Every week, I get several press releases, screening invitations and other notifications from a handful of studio contacts. While I won’t be sharing any information regarding my screening invites, some of the press releases might be of interest to my readers, so I thought I’d start sharing them in toto with all of you. These could include new image galleries for various films or important updates to upcoming releases from various smaller studios and art house production companies.
- Image Gallery: House at the End of the Street, Additional Photos
- Image Gallery: Warner Bros. Fall Preview
- Press Release: ‘I’m Carolyn Parker’ Theatrical Premiere Scheduled at IFC Center
- Press Release: ‘The House I Live In’ Gets Release Date
- Press Release: Willie Nelson Releases Lawless-Themed Music Video
Image Gallery: House at the End of the Street, Additional Photos
Image Gallery: Warner Bros. Fall Preview
Press Release: ‘I’m Carolyn Parker’ Theatrical Premiere Scheduled at IFC Center
I’M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL TO HAVE THEATRICAL PREMIERE AT IFC CENTER IN NEW YORK
New York, NY – August 13, 2012 – I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, The Mad, and the Beautiful, directed by Jonathan Demme, will have its theatrical premiere at New York’s IFC Center. The opening night screening of the film, on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, will feature a Q&A with Jonathan Demme and a music performance by Ommie Wise. Demme will also participate in Q&As following the screenings on the evening of September 13, 2012. Tickets will be available through the IFC Center website: http://www.ifccenter.com/
I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, The Mad, and the Beautiful had its world premiere in September 2011 at the Venice International Film Festival. The film was an official selection of the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2011 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
Following the IFC Center engagement, the film will make its broadcast premiere on PBS on September 20, 2012 as part of the POV Documentary Series.
Jonathan Demme is pleased to present Carolyn Parker’s extraordinary story at the IFC Center and with PBS. “After Carolyn’s house was flooded and she endeavored to rebuild her home after the waters subsided, I was privileged to gain her permission to keep track of her progress. I didn’t know at the time that these filming visits would stretch over the next 5 years, including 21 visits. Nor did I realize what an amazing portrait of an “ordinary” American would emerge over time. The film changed from a record of reclaiming her home into a documentary about a truly extraordinary woman.”
ABOUT I’M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD, AND THE BEAUTFUL
Carolyn Parker was the last to leave her neighborhood when a mandatory evacuation order was decreed as Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in the summer of 2005. After the floodwaters subsided, Mrs. Parker was the first resident to return to her now flood-devastated community with what many thought was the “impossible dream” of bringing her ruined home back to life.
I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful unfolds as an inspiring portrait of an extraordinary woman. Mrs. Parker takes us deep inside her personal biography as a child born in the 40’s, raised in segregated New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, who became a teen-ager joining the front lines in the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s, who worked for thirty years as a cook-turned-chef in the hotel industry, and became one of the most outspoken voices in the fight for every New Orleanian’s right to return home after the devastation of the floods that followed Katrina. That Carolyn faced these odds with unbridled wit, spirituality and an abiding sense of social justice borne of her life in New Orleans makes for a unique cinematic tale of personal triumph.
I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful is the portrait of an “ordinary family” who banded together under extraordinary circumstances, and reclaimed their home.
ABOUT JONATHAN DEMME
Starting out with Roger Corman in 1971, Jonathan Demme has directed and/or produced over 30 movies. The House At Lovestrand, based on Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn’s adaptation of the Ibsen play Master Builder Solness, is now in post-production. The film stars Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory, Julie Haggerty and Lisa Joyce and was written for the screen by Wallace Shawn with the original stage production created by Andre Gregory. Demme’s portrait documentary Enzo Avitabile Music Life, will premiere this month at the Venice Film Festival. Other new projects in the works include 3 forthcoming New Orleans portrait documentaries along the lines of I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, The Mad, And The Beautiful. Demme’s most recent release was the third installment of his performance trilogy with Neil Young, Neil Young Journeys.
