never came to that — and John Sheardown may well be the indispensable reason why. Without his enthusiastic welcome we might have tried to survive on our own a few more days. We would have failed. And so it was hard, sitting at the swanky Los Angeles premiere the other day, not to see John in the movie. I understand, though, why he couldn’t be there. Argo already had more characters than a typical thriller, and adding the Sheardowns would not have enhanced the drama.” But Lijek received a surprise at the film’s screening as the credits rolled when a voice came in talking about the crisis 32 years later. “The film’s biggest shock? The voiceover from Jimmy Carter at the end. In comments about the incident that I had never heard before, Carter says our chance of success was 50 percent. 50?! I thought it was much higher. Another gut check. Would we have gone with Tony at 50 percent? I’ll never know.” [Source: Slate ]
Calling Ben Affleck ‘s Argo a “terrific thriller,” one of the six Americans who managed to escape the U.S. embassy just as student radicals took over the compound by fleeing into Tehran’s streets has set a bit of the record straight. Mark Lijek, who’s portrayed by Christopher Denham in Affleck’s awards contender, spoke out after attending the film’s L.A. premiere, giving his detailed version of events. And while there are strong parallels with the film, which began its release last week and has garnered Oscar buzz, the timeline of real-life events had some significant departures from the film, which Affleck starred in and directed. Still, Lijek did learn one thing from the film, which surprised him all these years later. ( Caution, spoilers if you have not seen the movie ). The backbone of the story – namely, the idea of posing the six Americans as movie-makers in order to dupe Iranian officials and sneak them of the country – is in fact true. The movie version of events suggest the six “house guests,” who were holed up in hiding in the Canadian Ambassador’s residence, needed convincing to go the route of posing as Hollywood insiders. But the plan’s CIA mastermind, Tony Mendez (played by Affleck) had in fact presented three ideas, which the group accepted as the best option straight away. “We liked the idea enough, in fact, that we chose it over two other scenarios that Tony also brought to us,” said Lijek in a first-person account of their ordeal in Slate magazine. “In one of them, we would pose as businesspeople, in something petroleum-related, if I remember correctly. In the other, I think we were meant to be teachers looking for employment at an international school. But those two seemed like throwaways, and Tony did not try too hard to sell us on them.” After considering the three options, Lijek noted, the group accepted the plan whereas in Argo it seemed to split the group, with dissenters reluctantly agreeing to go along. “It was clear the organization and energy was focused on the Hollywood option. And they were right to be: While the movie presents myriad dramatic complications and last-minute twists and turns, the plan actually went off without a hitch. Lijek’s account focuses on the drama the group had going from place to place in the lead-up to Mendez’s arrival. The six managed to evade capture, going from one temporary safe space to the next before ending up in the safe hands of the Canadian compound and in the care of Canadian John Sheardown, who was critical in safeguarding them. “When Tony Mendez arrived on Jan. 26, 1980, we were ready to leave,” writes Lijek. “The hostage crisis was no closer to resolution. We had asked [Ambassador] Taylor in early January to tell Washington we wanted out. Each day we stayed in Iran added to the risk of capture.” Continuing, he gives credit to Sheardown, who didn’t make the script in the movie version of events. “It never came to that — and John Sheardown may well be the indispensable reason why. Without his enthusiastic welcome we might have tried to survive on our own a few more days. We would have failed. And so it was hard, sitting at the swanky Los Angeles premiere the other day, not to see John in the movie. I understand, though, why he couldn’t be there. Argo already had more characters than a typical thriller, and adding the Sheardowns would not have enhanced the drama.” But Lijek received a surprise at the film’s screening as the credits rolled when a voice came in talking about the crisis 32 years later. “The film’s biggest shock? The voiceover from Jimmy Carter at the end. In comments about the incident that I had never heard before, Carter says our chance of success was 50 percent. 50?! I thought it was much higher. Another gut check. Would we have gone with Tony at 50 percent? I’ll never know.” [Source: Slate ]
To be honest, I came up with this idea before I actually saw Argo on Tuesday night, but now that I have seen Ben Affleck’ s gripping, well-directed film, I can’t let it go. When I learned about the plot of the movie — in which a CIA agent (Affleck), a Hollywood make-up artist ( John Goodman ) and a movie producer (the wonderful Alan Arkin ) — gin up a fake movie to rescue a group of diplomats trapped in Iran during the hostage crisis — it struck me that Argo was the inverse or the flip side of another fake movie that got a lot of press this past summer: Innocence of Muslims . Argo is about the power of film harnessed for humane reasons — specifically, to extract American diplomats who would have probably faced grisly, public executions had they been caught after slipping out of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran when it was taken over by militants in 1979. Innocence of Muslims is about the dark side of that equation. It’s the power of film — still potent even when the so-called movie is little more than a collection of half-assed scenes cobbled together and thrown on YouTube — misused to incite violence and stoke mistrust and anger between Muslim nations and the United States. Argo , which is based on a true story, is about saving lives. Innocence of Muslims was linked to violent attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Libya on Sept. 11 that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. When I saw George Clooney, who is one of Argo ‘s producers, at a private screening and dinner for the film at the Time Warner Center on Tuesday night, I ran my idea by him. Was there any lesson, I asked, to be learned from the controversy and the