Category Archives: Ephemera

Greetings From Tim Buckley Acquires Distributor

Casting About, Ephemera

Celluloid Dreams, headed by Hengameh Panahi, has acquired worldwide rights to the film Greetings From Tim Buckley, currently shooting in New York City, and starring Penn Badgley, Imogen Poots, Frank Wood, Norbert Leo Butz, Jessica Stone, Bill Sadler and Frank Bello. Dan Algrant is directing, from a script co-written with Emma Sheanshang and David Brendel.

Greetings From Tim Buckley unfolds through the prism of Jeff Buckley‘s romance with a young woman, which helps him come to understand the father who abandoned him. This culminates in a cathartic performance of his father’s most famous songs at a 1991 tribute concert, helping to launch his own solo career. Poots was high on the movie and looking forward to shooting in a recent conversation, so here’s hoping it turns out well; given the players and lineage of its subjects, it’s hard to fathom that it wouldn’t get a theatrical release.

Warner Bros. Warns Writers How Death Feels About Being Cheated

Amusements, Ephemera

As the release of Final Destination 5 looms on the horizon, it seems worth noting that Warner Bros. must be feeling fairly bullish about what they have, and not merely because of the franchise-rejuvenating $186 million gross of its 2009 predecessor (almost two-thirds of which came from overseas). No, in addition to carpet-bombing specialty programming (they’re pretty much temporarily renting MTV and Comedy Central these days), the studio is peppering writers with an assortment of small but catchy swag — spread out over the last couple weeks, and including an eye chart, a luggage tag, a branded mini-wrench, some incense with an accompanying holder, and a faux-winner’s medallion emblazoned with the admonishing dictum, “Death doesn’t like to be cheated.”

Actually, that phrase — the movie’s tagline — also appears on little, different-sized cards with a medical examiner’s logo on the back in each package, which are great to leave as threatening notes to movie-ignorant enemies outside of the film’s target demographic reach. Errr… I mean, theoretically. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I caught a junket screening of the movie this past weekend, and will look to post a proper review closer to release, but it’s safe to say that Final Destination 5 is the antidote to Glee 3-D: The Concert Movie, and should be received warmly enough to ensure the continuation of the franchise.

A Million Spokes Debuts on Documentary Channel

Ephemera

For those homebound this weekend due to either “Carmageddon,” a crippling staph infection or agoraphobia, Varda Hardy’s A Million Spokes, a delightful and engaging nonfiction look at the annual RAGBRAI bicycle tour across Iowa, debuts on the Documentary Channel on Sunday, July 17 at 8 p.m. Check your local listings for channel information; for more on the film, meanwhile, click here.

NBA Conference Title DVDs Manufactured on Demand

Ephemera

Attention hoops fans — if basking in the misery of Kevin Durant and/or Derek Rose is your thing, you can now purchase all five games (individually) of the 2011 Western and Eastern Conference Games at Amazon.com. Relive all the three-pointers, free throws (oh, the free throws!), slam dunks and bitter, bitter tears (unglimpsed, but lingering under the surface) of the match-ups between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder for the Western Conference crown, and the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls for the Eastern Conference title. Each DVD is $9.98 and manufactured on demand using recordable DVD-R media. More information about the individual 2011 Western Conference Games can be found by clicking here; more information about the individual 2011 Eastern Conference Games, meanwhile, can be found by clicking here. It’s a nice belated Father’s Day gift, too, if you perchance screwed up and TiVoed over any of dad’s saved games with your addiction to Tosh.O re-runs.

In Regards to Blake Lively’s Hacked Nude Photos

Amusements, Ephemera, Irritations, Musings

So I’m late to the party on this whole Blake Lively hacked nude iPhone pictures story, the absolute tamest of which appears above. Apparently after the first set of photos surfaced (some — smartly? artfully? — with her eyes obscured), the enterprising “hacker” who released these floated a second batch of T&A shots, and a couple fairly indisputable posed, fully-clothed pictures with the same backgrounds. So while a Congressman teeters on the brink of likely resignation for some nude cell-camera snaps (and admittedly idiotic behavior), a starlet with a big summer movie on the horizon watches her Google quotient spike, and probably moves up a couple dozen spots on whatever new hot-chicks-young-guys-wanna-bang list Maxim is currently composing.

