September 10, 2017

‘Star Wars Episode IX’: Stephen Colbert Thinks Werner Herzog Should Replace Colin Trevorrow — Watch

Now that Colin Trevorrow is out as “Star Wars Episode IX” director, everyone has an opinion on who should replace him. That includes IndieWire, of course — our picks include newly crowned Golden Lion winner Guillermo del Toro, wonder woman Patty Jenkins, and true detective Cary Fukunaga — as well as Stephen Colbert. Watch the full segment below.

The “Late Show” host discussed the “Book of Henry” helmer’s ouster on Friday night, joking that not all is well in the wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Hollywood. Among Colbert’s suggestions to replace Trevorrow? Quentin Tarantino, because we all know that the franchise far, far away is “missing ’70s music and extended conversations about cheeseburgers” — so get ready for “Episode IX: Everybody Shoots First.”

Also on the list: Nancy Meyers, whose “What Wookiees Want” serves to remind that “sometimes, the droids you were looking for were right in front of you the whole time.” Best of all is Werner Herzog, for whose “Episode IX” the “Late Show” team put together a fake trailer complete with the German auteur’s distinct narration. Who wouldn’t want to watch “Episode IX: Why Do We Need a Subtitle When 100 Years From Now Each of Us Will Be Dead Buried in the Cold, Dark Ground”?

Source: IndieWire film

September 10, 2017

George Clooney: The Key to Diversity Lies with Studio Executives, Not the Oscars

George Clooney has a message for anyone criticizing the Oscars for a lack of diversity: You’re looking in the wrong place. “It’s less about the Academy and more about the industry,” said the 56-year-old actor-director during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival. “I think we need to get more interesting young minority filmmakers getting their films out. It was great to see ‘Moonlight’ do what it did. I’m happy to see that. We need more of those.”

As another awards season takes flight, there are fewer buzzy fall titles with people of color and women directors, which has already raised fears of another #OscarsSoWhite sequel. Clooney, however, thinks that the film industry needs to change its ways if Oscar voters want diverse options. He offered a recent example of a project he was offered a few weeks ago. “It’s like an action film, but similar to ‘The Dirty Dozen,’” he said. “I was reading it, and I was thinking, I’m not the right guy to do this part, but why aren’t you getting Idris Elba to play this? He’s a leading man. There’s no reason why this character can’t be black.”

Elba, whose last star vehicle was the poorly received sci-fi-western “The Dark Tower,” has a history of being under-appreciated in the film industry. In 2016, his lack of a supporting actor nomination for “Beasts of No Nation” was often cited as an example of one major performance overlooked by the Academy when it all the acting nominees were white. Most recently, rumors that Elba had been in talks to play James Bond were put to bed by Sony, which re-upped Daniel Craig’s contract.

“Clearly, the star system isn’t what it used to be, where you put a name out there and everybody comes to see the movie,” Clooney said. “So why isn’t Idris asked to play this guy? Why isn’t Idris in line for the next Bond? Where is the studio’s imagination?”

Despite his progressive philanthropic causes, most of Clooney’s work hasn’t led the charge for diversity. “Suburbicon” is his first big project to deal with racism. The movie, which Clooney and writing partner Grant Heslov spruced up from an old Coen brothers project, stars Matt Damon as a blue-collar man in an exaggerated ’50s suburban setting enmeshed in a crime gone wrong — but the movie’s central motif is the neighborhood impact of a black family who moves onto the same block.

Julianne Moore and Matt Damon, “Suburbicon”

Paramount Pictures

The family is heckled around the clock by Confederate flag-bearing white people, images that have particular resonance in the wake of the Charlottesville riots. Clooney started working on the movie during the 2016 election, but said he wasn’t surprised that more recent events echoes its themes.

“Of course, Charlottesville happens, because every few years Charlottesville happens again,” he said. “We keep forgetting that we haven’t excised that original sin completely. When I was growing up in Kentucky, the civil-rights movement had its big wave and segregation was exorcised from this country. We really felt like we were on this trajectory toward it all being finished. It wasn’t something you thought would be around. It’s a surprise that it’s still a part of our world.”

As a filmmaker, Clooney said it took years for him to tackle race because he had yet to find the right project. “A lot of people ask me why I haven’t done any movies about Darfur or South Sudan,” he said, recalling his advocacy in the region. “Well, I haven’t found the script that’s right to do it. My personal life and where I go — philanthropic things — have always been toward whatever is inclusive, not exclusive. That’s always been an important part of my life. It’s just hard to find those films.”

But Clooney added that he would rather see more minority filmmakers work their way into the industry, echoing the rise of Mexican filmmakers in Hollywood over a decade ago — the so-called “Three Amigos” of Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, and Guillermo del Toro, whose “The Shape of Water” just won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival.

