WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...?: HOLLYWOOD'S MISSING MOVIES

On October 11, 2013, Jonathan Levine’s moody teen horror film All The Boys Love Mandy Lane will premiere in US cinemas – seven years after it was first screened. Starring Amber Heard (pictured, below), the film earned late-night slots and solid reviews at leading festivals such as South by SouthWest, Sitges, Toronto and Frightfest, before becoming mired in distributor chaos. It was one of the most well-known of the many unreleased films that clog studio vaults, bolster lawyer bank accounts and frustrate the talent involved. With …Mandy Lane finally finding multiplex love, SCREEN-SPACE looks at four other unreleased film projects now vying for her crown…

THE KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM
At Comic-Con 2011, nerd-buzz soared when director Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2: Dead End) introduced footage from his LARP-inspired fantasy comedy. Featuring a cast of geek-friendly names (Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage, True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten, Community’s Danny Pudi, Firefly’s Summer Glau) and some top-tier effects work, the independent film was being produced North by Northwest Pictures, though no distribution pact was in place. The Knights of Badassdom fell of everyone’s radar until March 2013, when a principal at an operation called IndieVest by the name of Wade Bradley announced that a recut version would screen in Hollywood for potential investors. Lynch distanced himself from Bradley’s version which, reported website Dread Central, allegedly ran 70 minutes and differed greatly from the 2011 version. Adding further insult, it was revealed that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority was pursuing disciplinary action against Bradley for monies sought to help finance post-production on …Badassdom, funds that were never presented to the producers or Lynch.
WILL WE EVER SEE IT? Appears unlikely that Joe Lynch’s version that wowed Comic-Con audiences will ever be re-assembled; Wade Bradley has stated the film will get a theatrical run, though no release date has been confirmed.

5-25-77
It was late in 2006 when filmmaker Patrick Read Johnson, with the cult item Spaced Invaders and the Home Alone clone Baby’s Day Out to his credit, grasped the opportunity to make his pet project - an autobiographical tale of a mid-West teenager whose life is changed when he attends the very first screening of Star Wars (the project’s numerical title reflects the day George Lucas’ space saga ‘went wide’). As shooting neared completion, and with the weight of the William Morris Agency and uber-producer Cassian Elwes attached, the global economy collapsed and hundreds of ‘little films’ like 5-25-77 were jettisoned. In the five years since that fateful time, Johnson has been striving to get his lovechild into the marketplace by any means necessary. He recently travelled the length and breadth of the US, screening the work-in-progress as part of his ‘Hearts of Dorkness’ tour (accompanied by a documentary crew); Toronto International Film Festival 2012 welcomed the director and his film into their ‘Next Wave’ strand.
WILL WE EVER SEE IT? The film has attained its own mythology over the years and a smart indie production/distribution outfit would be wise to play on that; Johnson seems to be in for the long haul.

TEMPTATION:
Back in 2004, before she became Star Trek’s Uhuru or Avatar’s Neytiri, 25 year-old starlet Zoe Saldana was making a name for herself with support roles in Centre Stage, Crossroads and Drumline. This was all set to change when she was cast in the ambitious musical Temptation, a modern rock-opera interpretation of the Faust legend set against the nightclub culture of a new millennium New York City. Nearly a decade before Les Miserables producers boasted of their on-set cast recordings, director Mark Tarlov miked his actors and recorded the entire score live; amongst an ensemble of Broadway veterans, Saldana (pictured, right; with co-star Orfeh) proved a revelation. Said Tarlov, “We set about to create a piece featuring people setting out in life, this age group I'm talking about, all striving and all trying to decide what they want and how to get it.” But the dreams of all involved were soon dashed. Following a single screening at the 2005 New York Musical Festival, Temptation all but vanished, never to see the inside of a theatre or DVD case to this day.
WILL WE EVER SEE IT? No.

