I'm Not There - Bob Dylan biopic

[The Perineum Falcon]

well, what does it say?

[godardian]

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!  POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!



(Disclaimer: I despise the concept of "spoilers" and feel it gives a ridiculous amount of privilege to the "what" as opposed to the much more relevant and defiantly un-spoilable "how" of films, to use Andrew Sarris's indefatigable categorizations. However, out of deference to  the 'net's rampant spoiler-phobia, I've included the alert above.)

well, what does it say?

The standout tidbits:

--"It's so perfect for this person who keeps moving forward and discarding who he was.... The minute he seems in grasp, he's not there anymore." - Haynes, on the title.

--Michelle Williams plays an "Edie Sedgwick like character" who has an affair with Cate Blanchett's "Jude"

--"I don't think Bod Dylan would have allowed anyone to do a regular biopic." - Christine Vachon

--"Haynes will use a distinct visual style for each section of the film, but he says the movie won't feel like a collection of short films. 'Each story reaches a point at which the person can't go on without becoming something else,' he says. 'It solves the problems of the prior story to change into a new thing and discard it.'"

--On the soundtrack: My Morning Jacket's Jim James and Stephen Malkmus.

--"Ultimately, I'm Not There will be a meditation on the 1960s, a decade Haynes feels still hasn't been captured correctly on film. 'It was such an incredibly complex and fascinating period,' he says. 'I want it to be the best film about the Sixties anyone has ever seen."

[MacGuffin]

Source: MTV

Buzz — and bafflement — are already surrounding next year's Bob Dylan biopic, which will find Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett all playing the legendary musician in the same movie. "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" star Ben Whishaw recently explained how the unique concept of "I'm Not There" will reveal that the actors, they are a changin'. "I'm one of the Bob Dylans," he said. "Seven actors play different versions, or different facets, of Bob Dylan's personality," he said. "[Every segment] is inter-cut, throughout the movie, with the other strands." Whishaw's Dylan picks him up circa 1966, after "Like a Rolling Stone" made him famous, when the singer/songwriter began contemplating his controversial decision to plug in. "I'm sort of a hybrid of Dylan and [19th-century poet] Arthur Rimbaud," Whishaw explained. Directed by Oscar-nominated "Far From Heaven" helmer Todd Haynes, the flick is due in theaters next year.

[MacGuffin]

Haynes' Dylan biopic goes to Weinsteins
TWC gets rights to 'There'
Source: Variety

The Weinstein Co. has scooped up North American and U.K. rights to "I'm Not There," Todd Haynes' sprawling Bob Dylan biopic.

Company plans to release the movie, the first Hollywood dramatization of Dylan's life that the artist has blessed, later this year in the U.S.

Timed with the movie's release will be an ambitious soundtrack featuring dozens of Dylan songs as recorded by other musicians.

Movie, which Haynes co-wrote with Oren Moverman ("Jesus' Son"), takes an unusual approach to the biopic genre. Thesps including Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and even Cate Blanchett play the singer-songwriter at six stages of his life and music.

"The folk Dylan had very little to do with the rock 'n' roll Dylan, who had little to do with the preacher Dylan," said producer Christine Vachon, describing some of the phases the actors will embody.

Vachon is producing the film via her Killer Films shingle, Jim Stern through his Endgame Entertainment banner. John Goldwyn, Jeff Rosen and John Rosen also produce. Cinetic's John Sloss exec produces.

Pic, which Cinetic sold to TWC, had been shopped in the last few months to distribs, who were shown a portion of the film, currently in post.

Financing was arranged by Sloss. Celluloid has already made a number of foreign pre-sales to overseas distribs, including Happinet for Japan, Tobis for Germany and Bim Distribuzione for Italy.

Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin, David Cross and Bruce Greenwood are among the ensemble cast.

Randall Poster and Jim Dunbar supervised the soundtrack, which will feature artists as diverse as Willie Nelson and Yo La Tengo playing Dylan songs, as well as songs performed by Dylan himself.

Haynes, for whom "I'm Not There" is a passion project, previously directed another music-themed feature, the glam rock-centric "Velvet Goldmine," which the Weinsteins distribbed at Miramax.

In making the announcement, TWC's Harvey Weinstein said that Dylan has "lived an unbelievable and, at times, an elusive life" and that the movie would offer fans the ability "to really gain insight into his fascinating life."

After year of resisting artistic renditions of his life, Dylan has been more willing in recent years to allow others to interpret him and his music.