Pointing out what probably a handful of others already have, does the timing of all this not seem suspicious to anyone? With Warner Bros.’ mega-budget The Green Lantern about to alight this week, this is certainly one way to share steal the spotlight from Ryan Reynolds. Lively, who gave quite nice supporting turns in both The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and last year’s The Town, isn’t getting much juice in her new movie’s trailers, but complementary tabloid campaigns can most assuredly serve as propellant and boost a career that already has its own loaded fuel tanks of ambition. So… does this really pass the smell test as an innocent accident?

Look, I’m not saying this is some shadow studio promotional gambit. I’m just sure that the PR folks saw them and did some high-fives in the office, because it probably meant they instantly got all the Lively “juice” (stories) they could reasonably expect to attach to the movie and then some, all without her having to submit to a litany of questions about what it was like to (presumably) smooch Reynolds and work in front of a green-screen. I’ve said before that probably the worst thing in the world to be is an 18- to
26-year-old girl with designs on leading actress Hollywood studio parts, because every single day of the week, 365 days a
year, about a dozen new scorching hot aspirant starlets get off the
Greyhound bus or disembark at LAX from their one-way fare from Podunk, Idaho, chomping at the bit to unseat you. So when actresses of a certain breed — those who’ve experienced some success, let’s say, and are eager to still get passed to the Sundance gift suites — see Khloe Kardashian trip her way into demi-celebrity (“Thank goodness my sister made a sex tape with Brandy’s brother!”), well… they’re more apt to take matters into their own hands. And sometimes those matters might be their breasts, that’s all I’m sayin’.

I Am Brent Simon (Not Number Four)

Ephemera

It’s been brought to my attention, rightly, that this site lacks a bunch of bells and whistles, or even a simple biographical stamp. I need to get on that, definitely. And hopefully some assistance can be soon drafted on that front. But it’s kind of hard, between the dozen-plus films per week, and all the writing and what not. So, in the meantime, for more about me, click here. That will have to tide you over for a bit, dear readers.

Adrian Grenier Makes Shft Happen

Awards, Ephemera

SHFT.com, a website founded by actor Adrian Grenier and film producer Peter Glatzer, has been nominated for two 2011 Webby Awards, in the categories of “Green” for best website, and Online Film & Video / Documentary Individual Episode for Gardens NYC: Patrick’s Place. Grenier’s site is billed as a new media platform offering original video series, curated shopping, and a host of resources that speak to a modern, inspirational, eco-conscious lifestyle. The Webby Awards, of course, is the leading international awards recognition for excellence on the Internet — including websites, interactive advertising and online film and video. To vote, click here.

Outed CIA Agent Valerie Plame Turns To Suspense Novels

Ephemera

The news that Valerie Plame is penning a series of female-centered suspense/spy novels with Sarah Lovett for Penguin USA is, on the one hand, something of a surprise, but also not at all. Not really. Having interviewed Plame on two separate occasions, I can report that she obviously has a deep and abiding interest in nuclear nonproliferation issues (the arena in which she worked before being outed by Scooter Libby and Vice President Cheney’s office), but also a grander appreciation and care for the huge things that can be accomplished with diplomacy, and how those carrots must be mixed with sticks. Her work should be smart, plugged-in, of the real and recognizable world, with all its complexities.

George Clooney: Anti-Genocide Paparazzo

Ephemera, Politics

In an age of Twitter-shortened attention spans, George Clooney is helping shine a humanitarian spotlight on Sudan in an unusual way, according to Newsweek — with a privately funded, publicly accessible satellite. Money quote: “I’m not tied to the United Nations or the U.S. government, and so I don’t have the same constraints. I’m a guy with a camera from 480 miles up,” Clooney says. “I’m the anti-genocide paparazzi.” Good stuff. And you have to admit, too, no one rocks the grey quite like him.