Press Release: ‘The House I Live In’ Gets Release Date
EUGENE JARECKI’S THE HOUSE I LIVE IN HEADING TO THEATERS ON OCTOBER 5, 2012
Theatrical Release of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film to be handled by industry veterans
New York, NEW YORK (August 14, 2012) – Award-winning filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (WHY WE FIGHT, FREAKONOMICS, THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER) announced today that he has assembled a strong team of industry veterans to handle the release of his documentary, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, on October 5, 2012. THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, an in-depth look into America’s War on Drugs, won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance film festival. Abramorama, headed by Richard Abramowitz, will release the film theatrically across the country, followed by a digital release via Snag Films. 42West, PR Collaborative, and Acme PR will develop and manage the publicity campaign. BOND Strategy and Influence will run the digital marketing campaign. Cinetic Media is handling North American rights and Dogwoof is handling international distribution. The film’s grassroots outreach campaign has been supported by the Ford Foundation and RiverStyx Foundation, among others.
Produced by Jarecki and Melinda Shopsin, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN was Executive Produced by Danny Glover, Nick Fraser, John Legend, Russell Simmons, and Sally Jo Fifer. It is a co-production of the BBC, ARTE, and ITVS.
Filmed in more than twenty states, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN captures heart-wrenching stories from individuals at all levels of America’s War on Drugs. From the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, it offers a penetrating look inside America’s longest war, laying bare its ominous inner workings and profound human rights implications.
While recognizing the seriousness of drug abuse, the film investigates the tragic errors and shortcomings that turned a matter of public health into a criminal justice opportunity, earning the United States the dubious distinction of being the world’s leading jailer and giving rise to a vast industry of mass incarceration that feeds upon the lives of poor and minority Americans. Digging deeper, the film examines how political and economic corruption over forty years have perpetuated the War on Drugs despite persistent and recurring evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures.
“My life has been leading me to this film for decades,” commented Jarecki. “And while the subject is vast, it is by far my most personal and intimate film. I’m exhilarated both by the all-star team we’ve assembled and by the historic opportunity we have to help turn the tide on a war no one can seriously defend anymore. As Victor Hugo once said, ‘More powerful than the tread of a mighty army is an idea whose time has come.’ The time to end the drug war has come. And we feel hopeful that with the film’s release and in tandem with partner organizations working at the grassroots level across the country, the film can contribute to the decades-long struggle to end this heartbreaking and misguided chapter of American history and find a better way forward.”
Press Release: Willie Nelson Releases Lawless-Themed Music Video
COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME ICON WILLIE NELSON ON BOARD FOR LAWLESS
AIN’T IT COOL NEWS DEBUTS LAWLESS-THEMED MUSIC VIDEO FOR NELSON’S PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED “MIDNIGHT RUN”
NELSON TO APPEAR AT SPECIAL LAWLESS SCREENING IN HOME STATE
New York, NY – August 16, 2012 – The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that Country Music Hall of Famer and Kennedy Center honoree Willie Nelson is on board to support LAWLESS, the epic gangster tale directed by John Hillcoat and written by Nick Cave. Nelson’s previously unreleased “Midnight Run” is featured in the film. It is included on the LAWLESS soundtrack, which will be released by Sony Music on August 28th, as a bonus track. Ain’t It Cool News exclusively debuted online the specially created LAWLESS-themed “Midnight Run” music video which can be seen here: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/57674
In addition, Nelson will appear at a special screening of LAWLESS, based on a true story, days before the film’s release in his home state of Texas. The screening will take place on August 25th at the Alamo Draft House in Austin. LAWLESS, starring Tom Hardy (INCEPTION, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES), Jessica Chastain (CORIOLANUS, THE HELP), and Shia LaBeouf (TRANSFORMERS franchise, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL), will be in theaters everywhere on August 29th. The film is based on the gritty novel The Wettest County In The World by Matt Bondurant, grandson and grand-nephew of the story’s main characters, the Bondurant brothers. Bondurant and members of the cast will join Nelson in making an appearance at the August 25th special screening.
“You see LAWLESS and you hear the music Nick Cave and Warren Ellis created for the film, and Willie and his music come to mind immediately,” said TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein. “He is more than a natural fit. His music is lawless and his contribution to this film we’re so proud of is one of the most organic unions I’ve ever been a part of.”
