DAILY NEWS: "Bully" Pulled; IFILM's Re-Launch;
"Holy Grail" Returns; Human Rights Fest
Honorees
by Eugene Hernandez, Anthony Kaufman and Maud
Kersnowski/indieWIRE
>> "Bully" Pulled
from Method Fest Opening Slot, Replaced with "Fast
Sofa"
(indieWIRE/06.15.01) -- "It's been a nightmare scenario,
regarding 'Bully,'" said Method Festival
Director Don Franken. "We feel like we've been
bullied." Originally slated to open the 3rd Method Fest Film
Festival tonight (Friday) in Pasadena, Larry Clark's
third feature "Bully" was pulled by distributor Lions Gate
Films just days before the scheduled premiere. Salome
Breziner's "Fast Sofa" will instead open the
Festival this evening.
"In April, we were offered this film," continued Franken.
"We have a very nice contract signed by president Tom
Ortenberg." Franken even took Lions Gate to District Court
on Wednesday, but the case was judged in the mini-major's
favor, citing Ortenberg's deposition that a print of the film
would simply not be ready in time.
As late as Friday, Lions Gate's West Coast publicity
director Melissa Holloway contacted the festival to
find out where to send the print. Franken considered this a
tacit agreement that the print was coming. "Larry Clark and
Melissa Holloway never indicated to us that the print wasn't
ready," he said in a conversation with indieWIRE.
However, Holloway told indieWIRE yesterday, "Yes, I did
make the motions to find out where to get my print shipped,
but I had made it clear to him that I didn't have a print yet.
We have not received the final print from the producers and
the director. Until we receive the final print from them, the
film is technically not our property." The first of the film's
New York press is scheduled for next Wednesday, June 20th,
Method Fest organizers allege that Wild Bunch,
Canal Plus' sales agency repping "Bully"
internationally, are the real reason why the film was pulled.
Wild Bunch's Carole Baraton sent an e-mail to Method
Fest Programming Director Elaine Wood, which stated,
"I'm sorry for the festival, but there is nothing I can do to
help, since presenting the film as a world premiere in
Pasadena goes totally against our international sales
strategy." The e-mail went on to say, "We don't want to be
difficult, but Lions Gate should have consulted us before
taking any engagements."
"This is Wild Bunch pressuring Lions Gate and Lions Gate
not willing to stand up to them," Franken said. Insiders are
speculating that the movie will instead end up having an
international festival premiere later this year. Lions Gate's
Tom Ortenberg, which is only handling domestic distribution
and will open the movie on July 13th, was not available for
comment by press time.
Breziner's "Sofa" stars Jennifer Tilly, Adam
Goldberg, Jake Busey, Crispin Glover,
Natasha Lyonne, Bijou Phillips, Eric
Roberts and R. Scott Loughran. [Anthony Kaufman]
[For more information, visit:
<http://www.methodfest.com/>.]
>> IFILM
Re-Invents Itself for Consumers; New Site Debuts
(indieWIRE/06.15.01) -- IFILM's re-launch this week
pushed the site further into the consumer online film market
by expanding from shorts into feature films. The retooled and
redesigned site focuses on IFILM's Internet Movie Guide that
combines information, reviews and availability both on and
offline for over 80,000 full length movies, 2,000 of which
have links for online viewing. "It's really an extension of
the strategy we always had. We were never interested in
creating our own content," Executive Vice President of
IFILM Network Frank Voci told indieWIRE. "I don't see
this as shift as much as an expansion of what we've always
done."
While no other site acts as a clearinghouse for all of the
information IFILM now offers, there are established
destinations carrying similar content, most notably the
Internet Movie Database (IMDb). "You go to IMDb when you want
to know who the 3rd grip on a movie was. You don't go to them
when you want to know what to watch or to rent or see online.
They don't go all the way through to viewing like we do,"
explained Voci.
IFILM, which began its life two years ago as an industry
and shorts destination, has recently spun off a number of its
industry oriented properties. IFILMPro and the
Hollywood Creative Directory will continue to be
offered as channels. And a large chunk of the offerings will
continue to come from IFILM's 30 partners that link over
12,000 shorts to the site. Cinema Now,
CinemaPop, LikeTelevision, MovieFlix, and
New Gen Films now join the list as partners offering
feature films.
