Tag Archives: indie

Review: Solomon Kane

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Solomon Kane is a character created by Robert E. Howard. However, unlike Conan, he has remained a cult “classic”, being more of an adventure hero.

It looks like the movie will follow a similar trajectory. It has been released in Europe, but it’s less and less likely it will get to screens in the USA. Of course, it will eventually end up on DVD (and video-on-demand), so you still be able to see it.

The movie starts with a great scene where Solomon Kane is going after the gold, as a typical pirate. Much to his surprise, the gold is “guarded” by the Reaper who has come to claim Solomon’s soul. Obviously, his soul was damned for his many crimes.

Solomon manages to escape and retreats to a monastery. This is the new Solomon Kane, who has repented and wants nothing more but peace. We wouldn’t have a movie, if everyone got what they wanted, so Solomon is thrown into the world and forced to confront violence.

I wouldn’t go into spoilers but the story arc is very interesting and paints Solomon’s childhood in a harsh light.

It’s a nice little movie, with a budget that’s probably 10% of Prince of Persia’s. James Purefoy does an amazing job, as always. If you haven’t seen him in Rome, you should definitely do so.

Sidenote: If you’re a fan of the Diablo games by Blizzard, you gonna love it. It plays a lot like the Diablo movie that’s in the works!

Prince of Persia workout

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Jake Gyllenhaal Prince Of PersiaNow, Jake was pretty ripped in both Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain.

He takes it to a whole new level for the Prince of Persia. The Jerry Bruckheimer’s production seems to be of epic scope indeed, since Jake has an year to get in character: note the hair, it’s not a wig (I think).

I find it amazing that someone in Hollywood has “underwritten” transferring Prince of Persia to the big screen – as a summer blockbuster too.

Effectively, this is a $150-million one-way bet on video games. Uwe Boll shot video game movies in Canada for 10M and barely broke even. Some even claim he did it for tax purposes, as German investors could write off the losses as an “investment in art.”

I can tell you right now what the NEXT game movie blockbuster is going to be. Sam Raimi was attached as Director to a World of Warcraft movie. Blizzard makes a billion a year in revenues from their hit MMORPG, I’m certain they can fork up $150 million.

Update: Gemma Arterton has been working out and tanning quite a bit too. She confessed she had to shed 10 pounds for the role of the princess. So it’s not just Jake that is a “serious” actor as Daily Mirror put it.

Droidmaker – free book download

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droidmakerMichael Rubin, an author of books on Mac and editing, has decided to give away his Droidmaker book for free!

The book describes in detail the development of nonlinear editing (NLE) and computer graphics. The book is written from his perspective of working with Lucasfilm and Pixar.

I think this could be a valuable tool for independent filmmakers too, after all, the cost of doing computer effects has been falling steadily.

Polanski’s fate still undecided

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Roman Polanski found himself in jail facing extradition to the USA, when he tried to attend a film festival in Switzerland.

According to the NYT: “Roman Polanski lost his first bid to win his freedom Tuesday as the Swiss Justice Ministry rejected an appeal by the 76-year-old to be immediately released from prison, an official said.”

Galli told The Associated Press that the risk was too great for the government to accept bail or other security measures in exchange for the release of the filmmaker who is wanted by U.S. authorities for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

Polanski was apprehended Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive an award from a film festival. Authorities in Los Angeles consider him a convicted felon and a fugitive, and Switzerland says there has been an international warrant out on him since 2005.

His legal representatives are also asking Switzerland’s highest criminal court to free Polanski. Galli said the Justice Ministry has submitted a letter to the tribunal explaining why it opposes release even on bail.


So the Oscar-winning director remains in jail with very little chance to get himself off the hook (again, that NYT story). At the time of his arrest he was working on The Ghost, a movie starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

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Monty Python are one of the prime examples of indie cinema. Look at this episode and tell me it cannot be shot on shoestring budget.

