500 days of summer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In the 2007 awards season, Fox Searchlight had two strong films in the mix with Juno and The Savages, and then in 2008, they dominated with Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. As many other indie arms were folding (Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent, Picturehouse), Searchlight managed to keep things up on their end.

2009, however, hasn't been so kind to them. January's Notorious didn't do bad actually, though March's Miss March was indeed D.O.A. June's My Life in Ruins similarly underperformed, while July's Adam failed to catch on as that same month's (500) Days of Summer had. Post Grad was dumped in the doldrums of August, while Whip It failed to find a crowd in October.

Cut to now: Amelia has been effectively neutered as a ready-made Oscar contender, while Gentlemen Broncos (from the director of Napoleon Dynamite, which did particularly well for the same studio) is being pulled from wider release after this weekend after posting modest numbers on two screens and earning savage reviews for the most part.

With Miramax also facing tough times, it's a shame to see studios like these have an off-year, though there's time for a turn-around yet so far as Searchlight is concerned. Summer's summer release means the timing could work out to earn a push for Original Screenplay as a happy-go-lucky alternate to many dour contenders. This month's similarly light Fantastic Mr. Fox is an Animated Feature candidate at the very least, and -- according to THR -- the Jeff Bridges drama Crazy Heart is getting a last-minute test run of sorts at the moment to see if it can merit a move to be positioned for this year's race instead of next year's.

Back in July, Erik posed the question: Who is Jenny Beckman? Her name popped up in the snarky intro to 500 Days of Summer, and inspired a bunch of questions. Is she the girl on Facebook, a fake name used for comedic value, or a real person who somehow allowed her name to be used?

Most of the mystery has now been answered, folks. Screenwriter Scott Neustadter wrote a post for the Daily Mail called "(500) Days of Summer: Revenge is writing a film about the girl who dumped you," outlining the story behind the story. Yes, there is a girl, who may or may not be called Jenny Beckman. While they didn't work together at a greeting card company (they met at school), he did fall hard, she didn't quite feel the same way, and the pair still tried to make a casual relationship out of the deal.

The intro is a little smidge of hyperbole with its "It is surely the greatest act of revenge in the history of cinema," but it's a good read, and is nice to see how real experiences can be translated to the big screen. Even better, our "What happened next?" curiosity can be satisfied. Neustadter did show her the script, and as he says: "She loved the story, she said. It had surprised and moved her because she really related to Tom. Yes, incredibly, Jenny hadn't recognised herself as Summer at all."

Our friends over at Moviefone came up with a clever time-waster question: What if this summer's indie movies were instead giant blockbusters? What would they look like? What would they be about? After all, summer is definitely a strange animal -- because while it's known for its massive, big-budgeted popcorn flicks, summer is also a time for a host of indie films (most of which previously played festivals like Sundance, Berlin, SXSW and Tribeca) to find their little profitable corner in theaters. So you'll have a Transformers 2 ... but you'll also have a 500 Days of Summer or a Moon or an Away We Go. It's pretty weird to see two completely types of films co-existing in this hot, steamy marketplace, but that's what makes it so much fun, I suppose.

Anyway, Moviefone took this summer's most talked-about indies and pretended they were also blockbusters. Here's a taste of what they came up with:

'500 Days of Summer'
What It Is: A charming, offbeat romance about a greeting card writer's year-and-a-half courtship of a free-spirited woman who doesn't believe that love exists.
What It Could've Been: Roland Emmerich's latest global warming-oriented disaster flick in which we watch in delight as the Statue of Liberty melts, the Atlantic Ocean evaporates and the entire population of Arizona spontaneously combusts.








'Humpday'
What It Is: In this latest entry from the "mumblecore" movement (low-budget filmmaking characterized by improv and naturalism), two hetero friends attempt to have sex with each other for an art project.
What It Could've Been: A couple of totally straight bros/undercover cops (Dane Cook and Johnny Knoxville) must pretend they're lovers in order to infiltrate an ecstasy ring operated out of a Chelsea nightclub.







Check out the rest over at Moviefone

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Festivals. Its official name is the Traverse City Film Festival, but unofficially it's "the Michael Moore fest," thanks to the filmmaker's role as founding father. Good reports on the fifth edition, which wrapped last weekend, can be found at Spout (by Karina Longworth) and indieWIRE (by Thom Powers).

