Southland Tales

[MacGuffin]

Richard Kelly Updates Southland Tales!       
Source: IESB.net
 
Fans of Richard Kelly have been waiting patiently for his latest film, Southland Tales, to make it to the big screen. Kelly chimed in to update his legions of fans.

Richard Kelly sent in the following from his MySpace blog :

So we have finally gotten the greenlight from Sony for the additional round of visual effects for Southland Tales. This is VERY GOOD NEWS for the film!

We will now be able to finish the film properly. Phew!

The film will be completely finished for the first public screening sometime mid-summer.

Thank you everyone for your patience and I will let you know when the release date is decided upon and teaser trailer will be released (work
is about to begin on the marketing materials).

You can also access two clips from the Film Independent event from last month from www.richard-kelly.net - check out the new uploaded photos of second unit director Dee Robertson... when you watch the first clip... you will
understand.

They. Are. Watching. You.

[MacGuffin]

Oteri Mulls Southland's Fate
Source: Sci-Fi Wire

Comic actress Cheri Oteri, who has a role in Richard Kelly's upcoming SF epic movie Southland Tales, wondered in an interview with SCI FI Wire if the musical-comedy thriller will ever see the light of day. The yet-to-be-released but much-maligned movie is being re-edited, and a recent deal with Sony Pictures may finally get the film a domestic release.

During interviews for Shrek the Third, in which she voices Sleeping Beauty, Oteri said that her character still appears in the latest version of Southland Tales, as does a character played by Oteri's Saturday Night Live co-star Amy Poehler.

"I did see it, but I don't know if you will," Oteri said. "It's kind of sci-fi and very, very dark, and Rich's mind is such a brilliant mind." Southland Tales, written and directed by Kelly (Donnie Darko), also stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

It was reported this week that Sony Pictures has struck a deal with Inferno Productions, which owns the film, marking progress for the film's release. The movie was widely anticipated last year at the Cannes Film Festival, but was harshly panned, sending Kelly back to re-edit. "Sony bought it and is supposed to release it, but I really don't know," Oteri said.

Southland Tales is set in Los Angeles on the brink of an apocalypse during Independence Day 2008. Oteri said that she hopes the film gets released before 2008 actually arrives.

As for the film's famously opaque narrative, Oteri said that she understood the version of the film she saw. "Well, uh, yes, but I studied it a lot," she said. "A lot!"

Shrek the Third opens May 18; Poehler also voices a character in the animated sequel.

[MacGuffin]

Sony unit ready to buy films in bulk
Global division to deal with unaffiliated partners
Source: Variety

In Cannes, a single acquisition often makes news.

But Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group came here to buy in bulk.

Headed by Sony's former production prexy Peter Schlessel, the group doesn't just send its pickups into the consumer marketplace via Sony channels. In order to facilitate its plan to spearhead 12 to 14 domestic theatrical releases a year (and several times that on DVD), it often pays distribution fees to unaffiliated partners, or enters into 50-50 joint ventures.

For example, Newmarket will team 50-50 with the Sony group for "The Nines," a Hope Davis-Ryan Reynolds drama from GreeneStreet Films. Samuel Goldwyn is distribbing three titles. Among them: "Rise: Blood Hunter," a vampire actioner with Lucy Liu and Michael Chiklis that screened at Tribeca and will open June 1; and "Revolver," a Guy Ritchie-directed gangster thriller starring Jason Statham. Latter fizzled overseas but could appeal to U.S. action auds who devoured Statham's "Transporter" pics.

The third Goldwyn title will ring a bell for Cannes regulars. It's "Southland Tales," the Richard Kelly sci-fier that was hooted off the Croisette in 2006. Kelly pledged at the time to rework the film and he has, Schlessel said.

"It's a film that's intrinsically interesting to people," said Scott Shooman, exec director of acquisitions and production. "People will want to talk about it."

Laced with musical numbers, the film has a poppy cast including Justin Timberlake, Mandy Moore and Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson.