No fancy lighting, the camera is static (no dolly)… the list goes one but you don’t think about production values. You think about how a “farcical aquatic ceremony” cannot be the basis of a government system. Hilarious!

Man vs Wild

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I must admit I’m a bit obsessive at times. This time it’s Bear Grylls’ Man vs Wild show that’s aired on the Discovery channel.

Check out this bit from a survival episode in the Alps. He jumps into a frozen lake to demonstrate how to survive if you ever get into one.

Now, talking about indie moviemaking (and documentary-making), this is one talent you’ll need to develop – getting a cold shower every so often. Think about what it takes HIM to do a half-hour show.

Uwe Boll goes Postal

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Apparently, the much anticipated (not!) premiere of Postal, has made Uwe even more beligerent. An unfavorable review by Wired had him sent this email to the reviewer Chris Kohler (read the whole drama here)

chris
your review shows me only that you dont understand anything about movies and that you are a untalented wanna bee filmmaker with no balls and no understanding what POSTAL is. you dont see courage because you are nothing. and no go to your mum and fuck her …because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it.
people like you are the reason that independent movies have no chance anymore.
uwe boll
PS: POSTAL is R RATED . The MPAA understood the satire — you not — you dumb fuck

In a totally unrelated story, Uwe Boll has gone to Blizzard with an offer to purchase the movie rights for a World of Warcraft movie (source: WoW Insider).

Uwe himself quoted Blizzard’s response: “We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…. especially not to you.”

I wonder if Uwe had the brains to ask for the Diablo movie rights? Blizzard have just announced Diablo 3 (btw, you can download Diablo 2 cd keys), so maybe that’s why they don’t Uwe to spoil it for them.

John Rambo trailer

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There’s an improvised trailer from the upcoming Rambo 4 (officially John Rambo). It’s not an official Rambo trailer but I think it’s worth your 2 minutes.

Most of the Rambo fans who’ve seen it are raving about it. After all, it has the right mix of improvised weapons, blood & gore, and of course Sly Stalone! With the production over, the movie should be out by Christmas.

Review: The Boss of It All

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The Boss of It AllI like Lars von Trier‘s new direction. The movie is a closer to The Idiots than Dogville, and I liked The Idiots a lot.

The premise of the movie is also close to my heart: the IT industry and how a potential acquisition can sour relations. The plot is straight-forward:

The owner of an IT company wishes to sell it. But, for years, he has pretended that the real boss lives in America and communicates with the staff only by e-mail. That way, all the unpopular decisions can be attributed to the absentee manager, while all the popular ones to him directly.

But now, the prospective buyer insists on meeting the big boss in person. In a panic, the owner hires a failed, over-intellectualizing actor to portray him, and the actor proceeds to improvise all his lines, to the consternation of both the buyer and the company staff, who finally get to meet their ghostly boss.

I’ve never seen any of the actors before, with one notable difference – Iben Hjejle. The acting is OK, granted you have Dogme sensibilities. I especially loved the two guys from “Iceland” who were a perfect match of ice and fire. Excellent performance from the lead character as well.

A few observations that really question Lars’s “growth” since the Dogme days. First, the narration attracts attention to the director, while Dogme postulated that the director should remain uncredited. Second, I couldn’t escape the feeling that some of the random compositions – sometime cutting faces in half – were done on purpose, to mock this style of “indie” shooting.

Lars never claimed he would stick to Dogme. In fact, this movie “patented” a new mathematical formula and a process he called Automavision. Here’s what he means by that:

This entails choosing the best possible fixed camera position and then allowing a computer to choose when to tilt, pan or zoom. “For a long time, my films have been handheld,” he explains. “That has to do with the fact that I am a control freak. With Automavision, the technique was that I would frame the picture first and then push a button on the computer. I was not in control – the computer was in control.”

I think THAT explains the erratic camera motions. Anyway, if you have a chance to see the movie, go and check it out, especially if you’re IT!