tragedy that Innocence of Muslims provoked? I’m not a big fan of asking celebrities their opinions about international or national affairs, but I’ve come to admire Clooney’s political activism and his understanding of the way the world really works, as well as his humanitarian spirit. (In March, he was arrested outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington for protesting the country’s blockage of food and aid to its own starving people.) After listening to my take on Argo and Innocence of Muslims , Clooney suggested that I was making a bit of a leap, but he did answer my question. For one thing, he said, “I’m not quite sure that those diplomats did die as a result of that movie. It seems more like that was a coordinated effort by Al Qaeda” to make a statement on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil. But getting to the root of my question, Clooney told me: “Freedom of speech means you have to allow idiots to speak, and that’s the unfortunate thing.” “This guy clearly wanted to create problems,” he continued referring to Nakoula Basseley , the Egyptian immigrant who appears to have masterminded the making of Innocence of Muslims . Clooney added that he saw part of the YouTube video: “It made me mad and I’m not Muslim,” he said. “It made me mad for the quality of film that it was, more than anything. But the simple truth is that in order to make [democracy] work, the idiots get to have their say, too. And that’s unfortunate.” I agree. What do you think? Please let me know in the comments section below. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Not afraid to show off his political side, Ben Affleck is giving his take on the current U.S. Presidential campaign. Hitting the road promoting his political thriller Argo , the director and star of the film compared Republican nominee to past hopefuls who did not make it to the White House. A past ardent supporter of liberal causes and a full-fledged Obama fan four years ago, Affleck only offered tepid support for the incumbent. “I think Republicans really had a chance to win,” Affleck told A.P. during an interview about Argo . And they kind of ended up with like a sort of Mike Dukakis, Al Gore, Bob Dole type – who just couldn’t get people to see him as a real person somehow. Romney just had such trouble coming off as just like the kind of person you see at the grocery store. And I truly believe that has cost him the election.” Affleck went on to add that it looks “quite unlikely” that the Republican hopeful will unseat Obama, saying “negative momentum” can at some point cause a downward spiral for a campaign. “You start making mistakes and then all your advisers tell you, ‘You’ve got to raise your arms more!’ ‘You’ve got to talk deeper.’ So people just get into becoming robotic.” Still, if Affleck shares the same enthusiasm for Obama as in the first go-around, he is clearly holding back, saying that with hindsight his opinions have changed. “”I voted for Obama last time although he got to be all things to all people then,” Affleck said. ”And now he’s got a record which makes it really different … I obviously have more complicated feelings.” Affleck has often thrown his hat in the political sphere, doing lobbying in Washington and traveling abroad for various causes. He’s also said he wouldn’t rule out a future run for an elected office in the future. And his latest film, which debuted last month at the Toronto International Film Festival has already prompted talk of possibly multiple Oscar nominations. The film recalls an international crisis that many attribute for the failed re-election bid of Jimmy Carter in 1980, ushering in the Reagan era. Directed and starring Affleck, along with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman, Argo is set as militants take over the U.S. embassy in Tehran in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. While 52 Americans are held, six others escape and hide in the Canadian ambassador’s residence. The film recalls a plan hatched by the C.I.A. and specialist Tony Mendez (played by Affleck) to help the six to escape Iran. [ Source: Associated Press ]
Ben Affleck , director, makes his most ambitious movie yet in this fall’s Argo , the crazy true (and until recently, secret) story of how the CIA attempted to rescue six American diplomats during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis by disguising them as a film crew working on a science fiction movie. The first trailer for Argo ranks up there with the best we’ve seen all year, setting up the stranger-than-fiction premise with juicy moments from veteran thesps (John Goodman! Alan Arkin!) and up-and-comers (ladies and gentlemen, Scoot McNairy) alike as Affleck serves up a bizarre slice of history. Affleck directs from a script by Chris Terrio (based on Joshuah Bearman’s engrossing 2007 Wired article “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran”), casting himself as CIA officer Tony Mendez, the orchestrator of the so-called “Canadian Caper.” He’s joined by Goodman as Planet of the Apes Oscar-winner John Chambers, the Hollywood make-up artist who helped Mendez set up the operation, and Arkin as a producer delivering choice zingers (“If I’m doing a fake movie, it’s going to be a fake hit!”). In addition to folks like Goodman, Arkin, Victor Garber, Bryan Cranston, Michael Parks, Zeljko Ivanek, Affleck tapped a few rising actors to fill out his cast: Scoot McNairy ( Monsters ), Christopher Denham ( Sound of My Voice ), and Kerry Bishe ( Red State ) join Tate Donovan, Clea Duvall, and Rory Cochrane as the six imperiled diplomats. Add in the muted ’70s palette and sense of humor tempered by life-and-death stakes and you’ve got what promises to be an intriguingly layered ride, if Affleck the director can pull it off. Argo is slated for release on October 12, gunning for awards season. Verdict: If it measures up to the true story and the article it inspired, this could be great. Thrill me, Affleck.
The directorial career of Ben Affleck is officially in overdrive: The Oscar-winning screenwriter is in talks to direct and star in Line of Sight , an actioner that “centers on an elite commando squad transporting cargo while dealing with a global threat.” Transporting cargo! That old cinematic treat. Affleck is about to start work on Argo , a CIA drama set during the Iran hostage crisis. Ooh, intrigue! Delicious. I’m yelling , “Gobble, gobble” already. [ THR ]
