Film
Predicament to show in Hollywood
Taken from the NZ Herald.
New Zealand director Jason Stutter has been invited to show a feature film Predicament in Hollywood for a Director Finders screening. The Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand (SDGNZ) issued the invitation as part of a partnership between SDGNZ and the Directors Guild of America (DGA).
Directors Finders was established in 1998 by the DGA's Independent Directors Committee. The purpose of the series is to spotlight undistributed independent feature films and their directors. Since its inception the series has screened 100 plus films and more than half of those screened have been picked up for North American distribution.
"It is the goal of the DGA through this series to offer both additional and expanded professional recognition and commercial contacts to New Zealand directors," said Kathy Garmezy, assistant executive director for government and international affairs, for the DGA.
SDGNZ is working closely with the New Zealand Film Commission, which is supporting the initiative. "The idea behind the screening is to assist the director to secure North American distribution and to showcase New Zealand directors," said SDGNZ president Peter Bell.
Predicament, based on the novel by Taranaki writer Ronald Hugh Morrieson who died in 1972, is writer/director Stutter's third feature film.
"Having the DGA and SGDNZ support Predicament for this opportunity is unbelievably exciting," he said. "The reason I started making films was because I grew up loving movies and many of them from Hollywood, so having my film screen at the DGA feels pretty amazing."
The screening will take place on November 5 in the DGA Theatre on Sunset Boulevard.
Read the original article here.
Shorts selected for Melbourne
Taken from The Big Idea, article submitted by NZ Film Commission.
Australia's largest and most critically acclaimed film festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, has selected five short films from some of New Zealand's most promising filmmaking talent. The 59th Melbourne International Film Festival runs from July 22 - August 8, 2010.
Amadi, is writer/director Zia Mandviwalla's third short film. Produced by Owen Hughes, it tells the heart wrenching story of a Rwandan refugee living in New Zealand and his mentally unstable neighbour. As their worlds fall apart, an unlikely connection occurs.
Choice Night is the second short film from the filmmaking team writer Paul Stanley Ward, director Chris Dudman and producer Vicky Pope. Fifteen-year-old James has everything before him, but the catch is he has to choose between two things he wants the most. Their first short film, The Graffiti of Mr Tupaia, won Best Short Film at the NZ Qantas Film Awards in 2009.
Well known local music video director Sam Peacocke makes his short film debut with Manurewa. The film, produced by Kristian Eek, is a multi-stranded narrative inspired by the tragic robbery and shooting of liquor store owner Navtej Singh in Manurewa, Auckland, in 2008.
James Cunningham's animation Poppy follows the true story of a New Zealand soldier who finds redemption in the hell of WWI. Poppy, produced by Paul Swadel and written by David Coyle, features actors Paul Glover and Matt Sunderland, and has enjoyed wide success on the festival circuit. Recently it won the jury prize at prestigious SIGGRAPH computer animation festival in Los Angeles.
Careful with that Crossbow is the third in Jason Stutter's wildly popular Careful series. This film has enjoyed success at top short film festivals CFC Worldwide and Palm Springs.
Sam Peacocke, Chris Dudman and James Cunningham will travel to Melbourne to attend the festival's Accelerator programme - with assistance from the NZ Film Commission. Zia Mandviwalla will also attend the festival.
For more information on the festival visit the Melbourne International Film Festival website.
Photo still from Amadi.
Compound
an independent feature film
Seven kiwi travelers come face to face with their worst nightmares in rural New Zealand. After hours of late-night driving, they find what looks to be an abandoned haunted house attraction.Once inside, the house goes into a state of lockdown. It's a fight for survival when they meet unexpected guests and must do what it takes to escape the walls of the COMPOUND.
Compound is the first feature film from director Dale Stewart, who won best director for a short film at the New York Independent and International Film Festival, Los Angeles Screening.
Featuring Auckland Actors Rachel King, Tim Hammersley, Te Kaea Beri, Amy Molloy and Alex Way.
Direction by Dale Stewart
Predicament
World Premiere, 24 July 2010, New Zealand International Film Festival (Auckland)
coming to a theatre near you late 2010
This crime comedy (based on a book of the same name) tells the story of Cedric, who conspires with local misfits to photograph and blackmail wealthy adulterous couples.
Newcomer Hayden Frost plays the lead role of Cedric Williamson, alongside Australian comedian Heath Franklin and Rose McIver. Auckland Actors Edward Newborn, Peter Mochrie and Brooke Williams appear in essential support roles.
Watch the trailer here.
Peter Jackson meeting with 'Hobbit' actors
article by Borys Kit and Matthew Belloni, www.hollywoodreporter.com"The Hobbit" still has not been officially greenlighted, but director Peter Jackson is in Los Angeles this week quietly meeting with actors. The casting trip, which also included stops in New York and the U.K., underscores the progress being made on a complex series of deals to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel to the big screen.
Sources say Jackson's pact with Warner Bros. to direct the two-part "Hobbit" adaptation is close to done, but the sticking point continues to be the dire financial situation at MGM, which holds half the rights to the property.
Warners, which is acting as the lead studio on the co-production, is furiously negotiating with MGM, which is being steered by a committee of creditors and financial stakeholders. Even if Warners wanted to fund the films itself, that would require a sign-off from the somewhat rudderless MGM.
Jackson, who has been in L.A. since Saturday, is working with casting director Victoria Burrows on assembling what will likely be a large, international cast for the project".
