“Wanna Date?!?”
The ’80s live! Wamg recently got its hands on the new terrific, epic, 482-page book The Untold, In-depth, Outrageously True Story Of Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment by Marco Siedelmann, Nadia Bruce-Rawlings, and Stephen A. Roberts. This interview collection takes us back into the roaring 1980s, when the home video market changed the whole world of film making. For a short time, everything seemed possible, and in a way everything was possible. Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment was in the right place at the right time. Although Sge closed its doors in 1995, films like The Exterminator, Black Roses, Shakedown, Moontrap, Red Scorpion, No Retreat No Surrender II, Basket Case II & III, Frankenhooker, Maniac Cop and several others remain cult favorites today.
Enlightening interviews with business legends and producers are combined with extended conversations with well-known genre filmmakers. On top of this are the voices of all the key people that marketed...
The ’80s live! Wamg recently got its hands on the new terrific, epic, 482-page book The Untold, In-depth, Outrageously True Story Of Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment by Marco Siedelmann, Nadia Bruce-Rawlings, and Stephen A. Roberts. This interview collection takes us back into the roaring 1980s, when the home video market changed the whole world of film making. For a short time, everything seemed possible, and in a way everything was possible. Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment was in the right place at the right time. Although Sge closed its doors in 1995, films like The Exterminator, Black Roses, Shakedown, Moontrap, Red Scorpion, No Retreat No Surrender II, Basket Case II & III, Frankenhooker, Maniac Cop and several others remain cult favorites today.
Enlightening interviews with business legends and producers are combined with extended conversations with well-known genre filmmakers. On top of this are the voices of all the key people that marketed...
- 3/7/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Cannes film review, In Competition Blindness
Do you suppose an apocalyptic fable would ever possess any lightness or even rogue humor? No, social disintegration and degradation are the order of the day, and Fernando Meirelles' Blindness is no exception.
There is an extraordinary visual plan and considerable cinematic challenges to overcome for the Brazilian filmmaker (City of God) in adapting Nobel laureate Jose Saramago's 1995 novel to the screen so there is much here to quicken the pulse and engage the mind. Blindness is provocative cinema. But it also is predictable cinema: It startles but does not surprise.
An appreciative critical response will be needed stateside for Miramax to market this Brazilian-Canadian-Uruguayan co-production. Other territories may benefit from the casting of an array of international actors with some boxoffice draw.
The script by Don McKellar bears witness to a mysterious plague of blindness, a "white" disease in which people's eyes suddenly see only white light. As a cosmopolitan city struggles to cope with the horrifying fallout, a panicked government orders the immediate quarantine of those infected. The herding of shunned people into prison-like camps clearly provokes images of any number of 20th-century atrocities.
The film follows a few characters into a filthy, poorly equipped asylum where social order swiftly breaks down into gang conflict between republicans and royalists, between democracy and dictatorship. The republicans have a ringer though. The wife (Julianne Moore) of a doctor (Mark Ruffalo) -- an eye doctor in a deliberate irony -- can actually see but tells no one.
As in Lord of the Flies or even Animal Farm, the order that establishes itself is elitist, corrupt and lethal. A bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) in the next ward is soon demanding valuables, then sexual favors for the distribution of the food, which he unaccountably controls. His ringer is a nasty old man (Maury Chaykin), blind from birth, who knows how to navigate in the world of sightlessness.
First comes acquiescence by the other wards, then rapes, murders and finally rebellion. Only then do the prisoners discover the guards have long disappeared. The entire world is caught in the throes of this plague. The ragged survivors stumble into a city of starvation and brutality.
Meirelles bathes the screen in a kind of white overexposure and other times a blurriness to convey the terrifying sense of dislocation and fear. You see the characters -- and the digusting filth they do not -- yet feel their helplessness when the screen jars or distorts your vision.
For this part, screenwriter McKellar creates two points of view -- initially that of the sighted wife, who tries to create order without giving away her ability to see, then switching occasionally to a man with an eye-patch (Danny Glover), whose philosophical commentary on metaphorical blindness expresses an authorial point of view.
