Prairie Home Companion Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Jeffrey M. Anderson's 400 Screens, 400 Blows - Streep Smart
Filed under: Columns », 400 Screens, 400 Blows »
Now that Meryl Streep's three big movies have dropped to the 400 screens-or-less mark -- The Devil Wears Prada (228 screens), The Ant Bully (78 screens) and A Prairie Home Companion (44 screens) -- I'd like to take a moment to celebrate her remarkable career. Sure, you're saying... hasn't she been celebrated enough? Not really. Few have noticed how Hollywood has chewed up and swallowed Streep, and yet she has come out the other side better than ever.
Born in New Jersey in 1949, Streep originally dreamed of the opera. She attended Vassar and Yale, performed regularly on stage and barely had to struggle before landing her first plumb movie role in Julia (1977). The following year she received an Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter and a year later, won for Kramer vs. Kramer. She has received a total of 13 nominations, which ties her with Katharine Hepburn (one more, which could come this year, and she'll be the record holder).
Box Office Report: Lots of Cash For Cars
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Horror », Music & Musicals », Romance », Box Office », Family Films », Remakes and Sequels »
Unlike last week, when the massive success of The Break-Up shocked almost everyone, the fact that Cars dominated this weekend's box office receipts should come as a surprise to no one. I mean, it's Pixar -- even if the reviews haven't been as uniformly glowing as those lavished upon the company's previous projects, they can nevertheless be counted on for quality, and that quality was appreciated this weekend to the tune of about $62.8 million. Despite the fact that the total is well below that earned by Pixar's recent debuts (and, indeed, not even the best bow for an animated feature this year -- that honor goes to Ice Age 2), Variety points out that the studio's films tend to hold remarkably well, and are not generally subject to the 40%-60% declines that befall many big openers in their second week. Speaking of that decline, this weekend's second place film, The Break-Up, was down almost 50% from last week, earning $20.5 million. That brings the movie's two-week domestic total to just over $74 million, a number that must make Universal very happy, seeing as how they spent just $52 million to make it. The weekend's two other major debuts, meanwhile, both opened reasonably well on a moderate number of screens. The Omen finished up in the fourth spot (just behind X3, which is now over $200 million in domestic returns) with $15.5 million from an average of about $5600/screen, while A Prairie Home Companion took in a total of $4.7 million on only 760 screens. Full numbers are after the jump.
Another preview of SXSW 2006
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », SXSW », Cinematical Indie »
Karina already discussed a good half-dozen films she plans to see during SXSW this year, including the big-name opening-night film A Prairie Home Companion. My favorite films at SXSW have always been the smaller ones, the movies you figure you had better catch now because who knows, you may not have an opportunity to see them again. I am particularly fond of low-budget documentary features, and I love the animated shorts. On the other hand, it's also exciting to see a preview of a wider-release film before all your friends do, and start spreading the buzz.
I've spent entirely too much time this week tinkering with my SXSW schedule to balance the small films with the big premieres. This is silly because after the first day or two, various forces of nature and filmmaking will probably cause me to change the schedule all over again. A huge "must-see" buzz will focus around some film I hadn't planned to screen, or I'll find that I may be too weak and wimpy to see three films a day for more than a couple of days in a row.
2006 SXSW Film Festival - A Preview
Filed under: Independent », SXSW », Cinematical Indie »
There are not many press screenings out there for which consenting to a $200 last-minute change-of-flight fee seems like a good idea. Hell, last week I failed to make a 20 minute trip on the 7 train in time to make a screening of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. So whilst a new Robert Altman film alone might not have been enough to get me on the phone with AOL Travel, a new Robert Altman film, rumored to have been ghost-directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, in which Meryl Streep plays Lindsay Lohan's mom? You couldn't pay me $200 to stay away.
And so on Thursday afternoon I'll depart for Austin, one day earlier than originally scheduled, in order to make the Friday morning press screening of Prairie Home Companion. Starring, in typical Altman fashion, an ensemble cast of what seems like thousands, and based on and around Garrison Keillor's radio show of the same name, the production produced a swirl of ink last summer, when two items of interest hit the 'net. First, we learned that P.T. Anderson, who was nominated for an Oscar for the decidedly Altmanesque Magnolia, was hanging around the Companion set. Though some brushed his presence off as owing to the fact that his pregnant girlfriend, Maya Rudolph, was in the film, P.T. confirmed to the New York Times that he was in fact "pinch hitting" for the 80-something honorary Oscar winning director. This was apparently necessary because the wheelchair-bound Altman, as the second item of interest reveals, was busy giving young Miss Lohan some extra special tutelage.
Ambitious Picturehouse picks up Silk
Filed under: Documentary », Drama », Romance », Deals », Distribution »
François Girard's Silk
- an adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novel - has been acquired for
distribution by Picturehouse and New Line International (the two companies will share the rights). The movie, as we discussed last month, is a period piece set in 19th
century Japan, where a French silk merchant becomes involved with a woman he really shouldn't be seeing. As a result,
all sorts of hot and angry chaos starring Keira
Knightley and Michael
Pitt erupts. The film, which has a budget around $25 million, will be shot in Japan, Egypt, and Italy starting in
February.Picturehouse is heading into only its first full year of life, but has lined up quite a slate for the next 18 months or so. In addition to Silk. they also own or share distribution rights to Fur (a biopic starring Nicole Kidman as photographer Diane Arbus), The Notorious Bettie Page, and Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion.
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