SPRING BREAK ’83:
Writer Mars Callahan set out to craft a loving homage to the bawdy teen comedies of the 80’s when he began shooting Spring Break ‘83 (alongside co-director Scott Spiegel) in Louisiana in late 2007. With then-bankable stars Jamie Kennedy (as Ballzack) and John Goodman (as Dick Bender) toplining, Callahan and Spielgel filled their cast with such forgotten 80s icons as Lee Majors, Morgan Fairchild, Adrien Zmed, Joe Piscopo, Erik Estrada and MTV V-jay ‘Downtown’ Julie Brown (as well as then It-girl, Aussie bombshell Sophie Monk). But as filming neared completion, Callahan’s production outfit Big Sky Motion Pictures began to bounce payday cheques; cast and crew complained to Union officials who investigated and soon detailed grievances were filed with the courts. Shooting was shut down. Then, in January 2009, Mars Callahan and his Big Sky team hosted a party in Park City, Utah (pictured, below; the events online invitation), as the Sundance Film Festival was in full swing, during which they premiered a teaser trailer for Spring Break ’83.

This led to a schedule of pick-up shots in Los Angeles in March of that year and an online announcement in December which promised that “the directors edit of Spring Break '83 is now locked and the completion of the post production phase is coming soon” and “an official release…is targeted for early Spring 2010.”
WILL WE EVER SEE IT? Not theatrically. If there is a finished product, it will most likely be spruiked in the back rooms of the American Film Market and bundled into a home vid/cable package for unsuspecting international buyers. 

REVELATIONS 2013 REVIEW: THE WEST FEST'S BEST.

Now in its 16^th year, Revelation Perth International Film Festival proved once again that its film selections and panel chats are often not for the faint-hearted.

Distinguishing itself from the festival roster of the eastern capitals with a fearless adherence to edgier fare, the programming division, led by Festival Director Jack Sargeant, demonstrated that it is well and truly in touch with the cutting-edge of international independent film-making and avant-garde creativity.

As the heady celebration winds down, SCREEN-SPACE looks back at the key moments from the last week and a half, hoping that you may draw some sense of what it’s like to experience challenging, often disturbing, but always entertaining film culture in Australia’s most remote capital city.   

THE VISITORS
Multi-media artist Lawrence English (pictured, right) brought his acclaimed vision of an apocalyptic dreamscape to the Buratti Fine Art Gallery in North Fremantle for the final weekend of Revelations. It is an extraordinary blend of sound and light, combining with abstract film content to create a non-linear narrative that draws the viewer hypnotically. Afforded a public space, the collective experience of those that viewed it was spellbinding, confusing and challenging.

A FIELD IN ENGLAND
Already a sensation in the UK, the prolific Ben Wheatley (Kill List; Sightseers) passionately divided audiences with his monochromatic, psychedelic, old-English horror head-scratcher, A Field in England. Filled with sly humour and graphic violence, this brazen and bold (or indulgent and incoherent, if you prefer) low-budget work was England’s first multi-platform day-&-date release, ensuring lots of publicity that a film so determinedly un-commercial may not have otherwise garnered. The Luna Cinema bar was buzzing with debate after this screened.

FESTIVAL GUESTS
The organising committee secured some stellar guests for the 2013 event. Brenna Sanchez and Tom Putnam accompanied their film Burn, which opened the festival; Surkhaab star Barkha Madan, recently ordained as a Buddhist monk; and, Perth-based, Canadian-born filmmaker Lee Chambers. None were more gracious of their time and talent than British actress Alice Krige (Chariots of Fire; Star Trek Nemesis), star of the stunning Jail Caesar!, who accompanied the film’s director Paul Schoolman and spoke at length with local film journalist Travis Johnson in one of the Festival’s most enlightening and enjoyable Q&A sessions.

WHITE REINDEER
From the 11 day screening schedule, it is near impossible to settle on a film that most impacted festival audiences. The Fifth Season and The Deep were stunning visions that played well; Pictures of Superheroes announced Don Swaynos as a talent to watch; titles that had premiered in Australia prior to Perth (The Act of Killing; I Am Divine; Cheap Thrills; A Monster In Paris; The Human Scale) continued their passage of good will. But our ‘Best of the Fest’ was festival attendee Zach Clark’s White Reindeer (pictured, left), a stunning Christmas-themed journey through grief and redemption that proved mesmerising (and, Oz distributors, thoroughly deserving of a wider art-house season).