Several of the pic's principals have talked of a theatrical bow, but no plans are set, execs said.

Also due in theaters is "Paprika," Japanese anime title originally ticketed for DVD or a four-wall theaterical run, but due in theaters from Sony Pictures Classics on May 25.

Sony has long acquired titles as pure homevid plays, but the hybrid division took flight in January, after Schlessel's arrival in September. It was then named and positioned as a stand-alone division with ties to Sony's theatrical film, TV and home video operations.

In the months since, the company has been on a buying spree, picking up some 60 titles for release in 2007.

"Peter likes to come into my office and ask, 'So what did you buy today?'" Shooman said.

"We really feel like we have the capability to buy a movie a day," Schlessel said. "Given how the business is evolving, we are trying to make sure people have an open mind about how films are released. Everyone always wants to know, 'Will the movie come out theatrically?' But we're showing that you have to tailor a release to the film."

One difference between the company and other bidders on festival fare is that it has unlimited upward scalability. Some of its titles could be brought in and released wide through Sony or another major studio partner.

In that vein, the division earlier this month announced a co-venture with Inferno Films, a company known for international sales but also recently a force in financing and production of pics in the $10 million to $20 million range (e.g., "Just Friends" at New Line).

All the pics resulting from the pact are expected to bow theatrically. One of the first is "Daddy Day Care," due out Aug. 8 from Sony.

The acquisitions group also has ties to television, having secured international rights for Showtime's "Weeds" and international DVD and TV rights to the pay cabler's "The Tudors."

[MacGuffin]

Moore Uncertain About Southland

Mandy Moore told SCI FI Wire that she's not sure what's happening with director Richard Kelly's apocalyptic SF film Southland Tales and added that she's not even sure she's still in the long-delayed project. Starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Miranda Richardson, Kevin Smith and singer-actress Moore, Southland Tales is set in near-future Los Angeles on the eve of an unnamed disaster.

"I have not seen any incarnation of that yet," Moore said in an interview while promoting her latest film, License to Wed. "I had a great time working on it. It was one of those things where I met with Richard maybe two weeks before they started shooting. I had just finished that movie American Dreamz at the time, so I was like, 'Um, yeah, sure, I'll jump into this one. Why not?' I play the Rock's wife in the movie, if I'm still in the movie at all. They had to cut it down so much, and maybe they just cut out my character altogether."

An early cut of Southland Tales screened at the Cannes Film Festival last year, drawing nearly unanimous pans. Since then, Kelly (Donnie Darko) has said he's recutting the film for release at a later date, but no release date has been set.

Whatever happens with the film and her role, Moore added, she had a good time making Southland Tales. "I loved working with Rock or Dwayne; I'm not sure what he prefers to be called now," she said. "Sarah Michelle Gellar was in the movie. It was just a fun, huge gigantic cast of characters there. I'm not in the sci-fi element of it, and I don't get to sing."

[MacGuffin]

THE BOX, ETC....
Current mood:  working
Friday, June 29, 2007

Hello all,

Now that the official announcement has been made, I can finally break
my silence... if just for a few kind words for anyone interested in what's
happening in my world!

We are gearing up to start production on The Box in November...
shooting in Richmond, VA... starring the one and only Ms. Cameron Diaz. I couldn't be more excited... and expect more casting announcements soon.

As for Southland Tales... we are about halfway through completing all
of the new visual effects. We have to deliver everything by the end of summer.
I have to tell everyone that the amount of visual effects work being
added to the film is SIGNIFICANT... and I am so grateful for the work being done by Thomas Tannenberger and his team at Gradient VFX in Venice Beach.

And I can confirm that a company has been hired by Sony to
begin work on a trailer. The release date will be announced very soon.

And for some reason... myspace is telling people that it is my
birthday! Thank you for the birthday wishes but I was born on March 28th... I am indeed an Aries. Sorry for the confusion!