Rocky Balboa in HD

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Rocky BalboaRocky Balboa is out in high definition Blu-ray.

Rocky’s last installment (Rocky Balboa review) is “just” $38.95 at Amazon. The video itself is encoded at 1080p/AVC MPEG-4.

On the down side, there’s no “exclusive” content on disc.

Personally, I’m not that big of a fan of Rocky, so I’m not going to shell 40 bucks on it.

If I’m going to watch something on HD, it better have more “cinematic” qualities.

The Weekend numbers explosion

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According to a post at the Long Tail, it would seem that Hollywood is doing its best to hide the fact that blockbusters are few and far in between.

I first posted about Hollywood’s plans to produce fewer movies last year. Now it seems they’ll also be massaging the numbers as well.

According to post (a reader who requested anonymity said):

I happened to be riding to work with an exec from one of the major studios this morning, and he mentioned that the studios are increasingly making deals with theaters to inflate opening numbers. In particular, they will give the theaters very high revenue share for the first X days of the movie (he mentioned 100% for the first 3 days), incentivizing the theater to maximize the number of screens the movie’s shown on, inflating opening numbers.

The particular example of Superman and Pirates were actually the ones he brought up – that Superman’s decline was partially due to the theathers’ incentive period running out.

I have no idea how true or prevalent this is, but something you might want to look into. This would be done for movies which the studio considers potential “hits”, increasing discrepancy between them and normal movies.

Funny, I don’t think I heard Bryan Singer mention it in his Superman interview.

I’m still hopeful that the explosion of user-generated content will severely erode the blockbuster’s share of the pie. Remains to be seen if Google Video will finally launch their marketplace for indie producers.

The Devil’s Miner

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A friend of mine recommended The Devil’s Miner and I definitely plan to see it. It’s a documentary about Basilio Vargas, a Bolivian child miner. It’s like a cross between citizen journalism and gonzo journalism. Kief Davidson, director, says:

The challenge for THE DEVIL’S MINER was finding a young boy who could carry and narrate a feature-length film. We hired a former miner and local guide who introduced us to a dozen families. The Vargas family was the first on his list and we were immediately captivated with Basilio’s positive energy, intelligence and articulate speech.

The Devil's Miner - documentary about a Bolivian child minerFrom a filmmaker’s perspective, there were some important technical challenges like lighting and cameras. I’m still trying to figure out from the photo if they are using an HD cam or not. It looks like a Sony FX1 with some accessories :

In the claustrophobic tunnels, we shot with a small-format digital camera. Anything larger would have been impossible. The miners’ open-flame carbon lamps were used as the main source of lighting…

You can visit The Devil’s Miner official site where there’s a trailer and plenty of information about the documenary. You can also order the DVD.

Jeff Skoll on making movies

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Don’t go to IMDb to look for Jeff Skoll, you’ll get the wrong person. Skoll is eBay’s ex-President … with about 2 Billion in eBay stock.

Jeff Skoll - movie mogulWhat’s he got to do with movies? A lot. See, when he retired from eBay, he founded a production company (Participant Productions) that is behind quite a few movies (incl. Syriana).

His focus is on issues that tackle important issues and social problems: oil dependence, sexual harassment and domestic violence, disability and discrimination, global warming.

SyrianaIn his recent Wired interview, Jeff described how he got the idea:

A few years before I formed Participant, I met a producer named Richard Lewis who had been very successful with a number of big movies. I asked him why there weren’t more movies like Erin Brockovich and Schindler’s List coming out of Hollywood. And he said, “People just don’t finance those movies. Though, by the way, those are the kinds of movies I’d like to do.”

Skoll is on a roll (excuse the pun) with recent movies such as Syriana, North Country, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Murderball.

Hollywood’s Xmas vows: fewer movies

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With DVD sales flattening, Variety re-examines the big studios. Most of the executives interviewed requested to remain anonymous, a clear sign it’s time to face some unpleasant realities.

