July 24, 2018

Guide to Submitting an Episodic to the 2019 SXSW Film Festival

Episodics feature innovative new work aimed squarely at the small screen, this screening section tunes in to the explosion of exciting material on non-theatrical platforms, including serialized TV, webisodes and beyond!

We are a little less than a month away from the SXSW Film Early Submission Deadline on August 23. Before you submit to the SXSW Film Festival, be sure to take a look at our guidelines below to ensure your Episodic content is eligible for SXSW and check out the Film Submissions page for deadlines and fees.

Episodic Submission Guidelines

• The Episodic application is for a Pilot or First Season content (including the pilot) of your episodic project. This application includes Independent Episodic projects.

• If your Episodic project HAS NOT screened in Austin, Texas you are eligible to submit to SXSW. For more information about premiere status and eligibility click here.

• Your project must have been completed in 2017, 2018 or be on track for completion in early 2019.

• SXSW does not accept trailers or rough assemblies, but will accept work-in-progress cuts (picture lock with temp sound, color, etc.) Please be aware SXSW will not screen multiple updates/versions of your film for programming consideration.

• Please submit your application when you are ready to send your Episodic project in the most complete and finished form possible, as we will only watch the first cut submitted.

• All Episodics must be submitted via a secure URL link. Please note, if you change this link or any of your login information prior to March 2019 without contacting SXSW your film may become ineligible for consideration.

• The 2018 SXSW Film Festival marked the 25th edition of the festival, click here to get inspired and read stories from our film alumni!

• For specific questions about submitting your Episodic, look no further than our Film Submissions FAQ. Still have questions? Don’t hesitate to email filmfest@sxsw.com.

• Once you have submitted, you will receive a confirmation email from SXSW within 48 hours. This email will confirm that your film has been submitted correctly. If you do not receive this email within 48 hours, you should follow up by email (filmfest@sxsw.com) to ensure your film has been submitted properly and is under consideration.

• All applicants will be informed of the status of their project no later than Friday, February 8, 2019.

Submit Your Episodic

Join Us in March 2019

Mark your calendars for August 1 when registration and housing opens for the 2019 SXSW season. In the meantime, get inspired by previous Keynotes, Featured Sessions, Red Carpets, and Q&A’s on our YouTube Channel.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SXSW News for the latest SXSW coverage.

See you in March!

Independent Episodics – Photo by Holly Gee

The post Guide to Submitting an Episodic to the 2019 SXSW Film Festival appeared first on SXSW.

Source: SxSW Film

July 23, 2018

In Memoriam: Gweneviere Mann

Source: SNPR Story Corps

July 22, 2018

‘Equalizer 2’ Beats ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ at the Box Office Battle of the Sequels

Two sequels, actioner “Equalizer 2” (Sony) and musical “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” (Universal), nabbed the top spots at the weekend box office with modest mid-$30 million grosses.

They led a record-setting eight sequels embedded in the Top Ten. Sequel grosses this weekend totaled $148 million out of the $168 million total for all films. That’s right: 88 percent of ticket sales came from non-originals. That may be a record. Even on the pre-Christmas 2015 weekend in 2015 when studios were staying away from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” the figure was no more than 88 percent.

“The Equalizer 2”

Glen Wilson

Denzel Washington is a global superstar

The surprise close result led to “Equalizer 2” taking the #1 spot. The Denzel Washington action film had been projected to open somewhere between $25-30 million. The initial effort in September 2014 opened a bit bigger if one adjusts to current ticket prices — about $39 million. Washington is as reliable a draw for action films as anyone. The gross here is a major contrast to the anemic initial $25 million for Dwayne Johnson’s “Skyscraper” –which cost twice as much as “Equalizer”‘s $62 million).

The first film had an excellent triple multiple. This one came in with an excellent A rating from Cinemascore, not that common for a non-comic book male-audience picture. And the 2014 original also did nearly as well foreign as domestic. This time around, the scattered initial territories (most are still to open) debuted about 30 percent ahead of last time. So this looks set for a possible $200 million or better worldwide theatrical take before home availability revenues push it into profit.

In the week before 56-year-old Tom Cruise returns with the latest “Mission: Impossible” effort accompanied by kudos for his sustained career, it’s impressive how well the 63-year-old Washington can open a film from a less established series at less expense with less ensemble support.

“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!”

Universal

“Mamma Mia!” is a global franchise

Apart from the first-time Meryl Streep sequel appearance, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” marks a rare attempt at turning a musical hit into a franchise. This comes a decade after the first one, a strong performer (adjusted $186 million). The drop from first to second film was lower than “Equalizer 2” — with 2018 prices, the first film opened to $35.8 million, compared to $34.4 million this time.