REVCON ACADEMIC
Revelations introduced this two-day industry panel event, held at the Rydges Hotel in the Perth city centre. Festival guests and leading national and international academics discussed and debated the latest trends in distribution and exhibition, genre depiction, gender representation, new international cinema voices and many other aspects of screen culture. The cosy environment ensured discussion was intimate and frank; expect the seating capacity to be revised up in 2014.

THE LAST DAYS OF JOE BLOW
Jack Sargeant and Richard Wolstencroft are two peas in an alternative universe pod, with a long history as two of Australia’s most vociferous film identities. It is no surprise that Wolstonecroft’s frank porn-industry doco should have its World Premiere at Revelations. A cold, wet Monday night slot kept audience numbers down, but all attendees were riveted by the story of Michael Tierney, aka porn icon Joe Blow; the reception suggests a long life for the film, which was three years in the making. Never a festival to ignore depictions of frank sexuality, also on Revelations roster was the James Franco/Travis Maxwell oddity Interior Leather Bar and Beth B.'s Burlesque documentary Exposed.
(Note - some trailer content NSFW)

GOBLIN PLAY SUSPIRIA
At the height of their shared celebrity, Italian electro-pop outfit Goblin and giallo maestro Dario Argento combined their talents to craft what has become a landmark score for the 1977 horror classic, Suspiria. Revelations scored a major coup when it was announced the band would provide a live soundtrack for screenings of the film. The result? With the film projected in HD in its full aspect ratio, the ageing rockers, under the guidance of keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, proved to be as vital and captivating as they were 36 years ago. (pictured, right: the band visiting Perth Zoo)

SHORTS
Of the 18 short films officially selected, eight were world premieres and seven screened for the first time on Australian soil. Amongst them, exciting new works from local directors Julietta Boscolo (Sam’s Gold), Shaun Burke (Weathered), Markus Hermansen (The Mailman) and Kyle Hedrick (The Boat). The festival’s standing as a global event was evident in the countries represented across the shorts strand – in addition to the local content, productions were selected from USA, UK, China, Denmark, Canada, France and The Russian Federation. The Animation and Experimental short film strands were also sold-out events.

REVEL-8
Traditionally one of the most popular nights at past Revelations, the Revel8 Competition asks filmmakers to craft a 3½ minute in-camera work; composers are given the task of scoring the film without meeting the director; and, audience members vote by cheering the loudest. With the theme this year being ‘Phobia’, there was barely a silent moment during the closing night event. Which is exactly how it should be.

Screen-Space was a guest of the Revelations Perth International Film Festival from July 8 to July 11.

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2013: SO YOU COULDN'T GET A TICKET...

The 60^th anniversary of the iconic Sydney Film Festival (SFF) is, naturally, all about the films. 190 of them, to be exact, including 19 world premieres and representing international cinema from 55 countries. That's why very often, it is law of the jungle when buying tickets and many sessions are already sold out. But the modern film festival also offers a vast landscape of sidebar attractions, art installations, retro-themed celebrations and live chats, and SFF 2013 is no different. SCREEN-SPACE looks at 10 events from this years festival calendar that you really should consider….

1. SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1954 TO NOW: A LIVING ARCHIVE
On this, the occasion of the 60^th anniversary of the SFF, a troop of the nation’s most respected film scholars, past festival directors and industry journalists were asked to contribute to a vast online retrospective of the Festival’s key moments (including, pictured above, then-director David Stratton being farewelled in 1983 by directors Dr George Miller and Peter Weir and producer Patricia Lovell). The result – 86 pages of content, rich with photos, anecdotes, interviews and links to a myriad of historical content. Visit the Archive at http://online.sffarchive.org.au .

2. SCREEN: BLACK
SFF organisers have established an official partnership with Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department to ensure cinema that explores the culture and history of Aboriginal Australia is given the exposure and support it requires to thrive. Long a supporter of indigenous-themed works and native Australian filmmakers (in 1979, Aboriginal woman Essie Coffey presented her documentary short My Survival as an Aboriginal Woman), this year’s programme includes Ivan Sen’s Opening Night world premiere, Mystery Road (pictured, right); a restored print of Ned lander’s landmark work Wrong Side of the Road; and, Steven McGregor’s profile of The Warumpi Band, Big Name No Blanket.