One considerable problem with the first viewpoint is the character's slowness to act. She could easily have prevented any number of murders and rapes (including her own). Her failure marks an inexplicable failure of both nerves and morals that warps this not always convincing fable. And Glover's intellectual postures amid such physical distress come off as slightly pompous, perhaps cruelly so.
This philosophical coolness is what most undermines the emotional response to Meirelles' film. His fictional calculations are all so precise and a tone of deadly seriousness swamps the grim action. (Only a Stevie Wonder song and a line about volunteers raising their hands draw laughs.) Even the eventual lifting of the state of siege, while a welcome ending, has the arbitrariness of an author who has made his point and simply wants to sign off.
Removing a fable from the comfort of the printed page to the photo-reality of film can sometimes lead to its own kind of blindness.
Cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, Yusuke Iseya. Director: Fernando Meirelles. Screenwriter: Don McKellar. Based on the novel by: Jose Saramago. Producers: Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Sonoko Sakai. Executive producers: Gail Egan, Simon Channing Williams, Tom Yoda, Akira Ishii, Victor Loewy Director of photography: Cesar Charlone. Production designer: Tule Peake. Music: Marco Antonio Guimaraes. Costume designer: Renee April. Editor: Daniel Rezende.
Production companies: Miramax Films presents a Rhombus Media/O2 Filmes/Bee Vine Pictures production
Sales: Focus Features.
Do you suppose an apocalyptic fable would ever possess any lightness or even rogue humor? No, social disintegration and degradation are the order of the day, and Fernando Meirelles' Blindness is no exception.
There is an extraordinary visual plan and considerable cinematic challenges to overcome for the Brazilian filmmaker (City of God) in adapting Nobel laureate Jose Saramago's 1995 novel to the screen so there is much here to quicken the pulse and engage the mind. Blindness is provocative cinema. But it also is predictable cinema: It startles but does not surprise.
An appreciative critical response will be needed stateside for Miramax to market this Brazilian-Canadian-Uruguayan co-production. Other territories may benefit from the casting of an array of international actors with some boxoffice draw.
The script by Don McKellar bears witness to a mysterious plague of blindness, a "white" disease in which people's eyes suddenly see only white light. As a cosmopolitan city struggles to cope with the horrifying fallout, a panicked government orders the immediate quarantine of those infected. The herding of shunned people into prison-like camps clearly provokes images of any number of 20th-century atrocities.
The film follows a few characters into a filthy, poorly equipped asylum where social order swiftly breaks down into gang conflict between republicans and royalists, between democracy and dictatorship. The republicans have a ringer though. The wife (Julianne Moore) of a doctor (Mark Ruffalo) -- an eye doctor in a deliberate irony -- can actually see but tells no one.
As in Lord of the Flies or even Animal Farm, the order that establishes itself is elitist, corrupt and lethal. A bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) in the next ward is soon demanding valuables, then sexual favors for the distribution of the food, which he unaccountably controls. His ringer is a nasty old man (Maury Chaykin), blind from birth, who knows how to navigate in the world of sightlessness.
First comes acquiescence by the other wards, then rapes, murders and finally rebellion. Only then do the prisoners discover the guards have long disappeared. The entire world is caught in the throes of this plague. The ragged survivors stumble into a city of starvation and brutality.
Meirelles bathes the screen in a kind of white overexposure and other times a blurriness to convey the terrifying sense of dislocation and fear. You see the characters -- and the digusting filth they do not -- yet feel their helplessness when the screen jars or distorts your vision.
For this part, screenwriter McKellar creates two points of view -- initially that of the sighted wife, who tries to create order without giving away her ability to see, then switching occasionally to a man with an eye-patch (Danny Glover), whose philosophical commentary on metaphorical blindness expresses an authorial point of view.
One considerable problem with the first viewpoint is the character's slowness to act. She could easily have prevented any number of murders and rapes (including her own). Her failure marks an inexplicable failure of both nerves and morals that warps this not always convincing fable. And Glover's intellectual postures amid such physical distress come off as slightly pompous, perhaps cruelly so.