“All these great Mexican filmmakers showed up, it was like, fuck, this is great filmmaking,” Clooney said. “That’s what I’d like to see… some really interesting young filmmakers out there. You want to feel something fresh and new constantly. You want people pushing the limits. There’s a way to make things much cheaper now so there are a lot of different voices out there.”

He also acknowledged the need for stronger female-centric projects. “I feel as if our industry has lost sight of what we could do well,” he said. “In the ‘30s, seven of the top 10 movie stars were women. Now, it’s really hard for women. There are a few — the Jennifer Lawrences of the world — but mostly, they’re having a tough time and we’re going, ‘Well, why? What’s happened?’ And women aren’t the minority, by the way.”

He placed the blame at studio executives’ feet. “The thing is, when a business is run by a certain group of people who can’t see putting a 45-year-old woman as a romantic lead, well, that’s a problem,” he said. “You need to be able to say, she’s still sexy.”

Needless to say, he’s not hopeful about the prospects of a diverse Oscar season in the wake of the “Moonlight” win. “I have a sense that now that’s happened, they’ll be like, well, we did it, and move on.”

“Suburbicon” opens October 27.

Source: IndieWire film

September 5, 2017

Everything You Need to Know (& Even Some Stuff You Don’t) About Camera Lenses

Many pros will tell you: it’s less about the camera you’re shooting on and more about the lens.<p>I mean — that’s neither here nor there, but one …
Source: CW’s Flipboard Feed

September 5, 2017

Why Bit Depth and Shooting in Raw Are So Important for Your Images

We’ve all heard it hundreds of times: unless you’re a journalist zooming off shots to an editor as the action happens, you should be shooting in raw. …
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September 5, 2017

New camera can see through human body

<b>Scientists have developed a camera that can see through the human body.</b><p>The device has been designed to help doctors track medical tools, known as endoscopes, during internal examinations.<p>Until now, medics have had to rely on expensive scans, such as X-rays, to trace their progress.<p>The new camera …
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September 3, 2017

Paul Schrader Received a Visit From the Department of Homeland Security for a Facebook Post About Donald Trump

As tends to be the case with Paul Schrader movies, “First Reformed” doesn’t sound like it’s for the faint of heart. Ethan Hawke stars as a grief-stricken ex-military chaplain, with Amanda Seyfried as a member of his church coping with the recent suicide of her husband. It’s currently making the festival rounds at Venice and Toronto, prompting the “Taxi Driver” screenwriter to talk about his latest project — and that time he was visited by the DHS earlier this year.

“I did get visited by Homeland Security this year because I posted something on Facebook about Donald Trump and the John Brown moment we are now in,” Schrader tells Variety. “So they came and visited me to ascertain whether I am a threat to the president’s life. I am not — except in theory. There is this sense in the world now that something must be done, and it’s tearing this character apart.”

He knows it may not be for everyone, but Schrader feels content now that he’s made this movie: “I can hang up my spurs and saddle if I want,” he says. Read the full interview here.

Source: IndieWire film

September 3, 2017

‘Star Wars’ Q&A From 1976 Is a Reminder of a Time Long Ago When Blockbusters Didn’t Yet Rule the Galaxy — Watch

Though it’s synonymous with blockbusters now, “Star Wars” was far from a guaranteed success. Anyone who’s ever doubted that would do well to avail themselves of a half-hour Q&A session about “Star Wars” between Mark Hamill, producer Gary Kurtz, and marketing director Charles Lippincott held six months before George Lucas’ space opera changed movies forever. Watch the full conversation below.

It took place at MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention, which was held in Kansas City in 1976. Among the topics of discussion: the idea of model-makers and other special-effects technicians going the way of the dodo — there wasn’t much work for them at the time, says Kurtz, and so some of them “may get out and become encyclopedia salesman.” Suffice to say they were wrong about which career ended up lasting much longer, which “Star Wars” obviously had a huge part in.

More than 40 years later, the franchise continues with this year’s “The Last Jedi” and the upcoming Han Solo/Obi-Wan spinoffs.

Source: IndieWire film

September 3, 2017

‘Nightwatch’: Spike Lee Could Be in the Running to Direct a Standalone Superhero Movie in the ‘Spider-Man’ Universe — Report

As the many cinematic universes of comic-book franchises continue to expand, unexpected actors and filmmakers continue to enter the fray. Edgar Wright directing “Ant-Man” proved too good to be true, but previews for Taika Waititi’s take on “Thor: Ragnarok” and Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” inspire more confidence than the average superhero jaunt.

According to Jeff Sneider’s “Meet the Movie Press” podcast, we could be getting an even more appealing director/subject pairing: Spike Lee directing a movie about Nightwatch.

Known among us non-heroes as Dr. Kevin Trench, Nightwatch has one of the more out-there origin stories: He sees a masked man die in a fight and, upon unmasking him, learns that it’s an older version of himself. Sneider says he’s “very confident” in the rumor that “Now You See Me” scribe Edward Ricourt is penning the screenplay to the standalone film, which takes place in Sony’s “Spider-Man” universe (as does the upcoming Venom movie); Lee directing the movie is still just a rumor at this point, however.