3. THE BEFORE…TRILOGY
Spanning almost 20 years, the love affair between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) began as angst-ridden Gen-Existential flirtation in 1995’s Before Sunrise and continued on the streets of Paris with 2004’s melancholy Before Sunset. The stars, along with director Richard Linklater, reunite with their creations in the latest instalment, Before Midnight, having its Australian premiere at the Festival. Enjoy a day of romantic chemistry when all three screen Saturday, June 8.

4. FINAL CUT: LADIES AND GENTLEMAN
Arguably no film screening at the SFF will hold greater joy for the average Sydney film buff than Hungarian auteur György Pálfi’s Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen. Crafting a romantic narrative from over 450 seemingly random movie clips, the Taxidermia director has created a vivid, unique and surprisingly emotional experience that could well emerge as the talking point of the festival. How many of the films can you name…?

5. VHS PARTY!
In honour of the little black plastic box that changed the way the world was able to watch movies, the SFF presents a celebration of VHS (from Victor Home System, after the patented inventors of the format) at the Festival Hub under Sydney’s Town Hall. Recalling the thrilling highs of watching what you want, when you want and the dreaded lows of tape spoilage, the event will be a stroll down memory lane for those who can remember what ‘tracking’ and ‘please rewind’ mean.

6. JULIE AND THE DIRECTORS
One of Australia’s most respected film journalists, Julie Rigg (pictured, right), engages with several generations of past SFF directors to recollect on the first 60 years of the Festival. David Donaldson (1954-57), David Stratton (1966-83) and the current fest head Nashen Moodley will be amongst those recalling the challenges and foibles of mounting one of the world’s most respected film programmes.

7. HELL DRIVERS
‘Rainy Sundays Stormy Mondays’ is the retrospective side-bar featuring 13 of the very best British Noir thrillers. Brighton Rock, They Made Me a Fugitive and The Siege at Pinchgut rate highly, though the pick of them may by Cy Endfield’s tough-guy trucking classic Hell Drivers, featuring Patrick McGoohan as the brutal alpha-male Red and a support cast including Sid James, Herbert Lom, Stanley Baker and Sean Connery.

8.MEET THE FILMMAKERS: HAIFAA AL MANSOUR
Having earned her Masters in Film Studies from the University of Sydney, Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al Mansour (pictured, left) took her craft back to her homeland and made Wadjda, screening in competition this year. It was the first feature film to be shot in The Kingdom, where cinemas are banned. As Saudi Arabia’s first woman film director, her journey was an incredible, at times daunting and dangerous one. She relates the tale at Sydney’s Apple Store on Saturday, June 8.

9. THE BOX SET: BURNING BUSH
Acclaimed Polish filmmaker Agniezska Holland’s 4 hour drama, shot for HBO Europe, follows the aftermath of one of the most pivotal moments in the political history of Czechoslavakia – the self-immolation and subsequent death of Jan Palach in January 1969, who was protesting Soviet occupation of the territory. Another small-screen gem getting a bigscreen run in SFF is Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's mini-series Penance, a generational study in grief that played Venice and Toronto to high praise.

10. …AND SEX.
Never a gathering to shy away from the pleasures and pitfalls of flesh on film, SFF 2013 presents a vast array of programme choices to delight, arouse and, possibly, disturb you.  Burlesque darling Beth B explores the NYC underground in Exposed; Jeffery Schwartz tries to define the immortal allure of Harris Glenn Milstead in I am Divine; Amanda Seyfriend bares all in the biopic, Lovelace; Steve Coogan plays pornography game-changer Paul Raymond in Michael Winterbottom’s The Look of Love; and new-agers do it for the trees in the offbeat enviro-doco, F**k For Forest. One casualty, though: Christina Voros’ no-holds-barred look at fetish practices, Kink, has already been pulled from the programme.

Full details of all the screenings and events at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival can be found here.