This philosophical coolness is what most undermines the emotional response to Meirelles' film. His fictional calculations are all so precise and a tone of deadly seriousness swamps the grim action. (Only a Stevie Wonder song and a line about volunteers raising their hands draw laughs.) Even the eventual lifting of the state of siege, while a welcome ending, has the arbitrariness of an author who has made his point and simply wants to sign off.
Removing a fable from the comfort of the printed page to the photo-reality of film can sometimes lead to its own kind of blindness.
Cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, Yusuke Iseya. Director: Fernando Meirelles. Screenwriter: Don McKellar. Based on the novel by: Jose Saramago. Producers: Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Sonoko Sakai. Executive producers: Gail Egan, Simon Channing Williams, Tom Yoda, Akira Ishii, Victor Loewy Director of photography: Cesar Charlone. Production designer: Tule Peake. Music: Marco Antonio Guimaraes. Costume designer: Renee April. Editor: Daniel Rezende.
Production companies: Miramax Films presents a Rhombus Media/O2 Filmes/Bee Vine Pictures production
Sales: Focus Features.
- 5/14/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- [Exclusive Image - click on picture for larger version. Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore in Blindness. Photo Credit: Ken Woroner/ Courtesy of Miramax Films. © 2008.] #4. Blindness Director: Fernando MeirellesWriters: Don McKellar (Childstar)Producers: Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Niv Fichman, Sonoko Sakai Distributor: Miramax Films The Gist: Scripted by Don McKellar, the English-language film based on the 1995 novel by Portuguese Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, is a philosophical thriller about an epidemic of blindness that sweeps through an unnamed contemporary city and pushes society to the brink of breakdown. Fact: Think a Children of Men-like apocalyptic narrative texture. See It: Cidade De Deus (City of God) and The Constant Gardener are of a high pedigree - I only expect the same with this feature. For a great read on the project check out the LATimes article. Release Date/Status?: August 8th. I imagine a Cannes premiere is more than likely. ...
- 2/1/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
More Toronto news
Latest festival reviews
TORONTO -- Miramax Films on Saturday nabbed U.S. rights to Fernando Meirelles' dramatic thriller "Blindness" for just under $5 million.
Meirelles' follow-up to "City of God" and "The Constant Gardener" chronicles a city overtaken by a plague of blindless through the eyes of a small band of quarrantined citizens. The film stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Don McKellar's screenplay is adapted from Portuguese Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's acclaimed 1995 novel. Principal photography is currently underway in Toronto, where the film was acquired Saturday during the film fest.
Miramax president Daniel Battsek has a long history with the director, having released "God" when he was at Buena Vista International.
The $25 million Brazilian-Canadian co-production is produced by Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro and Sonoko Sakai. The executive producers are Gail Egan and Simon Channing-Williams.
The deal was negotiated by Miramax's Michael Luisi with Fichman, Sakai and attorney Steve Saltzman at Loeb & Loeb.
Latest festival reviews
TORONTO -- Miramax Films on Saturday nabbed U.S. rights to Fernando Meirelles' dramatic thriller "Blindness" for just under $5 million.
Meirelles' follow-up to "City of God" and "The Constant Gardener" chronicles a city overtaken by a plague of blindless through the eyes of a small band of quarrantined citizens. The film stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Don McKellar's screenplay is adapted from Portuguese Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's acclaimed 1995 novel. Principal photography is currently underway in Toronto, where the film was acquired Saturday during the film fest.
Miramax president Daniel Battsek has a long history with the director, having released "God" when he was at Buena Vista International.
The $25 million Brazilian-Canadian co-production is produced by Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro and Sonoko Sakai. The executive producers are Gail Egan and Simon Channing-Williams.
The deal was negotiated by Miramax's Michael Luisi with Fichman, Sakai and attorney Steve Saltzman at Loeb & Loeb.
