The P3 Update Magazine Blog

By Iain Blair

Well the gig went great and caught up with tons of old friends I hadn’t seen in years – one, Tim Harris, wrote such huge hits as Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Trading Places, as well as producing that great thriller, Falling Down that starred Michael Douglas, and now lives in London.

Another, Bob Tait, used to be the drummer in Pete Brown’s Battered Ornaments (Pete wrote all the Cream songs) and one of the last times I saw him was at the legendary Stones gig in Hyde Park for Brian Jones, when The Battered Ornaments opened for the Stones. We spent the next day at brunch catching up at a great old pub on Putney Heath, and then I headed off to the premiere for Righteous Kill.

I took my younger sister, as it was her birthday the next day. When we arrived at the Empire in Leicester Square it was a mob scene, and as we squeezed down the edge of the red carpet we almost bumped into Bobby De Niro and Al Pacino, who were both in town for the premiere and who were being besieged by fans and Brit paparazzi as they signed autographs and posed for pix. Both stars were then introduced before the screening began and got standing ovations.

After the screening we all hightailed it to over to a great club on Berkeley Street in the heart of Mayfair for the big party which went on into the wee hours. Even 50 Cent, who co-stars in the film, showed up, plus a huge entourage, along with the rest of the stars. We finally staggered out and headed home. What a weekend…

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By Iain Blair

London Calling! Over here playing a reunion show with Fred Karno’s Army, the first rock n’ roll band I ever had. We’re doing a gig at The Hogarth Club in West London on 13th and filming the whole show for posterity – it’ll be on the web at some point, so stay tuned.

Staying with my sister and catching up on the whole London film scene (she’s a well-known script supervisor). She says film work is down in general – “it’s all reality TV here now, and most of the films are very low-budget.” She’s just starting a  five-day video shoot for Mentorn Films, shooting in Elstree and on location. For the past 3 years she’s also worked on New Tricks, a show about ex-cops who solve cold cases. It’s the most popular TV show in the UK - the BBC1 drama attracts nearly 9 million viewers (THAT’S THE EQUIVALENT OF 55 MILLION IN THE U.S.!!!) and they shoot all over London and at Pinewood.

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 By Dyana Carmella

The Art of Cinematography was the night’s focal point at the 12th Annual Emerging Cinematographer Awards that took place at the Directors Guild of America this past Sunday.

Steven Poster, The National President of the International Cinematographers Guild, kicked off the evening by welcoming guests and introducing the new chairman, Jim Matlosz. Without hesitation the films began and each honored cinematographer walked the red carpet to the podium to accept their award after the screening of their film. 

The event was titled “Launching Careers.” The name itself say’s it all. The talent of seven winning cinematographers and three honorable mentioned, were recognized and able to showcase their work. Each film could not exceed thirty minutes in length and could be originated in any format.

The honored cinematographers included, Gerry O’Malley for his work on the violent thriller, Demption,Eduardo Mayen for Singularity, Rachael Levine for the surrealistic comedy, Jesus Cooks Me Breakfast, Layton Blaylock for Spring Cleaning, Michael Svitak for his sci-fi/Western, Noisemaker, Aaron Medick for is supernatural thriller, Para-Normal, Josh Ellis for  The 17th Man, and the honorable mentions given to Saud Kutlug for Lola, Mark Williams for Love and James O’Keeffe for Cruel Logic. 

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 By Iain Blair

London will soon celebrate its 52nd Film Festival – this year it runs from Oct 15-20 – and I wish I could stay to catch some of this year’s great movies. The festival’s sponsored by The Times, and there’s a great quote from the late Anthony Minghella – a former Chair at the festival - about cinema on an early program I got – “Something so powerful as film should be celebrated and understood.”

The opening night gala showcases Frost/Nixon, the Ron Howard Universal release starring Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost, which is highly anticipated. The closing night features Slumdog Millionaire, a total change of direction for director Danny Boyle, who is unquestionably one of the UK’s top directors. Based on the best-selling novel “Q&A,” the film was shot in India where it’s set and emphasizes the international spirit of the festival.

Other hot tickets? Oliver Stone’s W and the first public screening worldwide of the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. There’s even events with writers Charlie Kaufman and Peter Morgan, who penned Frost/Nixon, discussing their craft.

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 By Iain Blair

I’m a huge fan of Don Cheadle, one of the most versatile actors out there, and he’s so good in his new thriller, Traitor. Cheadle was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor in Hotel Rwanda, the true story of a hotel manager who saves hundreds from slaughter during Rwanda’s genocidal massacres of 1994, and he was in the Oscar-winning ensemble film Crash (Best Picture), alongside Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton.

What’s less-known is that Cheadle is a prolific producer and also produced the film, which was written and directed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis. His producing credits include the recent documentary Darfur Now and Talk to Me, a drama in which Cheadle starred as the pioneering radio personality Petey Greene.

He’s also a musician and an accomplished stage actor - he originated the role of Booth in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play Top Dog Underdog at New York’s Public Theatre. Now he’s going to the dogs again in his next film, the Paramount comedy “Hotel for Dogs,” out in January, which stars Emma Roberts, Jake T. Austin, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillon. Cheadle has always liked to stretch, and obviously this Hotel is about as far as you can get from Hotel Rwanda….