SAPPHIC SERENADE: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR TAKES CANNES' TOP HONOUR.

Any and all concerns that handing the Cannes 2013 jury duties to Hollywood’s most successful commercial filmmaker would detract from the event’s European sensibilities were laid to rest overnight with the announcement of the major award winners.

Steven Spielberg and his international body of A-list judges bestowed the 66^th Palme d’Or upon the three hour, French-language lesbian love story Blue is the Warmest Colour. Director Abdellatif Kechiche and his fearless leading ladies, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux (pictured, above), accepted the award, which honoured a work rich in emotional complexity and graphic in its portrayal of homosexual passion. The film doubled-up on top honours with the Fipresci International Critics body also naming it best of the fest.

Spielberg, along with a panel that included Nicole Kidman and Ang Lee (pictured, right), was effusive in their praise for the Tunisian-born director’s drama, stating at the post-announcement press conference that the film was, “A great love story that made all of us feel privileged to be a fly on the wall, to see this story of deep love and deep heartbreak evolve from the beginning. The director didn’t put any constraints on the narrative. He let the scenes play in real life, and we were absolutely spellbound.”

So global was the overall winners list, films from Asia, Europe and North America were represented. Mexico snared Best Director kudos for Amat Escalante’s gangland family drama, Heli; the Jury Prize went to Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father Like Son; Screenplay honours fell to China’s Jia Zhangke for A Touch of Sin. The Camera d’Or honours for best first feature film went to Singapore-based filmmaker Anthony Chen for his debut, Ilo Ilo.

Longtime Cannes favourites Joel and Ethan Coen secured the Grand Prix for their monochromatic drama Inside Llewellyn Davis, while veteran character actor Bruce Dern earned a very popular Best Actor nod for Alexander Paynes’ Nebraska. Berenice Bejo, last lauded on The Croisette for her work in the Oscar-winner The Artist, took home the Best Actress trophy for her role in Asghar Farhadi’s French-Italian co-production, The Past.

The full list of Cannes Film Festival 2013 honorees is:

JURY PRIZE WINNERS:

Palme d’Or: “Blue Is the Warmest Color” (Abdellatif Kechiche, director; Adele Exarchopoulos France)

Grand Prix: “Inside Llewyn Davis” (Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S.)

Director: Amat Escalante, “Heli” (Mexico)

Jury prize: “Like Father, Like Son” (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)

Actor: Bruce Dern, “Nebraska” (Alexander Payne, U.S.)

Actress: Berenice Bejo, “The Past” (Asghar Farhadi, France-Italy)

Screenplay: Jia Zhangke, “A Touch of Sin” (China)

UN CERTAIN REGARD JURY PRIZES:

Main prize: “The Missing Picture” (Rithy Panh, Cambodia-France)

Jury prize: Hany Abu-Assad, “Omar” (Palestine)

Director: Alain Guiraudie, “Stranger by the Lake” (France)

Future prize: “Fruitvale Station” (Ryan Coogler, U.S.)

A Certain Talent prize: Ensemble cast of “La jaula de oro” (Diego Quemada-Diaz, Mexico-Spain)

JURY PRIZES:

Camera d’Or: “Ilo ilo” (Anthony Chen, Singapore)

Directors’ Fortnight Art Cinema Award: “Me Myself and Mum” (Guillaume Gallienne, France)

Directors’ Fortnight Europa Cinemas Label: “The Selfish Giant” (Clio Barnard, U.K.)

Directors’ Fortnight SACD Prize: “Me Myself and Mum”

Critics’ Week Grand Prix: “Salvo” (Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza, Italy)

Critics’ Week Visionary Prize: “Salvo”

Critics’ Week Special Mention: “The Owners” (Agustin Toscano, Ezequiel Radusky, Argentina)

Critics’ Week SACD Prize for Screenplay: “Le Demantelement” (Sebastien Pilote, Canada)

Short Films Palme d’Or: “Safe” (Moon Byoung-gon, South Korea)

Ecumenical Jury Prize: “The Past” (Asghar Farhadi, France-Italy)

FIPRESCI PRIZES:

Competition: “Blue Is the Warmest Color” (Abdellatif Kechiche, France)

Un Certain Regard: “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” (Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran)

Directors’ Fortnight: “Blue Ruin” (Jeremy Saulnier, U.S.)