Tom Hardy will star as Venom in the upcoming spinoff, which will be somewhat unconventional in its focus on a villain rather than a hero. That film has no release date as of yet, while the Nightwatch movie is still in the earliest stages of development.

Source: IndieWire film

September 3, 2017

‘Victoria & Abdul’ Review: Judi Dench-Starring Historical Drama Is Only Half a Story — Venice

Stephen Frears’ “Victoria & Abdul” is an otherwise benignly toothless, pleasantly glossy affair, but it does force us to confront one tricky question: When treating a subject as fraught as British imperial rule, when does a film’s benign inoffensiveness become offensive in and of itself? Still, that’s about the only food for thought in what is at once a breezy, lion-in-winter vehicle for Judi Dench in queen-mode and a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Noble” bit of wealth porn, and not much more.

Dench is back as Queen Victoria, returning to a role she had previously played in John Madden’s “Mrs. Brown,” a film that must have not only inspired Frears and screenwriter Lee Hall, but acted as their foundational text. Little is known about the very real relationship that existed between the aging monarch and her advisor Abdul Karim, and so Hall has essentially grafted their story onto a broad strokes retelling of Madden’s 1997 film. In both versions, an underling servant grants the withdrawn Widow of Windsor a new lease on life, much to evident displeasure of her numerous attendants, political appointees, and children. Swap out the Scot John Brown for the Indian Muslim Abdul, fast forward a few decades and here we go.

The film picks up on the unhappy queen as a prisoner of her own court. Trapped in an endless cycle of luncheons, ceremonies, and royal visits, Old Vic seeks solace in food. Every day brings another ornate banquet, and every banquet brings countless lavish courses. The rich preparations are about the only thing worth paying attention to, at least until she locks eyes with Abdul (Bollywood star Ali Fazal, though recently of “Furious 7”).

A lowly prison clerk sent from his native Agra to present the queen a coin, Abdul brazenly breaks protocol by staring the Empress of India in the eyes. And yet it seems to work out. She warms to his moxie, speaks of his good looks, and takes him on as her right-hand man, at least until the protocol-rigid chamberlains complain about a commoner spending so much time with the ostensible most powerful woman on Earth. So she makes him a royal advisor, there to teach her all about the entire subcontinent where she has long ruled if never actually stepped a foot, and life is sweet again.

“Victoria & Abdul”

That sweetness is laced into the very character of the film, which wants to be taken as a light confection. We breeze through all the royal real estate, marveling at the opulent décor. We titter at Dench’s withering put downs and saucy asides, grateful to see a venerable performer doing what she does best. And we snicker at those upper class power dynamics, familiar to all thanks to the seemingly endless deluge of aristocrat-dramas that have proliferated since “Downton Abbey” and are all over our aunts’ Netflix feeds.

When one obsequious doctor tries to cure the queen’s constipation, he uses the incredible formation “perhaps the royal colon could stand a bit more roughage.” We smirk. That’s the kind of movie “Victoria & Abdul” wants to be.

Except, it can’t be, thanks to that damned question of colonialism, the legacy of which is still being felt today. In the film’s formation, both Abdul and Victoria are innocent actors, two parties on the far extremes of a troubling system run by callous white men (represented here by the likes of Eddie Izzard, Michael Gambon, and Tim Pigott-Smith). But that structure never stands up because the film never grants the slightest interest in Abdul’s perspective.

While Dench gets a number of speeches and confrontations, dramatizing Victoria’s position as both all-powerful and basically powerless, Fazal is just asked to smile. Abdul is good-natured and charming, happily there to serve. He’s eager to teach her Urdu, or recite from the Koran, much to Victoria’s delight and her advisor’s dismay, but what’s going on inside his mind? What’s it like to go from the basement of colonial prison to a seat of Imperial power? Well, aside from the fact that he seems to appreciate the wallpaper, we never really know. The film is called “Victoria & Abdul” but it only ever lives up to one half of its title.

You can’t really make a pro-colonialist film in today’s political landscape (and thank god for that!), but by refusing to confront the real historical factors that make an essential part of the plot, “Victoria & Abdul” comes awfully close.

Though painted in a sympathetic light, Abdul is only ever used as tool both in the film’s plot and construction. By lavishing him with praise and attention, the queen is able to needle her scheming, racist coterie. By showing how earnestly devoted he is without stopping to ask why or what that would mean, the filmmakers essentially treat him as a prop in a white woman’s road to awakening. Despite a number of frilly charms, the film uses a figure of an oppressed class as a pawn in the larger games of the oppressors, and never stops to consider who he is as a person. There’s a name for that.

Grade: C-

“Victoria & Abdul” premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It will hit theaters on September 22.

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Source: IndieWire film