The opening number not only reached the high end of expectations, but even a decade after the original, the comparisons are impressive. It’s the right film at the right moment, with safe, no-brainer professionally delivered entertainment–and better reviews.

Needless to say, women were the musical’s biggest target. Audiences were 83 percent female. That’s close to “Fifty Shades of Grey” territory. Universal marketed that as well as the “Pitch Perfect” trilogy. No studio consistently delivers on femme-appeal projects with more ease.

Streep is barely in the movie, so claims that this is her biggest opening are dubious–especially if you adjust the grosses. The movie is fourth in the Streep box office opening pantheon, behind the original “Mamma Mia!,” “Into the Woods,” and “The Devil Wore Prada.”

What won’t happen is the repeat of the the staggering six time multiple seen in 2008. The Saturday gross fell 23 percent from Friday, virtually the same as before (though Thursday shows are a bigger deal today).

“Unfriended: Dark Web”

Jason Blum is back

The third sequel this weekend is another Jason Blum-partnered film. The original “Unfriended” was an independent film with Russian production roots acquired by Blumhouse and Universal. The bi-national production tie continues. Oddly, Universal didn’t push this in their marketing for this thriller about the dangers present on the web.

Its initial gross was less than one fifth of the first film’s opening in April, 2015. It cost so little that even with some domestic marketing it should make a profit worldwide.

“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation”

Holdovers

Last weekend’s #1, “Hotel Transylvania” (Sony) dropped 47 percent. Sony is the first company this year to have two different films place first in consecutive weeks (it isn’t Disney). That drop is considerably more than the first two “Hotel” entries, but better than last summer’s biggest animated entry, “Despicable Me 3,” at 53 per cent.

Let’s not linger too long on “Skyscraper,” but its second weekend drop of 56 percent is by far the worst in the Top Ten. The $125 million film will only gross about that domestic, and though it is doing better overseas, this one is not guaranteed a success by any means. So much for “originality.”

The hold of the week goes to “Incredibles 2” (Disney), down just 29 percent. It’s Pixar’s biggest domestic release ever. It is headed for the far side of $600 million. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (Universal) saw only a 32 per cent drop as it heads to over $400 million domestic and past $1.2 billion worldwide. “Ant-Man and the Wasp” (Disney) is up to $164 million, but dropped 45 percent its third weekend, with worldwide not likely to get much over $400 million.

The Top Ten

1. The Equalizer 2 (Sony) NEW – Cinemascore: A; Metacritic: 49; Est. budget: $70 million

$35,825,000 in 3,388 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $10,574; Cumulative: $35,825,000

2. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (Universal) NEW – Cinemascore: A-; Metacritic: 60; Est. budget: $75 million

$34,380,000 in 3,317 theaters; PTA: $10,365,000; Cumulative: $34,380,000

3. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony) Week 2; Last weekend #1

$23,150,000 (-47%) in 4,267 theaters (no change); PTA: $5,425; Cumulative: $91,089,000

4. Ant-Man and the Wasp (Disney) Week 3; Last weekend #2

$16,126,000 (-45%) in 3,778 theaters (-428); PTA: $4,268; Cumulative: $164,624,000

5. Incredibles 2 (Disney) Week 6; Last weekend #4

$11,520,000 (-29%) in 3,164 theaters (-541); PTA: $3,641; Cumulative: $557,335,000

6. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal) Week 5; Last weekend #5

$11,005,000 (-32%) in 3,381 theaters (-314); PTA: $; Cumulative: $383,905,000

7. Skyscraper (Universal)  Week 2; Last weekend #3

$10,960,000 (-56%) in 3,822 theaters (+40); PTA: $2,868; Cumulative: $46,749,000

8. The First Purge (Universal) Week 3; Last weekend #6

$4,980,000 (-46%) in 2,331 theaters (-707); PTA: $2,136; Cumulative: $60,191,000

9. Unfriended: Dark Web (Universal) NEW – Cinemascore: C; Metacritic: 53; Est. budget: $1 million

$3,495,000 in 2,331 theaters; PTA: $2,261 Cumulative: $3,495,000

10. Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna) Week 3; Last weekend #7

$2,823,000 (-33%) in 1,050 theaters (+245); PTA: $2,689; Cumulative: $10,252,000

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Source: IndieWire film

July 22, 2018

Sean Gunn Tweets in Support of His Brother: ‘Working on These Movies Made My Brother a Better Person’

Following James Gunn’s firing from “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” by Disney, Sean Gunn — who appeared in the franchise’s first two movies — has taken to Twitter in defense of his brother. Beginning by clarifying that “it goes without saying that I love and support my brother,” Gunn addresses his brother’s off-color humor and asserts that “working on these movies made my brother a better person, and they made me one too. I’m proud of that.”