Deals. Image Entertainment acquired Adam Salky's Dare, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, and Ashley Springer star as "high school students that enter into an unusual triangle of friendship and love." Tim Grierson of Screen wrote: "As refreshing as it is legitimately sexy." Release plans have not yet been announced. [Per indieWIRE.]

Online / On-Demand Viewing. If you hurry, you can still watch the acclaimed documentary 45365 at SnagFilms for free. it's available through tomorrow (Thursday, August 6) as part of their SummerFest preview series. The doc examines life in Sidney, Ohio, as filmed over the course of nine months by two men raised in that small town.

If you're hungry for more (legal) online viewing, check out the newly-launched SpeedCine, a very simple search engine that lets you find out what movies are available to watch through various providers like Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, either free of charge, for a one-time fee, or by subscription. It's in beta, which means they're still working on it, but right now it flies along very quickly and efficiently. I'm rather amazed -- and very pleased -- to see so many movies that are available at no charge.

Who won the battle for the Indie Weekend Box Office crown? Find out after the jump.

Attempting to market Funny People as a typical Adam Sandler comedy was quixotic, and as another laugh riot from the Apatow factory only marginally less so. Still, the combination of Sandler and Apatow (and, probably, Rogen) was enough to get the off-kilter, two-and-a-half-hour dramedy off to a $23 million start -- not one for the record books, but hey, not too far off the opening numbers for Apatow's Knocked Up and Sandler's Bedtime Stories. There are shades of M. Night Shyamalan in Judd Apatow, in the way that he appears to be moving from blockbuster crowdpleasers to more personal, slightly odd films that not everyone "gets."

Aliens in the Attic, hidden from critics and not really sold as any sort of event, unsurprisingly ended up with a middling $7.8 million -- a minor opening for a minor flick. The independently-distributed horror film The Collector, from some of the folks behind the Saw franchise, debuted in 11th place and $3.6 million; not great either, but probably above expectations, and perhaps an indication of how many ticket buyers are willing to see a horror movie, any horror movie, on a given weekend. (500) Days of Summer continues to do very well in limited release, with the highest per-screen average in the top 20. Next week, when the film expands to over 1000 screens, will be the real test.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince found its footing a bit in its third weekend after last week's big tumble; it won't wind up atop the franchise, but may make a run for second place. And I was glad to see Orphan hold up at least semi-respectably after a weak start. That's one summer movie that deserves better than it got.

The weekend's top 12 after the jump.

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Deals. Screen Media Films picked up U.S. rights to Women in Trouble and plans a release on November 13. The film, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez, is "a fun addition to the current trend of revisiting and reworking exploitation-film themes in a lighthearted way," wrote our own Jette Kernion earlier this year. "There's a certain pleasure in seeing a movie where the men are relegated to the Supportive Spouse and Lust Interest roles, after I've seen so many films where those are the only roles for women."

Dave Boyle's White on Rice, described as a heartwarming comedy, has been acquired by Variance Films and Tiger Industry Films; a theatrical release is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles on September 11 before expanding throughout the fall. Matt Bradshaw pointed the way to the quietly funny trailer. [More details on both deals can be found at indieWIRE.]

Online / On-Demand Viewing. All you Netflix "Watch Instantly" addicts can get your fix from even more indie films, thanks to Cinetic Rights Management. Matt Dentler notes that Richard Linklater's charming (and hugely influential) Slacker and festival favorites like Bob Odenkirk's Melvin Goes to Dinner and Gabriel Fleming's The Lost Coast, among others, are now available for online streaming to subscribers. I suppose it's a little too obvious to point out the irony of making a movie called Slacker even easier to watch, with almost no effort required at all? Ah, life in the 21st Century.

Who won the Indie Weekend Box Office? It's a laughing matter -- find out after the jump!

Sometimes -- more often than I'd care to admit -- I'm wrong about just how the weekend's box office will play out. But I'm rarely gobsmacked like I am this week. I expected G-Force to be part of the Disney live action also rans -- at best, I thought it would put up Race to Witch Mountain-type numbers; maybe $24 million. And I thought that it would handily be beaten by the well-liked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, coming off a franchise record opening.

