The Scoop: January 2008

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Sundance Office Space

My two offices during the Festival. I walked the snowy path to Headquarters every morning and walked down Main Street almost every night for panels, screenings, Institute events and conferences.

Here are a bunch of pics from Sundance 2008. It was great to be back and see old friends and meet the new crop of up and coming filmmakers. Most of these are pics of me at work...on the press line or at one of million events. Highlights included: seeing Bono and the rest of U2 introduce their U23D film (I worked until about 2 am in the morning that night collecting people's 3D glasses); meeting Nash Edgerton, director of SPIDER. Seriously, find this short film on Youtube or iTunes and watch it. It was my favorite film at the Festival and I semi-stalked him to talk about it; William H. Macy's role as mc at the Awards Ceremony (He and Felicity Huffman are SO CUTE); Partying with the cast from CAPTAIN ABU RAEB, which won the audience award for Best World Dramatic Film. They rented a big house in Deer Valley and had "joke" mustaches and hats and played Lionel Richie all night. So fun.; Hearing the Slingshot Hip Hop Palestinian rappers at the World Party.; Going to the DONKEY PUNCH after-party. These kids flew over from London. They're all theatre actors and were SO CUTE and excited to be at their first Festival; Seeing Wes Bently on THE LAST WORD press line...dreamy; Seeing Alex Rivera (director of SLEEP DEALER) win the Alfred P. Sloan award - he was so surprised and sweet. I hope this film gets made. Ah...I miss it already...

Utah Screenwriters Lab

So I was fortunate enough to spend the first few days of my Sundance trip at out Screenwriters Lab at the Resort. Attached are some pics of the Fellows (from everywhere -Brazil, China, Israel, etc.) There were some amazing people - One of the fellows, Alicia Erian, wrote the novel Towelhead, which was turned into a movie that played at the Festival this year and one of the fellows was blind and writing a script about losing his sight. I also got to see Thomas Vinterberg's THE CELEBRATION for the first time (with Q&A after the film by the hunky and talented Mr. Vinterberg himself.) Nights were spent at the cozy Owl Bar. Days were spent at the Resort interacting with Fellows and accompanying a journalist writing a piece on the Lab. One day I found myself next to Jason Reitman (director of JUNO) in the lunch line. What a nice and talented guy - he agreed to do a press conference for us at the Festival on the spot.

Attached are some pics of the Fellows, of Mike, Bird and Owl at the Owl Bar, with Erin outside our "office" at the Resort and general Resort atmosphere.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Did Orlando Bloom Come to Your Christmas Party?

So we had the Sundance Christmas Party in January to stretch that ol' nonprofit dollar. But one of the benefits of living in LA is having Orlando Bloom show up at your Holiday Party. To quote Sundance staffer, Matt Anderson on the party -- "The party was held at Bar Lubitsch, which has taken the authentic dinginess of the former Parlour Club and transformed it into a more updated, trendy, Russia-via-Disney Epcot Center dinginess. The antique chandeliers were dim, the walls were red, the drinks were strong, and many agreed that the manager was bringin' sexy back. An A-list teen heartthrob from such cinematic masterpieces as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Elizabethtown and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise made a guest appearance at the end of the night. He was overheard saying, "Is it too late to get a pass or tickets? Could you help me find lodging?" Okay, not really, but Orlando Bloom really was there. He seemed strangely indifferent to the fact that he had stumbled in to the hottest party in town, but his English accent was as soft and lovely as a newborn’s cheek."

All I Want for Christmas is...Botox?

A few tips for the boys:
Botox Gift Certificates for Christmas presents = Bad
Pretty much anything else = Good

A few tips for the girls:
Never joke about gifts that aren't pretty and shiny.

Welcome to LA, folks!