In a tightening market that witnessed another prominent
film site, Atom/Shockwave, gutting their staff
recently, IFILM has also been forced to tighten spending. In
the last year the number of employees were trimmed by a third
and the company lost over $17 million, according to the Los
Angeles Times. But IFILM still hasn't found its name
popping up in lists of companies without hope. Last February
when Los Angeles was fly-over country for venture capitalists,
the company managed to raise $10 million mostly from repeat
investors like Axiom Ventures, Eastman Kodak,
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paul Allen's
Vulcan Ventures and added a few new names to the list,
notably Yahoo!.
These votes of confidence from people who should know
better seem to be based on the fact that IFILM is managing to
create a community of highly focused, desirable users and
target them with marketing that in some cases has a 10% click
through. Add to that the general belief that a company that
sends users to the other sites -- and manages to survive the
current economic dodge ball -- will eventually be extremely
valuable (not to mention the fact that investors, like
Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen, are willing to
gamble a few million). "We're going to be the single place
where people can find and watch shorts and films online," Voci
declared. [Maud Kersnowski]
>> Python's "Holy
Grail" is Back, In Stereo and With Added Footage
(indieWIRE/06.15.01) -- "Monty Python and the Holy
Grail," the popular 1975 feature film from the famed
British comedy group, returns to theaters today with a new
print and additional footage, a full 24 seconds worth
according to one member of the legendary troupe.
"This is the icing on the cake," Python member Terry
Jones told indieWIRE, reached in the UK earlier this week.
Jones added that the movie is now in stereo and has new music
cues.
Recalling the first screening for investors back in 1974 --
Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Tim Rice, and
Andrew Lloyd-Webber among them -- Jones explained that
the film was hardly an immediate hit. "People laughed for the
first five minutes," Jones told indieWIRE, "(then) people went
dead."
Admitting that "Life of Brian" (1979) is much bigger
with British audiences, Jones added that "Grail" is actually a
favorite of Americans. The film will be released theatrically
in 6 cities domestically.
Jones, busy as ever, explained that he is currently working
on three screenplays, a television history of the world, and a
book about Chaucer. [Eugene Hernandez]
>> Human Rights
Watch Fetes "Spider Woman," Awards Peck and
"Mujaheddin"
(indieWIRE/06.15.01) -- "This is the only festival we can
hope one day won't be necessary anymore," said filmmaker
Raoul Peck ("Lumumba") upon accepting his
Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gala opening of the 12th
Annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
on Wednesday night at New York's Alice Tully Hall. But
for the moment, as Peck declared, the HRWIFF is a "necessary
forum for expression for filmmakers all over the world."
The festival officially opens tonight (Friday) with the
U.S. premiere of another award winner, "Jung (War) In The
Land Of The Mujaheddin." The movie's Italian filmmakers
Alberto Vendemmiati, Fabrizio Lazzaretti and
Giuseppe Pettito received the Nestor Almendros Prize
for courage and commitment in human rights filmmaking for
their documentary on an Afghanistan hospital threatened by
strict Taliban rule. In accepting the award, Lazzaretti said
he would "share the award with the staff of the hospital and
all the Afghani people on both sides of the
conflict...especially the women who are considered less than
human beings." Presenting the award to the documentary team
was venerable U.S. director Arthur Penn, who praised
the documentary, saying, "It never flinches; I promise you."
The Gala opening night slot featured the premiere of the
U.S. re-release of Hector Babenco's 1985 drama "Kiss
of the Spider Woman" (which Strand Releasing will
open in theaters on June 29). Kenneth Roth, Executive
Director of Human Rights Watch, introduced the film as a
landmark work, which exposed human rights abuses in Latin
America, helping to bring about the current changes in the
region. Director Babenco called the work, invoking its late
author Manuel Puig, "a triumph of love over politics."
Also on hand to celebrate the revival were stars William
Hurt, who won on Oscar for his portrayal of
flamboyant political prisoner Luis Molina, and Sonia
Braga, the Spider Woman herself. The 12th edition of the
Human Rights Watch festival runs through June 28. indieWIRE
will publish a survey of some of this year's important entries
next week. [Anthony Kaufman]
[For more information, visit: <http://www.hrw.org/>.]
>> YESTERDAY in
indieWIRE DAILY NEWS: DNA Exec; Provincetown Plans; A
Correction
(indieWIRE/06.14.01) -- DNA Studios defies the
downsize trend and brings over Peter Dawes from USA
Films to oversee New York expansion. Also, the
Provincetown International Film Festival will open its
3rd annual event with Kate Davis' "Southern
Comfort"."
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