That is not how the estimates have it. As of Sunday, the guinea pig spy movie is ahead of Half-Blood Prince by just over $2 million: $32.2 to Potter's $30. Potter tumbled over 60% from its opening -- actually not the biggest drop-off in series history, which honor belongs, strangely, to Prisoner of Azkaban. Though I wouldn't shed any tears for the folks at Warner Bros., what with the film's worldwide gross breaking $600 million, the drop is a bit of a disappointment for the well-reviewed sixth film. G-Force, I guess, is a triumph for talking CGI animals and 3D.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is only the second Harry Potter film to open on a Wednesday, after 2007's Order of the Phoenix. By the Sunday of its opening weekend, Order of the Phoenix was looking at a pretty impressive $140 million, on its way to being the year's 5th highest grosser, and a solid #2 in the franchise. By the Sunday of its opening weekend, Half-Blood Prince has $160 million in its coffers, as well as a slew of rapturous reviews and positive fan responses. (Well, mostly. There will always be whining from Rowling purists who don't know what an adaptation is.)

That raises a real possibility that Half-Blood Prince could dethrone current domestic franchise king Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which holds the top spot with $317 million. At the very least, it looks like it might be the only movie other than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to break the $300 million mark in 2009. (Transformers itself is already at $363 million -- #13 of all time! Christ!* -- and is looking unbeatable.)

Brüno took the tumble that its front-loaded opening weekend suggested (it made more than half its first weekend gross on the Friday of its release), dropping over 70% to fourth place. It will end up with around half of Borat's $129 million final number. The other summer comedies in circulation, The Hangover and The Proposal continue to hold up very well, with the former boosting from #6 to #5 in its seventh week of release.

(500) Days of Summer, opening on 27 screens in advance of a steady expansion in the coming weeks, got off to a promising 12th place start with a per-screen average over $30K.

The full top 12 after the jump.

Although conventional wisdom says otherwise, men really do want to watch romantic comedies. Unfortunately, they're not the same ones that women want to watch: for every two dozen movies like The Proposal or the upcoming The Ugly Truth, there's maybe one or two like High Fidelity or Almost Famous. This week, men can add 500 Days of Summer to their shortlist of testosterone-driven rom-coms, thanks to its story of a neurotic twentysomething named Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who falls deeply – and increasingly desperately – in love with a comely young lady named Summer (Zooey Deschanel).

Cinematical recently spoke to 500 Days director Marc Webb via telephone about his experience making the film, which he admits contains more than a few chestnuts of wisdom he wishes he had at Tom's age. In addition to discussing the demands of juggling relationships both off and on screen, Webb spoke about the significance of releasing his Summer film during the hottest months of the year, and offered a few insights about the seldom-discussed but decidedly-substantive legacy of romantic comedies made and marketed to – and for - men.

Cinematical: When you started working on 500 Days of Summer, what was this movie really about for you, or what did you want to explore the most?

Webb: During the process it evolved a little bit, but to me it's a coming of age story masked as a romantic comedy. To me it's about growing up; Summer isn't just a girl, she's a phase of your life. It is something that we've all gone through and all experienced, and there's certainly a romantic element, and there's an examination of the ambiguity of certain kinds of relationships. But at the end of the day, it's how you negotiate that and how you deal with that that's important to me.

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Friday Openings. Fox Searchlight opens Marc Webb's romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer on 27 screens in selected cities (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Washington DC). Also in limited engagements: John-Luke Montias' crime story Off Jackson Avenue; Max Farberbock's drama A Woman in Berlin; Boaz Yakin's family drama Death in Love; and Eileen Yaghoobrian's very good doc Died Young, Stayed Pretty, about rock music poster artists, which I saw at SXSW and can recommend highly.

Deals. Overcoming negative reviews at Sundance, John Krasinski's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men has been acquired by IFC, which will release it in theaters and via on demand. Look for it September 25. Another Sundance '09 title, Oren Moverman's The Messenger, has been picked up by Oscilloscope, which plans an awards campaign in November for actors Ben Foster, Samantha Morton, and Woody Harrelson, as well as director/writer Moverman and co-scripter Alessandro Camon. [All details available at indieWIRE.]

Online / On-Demand Viewing. Margaret Brown's excellent doc Townes Van Zandt: Be Here to Love Me is available for free online viewing at Pitchfork TV for one week. It's a captivating portrait of a little-known artist and the "awkwardness of his genius," as Christopher Campbell aptly wrote in his review. If you're in the mood for some fictional thrills of the criminal heist kind, check out Wild Seven, with Robert Forster and Richard Roundtree, available for free at Babelgum for the month.

After the jump: Indie Weekend Box Office, Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces," and indieWIRE turns 13!