TLC has commissioned the two-hour film Letters To Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy, co-produced by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Bill Couturié’s The Couturie Co. and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television. Based on the book Letters To Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation by Ellen Fitzpatrick, the film revisits the months following Kennedy’s assassination, when more than 800,000 U.S. citizens and mourners around the world reached out to the First Lady in support. Letters To Jackie spotlights the strength and unity that emerged during one of the most difficult times in American history. It will premiere in the fall to mark the 50th anniversary of the President’s death. Bringing the letters to life are 20 celebrities including Bérénice Bejo, Demián Bichir, Jessica Chastain, Chris Cooper, Viola Davis, Zooey Deschanel, Kirsten Dunst, Anne Hathaway, Allison Janney, John Krasinski, Melissa Leo, Laura Linney, Frances McDormand, Chloë Grace Moretz, Mark Ruffalo, Octavia Spencer,...
- 4/4/2013
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
CANNES -- Good popcorn movies, commercial cinema, are hard to create. There’s no formula, no sure thing, and William Goldman’s dictum that "nobody knows anything" still proves the most golden of all the nonrules in Hollywood moviemaking.
An affectionate, comprehensive overview of Hollywood’s blockbusters and bombs, "Boffo!: Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters" encapsulates that mythical lightning in a bottle that miraculously strikes within the most unlikely projects and implodes other "sure things." Mixing a superb collection of clips from such blockbusters as The Godfather, Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy and Titanic as well as such mega-bombs as Howard the Duck and The Bonfire of the Vanities, Boffo illuminates that one contradictory reality of Hollywood moviemaking: The trouble with moviemaking is that it is a business, but the trouble with it as a business is that it is also an art.
Amplified by an array of eclectic insights from all the right suspects, "Boffo!" should delight serious cineastes as well as entertain popcorn-munching casual viewers. Best yet, you don’t have to understand Variety-ese or have read a boxoffice report to appreciate the anecdotal movie wisdom imparted here under the entertaining guidance of director Bill Couturie.
The smartly selected clips are marvelously orchestrated and intercut with a wide range of industry players, including executive types, actors, filmmakers and hyphenates, Tom Rothman, Sherry Lansing, Peter Guber, Charlize Theron, David Brown, Robert Evans, Pierce Brosnan, Morgan Freeman, Richard Dreyfuss, George Clooney, Brian Grazer and Jodie Foster among them.
Buttressed by an industry-savvy script from Peter Bart and Couturie, "Boffo!" is a wide-eyed squint at the thinking, dreaming and naysaying that make up the crazy alchemy of moviemaking.
While the film basically goes as far back as The Godfather, it raises vexing questions in this day in which everything seems to be created sequel: What stories to tell with the new technology? In its paradoxical wisdom, "Boffo!" shows the true magic of Jaws was in Steven Spielberg’s making do without a working shark — having the shark looming offscreen was the key to the film’s power. Now, the shark is the technology. And, the new hit-makers will, like Spielberg, have to learn to keep it in its place.
Boffo! Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters
HBO Documentary Films
A Film by Bill Couturie
Director: Bill Couturie; Screenwriters: Peter Bart, Bill Couturie; Suggested by the book "Boffo: How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb" by: Peter Bart; Producers: Anne Sandkuhler, Bill Couturie; Executive producers: Peter Bart, Charlie Koones, Sheila Nevins; Supervising producer: John Hoffman; Co-producer: Timothy M. Gray; Associate producer: Alexis Ercoli; Director of photography: Stephen Lighthill; Composer: Todd Boekelheide.
Featuring: Peter Bogdanovich, Pierce Brosnan, David Brown, George Clooney, Danny DeVito, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Evans, Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Brian Grazer, Peter Guber, Alan Horn, Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz, Sherry Lansing, Penny Marshall, Sydney Pollack, Tom Rothman, John Singleton, Charlize Theron, Nia Vardalos, Richard Zanuck.
No MPAA rating, running time 80 minutes.
An affectionate, comprehensive overview of Hollywood’s blockbusters and bombs, "Boffo!: Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters" encapsulates that mythical lightning in a bottle that miraculously strikes within the most unlikely projects and implodes other "sure things." Mixing a superb collection of clips from such blockbusters as The Godfather, Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy and Titanic as well as such mega-bombs as Howard the Duck and The Bonfire of the Vanities, Boffo illuminates that one contradictory reality of Hollywood moviemaking: The trouble with moviemaking is that it is a business, but the trouble with it as a business is that it is also an art.
Amplified by an array of eclectic insights from all the right suspects, "Boffo!" should delight serious cineastes as well as entertain popcorn-munching casual viewers. Best yet, you don’t have to understand Variety-ese or have read a boxoffice report to appreciate the anecdotal movie wisdom imparted here under the entertaining guidance of director Bill Couturie.
The smartly selected clips are marvelously orchestrated and intercut with a wide range of industry players, including executive types, actors, filmmakers and hyphenates, Tom Rothman, Sherry Lansing, Peter Guber, Charlize Theron, David Brown, Robert Evans, Pierce Brosnan, Morgan Freeman, Richard Dreyfuss, George Clooney, Brian Grazer and Jodie Foster among them.
Buttressed by an industry-savvy script from Peter Bart and Couturie, "Boffo!" is a wide-eyed squint at the thinking, dreaming and naysaying that make up the crazy alchemy of moviemaking.
While the film basically goes as far back as The Godfather, it raises vexing questions in this day in which everything seems to be created sequel: What stories to tell with the new technology? In its paradoxical wisdom, "Boffo!" shows the true magic of Jaws was in Steven Spielberg’s making do without a working shark — having the shark looming offscreen was the key to the film’s power. Now, the shark is the technology. And, the new hit-makers will, like Spielberg, have to learn to keep it in its place.
Boffo! Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters
HBO Documentary Films
A Film by Bill Couturie
Director: Bill Couturie; Screenwriters: Peter Bart, Bill Couturie; Suggested by the book "Boffo: How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb" by: Peter Bart; Producers: Anne Sandkuhler, Bill Couturie; Executive producers: Peter Bart, Charlie Koones, Sheila Nevins; Supervising producer: John Hoffman; Co-producer: Timothy M. Gray; Associate producer: Alexis Ercoli; Director of photography: Stephen Lighthill; Composer: Todd Boekelheide.
Featuring: Peter Bogdanovich, Pierce Brosnan, David Brown, George Clooney, Danny DeVito, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Evans, Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Brian Grazer, Peter Guber, Alan Horn, Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz, Sherry Lansing, Penny Marshall, Sydney Pollack, Tom Rothman, John Singleton, Charlize Theron, Nia Vardalos, Richard Zanuck.
No MPAA rating, running time 80 minutes.
- 5/20/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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