jubilee Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Described in the Sundance program notes as "the single most crucial figure in British independent cinema through the seventies, eighties, and nineties," Derek Jarman is barely known today in North America, except perhaps as the director of music videos for the Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths. Beyond Jubilee and The Tempest, his feature work is not readily available on home video here. So Isaac Julien's new documentary on the artist, Derek, sounds like an ideal way to learn more about "the magic of a great creative mind."

More good news: indieWIRE reports that The Film Sales Company has acquired US distribution rights and worldwide sales rights (except the UK) to the doc. A specialized theatrical release is planned for later this year. It will also be playing at the Berlin film festival next month.

Director Isaac Julien's official site has more information about his many artistic endeavors. His film projects include the narrative feature Young Soul Rebels and the excellent "history of blaxpoitation" doc Baadasssss Cinema.

Derek features narration by Tilda Swinton, who both scripted and served as one of the film's producers. According to her IMDb biography page, Swinton began a profession association with Derek Jarman in 1985, considered him a mentor, and acted in his films until the director succumbed to complications from AIDS in 1993 at the age of 52. This week, Swinton was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in Michael Clayton, but I imagine having more people see Derek is closer to her heart than any award.

If you're a fan of comic-book movies, you probably already know that Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon had a hand in the screen story for one of my fave films, Spider-Man 2 . And if you're a fan of Chabon, you already know that the man is a huge comic fanboy. What you may not know is that Chabon, prior to the publication of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (the book for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature), pitched studios for both Fantastic Four and X-Men -- and was turned down.

The ever-self-effacing Chabon (who even lists on his website a bunch of negative pull-quotes about his work) has a couple of essays on his website about his unsuccessful pitches. In "Maybe Not So Much With the Fantastic", he details his unsuccessful pitch meeting with Chris Columbus' 1492 Productions (at which he laughed along with the execs about fanboys who came in to pitch their take on the film with their Fantastic Four comics in hand -- while his own copy of FF #48  -- "The Coming of Galactus!" -- hid quietly in his own briefcase). He also includes his pitch notes, which give you an idea of the direction he would have taken the film. Whether you liked Fantastic Four or thought it was a galactic pile of crap, it's interesting to read what Chabon might have done with the story, especially the villian element.