Showing posts tagged “Main Street”
David Fellerath ·
3 Dec 2009, 9:28 AM ·
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UPDATE 12/4/09: Still no news of Main Street. Sundance announces out-of-competition premieres. Main Street not included. We’ll have to wait for a different occasion for this film’s emergence.
In the category of “the news is that there’s no news….”
We looked up the Sundance competition lineup, which was announced yesterday, with the eager hope of seeing MAIN STREET, the Horton Foote-scripted drama that was filmed last summer in Durham. There are some good looking films in the competition, but no Main Street. We don’t know if it was submitted to Sundance or not, but it would be unusual for a film of this profile—with a literary pedigree, a respected, well-known cast, a modest budget and no distributor—to not be entered into Sundance.
Main Street, which stars Colin Firth, Orlando Bloom, Patricia Clarkson and Ellen Burstyn, was put out for inspection at last month’s American Film Market—with a poster included—but we’re not aware of anyone who’s seen the film writing about it.
This year’s Sundance is under the leadership of John Cooper, after 19 years of stewardship by Geoff Gilmore. Cooper told The New York Times that he, naturally, wanted to put his own stamp on the festival.
“We really tried to hunker down and make some hard decisions,” Mr. Cooper said. “We tried not to be wishy-washy about what is independent, which I know has been a criticism in the past. We weren’t going to be swayed by the marketability of a film.”
This seems to mean that he wants the festival’s programming to be about the quality of the filmmaking, not the Q-rating of the casts (we’ll see what the sponsors say about that!).
On the documentary side (which is where the best films ALWAYS are), we see new work by filmmakers who’ve been fixtures at Full Frame and elsewhere in the doc world these last few years, including Laura Poitras (Flag Wars, My Country My Country and now THE OATH; Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern (The Trials of Darryl Hunt, The Devil Came on Horseback and now JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK); Amir Bar-Lev (New Orleans Furlough, My Kid Could Paint That and now I’M PAT _______ TILLMAN); Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound and now LUCKY) and Davis Guggenheim (The First Year, It Might Get Loud, An Inconvenient Truth and now WAITING FOR SUPERMAN).
Let’s hope Full Frame can land most or all of these films next April.
And let’s hope to see MAIN STREET emerge somewhere. All is not lost for Sundance, by the way: The festival has yet to announce its out-of-competition special premieres. These films tend to star-driven titles that already have distributors.
Film, Full Frame Amir Bar-Lev, Annie Sundberg, Colin Firth, Davis Guggenheim, documentaries, Ellen Burstyn, Full Frame, Horton Foote, Jeffrey Blitz, Laura Poitras, Main Street, Orlando Bloom, Patricia Clarkson, Ricki Stern, Sundance
David Fellerath ·
23 Nov 2009, 10:08 PM ·
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Remember all those Colin Firth and Orlando Bloom sightings last summer? Well, the movie they were shooting, Main Street, just made a stop at one of the stations of the indie-film cross by being screened at the American Film Market earlier this month. The AFM is an international film bazaar in which hopeful producers show off their finished (or unfinished) films; this year, more than 8,000 buyers from around the world viewed approximately 500 films. Most films at AFM will never see the light of day, but others could become the next Paranormal Activity or Clerks or — well, it’s hard to put a finger on what niche Main Street would occupy. Lil’ Abner meets The Trip to Bountiful?
It’s safe to assume that Main Street won’t be the next Reservoir Dogs or Sex, Lies and Videotape…, but as potentially the last new film made from a Horton Foote screenplay, it will definitely merit attention from film festival programmers. And if it’s good, well then it could end up in theaters.
The big announcement to wait for is from Park City, home of the Sundance Film Festival. If Sundance holds to its past form, we should know the first week of December if Main Street will play the festival (it’s entirely possible, if unlikely, that the film’s producers didn’t submit it for consideration). In fact, given the cast and the late screenwriter, who recently was the subject of a New Yorker appreciation as well as a biography by Wilborn Hampton, one would have to think that this film would have an edge on the thousands of films with minimal budgets and no-name actors that are submitted every year.
If Main Street turns up in Park City, that would give Durhamites a lot to be excited about in late January. If it doesn’t play Sundance, it could mean a number of things besides “the film wasn’t good and it was rejected,” although it could mean that, too. We’ll just have to see.
We found this poster on the Internets. It’s not, to be charitable, the most original design. In fact, some people might call it cheesy. However, it’s worth remembering the particular function of a poster used at AFM, as this evidently was. The important thing is to let potential buyers know who’s in your film and a rough idea of the genre (Driving Miss Daisy meets Pride and Prejudice meets The Lord of the Rings meets Baby the Rain Must Fall?). Click the link to see an alternate poster being used on the Web site of Myriad Pictures, the film’s producer.
Film American Film Market, Colin Firth, Horton Foote, Main Street, Orlando Bloom
David Fellerath ·
1 May 2009, 4:12 PM ·
1 Comment
The bounty offer! Click to read G105's little stunt in full.
Recently, G105 announced a $1,000 “Orlando Bloom Bounty.” Seems that the publicists for MAIN STREET, the feature film now in production in Durham, aren’t returning their calls, so Bob and the Showgram are turning to checkbook journalism: They’re offering one-large to the person who can deliver the actor, of hobbit and pirate fame, to their studios for an interview.
But before readers go hunting for the man who was Legolas, we should inform you that we tripped over him licking his fingers at JC’s Kitchen at Main and Fayetteville Street, put a hood over his head, threw him into our Prius and took him to the G105 studio.
Unfortunately, Orlando never made it inside the studio. Turns out Bob only wanted to check him out under the pretext of a trial interview. When it was over, all we had was this tape.
Film Bob Dumas, G105 & Showgram, Main Street, Orlando Bloom
David Fellerath ·
19 Mar 2009, 5:14 PM ·
2 Comments
The long-rumored, long-gestating film known as Main Street is inching its way to realization.
Reliant Pictures, the Thom Mount-helmed company that is producing, has a production office at the old Duke Diet and Fitness Center at the corner of Trinity and Duke Streets, according to production manager David Linck.
Filming is now set to begin between March 30 and April 6, Linck says.
Last month, we reported that a New York casting agency had conducted a week of auditions for smaller speaking roles. Linck doesn’t close the door on additional casting, saying in an email, “Although no further cast and extras auditions are scheduled at this time, there may be more in the future as need dictates.”
Linck was unable to confirm the identities of the lead actors, despite reports of the involvement of Colin Firth, Patricia Clarkson and Ellen Burstyn. “Cast names are not set and not confirmed,” Linck says.
Reyn Bowman of the Durham County Visitor’s Bureau (DCVB) confirmed that his office has been assisting the advance team with locations and permits.
The script of Main Street was written by playwright and two-time Oscar winner Horton Foote, who died earlier this month at the age of 92.
Film Colin Firth, David Linck, Ellen Burstyn, Horton Foote, Main Street, Patricia Clarkson, Thom Mount