Read the full article here.
Youtube calls on Kiwi Filmakers
article by Alice Neville, NZ Herald.
"Youtube is joining forces with two influential filmmakers to create a feature-length documentary - and they want you to contribute.
Life in a Day is a project dreamed up by Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald, the Scotsman who won an Oscar for the 1972 Munich Olympics film A Day in September and who also helmed Touching The Void, The Last King of Scotland and State of Play.
Touted as a "global film experiment", the premise of Life in a Day is to document one day of life on earth - July 24, 2010 - through the eyes of people around the world. Amateur filmmakers are encouraged to film something - anything - about their life on that day and upload it to youtube's Life in a Day channel. Mr Macdonald has the daunting role of trawling through that content and editing it into something compelling.
Executive producing the project is Ridley Scott of Alien, Gladiator and Robin Hood fame.
'It's an opportunity to do something only the internet makes possible - to make a film created by amateur filmmakers anywhere and everywhere around the world,' Macdonald said...'My role is as a conducter or a compiler, to find the links between the films and make a 70 to 90 minute movie which is going to be a portrait of what the world is like in one day,' says the 42-year-old director. 'It'll be a time capsule - if you were to look at the film in 100 years' time, it will tell you something about the psyche of human beings today.' "
Read the full article here.
Poppy Wins at Festival
a short film written by David Coyle
NZ Film Commission
NZ short film Poppy has been awarded the Computer Animation Festival's Jury Prize ahead of the SIGGRAPH 2010 International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, which is being held in Los Angeles on the 25 - 29 July.
Poppy is a CGI drama set on France's western front during World War I. Based on true events, two NZ soldiers trapped behind enemy lines find a crying baby while trying to make their way to safety. The film's writer, David Coyle, is a great grandson of one of the soldiers. This is the first time a NZ film has won an award at the Computer Animation Festival.
The film was chosen from 750 submissions from around the globe, presented by both professional studios and students alike. In announcing the award, the Festival Jury said Poppy was an innovative combination of motion capture and exquisite facial animation.
Director James Cunningham said, "I have attended SIGGRAPH about four times since 1998. To have something selected to screen there is a dream of mine and to win an award is phenomenal. The Jury's acknowledgement of the hand key frame facial animation is a testament to the great actors we had to work with. Congratulations and thanks to Matt Sunderland, Paul Glover, Camille Keenan and Mark Sumich; and also to Weta Digital's incredible motion capture team. The body movements they recorded were superb and I was so lucky to be able to work with them on Poppy."
In all, 100 films will be shown during the Computer Animation Festival. Some of the year's top visual effects for feature films are featured in the Computer Animation Festival including Avatar, The Last Airbender, Sherlock Holmes, Iron Man 2, Prince of Persia, 2012 and Alice in Wonderland.
Poppy was made in association with the Short Film Fund of the New Zealand Film Commission.
starring Auckland Actor Paul Glover alongside Matt Sunderland, Camille Keenan and Mark Sumich
directed by James Cunningham
produced by Paul Swadel
To view Poppy's trailer visit Youtube here.
Read Onfilm's detailed interview with director James Cunningham and producer Paul Swadel about the making of Poppy here.
For more information on Poppy visit the film's official website here.
Six Dollar Fifty Man on 20/20
a short film by Louis Sutherland and Mark Albiston
in competition world wide
It sounds like something out of a movie, but two Kapiti Coast film makers and their young star are hoping they could be on track to take out an Oscar. As 20/20's Hugh Hughes discovers, The Six Dollar Fifty Man, about a bully and his comeuppance is garnering worldwide attention and a string of awards.
And now the two and a half men behind it could well be on their way to picking up a little gold man of their own.
Watch the 20/20 piece online here.
International Film Festival starring Auckland
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2010
Article taken from NZ Herald. Written by Russell Baillie.
"When it opens in Auckland in a month, the 2010 New Zealand International Film Festival will have a decidedly domestic flavour. It's always been global in its reach during its 42 years as the annual highpoint for the city's film buffs. But this year it is also focussed on Auckland like never before. Even the programme, which is launched next week, has its own section titled "Auckland Erupts" dedicated to the five features set in the city having their world premieres at this year's event.
Inevitably, those films involve some familiar faces as well as familiar territory.
Both After The Waterfall and The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell feature Outrageous Fortune stars in leading roles - Antony Starr in the former and Robyn Malcolm in the latter.
Starr plays a park ranger living on the West Coast, whose life is up-ended with the disappearance of his young daughter, while Malcolm is the wife of the titular Gazza (played by Aussie actor William McInnes) whose life in Howick with their two teenage sons Marc and Ed comes under pressure from Dad's efforts to make motorsport heroes out his boys..."
Read the full article here.
Read the full festival line up on Flicks here.
Guillermo Del Toro departs The Hobbit
NEW LINE CINEMA, produced by Peter Jackson.
Article taken from TheOneRing.net.
Guillermo Del Toro announced today that he is no longer directing the two movies based on J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit, but will continue to co-write the screenplays. Out of respect to the legions of loyal Tolkien fans, both Guillermo and Peter Jackson wanted to break the news to The One Ring first. They are both committed to protecting The Hobbit and will do everything in their power to ensure the films are everything that the fans want them to be.
“In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life”, says Guillermo. “After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed. The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wlsh the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director”.
Read the full article here.