Best,

RK

[Kal]

Fuck... no dates... everything is soooooon

[Astrostic]

I found this at Richard-Kelly.net

[picolas]

fuck! date!

[Stefen]

I thought this flick went to direct to video last year?

HACK.

[grand theft sparrow]

Can someone really be considered a hack after just one movie?  Are we just spoiled by so many spectacular debuts that when someone makes a movie that everybody likes but you, you can't allow for him/her to ever make a movie that you'd find worthwhile?  Whatever happened to letting a director find his way over the course of several movies?







Never mind.

[Kal]

I smell it will be released in 3 fucking theatres nationwide and for a week... damnit

[tpfkabi]

the font looks a little dinky.

i saw a Jan issue of Film Comment with an article on the film and it had a pic of Sarah Michelle and i had to do a double take because i thought it was Sharon Stone circa Basic Instinct time - white coat and everything.

[MacGuffin]

'Southland Tales' opens Nov. 9
Samuel Goldwyn Films to release Kelly feature
Source: VARIETY

Samuel Goldwyn Films will release writer-director Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" in U.S. theaters on Nov. 9 in partnership with Destination Films and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group.

Pic, Kelly's follow-up to his cult hit "Donnie Darko," is set in Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as the city stands on the brink of social, economic and environ-mental disaster.

Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson stars alongside Seann William Scott and Sarah Michelle Gellar in the sci-fi thriller.

Pic, which preemed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006, also features thesps Justin Timberlake, Mandy Moore and Amy Poehler.

Kelly is skedded to appear at Comic-Con on Friday to greet fans and sign autographs.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, July 23, 2007

Comic-Con This Weekend
Current mood:  working

COMIC-CON

Hello all,

I will be down at Comic-Con to sign copies of the new Southland Tales
teaser poster. Expect a press-release to surface very very soon, announcing
the official release date of the film.

Comic-Con Info:
Friday, July 27, 2007
11:00 AM PST - 1:00 PM PST
Table AA 12 at the Sails Pavillion

Expect a trailer sometime in mid-August.

At last!

Thanks to everyone for their patience and support!

RK

[for petes sake]

..except for the fact that this poster says absoutely nothing about the movie except that Sarah Michelle Gellar is going to be looking very hot and The Rock is going be looking very spiffy.  On second thought that's maybe absolutely enough.

[MacGuffin]

Kelly Talks Southland Changes

Richard Kelly, director of the upcoming SF epic movie Southland Tales, told SCI FI Wire that he has considerably altered the film from an early cut screened, to disastrous critical reception, at the Cannes Film Festival last year and confirmed that the movie now has a Nov. 9 release date. The movie wrapped production nearly two years ago.

"[We made] a lot of editorial changes in terms of restructuring the order of scenes," Kelly said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 27. "We re-recorded all of Justin Timberlake's voice-over, and we added, like, 90 new visual-effects shots. It was truly like a work of progress." Kelly added that the movie has been cut by 20-25 minutes from its initial cut, which was nearly three hours long.

Kelly (Donnie Darko) likened the early Cannes screening to the worst possible test screening. "Usually when you have a movie, at that point you take it to Sherman Oaks and show it to a bunch of teenagers at [a test] screening. We took it to the Cannes Film Festival and showed it to the toughest audience in the world. Was that a good idea? I don't know. But it happened, and you just sort of take the best from it."

The movie was nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes. "At the time, I was 31 years old, on my second film," he said. "It was like, that's a life-changing thing. And I'll never forget that. And I hope to go back to the festival with another film later in my career, but we won't take this to another film festival."

Southland Tales stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Seann William Scott and Sarah Michelle Gellar in a multilayered story on the eve of an indeterminate apocalypse in a near-future Los Angeles.

As the film's release date nears, Kelly said, "I used the metaphor before that making this film has been like landing a jet during, like, a tornado. But at the end of the day, if I'm the pilot, I've got to make that smooth landing. And I feel like I'm just approaching the runway, and the weather's clear. They printed that [release date] on the poster, and that makes me very happy."