Sometimes damage control can be as much as buying the distribution rights to a film. This almost seems the case with The Weinstein Co.'s picking up of Todd Haynes' arty Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There. But could it actually make Bob Dylan more upset?

The singer-songwriter is already portrayed in one upcoming movie distributed by the Weinsteins -- whether or not anybody involved with Factory Girl admits that Hayden Christensen plays Dylan, the consensus is that it is obviously him. Now, he's going to be portrayed by six more people, including Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger. This second film, which has Dylan's approval, will be released by The Weinstein Co. sometime later this year.

Dylan is currently unhappy with the Weinsteins because of Factory Girl, which he has only heard may be defamatory to his character. It doesn't seem likely that he could reverse his feelings now that I'm Not There is in the enemy's clutches. Do Bob and Harvey think the deal will please Dylan, or do they mean to use it as leeway in any legal issue brought on by Dylan? Or could this be totally unrelated to the Factory Girl controversy?

2006 was the first full year of Cinematical, and it was a very busy year for its bloggers. A lot of big news, shocking news and ongoing news kept us busy as we followed the important stories and passed the significant bits onto you. There was good news, bad news, unexpected news and unbelievable news. There were deaths, births, rebirths and remakes. There was so much going on that it takes an amazing film geek to recall everything (have you tested your memory yet?).

But what was the most important story for film in 2006? The end of the box office slump? The Weinsteins' devilish pact with Blockbuster? Peter Jackson's possibilities of directing The Hobbit? Uwe Boll boxing his critics? Sorry, but none of those affected the consciousness of cinema as much as these other stories from the past 12 months:

• Disney Buys Pixar - When 2006 began, the future of Disney's relationship with Pixar was still uncertain. There had been hint of a new deal between the two companies in the last few days of 2005, but nothing was concrete. Three weeks went by, in which time the new year came in and Pixar's stock prices went up, and then finally the first installment of news came through on January 19: Disney would buy Pixar. Three days later, we were reminded that the deal was not yet done, that it was still awaiting approval from Steve Jobs and the rest of the animation studio's board. On January 23, however, it was in the bag: Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion. And John Lasseter was named head of Disney animation.
  
  The story didn't end there. Throughout 2006, the effects of the acquisition continued to be felt. First, Toy Story 3 was killed. But then it was greenlit again. Disney closed its new computer animation studio, Circle 7. Then many months went by before Disney fired a whole lot of people working in its animation departments. Finally, just a few weeks ago, the company announced they'd be trying out the ol' hand-drawn stuff again. By year's end, it felt as though Pixar was the one who owned Disney.
  

Back when the Weinstein brothers were still the "Kings" of Miramax, they garnered the reputation of being able to pick some of the most successful foreign films for North American distribution. As a result, they managed to subsequently release some of the most successful foreign films of the last decade, including Life is Beautiful and Princess Mononoke. They might not be making deals for Miramax anymore, but The Weinstein Co. is sticking to the tradition of bringing international films to domestic audiences.

The Hollywood Reporter announced that TWC have bought the Japanese thriller Nightmare Detective for US and UK distribution. Nightmare Detective was written and directed by Shinya Tsukamoto, and stars Ryuhei Matsuda and Japanese Pop singer hitomi. The story centers on a female detective investigating two seemingly unrelated suicides. The spooky factor kicks in when there is one strange detail both deaths have in common -- and that's that the victims each dialed 0 on their cell phones moments before their death.

A deal was struck between Easternlight Films and TWC (who have had a long-standing relationship with each other), and negotiations started not long after the film screened at the Rome film festival. The film hasn't even opened in Japan yet, but is slated for a January release. No word yet on when the US release date will be, but I doubt TWC will waste much time.

[via ComingSoon.net]

Well, it looks like no matter how hard we try, we just can't escape Factory Girl. My personal interest in this movie has been waning for a while now, and the trailer didn't exactly inspire confidence. There has been word of re-shoots, and now entirely new scenes are being added. None of which is a particularly good sign, but Harvey Weinstein refuses to say die when it comes to this Warhol-era biopic.

