producer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

My first South By Southwest was actually my second film festival ever. But I had my festival partner (Erik Childress!) there, as well as a bunch of movies to watch, so it's not like I was worried or miserable or anything. The year was 2003, and I was just about to meet Matt Dentler. Only a few weeks removed from my first Sundance, I simply wasn't prepared for the Austin hospitality. Once Mr. Dentler knew who Erik and I were (online film critics, big woop) he never stopped being a prince. Thanks to Matt and his awesome girlfriend Jarren, Erik and I became SXSW superheroes almost overnight. So it only took about six years for me to come up with the idea, but here's an interview with my friend Matt Dentler, powerfully good guy and ridiculously hard-working producer of the South By Southwest Film Festival.

Cinematical: You've been the producer of South By Southwest for the better part of a decade now, and the festival has seen huge growth in that time. How'd you score such a sweet gig, and (more importantly) how do you keep the festival chugging along year after year?

Matt: I've only been the producer since 2003, but I did start working at SXSW in 1997 as an office intern. I've seen the festival go through various stages of growth and it's really exciting. I guess I got the gig because I worked my way up the food chain and was just relentless about doing a great job. I dunno what it is, but something about this place and this job fit really well with me. The great thing about each festival, year to year, is that there are always new films and new filmmakers and new audiences. That keeps things fresh all the time, and you never feel like you're just doing the same job over and over. It really does feel like a new challenge each year, especially as we've grown.

Cine: How important is it for a festival producer to be a hardcore movie freak? Does your love for cinema ever start to wane when you're faced with 45 brand-new screener discs?

Matt: A programmer at another festival once used this analogy and I think it's appropriate: To do this job, you have to love movies like it's a marriage. You have to love it through thick and thin, sickness and health, richer or poorer. You have to be ready to embrace it during the good times and bad. And, that's very true. It can be a daunting gig, but I don't take it for granted. I love the idea of discovering great new films or a great new voice. That keeps it constantly interesting and usually entertaining.

When Jerry Seinfeld came out to present the Best Documentary Award at last month's Oscar telecast, I turned to the person next to me (who was a total stranger) and said "Seinfeld presenting an Oscar? Who's next? Ray Romano?" And then the comic kicked in with a real tired old piece of comedy schtick about the litter you often find in movie theaters. (I guess by now he's run out of jokes about airplane food.) Anyway, the guy was a silly choice to be an Oscar presenter -- and now one of the Oscar-nominated documentarians has decided to speak up for another reason.

Iraq in Fragments producer John Sinno is more than a little unhappy -- justifiably so if you ask me -- and he's not being shy about his displeasure. I'll post the full letter (entitled "An Open Letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences") after the jump, but here's the gist of his umbrage: Seinfeld was pretty damn disrespectful of the documentary genre while cracking jokes for a billion-plus audience. Mr. Sinno is particularly unhappy with the ignorant and dismissive way in which the Oscar-nominated documentaries were described as "incredibly depressing!" (I was particularly unhappy about the really obvious humor from a guy who really ought to have some good new material by this point. Wow, docos about war are "depressing!" You go, Seinfeld, that's some insight!)

Sinno's got a point: If ever there were ever opportunity to educate and elucidate a large audience as to the importance of documentary films, it would be during the annual Oscar broadcast. Yet Seinfeld (who appeared in one half-decent documentary that probably had ten times the budget of Iraq in Fragments) took the stage and basically reinforced all the lamest stereotypes out there. I mean, would it be so hard to find presenters (and joke writers) who actually know a little bit about film? Or is it preferable to simply roll out a disinterested billionaire and let him "humorously" spew a bunch of short-sighted fallacies? (Oh, but if they chose a different presenter we might have missed all that hilarious stuff about movie theater litter!) Well, we now know where John Sinno stands; his letter to the Academy is included below.

Producer Saul Zaentz no sooner finishes one court case before he's back at it again. This time Zaentz has launched a $20 million lawsuit against Walt Disney Company, including the Miramax Films unit, over profits from the 1996 drama The English Patient.

Reuters reports that the famed producer of Lord of The Rings (1978), Amadeus, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest filed suit last Thursday at the Los Angeles Superior Court. Zaentz's suit accuses Disney and Miramax of failing to share the profits for the Oscar-winning drama. According to Zaentz's suit, "Like Enron, Tyco and WorldCom, Miramax has used fraudulent and unfair accounting and business practices to deprive (Saul Zaentz Co.) of its profit participation,". Miramax has claimed that they have yet to make back what it cost them to acquire, distribute and market the film, so according to them there are no profits.

Well, Zaentz must think 20 is his lucky number, as he sued and won for that exact same amount ($20 million, that is) in a 2005 lawsuit against New Line Cinema over profits from the Lord of the Rings films. Hopefully Zaentz has better luck with his lawsuit than he had keeping Peter Jackson on The Hobbit. Plus, something tells me Disney isn't going to like that Enron crack.

Given the success of 2003's Taken (not only was the series popular with audiences, but it also won the Emmy for outstanding miniseries), it's not exactly a surprise that Steven Spielberg and The Sci-Fi Channel have found another project on which to collaborate. This year's offering is a 12-episode miniseries called Nine Lives, and it sounds extremely disturbing. In the series, grieving people who have lost loved ones apparently pursue "near-death experiences" in a quest to be reunited with the dead, if only briefly. (And I just got chills typing that.) Wow, is that a creepy idea.

Spielberg will serve as executive producer, alongside series writer Les Bohem, who also penned Taken. No information is available yet on when the series will air, but since it's only just begun production, we probably shouldn't expect it to show up before the summer.