“It is important that true stories like these from America’s past are kept alive,” said Nelson. “I didn’t hesitate to collaborate on this project as someone with a deep love for Western history and of course country music.”
Nelson, born in the year Prohibition ended, describes “Midnight Run” as a song about the clandestine transport of moonshine whisky with a driving beat and whining harmonica. “Midnight Run” was written by Jim Dolan, Marc Copely and Adam Levy. His band JD & The Straight Shot have a new album for sale called “Midnight Run” on itunes now: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/midnight-run/id546165041.
For the film’s music, Cave teamed up with long-term collaborator Ellis to form a band called the Bootleggers, playing country and bluegrass that mimics the film’s 1931 rural Virginia setting.
LAWLESS is the true story of the freewheelin’ Bondurant brothers, bootlegging siblings taking the law into their own hands. This is the story of the rural hard-men that created the big city gangsters. Brazen and fearless, these young rebel brothers helped build the American Dream in this exuberant tale of what was to become crime’s first major gold rush. The youngest brother, JACK (LaBeouf), fancies himself the next Al Capone; he dreams of sharp suits, guns, girls and fast cars, no matter the cost. Ambitious and impulsive, he takes the family’s small-scale moonshining operation to the big leagues, to impress the gorgeous but off-limits Amish girl, BERTHA (Mia Wasikowska). The middle brother, HOWARD (Jason Clarke), is the brawling muscle – loyal but reckless – never one to turn down a taste of white lightning. And eldest brother, FORREST (Hardy), reluctantly accepts the changing times with grace and grit, leading the family with strength of character and silent determination against the beginnings of corporate greed. An enigmatic and stunning MAGGIE (Chastain) comes to town with a hidden past, igniting his passion and almost saving him in the process. As the Bondurants’ legend grows, so too does the danger, and it’s not long before the brothers must face the consequences of their transgressions, or rewrite the myth and the law themselves.
ABOUT THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
The Weinstein Company (TWC) is a multimedia production and distribution company launched in October 2005 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films in 1979. TWC also encompasses Dimension Films, the genre label founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, which has released such popular franchises as SCREAM, SPY KIDS and SCARY MOVIE. Together TWC and Dimension Films have released a broad range of mainstream, genre and specialty films that have been commercial and critical successes. TWC releases took home eight 2012 Academy Awards®, the most wins in the studio’s history. The tally included Best Picture for Michel Hazanavicius’s THE ARTIST and Best Documentary Feature for TJ Martin and Dan Lindsay’s UNDEFEATED. THE ARTIST brought TWC its second consecutive Best Picture statuette following the 2011 win for Tom Hooper’s THE KING’S SPEECH.
Since 2005, TWC and Dimension Films have released such films as GRINDHOUSE; I’M NOT THERE; THE GREAT DEBATERS; VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA; THE READER; THE ROAD; HALLOWEEN; THE PAT TILLMAN STORY; PIRANHA 3D; INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS; A SINGLE MAN; BLUE VALENTINE; THE COMPANY MEN; MIRAL; SCRE4M; SUBMARINE; DIRTY GIRL; APOLLO 18; OUR IDIOT BROTHER; I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT; SARAH’S KEY; SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD IN 4D; MY WEEK WITH MARILYN; THE IRON LADY; W.E.; CORIOLANUS; UNDEFEATED; THE ARTIST; and BULLY. Currently in release are EASY MONEY and THE INTOUCHABLES. Upcoming releases include LAWLESS; KILLING THEM SOFTLY; THE MASTER; and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. Currently in production is DJANGO UNCHAINED.
TWC is also active in television production, led by former Miramax Films President of Production and current President of Television Meryl Poster, with credits including the Emmy® nominated and Peabody Award winning reality series Project Runway, spin-off series Project Runway All Stars and Project Accessory, the VH1 reality series Mob Wives, spin-off series Big Ang and Mob Wives: Chicago, and the critically acclaimed HBO comedy/crime series The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency which also received a Peabody Award. The company is currently in pre-production on the martial-arts epic Marco Polo for Starz. TWC additionally has 17 series in different stages of development, including The Nanny Diaries, being adapted for ABC by Amy Sherman Palladino (Gilmore Girls).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.