The Celebrity Life & Blog of DM
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Mike and Dave are not the only ones in trouble with the law at Park City, Utah...
David LaChapelle, a filmmaker and not the black dude from the show on Comedy Central - was arrested for "disturbing the peace" late saturday night (I actually heard this ruckus from our house as it happened). This occurs each year where a b-level celebrity gets arrested hoping for better PR coverage. LaChapelle's documentary "Rize" is about gangs dressing up as clowns in LA (sorry, someone had already done one about KKK members dressing up as snowmen I think) needed some press and WA-LA! The next day, Tom Ortenberg VP at Lions Gate said: "We were dazzled by its beauty and energy and look forward to introducing Rize to audiences around the world" (not to mention Dave's drunken PR skills) so they bought it for reportedly $1.2mil. ANOTHER gang type flick - "Hustle and Flow", Craig Brewer's flick sold for over $16mil. And they say you can't make any money on Independent film... ok, gotta run and get arrested. My publicist is waiting. :D
"Place the script on the ground and step away sir!"
David LaChapelle, a filmmaker and not the black dude from the show on Comedy Central - was arrested for "disturbing the peace" late saturday night (I actually heard this ruckus from our house as it happened). This occurs each year where a b-level celebrity gets arrested hoping for better PR coverage. LaChapelle's documentary "Rize" is about gangs dressing up as clowns in LA (sorry, someone had already done one about KKK members dressing up as snowmen I think) needed some press and WA-LA! The next day, Tom Ortenberg VP at Lions Gate said: "We were dazzled by its beauty and energy and look forward to introducing Rize to audiences around the world" (not to mention Dave's drunken PR skills) so they bought it for reportedly $1.2mil. ANOTHER gang type flick - "Hustle and Flow", Craig Brewer's flick sold for over $16mil. And they say you can't make any money on Independent film... ok, gotta run and get arrested. My publicist is waiting. :D
"Place the script on the ground and step away sir!"
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Six Degrees Fahrenheit and Kevin Bacon
Ok... who's idea was it for Sundance to take place at 8,300 ft above sea level in deep winter?? Other than the intense freezing climate, the past few days have been entertaining, educational and downright fun. Even though the city of Park City (which is really waay too small to be a 'city') shut down our rock climbing wall, we had a good time. A few dozen people got to scale the wall - one dude even made it in 7 seconds! Some of the festival highlights were interviewing celebs for StarStruck like Kevin Bacon, Kevin Costner, Tilda Swinton, Keanu Reeves, Benjamin Bratt, Erika Christensen, David Schwimmer AND Kerri Russell (who I asked to go snow boarding with and who's parents live in Dallas) :D
A friend of ours (and many in the world) Toby O'Brien called to alert me that my outgoing voice mail message saying "I'm in Sundance.." should have been recorded as "I'm AT Sundance..." well.. thanks for reminding me we didn't actually get INto Sundance Toby! More Sundance Dirt to come tomorrow....
Kevin hits Sundance with his 2nd film - "Loverboy" starring his wife Kyra Sedgwick and not his wife Matt Dillon...
Ok... who's idea was it for Sundance to take place at 8,300 ft above sea level in deep winter?? Other than the intense freezing climate, the past few days have been entertaining, educational and downright fun. Even though the city of Park City (which is really waay too small to be a 'city') shut down our rock climbing wall, we had a good time. A few dozen people got to scale the wall - one dude even made it in 7 seconds! Some of the festival highlights were interviewing celebs for StarStruck like Kevin Bacon, Kevin Costner, Tilda Swinton, Keanu Reeves, Benjamin Bratt, Erika Christensen, David Schwimmer AND Kerri Russell (who I asked to go snow boarding with and who's parents live in Dallas) :D
A friend of ours (and many in the world) Toby O'Brien called to alert me that my outgoing voice mail message saying "I'm in Sundance.." should have been recorded as "I'm AT Sundance..." well.. thanks for reminding me we didn't actually get INto Sundance Toby! More Sundance Dirt to come tomorrow....
Kevin hits Sundance with his 2nd film - "Loverboy" starring his wife Kyra Sedgwick and not his wife Matt Dillon...
Monday, January 17, 2005
Sundance = Lotto Texas?
Here it is monday and (for a monday morning) I'm totally excited about the week and the upcoming Sundance Film Festival! :-D Hey! We even 'unofficially' have a screening with Mike's Appalachain Trail documentary monday the 24th in Park City! Then I read this NYT article... "The Sundance Odds Get Even Longer" with some sobering stats for us filmmakers...