In addition to Martin Scorsese's critical fave "No Direction Home," Dylan authorized the short-lived Twyla Tharp legit production "The Times They Are A-Changin'." He also could write two more books to follow up on his bestselling "Chronicles: Volume 1" for Simon & Schuster, which owns the rights to those two tomes.

Although he is at an age when many musicians ease into retirement, Dylan routinely tours hundreds of days each year.

[modage]

I AM SHOCKED!  i cant believe Haynes is dealing with the Weinsteins again. 

[JAN]

Time stands still for Dylan-esque rockers

Source:  MONTREAL GAZETTE
August 19, 2006
Alana Coates


Members of the Royal Mountain Band started playing together to pay tribute to the style of music they loved and grew up with in the '70s - the rock 'n' roll of Neil Young, The Band, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.

People at their shows couldn't help but remark how eerily similar the group - guitarist and vocalist Travis Triance, drummer Warren Auld, bassist Frederic Charest, keyboardist Jeff Louch and guitarist Simon Nixon - looked to Dylan's band, with their long sideburns and moustaches.

Now, an unexpected twist of fate has brought them closer to their original goal than they ever thought possible - they're actually appearing in the Bob Dylan movie, I'm Not There, as Dylan's backing band.

"It's almost like we were born to do this," said Triance, 30, with a self-deprecating laugh.

I'm Not There, being filmed in Rawdon, about 75 kilometres north of Montreal, is being directed by Todd Haynes of Velvet Goldmine and Far From Heaven fame. It puts a creative spin on Dylan's life story by having various A-list actors take turns playing the lead role, including Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett.

The Royal Mountain Band heard the producers were auditioning Montreal bands through Dan Seligman, the founder of Pop Montreal. Members of Wolf Parade and Starvin' Hungry also were vying for the part. But when the Royal Mountain Band wowed the casting directors with a rendition of Ballad Of A Thin Man, they didn't have to keep their fingers crossed for long before the phone rang.

Cate Blanchett will be taking on the role of Dylan in two scenes with the Royal Mountain Band as they re-enact the legendary 1965 Newport Folk Festival concert when Dylan was booed for going electric, and the Royal Albert Hall show in 1966. The scenes are being filmed from Monday until Aug. 29.

For a band that has only just began to make its mark on the Montreal music scene, this gig is an unbelievable break.

Although it has been together for only three years, the group has yet to record an album. All the band members have full-time jobs; Triance is a high school English teacher and Charest is a Hydro-Quebec employee. So far, the only city they've played outside of Montreal is Toronto - and even in Montreal, their concerts have been sporadic.

That will soon change. After wrapping the Dylan movie, the band has studio time booked to record its first album. The group also is in touch with a Chicago booking agent who wants to help them get signed to a record label.

"We didn't even think anyone would like our music when we started this band, that rootsy kind of early-'70s cosmic Americana," Triance said. "But our time just might come around."

[The Perineum Falcon]

So, in snooping around, I found these on the I'm Not There Forum:






Props go to Cate!

[Pubrick]

So, in snooping around, I found these on the I'm Not There Forum:

great find. also there is a short behind the scenes clip sneakily taken by some dude on his camera phone.

[Mikey B]

This Will Be The Best Movie Ever!

[MacGuffin]

http://www.justpressplay.net/movies/im-not-there/news/first-poster-for-im-not-there.html

[The Perineum Falcon]

So this is now about Buddy Holly, Lyle Lovett, Bob Dylan and Hank Williams, Jr?

[Pubrick]

i thought it was about morgan freeman, the fly, the fonz, and the bonz.

[Just Withnail]

[Pubrick]

if the timecode is anything to go by, that could be towards the end. so retroactive spoiler warning to anyone who doesn't want to see the end of the movie.

[bonanzataz]

timecodes are weird though. sometimes the count begins at 1 hour and then goes up. so it's either 2 hours into the movie or 1 hour in.

cate blanchett really channels his weird, kinetic, teenage boy energy. i have no doubt she'll be fantastic, but  (especially after just having watched safe for the thousandth time) i still worry that todd haynes could have been doing better things with his time. i know it's only a clip, but it just looks like any other biopic only with a clever gimmick attached to it. i know this movie will be good, it's just that biopics are so boring to me.

on the other hand, the man has made a career of taking cliched genres and making something completely original out of them, so you never know (even though i think that safe, his most original film that is least reliant on outside materials, is his best).