At the beginning of every month, IONCINEMA.com's "Tracking Shot" features a handful of projects that we feel are worth signaling out and that are moments away from lensing. This October we find the very last batch of titles that could be potentially ready for next May (I see a pair of films mentioned below that are possible Cannes birth qualifiers) and we find our usual mix of items: from mid-range indie budget flicks (4 million to 8 million range) to the pricey popcorn films.
Mentioned very briefly only two weeks back, we have some major casting news that was announced late yesterday. Nick Cassavetes' will be counting on some familiar faces, casting his mother (Gena Rowlands) and Ben Foster and will most likely throw this trio (Sienna Miller, Lucy Punch, Melanie Griffith) under the bus in Yellow.
When I look at this category I think to myself - weren't War-themed pictures of the military supposed to be box office poison. Matter of the fact is neither The Hurt Locker or The Messenger will rack up the dough, but it shot down the theory that you can't make a such a pic in such times. I thought Basterds was a more lavish screenplay - and that the dialogue would win out on technical details in Boal's screenplay.
Mo’Nique still has one more trophy to pick up this weekend, but the good times for everyone involved in the making of Precious has pretty much come to a close. The film picked up the awards for best feature, best director (Lee Daniels), best actress, best supporting actress and the hard fought category for best first screenplay. The Best Foreign Film vote somehow got mangled up favoring An Education over A Prophet.
For the silver anniversary, the Indie Spirit awards (you can follow them tomorrow night) decided to do the gala thing without the tent and a full 12 hours in advance of their regular Saturday time slot. For the fun of it, I've decided to put my expertise to the test.