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Filed under: Film | Tags: Dennis Haysbert, Film, the details, Tobey Maguire
Seattle Metropolitan Magazine
Dennis Haysbert, the man who led the country as the president on Fox’s 24 or, more recently, guided the top-secret military operations of The Unit on CBS, is in town to shoot The Details, a dark comedy. In an article of this month’s issue of Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, he wouldn’t talk about, well, the details on record—he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise of how far the movie strays from its reported plot about a married couple dealing with a raccoon problem. “Just say I meet Tobey Maguire at a pickup game on a basketball court and we become friends,” he said. The Details also stars Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Ray Liotta.
Filed under: Film, Music | Tags: bumbershoot, festival, One Reel, seattle center
Seattle Times
Bumbershoot is too big for any one person. The city’s annual music and arts festival, produced by One Reel every Labor Day weekend, sprawls over Seattle Center grounds. This year it will feature about 300 stage performances — and that’s not event counting the art shows, site-specific works, circus acts on the lawn, buskers and kids’ programming. Where to go? What to see and do? The Seattle Times offers four itineraries, based on various interests: arts, comedy, music and family fun.
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Seattle Weekly
This past Monday, KBCS 91.3 launched their slightly contested new programming schedule. The changes include the addition of several syndicated programs, including: the new weekly show by Michael Eric Dyson, noted cultural scholar and author based out of Baltimore; the Berkeley-based Hard Knock Radio which focuses on underground hip-hop and grassroots social movements; and The Takeaway, Public Radio International’s new morning talk show that partners with, among others, the New York Times and BBC World Service. For a full listing of changes, follow the above link.
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Hollywood Reporter
The indie film business is struggling. For many, the problem in the indie world these past few years, particularly at the higher end of the budget spectrum, is that financiers simply took on projects that the studios cast off. With small nips and tucks to the budgets, producers then went ahead and made the same projects, only without distribution or the financial cushion that a studio might have provided. In other words, the “Burning Plain” model, in which dramas with big names are independently financed at a budget as high as $20 million, is all but dead. In its place is something both bigger and, in some ways, less indie. Movies with budgets in a higher range can still be financed outside the system and seek distribution after they’re made, but they must be made in a far more commercial vein. Festival dramas can still be made and perform well, of course. They just need to be made on tighter budgets. For both distributors and producers, that might be the biggest guiding principle in the current indie climate: Make a more commercial movie. And whether you’re producing or distributing, spend less.
Filed under: Film | Tags: Bobcat Goldthwait, Film, robin williams, Shakes the Clown, Stay, world's greatest dad
Seattle Times
Bob “Bobcat” Goldthwait is most familiar as an off-the-rails stand-up comedian and comic actor whose cracked voice and anxiety shtick energized many a lowbrow movie and made him a loose cannon on talk shows. In 1991, Goldthwait wrote and directed cult favorite Shakes the Clown, and since then has nurtured a successful career as a director of television (“Chappelle’s Show”) and film (Stay). His new work, World’s Greatest Dad, shot in the Seattle area, stars Robin Williams. Check out the above link to read Goldthwait’s take on non-traditional comedy.
Filed under: Music | Tags: Motel 6, Music, Primary Wave, Rock Yourself to Sleep, touring
Billboard
Primary Wave Music, has put together a partnership with Motel 6 that will give touring rock bands free lodging in exchange for putting up the “Rock Yourself to Sleep logo on their social network sites, like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. “Being on the road is an integral part of a band’s success,” Primary Wave partner/chief imagination officer Devin Lasker.” Unfortunately, touring is an expensive proposition, so we created this program to alleviate that burden.” Motel 6 became the sponsor of the campaign.
Filed under: Film | Tags: Ballast, David Schultz, Film, Freestyle Releasing, Lance Hammer, Marc Cuban, Picturehouse, sundance, Todd Wagner, Truly Indie, Valentino, Vivendi Entertainment, Warner Independents
Hollywood Reporter
As the indie theatrical market continues to struggle, more producers and financiers are shouldering the distribution burden themselves. “The way the independent landscape is right now a lot of good quality independent films don’t see the light of day,” says Stephen Raphael, a New York-based consultant who worked on the indie drama Ballast, along with filmmaker Lance Hammer, after it won an award at Sundance. “We ended up releasing it in 25 markets and in nontheatrical and arts institutions, at universities,” Raphael says. One of the year’s success stories, Valentino: The Last Emperor, went DIY so the filmmakers could retain key rights. Truly Indie, a Dallas company owned by Marc Cuban and Todd Wagner, helped them “four wall” the initial release (rent out the theaters). After a month riding a wave of favorable reviews and publicity, Truly Indie handed off Valentino to L.A. consultant David Schultz, who then booked it in theaters in 125 different cities for a gross of about $1.7 million. Truly Indie isn’t alone in helping facilitate self-distribution. Such for-hire outfits as Freestyle Releasing and Vivendi Entertainment are filling the gap left by the demise of indie players like Warner Independents and Picturehouse.
Filed under: Digital Media, Music | Tags: Carlos Santana, Courtney Love, Dave Grohl, Garbage, guitar hero, kurt cobain, Matt Bellamy, Muse, Music, Nirvana, seattle, Shirley Manson
Rolling Stone
Today, Activision has confirmed that a Kurt Cobain character will be playable in Guitar Hero 5 alongside Carlos Santana, Johnny Cash, Shirley Manson of Garbage and Matt Bellamy of Muse. Two Nirvana tracks, Nevermind’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and a live version of “Lithium,” from their 1992 headlining slot at England’s Reading festival, also join the game’s set list, a first for the seminal band that defined the grunge era. Watch Cobain’s avatar rocking “Smells Like Teen Spirit” below:
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Filed under: Film | Tags: Bao Tran, Black Coffee, bookie, Film, fly filmmaking challenge, seattle, siff
Seattle Magazine
Tran’s critically acclaimed, award-winning short film, Bookie, screened at 22 film festivals over 18 months, including the 2008 Seattle International Film Festival—an impressive achievement for any independent filmmaker, much less for someone in the beginning of his career who has never attended film school. In 2009, SIFF chose Tran as one of four local filmmakers to participate in the annual Fly Filmmaking challenge, in which participants have three months to make a movie from a script pulled out of a hat. His 10-minute short Black Coffee took a standard love-triangle-with-a-twist and transformed it into a beautifully shot, original story. Check out the article profiling Tran by following the link.
The Stranger
Check out the new Sub Pop Dunks from Nike, with signature Sub Pop colors and logo!
Seattle Office of Film + Music 