A report from Radar, has Weinstein making the rounds to make sure that the Academy doesn't forget about Factory Girl when it comes time to hand out the nominations. Weinstein has taken out "For Your Consideration" ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. It seems a little premature considering that the film hasn't even finished shooting in New York, and the deadline for Oscar consideration is fast approaching. A spokesperson for Weinstein defended the move, saying that critics had "seen an early cut of the movie and given it high praise, especially Sienna Miller and Guy Pearce's performances. We don't think it's premature to start promoting the film for awards consideration." Which I can't help but think translates into sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "la-la-la I can't hear you". I guess we will see who gets the last laugh when the film opens this December. ...


[ via Hollywood Elsewhere ]

It's been a while since we've had some news on My Blueberry Nights, so let's catch up: Martha Fischer started reporting about the film when it was announced, and then told us about the pic's growing cast. To review, Blueberry Nights is the new, and first English feature, of writer-director Wong Kar-wai. The film is a road trip love story that centers on a woman, played by first-time actress Norah Jones, as she travels across America meeting strange, new people. It is also based on a short film about a shopkeeper who falls for a blueberry pie fiend. Also making an appearance in the flick are Rachel Weisz, Jude Law (pictures of him in the film are now on imdb), and Natalie Portman.

Filming is now completed, and David Strathairn and Tim Roth were also added to the cast. There was some rumor that Ed Harris would be in that list, but no reports seem to confirm it. I would imagine that it never came to be if he wasn't mentioned in the new Hollywood Reporter blurb, which has announced that those Weinstein boys have picked up the rights to the movie.

These days, you can't throw a stick without hitting a Weinstein. However, every time I hear the name, I can't help but think of that Kevin Smith story about Harvey walking out of Clerks. Yet the Weinsteins acquiring My Blueberry Nights makes sense. Wong sees Harvey as an old friend, and sites him as having a "key role" in introducing Chungking Express to the US. The brotherly duo may have split from Disney/Miramax, but they still have one hell of a little black book.

Since it looks like we are going to have to wait awhile for the animation avalanche to end any time soon; it's as good a time as any to bring back the animated musical. Movies like Happy Feet might already be on the way to a revival, but the genre hasn't had much interest since the Disney renaissance of the '90's. Pixar might have won the war when it came narrative versus musical animation, but The Weinstein Company isn't willing to walk away from the fight just yet.

The Hollywood Reporter announced that The Weinstein Company has purchased North American rights for the French animated property Piccolo, Saxo, and Company. The story follows a group of instruments that decide to form their own symphony orchestra. The story seems a little abstract for a kids movie, but maybe French kids are into abstraction. An obscure album by "Space-age pop" musician André Popp titled Les Aventures de Piccolo Saxo served as the inspiration for the film. Popp was known for his experimental recording techniques, and had a few hit songs during the 1960's.

The film goes into its European release next month, and The Weinstein Company is already planning the English language version with new actors. It looks like the Weinstein's are keeping their options open though, as they have yet to commit to a theatrical release and no casting decisions have been made.

Last week, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the announcement that Harvey and Bob Weinstein are producing a gala event to honor Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr. After all, the Weinsteins are known for their support of the Democratic party and for their distributing liberal-sided docs like Fahrenheit 9/11 and the new Barbara Kopple film Shut Up & Sing. So, what are they doing hobnobbing with the enemy of their friends? The official reason is that the Weinsteins support Scott's new efforts to sustain environmental friendliness, but a number of people are pointing out other reasons the brothers might desire a good relationship with the retail company.

Radar has a report on some of these reasons, which include the Weinsteins' hopes for priority placement in Wal-Mart's stores and their need for Wal-Mart to go easier on movies depicting sex and drugs. Variety more specifically addressed the Weinsteins' recent control of Genius Products, which will be making straight-to-video, family-friendly films that cater well to Wal-Mart's demographic. Wake-Up Wal-Mart has gone so far as to write a letter of disapproval to the Weinsteins.

So, now what happens when Michael Moore, who is already a critic of Wal-Mart, decides his next activist doc is against the stores? Will the Weinsteins still support their golden boy?

In related news, SpielbergFilms.net is pointing out that Wal-Mart is now selling Poltergeist on DVD for less than $5. It's things like this that make it hard for moviefans to keep up a hatred for the stores, but I think we can all hold out for next year's 25th Anniversary edition, right?