The younger Gunn isn’t alone in his support of his writer/director sibling, as fellow “Guardians” actor Dave Bautista tweeted yesterday that he’s “not OK” with what’s happened and a petition calling on Disney to re-hire him has already garnered more than 53,000 signatures.

2. Since he was a kid, it was clear he had a desire (maybe destiny) to be an artist, tell stories, find his voice through comics, films, his band. The struggle to find that voice was sometimes clunky, misguided, or downright stupid, and sometimes wonderful, moving, and hilarious.

— Sean Gunn (@seangunn) July 21, 2018

4. I saw firsthand as he went from worrying about “softening his edge” for a larger audience to realizing that his “edge” wasn’t as useful of a tool as he thought it was. That his gift for storytelling was something better.

— Sean Gunn (@seangunn) July 21, 2018

6. In many respects this change in my brother was reflected in the change that the Guardians go through. I’ve heard my brother say many times that when Quill rallies the team with “this is our chance to give a shit”–to care–that it’s the pep talk he himself needed to hear.

— Sean Gunn (@seangunn) July 21, 2018

8. This isn’t new information, by the way. It’s all stuff that James has explained many times in interviews, in more detail and more eloquently. It’s not some new spin. It’s always been part of the story.

— Sean Gunn (@seangunn) July 21, 2018

10. Working on those movies made my brother a better person, and they made me one too. I’m proud of that. Peace.

— Sean Gunn (@seangunn) July 21, 2018

Source: IndieWire film

July 22, 2018

Kevin Smith’s 13 Best Jokes From His Graphic Comic-Con Recap of His Near-Fatal Heart Attack

San Diego Comic-Con fixture Kevin Smith spent the first half of his improvised, 90-minute Hall H talk giving a beat-by-beat account of the heart attack he suffered in February. “I didn’t die, but I was real fucking close,” said the 47-year-old filmmaker, who also used his stage time to promote fundraising for his Rivit TV series, “Hollyweed,” and to energize fans about “Jay & Silent Bob Reboot” (shooting this November).

Smith’s family has a history of cardiac problems: His father “died screaming” during his own heart attack at age 67, while his mother has a stent in one of her arteries. During his personal ordeal, Smith learned that his LAD artery was 100 percent blocked. The heart attack happened while Smith was filming Showtime comedy specials at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. Instead of escorting him to the closest emergency room, knowledgable first responders took him to Adventist Health Glendale, one of the nation’s best cardiology hospitals.

Smith became emotional toward the end of his presentation. But most of his delivery was raunchy self-deprecation. Here are 13 of his most-memorable quips.

• “I used to fucking drink a lot of milk, but I’m vegan now. I used to be happy, now I’m a fucking vegan.”
• “I put my hands up, to try to facilitate easier breathing…[The firefighters are] looking at each other like, ‘Why is Silent Bob celebrating a touchdown?’”
• “I was like, ‘Why the fuck did you [call an ambulance]? This is going to be embarrassing. They’re going to get here and take one look at me with a flashlight and be like, ‘He just smoked too much weed.’”
• “This was nearly 50 pounds ago…[The medic] grabs my hockey jersey, and lifts it up, because she’s going to put the wires on me, and every titty I had fell out.”
• “Six firemen came over, stuck their hands under me, and lifted my fat ass like I didn’t exist, and put me in the other chair…It was the most fun I’ve had in 10 years. Oh my God, it was so pleasurable. Nobody picks you up when you become an adult, and I was a pretty heavyset adult, nobody fucking tries.’”
• “They knew I threw up…so I guess somebody put two and two together and came up with food poisoning, and I think that’s what they told the audience…I’m sure most of the audience was like, ‘He’s been poisoning himself with food for years, why is tonight any different?’”
• “Another guy walks in with a plastic bucket, and he’s got a shaver in the bucket…He goes, ‘OK, you’re going to the OR…In order to get to your heart, [the doctor]’s going to cut into your groin and go up through your femoral. So basically, we’ve got to shave your groin. So can you take off your jorts?’”
• “He goes, ‘You need to take your underwear off, too’…And I was like…’I’ll pull the underwear to the side, and then you get in there and give me a virgin smoothie.’”
• “I was like…'[The doctor] just told me for the first time in my life, I’m having a heart attack. And if you make me take my underwear off in front of all these people, I will have a second fucking heart attack, and that’s going to be on you, because my dick is fucking small.’”
• “I start lying. Even though I’m fucking drugged and I’m almost dying, I have the presence of mind to craft a fucking story to try to keep my hockey jersey on…’This is my lucky hockey jersey, and I need it if I’m going to have this operation.’ And I was just desperate to hold onto it to cover my dick…Nobody in the room had the presence of mind to be like, ‘If it’s so lucky, why are you having a fucking heart attack?’”
• “While this is going on, they’re pumping me full of fentanyl, so I’m in this weird twilight state. And I’m chatting up a fucking storm, talking to everybody and whatnot. Like at one point, I was singing…The doctor goes, ‘What’s that, is he moaning, or is he singing?’ And the guy who shaved my crotch goes, ‘I think he’s singing the theme to “Degrassi”?’ And I was, because I’d never faced an operating room before.”
• “I was raised Catholic, and it never once occurred to me to start praying to God like, ‘Save my life, Jesus!’ Because I’m sure Jesus would be like, ‘You made “Dogma,” [flips off the room] go fuck yourself.”
• “I had no fucking regrets, but…I thought, ‘Oh man, I wish we had made “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” solely because as I was laying there about to die, the last movie I would have made was ‘Yoga Hosers,’ and I was like, ‘I can’t go out on that one!’”