BLOOD AND MEMORIES: 2013 A NIGHT OF HORROR / FANTASTIC PLANET FILM FESTIVAL WRAP-UP.

The unique two-tiered structure that is the A Night of Horror/Fantastic Planet Film Festival allowed for many of the programmed works to feel the joy of victory at the event’s Closing Night awards ceremony. Two separate juries worked on arguing through the feature choices (a third selected the best of the shorts programming) in what many patrons considered to be the best year ever for Festival Director and Programmer, Dr Dean Bertram, and his short film offsiders, brother Grant Bertram and Shane Kavanagh.

A NIGHT OF HORROR:

Scott Schirmer’s grotesquely compelling coming-of-age film, Found (pictured, above), divided audiences and judges alike yet emerged as the agreed-upon best of the A Night of Horror programming strand; the film’s young teen lead actor, Gavin Brown, was honoured with the Best Actor nod for his fearless portrayal of a good kid caught in a horrifying suburban predicament. Trista Robinson deaf good-girl-gone-bad from Paul Hough’s The Human Race took out Best Actress honours, while the Director award was split between the team of Justin Benson and Alan Moorehead, whose taut and terrifying buddy-monster movie Resolution played to a very enthusiastic audience on the festival’s final day.

Best Film: FOUND
Best Director: Justin Benson, Alan Moorehead (RESOLUTION)
Best Male Performance: Gavin Brown (FOUND)
Best Female Performance: Trista Robinson (THE HUMAN RACE)
Best Special Effects: THANATAMORPHOSE
Audience Choice Award: Best Australian short: P.O.V: POINT OF VIEW
Best Lovecraft: REFUGIO 115
Best Short Film: THE CAPTURED BIRD
Best Online Film: 2 HOURS
Independent Spirit Award: THE LONE WOLF
Music Video: TARNISHED GLUTTONY (Band: Job for a Cowboy)
Best Animation: BUTTERFLIES
A Night of Horror
Independent Spirit Award: THE TAKING
A Night of Horror Director's Choice: BUCK WILD

FANTASTIC PLANET:

The bloody, brilliant crowd-pleaser Mon Ami just pipped The Mansion and The History of Future Folk for Best Film honours in the Fantastic Planet field. The pros and cons of the front-runners were hotly debated (full disclosure – SCREEN-SPACE was one of the panel of three), with all titles in the schedule given due and detailed consideration. Andrew Robertson scored Best Director honours for his slow-burn apocalyptic thriller, The Mansion; the film’s lead actress, Amy Rutberg, came a close second to Australian actress Emma Lung, who took the Best Actress award for Crave. Mon Ami’s Mike Kovac (pictured, above) edged out Josh Lawson (Crave) and Jay Klaitz (The History of Future Folk) in the Best Actor category. So close was the judging in several categories that is was deemed only fair that John Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker’s The History of Future Folk be given a Special Mention nod.

Best Film: MON AMI
Best Director: Andrew Robertson - THE MANSION
Best Male Performance: Mike Kovac (MON AMI)
Best Female Performance: Emma Lung (CRAVE)
Best Special Effects: MOTIVATIONAL GROWTH
Audience Choice Award: Best Australian short (Fantastic Planet): WOLF AT THE DOOR
Best Short Film: LICHTJAHRE
Independent Spirit Award (Fantastic Planet): VENGEANCE DE LOS MUERTOS
Best Music Video: ELECTRIC LIGHT (Band: Muscle Hawk)
Best Animation: NIGHT ISLAND
Judges Special Mention:
THE HISTORY OF FUTURE FOLK
Fantastic Planet 
Independent Spirit Award: #WETANDRECKLESS
Fantastic Planet 
Director's Choice: A DARK MATTER

Australian director Danny McShane’s short FRIEND REQUEST was awarded the Short Judges Special Mention Award (watch a Making Of... featurette on the young director's slasher film homage here).

Visit here for all of SCREEN-SPACE's coverage of the 2013 event.