Actor/director George Clooney was "toasted by a host of fellow stars" at a lavish benefit held last Friday for American Cinematheque, a not-for-profit organization in Los Angeles that, since 1981, has supported film -- the kind of film not always available to a wide audience. American Cinematheque brings audiences a truly impressive array of film from a wide variety of cinematic niches, nooks and crannies. A peek at their calendar reveals such delectable and diverse events as "New Argentine Cinema," "Russian Fantastique Cinema, "Cinema Italian Style," "An Evening with Christopher Nolan," a screening of Al Jolson's 1936 film The Singing Kid, and a Halloween screening of a 70mm print of Ghostbusters! And that's just in October.

Since 1986, American Cinematheque has held a fundraiser at which it honors "an extraordinary artist (actor, director or writer) in the entertainment industry, who is fully engaged in his or her work and is committed to making a significant contribution to the art of the motion picture." The first honoree was Eddie Murphy; subsequent artists honored by American Cinematheque are: Bette Midler (1987); Robin Williams (1988); Steven Spielberg (1989); Ron Howard (1990); Martin Scorsese (1991); Sean Connery (1992); Michael Douglas (1993); Rob Reiner (1994); Mel Gibson (1995); Tom Cruise (1996); John Travolta (1997); Arnold Schwarzenegger (1998); Jodie Foster (1999); Bruce Willis (2000); Nicolas Cage (2001); Denzel Washington (2002); Nicole Kidman (2003), Steve Martin (2004) and Al Pacino (2005).

Benefit co-chairs included Matt Damon, Ethan and Joel Coen, Sydney Pollack, Steven Spielberg and the Weinsteins (although I kinda doubt that in this case the co-chairs were spiking the fruit punch and scotch-taping crepe paper streamers to the rafters of the high school gym, which is the visual that phrases like "benefit co-chairs" bring to my mind), and ticket prices ran $550 a pop. With 1,200 or so stars expected to be in attendance at the time of the press release, the event is American Cinematheque's primary fundraiser, supporting maintenance of the org's two theaters, The Egyptian and The Aero, as well as funding programming throughout the year.

It's great to see the stars come out to support the kinds of films most people will only get to see if they attend film school or go to a lot of film festivals; American Cinematheque, like Film Forum in New York City and Northwest Film Forum here in Seattle, makes it possible for the average cinephile to have access to some amazing films, both new and old. Cinematical recently brought on board two LA-based writers, so look for us to start covering American Cinematheque events along with our Film Forum and Northwest Film Forum coverage, fellow film buffs.

Ever since the Dixie Chicks went off on George W. Bush at a concert in the UK back in 2003, the musical trio have been almost as well known for their politics as for their music. Country music fans, who tend as a group to lean to the right side of the political aisle, took great umbrage to the Chicks making their opinion on the president -- is is from their home state of Texas -- be known to the world. In Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck take a look at the fallout of the Chicks refusal to shut up: The radio stations refusing to play their music, the right-wing bloggers urging fans to boycott them, the letters from fans, one of which inspired both a Dixie Chicks song and the title of this documentary, by telling the women to just "shut up and sing." Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck sat down with Cinematical's James Rocchi and Netscape's Alexia Prichard to discuss their controversial film. You can download the video here (60.9MB, 9: or watch it over on Netscape.

Earlier today, I was catching up on my newsfeeds and read Matt Dentler's description of the Saturday night Toronto premiere of the teen horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, the audience for was chock-full of distributors. Sure enough -- not two hours later, I learned that Dimension Films, the genre arm of The Weinstein Company, acquired the film for worldwide distribution. After hearing Dentler describe the film as a slasher flick with "more than enough humor and originality in the film to keep it interesting," I'm looking forward to the opportunity to see it. (Especially since IMDb says that Texas musician Robert Earl Keen has a role.)

The Weinstein Company also bought the distribution rights to Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show, which premiered at TIFF on Friday. The title evokes all kinds of bizarre possibilities, but it turns out to be a documentary about comedians (including Vince Vaughn) travelling across the U.S. on a series of stand-up comedy evenings. I didn't recognize the other comedians' names, but the "guest stars" include Peter Billingsley, whom I haven't seen onscreen since his child-actor days, and Justin Long, whom I recently saw briefly in Idiocracy.