Letterman & Franco's Oscar Nightmare Support Group

Posted by Sasha Stone on Mar 31, 2011 in 83rd Oscar Ceremony | 0 comments

Who better to consult about navigating the three stages of Oscar Host Grief? (“A modicum of embarrassment, a period of numbness, and finally, righteous defiance.”) Letterman’s sage advice: “What the hell do you care?” Exactly.

(via Brad Brevett at Rope of Silicon)

Rum Diary & Restless find distributors for Fall release

Posted by Sasha Stone on Mar 31, 2011 in Distributors | 0 comments

Thanks to phantom for spotting the two important press releases out of CinemaCon:

It was announced today at CinemaCon, by Bob Berney, President, Theatrical Distribution that FilmDistrict will release “The Rum Diary,” based on the early Hunter S. Thompson novel that was ultimately published in 1998. It stars Johnny Depp and will be released on October 28, 2011. The film is directed by Bruce Robinson (“Withnail and I”) from his own screenplay and also stars Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Michael Rispoli, Richard Jenkins and Giovanni Ribisi. “The Rum Diary” is produced by Infinitum Nihil, the production company headed by Depp and Christi Dembrowski, along with Graham King and Tim Headington. Anthony Rhulen and Robert Kravis also produce.

“The Rum Diary” tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Depp). Tired of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local San Juan newspaper run by the downtrodden editor Lotterman (Jenkins). Adopting the rum-soaked lifestyle of the late ‘50s version of Hemingway’s “The Lost Generation,” Paul soon becomes entangled with a very attractive American woman, Chenault (Heard) and her fiancée Sanderson (Eckhart), a businessman involved in shady property development deals. It is within this world that Kemp ultimately discovers his true voice as a writer and integrity as a man.

“Hunter S. Thompson became close with Johnny Depp during the filming of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and showed Depp the unpublished manuscript for The Rum Diary,” says producer and FilmDistrict co-founder Graham King. “I am extremely proud to bring this novel to film and to honor Hunter’s legacy.”

SAG Chooses Nominating Peeps Tomorrow, April 1

Posted by Sasha Stone on Mar 31, 2011 in SAG | 0 comments

The SAG schedule is already being released and my enthusiasm has yet to become fully engorged. It was left a half mile back along with my faith, hope and charity. The SAGs have a gigantic membership so they try to look moderately intelligent by only having a tiny bit of their membership (aka, closer to the Academy’s actual membership number) do the screening and nominating. Press release:

The 4,200 Screen Actors Guild members who will determine the nominees for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for this year’s outstanding performances in film and primetime television will be drawn by random sample this Friday, April 1, 2011, SAG Awards® Committee Chair JoBeth Williams announced today.

More of the press release after the cut.

Farley Granger, 1925 – 2011

Posted by Sasha Stone on Mar 30, 2011 in Obits | 0 comments

Farley Granger, Hitchcock & the gay subtext of Rope

Posted by Sasha Stone on Mar 30, 2011 in Hollywood History, Obits | 0 comments

Farley Granger talks about working with Alfred Hitchcock at A Different Light bookstore in West Hollywood, c. 2007. A 30-minute documentary, Rope Unleashed, after the cut, includes interviews with Farley Granger and playwright Arthur Larents, partners at the time Rope was filmed — a fact that reportedly tickled Hitchcock’s playfully wicked curiosity about anything sexually unconventional.

Screenwriter Arthur Laurents and star Farley Granger were lovers at the time of Rope’s production. Laurents discusses, in the HBO film of The Celluloid Closet, how they managed to fool the Hays Office and slip all of the gay subtext into the film. Hitchcock took the script and put back in all the English phrases from the original play, such as “my dear boy,” that Laurents had removed. The censors circled all of these phrases as being “homosexual dialogue” and missed everything else. Hitch could be quite clever. (CinemaQueer.com)