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By Iain Blair 

You really know summer’s over when everyone in Hollywood migrates north for the great feeding grounds of the Toronto Film Festival, which is now one of the most important in the world. It’s a zoo, but one where all the exhibits are new every year. Sadly I’ll miss it this year as I’m off to London, and it looks pretty good this year, judging by the eclectic line up. There’s plenty of star power – Brad Pitt will attend, along with Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich plus The Coens for their “Burn After Reading.” Other highlights  - Appaloosa, the western written & directed by Ed Harris, starring Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons and Rene Zelwegger, Guy Ritchie’s RockNrolla, Demme’s Rachel Getting Married, Spike Lee’s war epic Miracle at St. Anna and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche NY which is certain to confuse a lot of people….

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By Iain Blair

Was chatting with Alan Ball, the Academy Award and Emmy Award winning writer and director, about his great new film Towelhead, which is certain to generate controversy. It’s his feature film directorial debut, based on his screenplay adaptation of the novel “Towelhead” by Alicia Erian.  The film stars Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette, Maria Bello, Peter Macdissi and newcomer Summer Bishil who plays Jasira, a 13-year-old Arab-American girl, as she navigates the confusing and frightening path of adolescence and her own sexual awakening.

The performances are amazing – and Ball had an award-winning behind-the-scenes team that includes Director of Photography Newton Thomas Sigel (The Usual Suspects, Three Kings, X2, Superman Returns), production designer James Chinlund (The Fountain, 25th Hour, Requiem for a Dream), editor Andy Keir (Beloved, The Night Listener, Neil Young: Heart of Gold), costume designer Danny Glicker (We are Marshall, Transamerica), Music Supervisor Randall Poster and 8-time Oscar®-nominated composer Thomas Newman.

 “It was tough getting this made, as we only had a budget of $8 million,” Ball told me. “And the state of indie films now is so difficult. I just feel like the films that really need to to get made are the hardest to get made, and it’s easy to be discouraged, but I think there’ll always be people willing to fight.” I also asked him where he keeps the Oscar he won for American Beauty. “In my office – and for a while I had it dressed up in Barbie clothes on it, as a way of making it seem less pretentious. But then I realized that was just as pretentious, so now it’s now just standing on a shelf.”

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Bumped into my Topanga neighbor, Jon Avnet on the trail early today – we’re both avid hikers. The veteran producer and director has a big new film out soon, Righteous Kill, which he directed, starring two actors who’ve become legends – Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

The last time the two starred together was in Heat back in ’95 and it should be a treat to see them back together again, this time playing two NYPD detectives. “They were great to work with – they both arrive so prepared and ready to go,” Jon told me. But he’s also “a little nervous” about the critical reception after the drubbing he and Pacino got for their last collaboration, the thriller, 88 Minutes.

“I just don’t get it,” said Jon. “They really were out for blood  - and what has Al done to upset [the critics] so much? They were almost hysterical.”  I’m off to London soon and Jon kindly invited me to the big London premiere, so I’ll report back on it while I’m on the road….

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By Iain Blair 

Went to meet Chinese-American director Wayne Wang who has two new films coming out - A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, winner of four prizes at the San Sebastian Film Festival, including a Golden Shell for Best Film for Wang and a Silver Shell for Best Actor for star Henry O, and Princess of Nebraska. After some big studio films like Last Holiday, Because of Winn-Dixie, and Maid in Manhattan (which starred Jlo), he’s gone back to lower budget films and more personal, intimate filmmaking. And echoing the YouTube release of No End In Sight, Wang’s Princess of Nebraska will be released exclusively on line, he told me.

“It’s very exciting and also perfect for the film as we shot it with a small digital camera. I used a Panasonic DVR consumer camera and it’s the most popular camera used in Iraq as it’s very high quality, small and very flexible. We even shot inside a very popular, crowded mall, and we didn’t have permission or permits, but it wasn’t a problem as the camera’s so small.” Wang told me that online releasing “will probably be the next big thing – for all kinds of movies. It’s really the future now.”

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By Iain Blair 

I loved No End In Sight, but when Charles Ferguson decided to make it as his first film, the author and academic didn’t make it easy on himself. Instead of learning his craft and honing his skills with, say, an expose of corrupt florists, he jumped in the deep end by taking on the thorny subject of American policy in Iraq.

The result, the aptly-titled No End In Sight, was a feature-length documentary and an insider’s tale of the lethal mixture of incompetence, arrogance and blind ambition that catapulted the U.S. into an invasion with no exit strategy. Written, directed and produced by Ferguson, and executive-produced by Alex Gibney (whose Enron; The Smartest Guys in the Room was Oscar-nominated), No End In Sight doesn’t pull any punches as it combines raw footage from inside a decimated Iraq with interviews from such high ranking officials as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, General Jay Garner and Ambassador Barbara Bodine to paint a grim picture of U.S. policy with regard to the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

The film, which won the Documentary Special Jury Prize at the ‘07 Sundance Film Festival, was released theatrically and distributed by Magnolia Pictures. Now, in a sign of things to come, it will also be the first widely released feature film to screen in its entirety on YouTube starting on September 1 and continuing through the 2008 presidential election on Tuesday, November 4. The film will be featured on its own YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/noendinsight) and available to anyone with a computer and high-speed internet connection, as well as via the YouTube service on broadband-connected TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD DVRs, which enables subscribers to watch content of YouTube on their televisions.

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