Wedding Crashers - one of the few movies in the 30-70M range that made a profitDVD sales have been the engine for studio growth in the last 5 years but in the last 12 months the DVD market is flattening. There’s some new distribution channels on the horizon: like Sony’s Blu-Ray DVD (or Toshiba’s alternative HD-DVD) and even the new video iPod (limited to tv series or ipod torrents). These new markets are not mature enough however to compensate the overall decrease in revenues.

Although the major studios are facing different problems, the majority of studio executives agreed on several points:

  • Limit movies in the $35 million to $70 million range
  • Financial partners are no longer an option — they’re required
  • Trim marketing budgets
  • Make fewer movies

In terms of the mid-budget movies, Variety quotes a COO at a major studio:

If you look at the $40 million to $70 million budget film, they are so difficult. They rarely have top box office stars, and they’re such risky territory because you have to spend $25 million on P&A, so it’s a huge investment. It’s really hard to get that back.

It’s still debatable if this spells GOOD news for indie producers. If the market continues to contract in the next year, studios might need to find ways to market smaller and cheaper movies. They could plagiarize the NASA motto: faster, better, cheaper.

A few examples that Hollywood could take to heart: Russian-made The Return (Возвращение) was produced for under $500,000 and made over ten times that. Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation also resulted in 1:10 ratio: a budget of just $4M resulted in revenues in excess of $40M internationally. Of course, a profit of a few million can’t plug in the holes made by a disaster like Zathura…

Sundance Film Festival: Selection

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13 (Tsmaeti)The official selection for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival is now public. There are 64 feature films in four categories. A total of 120 films will be shown at the festvial, 48 of those are done by first-time filmmakers.

What amazes me is the the competition. Indie producers should take note – there were 3,148 entries this year which is about TWICE the number form last year. I’m listing the movies by in the Dramatic category:

Dramatic (USA)

  • A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints directed and written by Dito Montiel
  • Come Early Morning directed and written by Joey Lauren Adams
  • Flannel Pajamas directed and written by Jeff Lipsky
  • Forgiven directed and written by Paul Fitzgerald
  • Half Nelson directed by Ryan Fleck; written by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
  • Hawk Is Dying directed by Julian Goldberger
  • In Between Days directed by So Yung Kim
  • Puccini For Beginners directed and written by Maria Maggenti
  • Quinceanera directed and written by Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland
  • Right At Your Door directed and written by Chris Gorak
  • Sherrybaby directed and written by Laurie Collyer
  • Somebodies directed and written by Hadjii
  • Stay directed and written by Bob Goldthwait
  • Steel City directed and written by Brian Jun
  • Stephanie Daley directed and written by Hilary Brougher
  • Wristcutters — A Love Story directed by Goran Dukic

Dramatic (Intl)

  • 13 Tzameti directed and written by Gela Babluani
  • Allegro directed by Christoffer Boe
  • The Aura directed by Fabian Bielinsky
  • The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros directed by Auraeus Solito
  • Eve & the Fire Horse directed and written by Julia Kwan
  • Grbavica directed and written by Jasmila Zbanic
  • The House of Sand directed by Andrucha Waddington
  • Kiss Me Not on the Eyes directed and written by Jocelyne Saab
  • Little Red Flowers directed by Zhang Yuan
  • Madeinusa directed and written by Claudia Llosa
  • No. 2 directed and written by Toa Fraser
  • One Last Dance directed and written by Max Makowski
  • The Peter Pan Formula directed and written by Cho Chang-Ho
  • Princesas directed and written by Fernando Leon de Aranoa
  • Solo Dios Sabe directed by Carlos Bolado
  • Son of Man directed by Mark Dornford-May

Enjoy! I know I will… despite Sundance not being that indie anymore. If it’s good cinema, I don’t care if it’s indie or not.