Source: IndieWire film

July 22, 2018

‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’: The Sequel’s Best Musical Sequence Wasn’t Even in the Original Script

Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.”

It’s only fitting that long-awaited sequel “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” ends with a massive final song-and-dance sequence that brings together the entire cast, regardless of the timeline they inhabit in the film. Ol Parker’s film serves as both a sequel and a prequel to the 2008 film, with one timeline following Lily James as a young Donna (played in the first film by Meryl Streep) as she makes her way to the Greek island that will become her home, while another focuses on Donna’s now-grown daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) as she attempts to make her mother’s dream of owning a hotel on the island come true.

The two timelines combine into one charmingly over-the-top final musical sequence, a splashy finale that blends together younger versions of characters with their older selves, including the entire cast of the first film. It’s the kind of high-energy send-off that pulls directly from the film’s musical theater roots, and it almost didn’t happen.

Judy Craymer, who produced the films and created the stage show on which the first film is based, said they didn’t have the finale on paper until weeks into production. “It was always the question of, ‘what’s the finale?,’” Craymer said. “It wasn’t in the script that went out. … [ABBA members] Bjorn and Benny said, ‘No, don’t repeat “Dancing Queen.”‘ Okay, ‘Dancing Queen,’ enough. We were like, ‘What song?’”

“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!”

Universal

They ultimately decided on “Super Trouper,” the hit title track from ABBA’s 1980 album, and didn’t start working on it until the film six weeks into production. “I knew that we needed a costume, so I said to Michele Clapton, our fabulous costume designer, ‘Whatever happens, start designing something now,’” she said. “‘It’s going to be spandex. It’s going to be platform boots. It’s our big nod to ABBA, but we don’t know what it is yet. But just get on with the design.’”

The finale required all kinds of schedule finagling, including a last-minute move that allowed Cher to participate alongside her on-screen daughters, Streep and James. Those costumes, that talent, and the ABBA music provides the happiest end to a film this summer, and Craymer thinks it’s emblematic of the best “Mamma Mia!” has to offer.

“There’s moments in this film where it’s all about the sense of irony, sense of tongue-in-cheek, and a kind of wink at the audience,” Craymer said. “And I think that’s what the actors feel. In that song at the end, it’s embracing everybody. They’re all embracing each other, but also embracing the audience. The key to ‘Mamma Mia!’ is that the audience has to feel they’re part of it, and I think that’s the moment I hope they do.”

“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” is in theaters now.

Source: IndieWire film

July 22, 2018

Robin Williams’ Possessions to Be Auctioned Off for Charity, Including a Gryffindor Robe Worn by Daniel Radcliffe

We ain’t never had a friend like Robin Williams, and some people will soon have the opportunity to buy something to remember him by. The late, great actor and comedian’s possessions will be auctioned for charity at Sotheby’s this October, including a Gryffindor robe worn by Daniel Radcliffe in the first “Harry Potter” movie, a number of Banksy paintings, and dozens of the Oscar-winning actor’s watches.

“Sotheby’s is honoured to announce that we will offer works from the collection of beloved entertainer Robin Williams and his wife of over 20 years, film producer and philanthropist Marsha Garces Williams, in a dedicated auction in New York on 4 October 2018,” said the auction house in a statement.

“’Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams’ will offer works spanning Marsha’s and Robin’s diverse interests and careers, all reflecting their shared passion for collecting,” it added, with the items ranging from awards and autographed scripts to props and wardrobe items.

Williams is the subject of the recent HBO documentary “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind,” which looks back at his life and career. He took his own life nearly four years ago at the age of 63.

Source: IndieWire film