- In today's foursome, we have the first of Weinstein co.'s singer-related music biographies and we've placed two highly anticipated Paramount Vantage in the mix. Curiously all four films are book novel to film adaptations.8. Into the Wild Release date: September 21st Limited Release Screenwriters: Based on Krakauer novel, the screenplay is written by Penn.Director: Sean PennDistributor: Paramount Vantage Fests: A preem at the Toronto Film Festival.Producers: Art Linson (Fight Club), William Pohlad (Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus), Sean Penn (The Pledge) Ioncinema Preview: View HereMovie Trailer: Click HereThe Gist: Based on a true story and the bestselling book by Jon Krakauer. After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless (Hirsch) abandons his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
- 8/30/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
LONDON -- Pathe has picked up U.K. and some French rights for a slew of features from last month's Festival de Cannes, executive vp Francois Ivernel said Wednesday.
The distributor has acquired joint territory rights to Focus Features International's "Blindness", directed by Fernando Meirelles, and Edko Films' "Blood: The Last Vampire" as well as U.K.-only rights to Fortissimo's "Mama's Boy", and 2929 International's "What Just Happened?"
"Blindness" brings to life Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's tale of humanity under siege from an epidemic of blindness. The film, in preproduction with filming scheduled to begin in the fall, has been adapted by Don McKellar and produced by Niv Fichman, Sonoko Sakai and Andrea Barata Ribeiro. Executive producers are Simon Channing-Williams and Gail Egan.
Based on the novel of the same name by Art Linson, "What Just Happened?" -- starring Robert De Niro and directed by Barry Levinson -- centers on a fading movie producer trying to salvage his career while caught up in a maelstrom of ex-wives, teenage daughters and movie-industry insiders.
The distributor has acquired joint territory rights to Focus Features International's "Blindness", directed by Fernando Meirelles, and Edko Films' "Blood: The Last Vampire" as well as U.K.-only rights to Fortissimo's "Mama's Boy", and 2929 International's "What Just Happened?"
"Blindness" brings to life Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's tale of humanity under siege from an epidemic of blindness. The film, in preproduction with filming scheduled to begin in the fall, has been adapted by Don McKellar and produced by Niv Fichman, Sonoko Sakai and Andrea Barata Ribeiro. Executive producers are Simon Channing-Williams and Gail Egan.
Based on the novel of the same name by Art Linson, "What Just Happened?" -- starring Robert De Niro and directed by Barry Levinson -- centers on a fading movie producer trying to salvage his career while caught up in a maelstrom of ex-wives, teenage daughters and movie-industry insiders.
- Quick Links > Fernando Meirelles > Blindness > Focus Features > The Constant Gardener > City of God > Don McKellar Continuing the relationship the fostered with his last film The Constant Gardener, Fernando Meirelles' next project has been picked up by Focus Features – they will most likely serve as the distributor and will handle international sales for the film which should see a 2008 release. Scripted by Don McKellar (who should play a part in the film), the English-language film entitled Blindness is based on the 1995 novel by Portuguese Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, is a philosophical thriller about an epidemic of blindness that sweeps through an unnamed contemporary city and pushes society to the brink of breakdown. Variety reports that Niv Fichman of Toronto's Rhombus Media, Sonoko Sakai of Tokyo's Bee Vine Pictures and Andrea Barata Ribeiro of Sao Paulo, Brazil's O2 Filmes will produce. London-based Potboiler Prods. principals Simon Channing Williams
- 11/1/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
Picturehouse and New Line International have acquired rights to Francois Girard's Silk, a world-hopping romantic drama starring an international cast headed by Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Koji Yakusho and Alfred Molina. The deal was announced Friday by Picturehouse president Bob Berney; Rolf Mittweg, president and chief operating officer of New Line worldwide distribution and marketing; and Camela Galano, president of New Line International. Based on the novel by Alessandro Baricco, Silk is the story of Herve Joncour, a 19th century French silkworm merchant who travels to Japan, where he begins a forbidden romance. Girard and Michael Golding have adapted the screenplay for the film, to be produced by Niv Fichman, Nadine Luque, Domenico Procacci and Sonoko Sakai.
- 1/20/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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