* 2,613 feature films - up 29 percent were submitted to Sundance this year
* 120 films - fewer than 5% - were selected for screening
* 10 of these movies, or 0.3% of all submissions, will be picked up for distribution within the United States
ok, which reminds me of why we decided to ambush the festival in the 1st place. With technology so accessible and so 'inexpensive', look for more competition from the industry. The good news? I think content will only get better for audiences as they have more choices and more ways to access their entertainment. Let the revolution begin (or continue as it appears).
"Ticket holders in line "A"! Distributors go to line "B"! Filmmakers please form a line in the back parking lot!..."
Here it is monday and (for a monday morning) I'm totally excited about the week and the upcoming Sundance Film Festival! :-D Hey! We even 'unofficially' have a screening with Mike's Appalachain Trail documentary monday the 24th in Park City! Then I read this NYT article... "The Sundance Odds Get Even Longer" with some sobering stats for us filmmakers...
* 2,613 feature films - up 29 percent were submitted to Sundance this year
* 120 films - fewer than 5% - were selected for screening
* 10 of these movies, or 0.3% of all submissions, will be picked up for distribution within the United States
ok, which reminds me of why we decided to ambush the festival in the 1st place. With technology so accessible and so 'inexpensive', look for more competition from the industry. The good news? I think content will only get better for audiences as they have more choices and more ways to access their entertainment. Let the revolution begin (or continue as it appears).
"Ticket holders in line "A"! Distributors go to line "B"! Filmmakers please form a line in the back parking lot!..."
Monday, January 03, 2005
I already messed up the date on a check...
Sorry Citibank. I'll write you another one. I guess I'm still feeling jet-lag from the holiday trip to Italy. BTW: that country is awesome at Christmas. Even with crappy weather (thunderstorms, high winds, rain, etc.) but we had a blast. The best way to do Italy is by car. We rented a 4-door Smart car this time - not bad and you can gas it up each time you do an oil change. We stayed outside of Pisa at this 200 year old farm on the top of a hill near San Miniato. The place was gothic and beautiful with a "one person" staff. She was delightful at first but before we left, she turned into a witch - scolding me for asking for toliet paper and denying us towels, refusing our "bad credit" AMEX card (which we used effortlessly everywhere else in Italy) and demanding we leave the property promptly. Ok, she must have seen my Bush sticker on my luggage or something. So unless you're into humliation and bad service, stay away from Casa Vacanze Bucciano. The rest of the trip rocked... my favorite small town in Tuscany is San Gimignano. It (like every place in Italy) resides on the top of a hill. Founded in 200 BC - that's 2,200 years ago - (and you thought that 150 year old cabin in downtown Dallas was old), it's the most romantic and quaint place to hang and drink Chianti. Next was Rome. We dropped off the Car at the airport and took the Leonardo train into the city where we stayed at the Grand St. Regis Hotel. A tour of the place, the small vineyard - along with the wine cellar that dated back to the Roman Baths (120 A.D.) and I wanted to stay. Oh well, three flights later (Rome, Zurich, Montreal to Dallas) and we're back home. Happy New Year! :-D
... "Cool! Now is that a car or a cell phone?"
Sorry Citibank. I'll write you another one. I guess I'm still feeling jet-lag from the holiday trip to Italy. BTW: that country is awesome at Christmas. Even with crappy weather (thunderstorms, high winds, rain, etc.) but we had a blast. The best way to do Italy is by car. We rented a 4-door Smart car this time - not bad and you can gas it up each time you do an oil change. We stayed outside of Pisa at this 200 year old farm on the top of a hill near San Miniato. The place was gothic and beautiful with a "one person" staff. She was delightful at first but before we left, she turned into a witch - scolding me for asking for toliet paper and denying us towels, refusing our "bad credit" AMEX card (which we used effortlessly everywhere else in Italy) and demanding we leave the property promptly. Ok, she must have seen my Bush sticker on my luggage or something. So unless you're into humliation and bad service, stay away from Casa Vacanze Bucciano. The rest of the trip rocked... my favorite small town in Tuscany is San Gimignano. It (like every place in Italy) resides on the top of a hill. Founded in 200 BC - that's 2,200 years ago - (and you thought that 150 year old cabin in downtown Dallas was old), it's the most romantic and quaint place to hang and drink Chianti. Next was Rome. We dropped off the Car at the airport and took the Leonardo train into the city where we stayed at the Grand St. Regis Hotel. A tour of the place, the small vineyard - along with the wine cellar that dated back to the Roman Baths (120 A.D.) and I wanted to stay. Oh well, three flights later (Rome, Zurich, Montreal to Dallas) and we're back home. Happy New Year! :-D
... "Cool! Now is that a car or a cell phone?"
