Acclaimed UK director Alan Parker, a towering figure in the UK industry, passed away this morning following a lengthy illness, the British Film Institute has confirmed.
Two-time Oscar nominee Parker was best known for directing classic films including Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning and The Commitments, as well as big-budget Madonna movie Evita.
Parker was a passionate supporter of the UK film industry and a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain. He was the founding Chairman of the UK Film Council in 2000, a position he held for five years, and prior to that he was Chairman of the BFI. He received a Cbe in 1995 and a knighthood in 2002. He was also an Officier des Arts et Letters (France).
Parker was born in Islington, London, February 14, 1944. He began his career in advertising as a copywriter but quickly graduated to writing and directing commercials. By the late 1960s...
Two-time Oscar nominee Parker was best known for directing classic films including Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning and The Commitments, as well as big-budget Madonna movie Evita.
Parker was a passionate supporter of the UK film industry and a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain. He was the founding Chairman of the UK Film Council in 2000, a position he held for five years, and prior to that he was Chairman of the BFI. He received a Cbe in 1995 and a knighthood in 2002. He was also an Officier des Arts et Letters (France).
Parker was born in Islington, London, February 14, 1944. He began his career in advertising as a copywriter but quickly graduated to writing and directing commercials. By the late 1960s...
- 7/31/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The Relive Box, based on a short story in The New Yorker about a tech device that allows you to relive your past is being developed by Condé Nast Entertainment (Cne) is developing the feature film. Artist Daniel Arsham will make his feature directorial debut. Chai Hecht ("Unorthodox") is writing the screenplay based on the short story written by T.C. Boyle. Dawn Ostroff and Jeremy Steckler of Cne will produce. Hunter Ryan and David Ryan will produce and finance the film…...
- 12/11/2017
- Deadline
Conde Nast Entertainment is developing a feature film based on the New Yorker short story The Relive Box.
The sci-fi drama will be the directorial debut for visual artist Daniel Arsham, with writer Chai Hecht set to adapt.
The story, by novelist T.C. Boyle, is set in the not-too-distant future and follows one of the founders of America's largest tech company who has become addicted to a prototype of his newest product — a device that lets you relive your past. He is consumed by the mystery of how he became the man he is, but as his growing obsession threatens his relationship with his teenage daughter, he...
The sci-fi drama will be the directorial debut for visual artist Daniel Arsham, with writer Chai Hecht set to adapt.
The story, by novelist T.C. Boyle, is set in the not-too-distant future and follows one of the founders of America's largest tech company who has become addicted to a prototype of his newest product — a device that lets you relive your past. He is consumed by the mystery of how he became the man he is, but as his growing obsession threatens his relationship with his teenage daughter, he...
- 12/11/2017
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Are these new pilots from Amazon trash? Of course they are! Here’s a guide.Just Robb Stark over here, wearin’ shades in outer space
Crowds may not be able to fund things, but they can give opinions. Or, at the very least, that’s been the idea behind Amazon’s occasional Pilot Season, generating enthusiasm for their programming by giving ordinary folk like yourself the opportunity to watch pilots and say, gee, this blows and vote them a big n’ meaningful thumbs down. Last year, they took everything, so it might just be a load of promotional nonsense. But it might not.
So, what’s hip in this line of potential programing? Once canceled TV-hands like Steve Dildarian and Amy Sherman-Palladino return with their latest attempts to enthuse audience with binge-worthy hours of spectacle and movie men like James Ponsoldt and Kevin Macdonald try to get into this golden age of TV they’ve been hearing...
Crowds may not be able to fund things, but they can give opinions. Or, at the very least, that’s been the idea behind Amazon’s occasional Pilot Season, generating enthusiasm for their programming by giving ordinary folk like yourself the opportunity to watch pilots and say, gee, this blows and vote them a big n’ meaningful thumbs down. Last year, they took everything, so it might just be a load of promotional nonsense. But it might not.
So, what’s hip in this line of potential programing? Once canceled TV-hands like Steve Dildarian and Amy Sherman-Palladino return with their latest attempts to enthuse audience with binge-worthy hours of spectacle and movie men like James Ponsoldt and Kevin Macdonald try to get into this golden age of TV they’ve been hearing...
- 3/21/2017
- by Andrew Karpan
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Amazon released five new pilots on Friday, and it’s up to viewers to determine which ones get picked up. “The Legend of Master Legend,” “Budding Prospects,” “The New V.I.P.’s,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Oasis” make up the 2017 Amazon pilot season. Some are good, some are bad, but the power lies with all of us to determine which are worthy of a full season order. Read our reviews below to get a little insight into each offering, and watch the episodes for yourself right here.
“The Legend of Master Legend”
John Hawkes can’t catch a break. When he nabbed the lead in Charlie Kaufman’s FX pilot — Charlie Kaufman — it didn’t get picked up. He landed an Oscar nomination for “The Sessions,” but his follow-ups have meant diddly-squat comparatively. Sure, he stole a few scenes in “Lincoln” and got to take part in Amy Schumer’s amazing sketch,...
“The Legend of Master Legend”
John Hawkes can’t catch a break. When he nabbed the lead in Charlie Kaufman’s FX pilot — Charlie Kaufman — it didn’t get picked up. He landed an Oscar nomination for “The Sessions,” but his follow-ups have meant diddly-squat comparatively. Sure, he stole a few scenes in “Lincoln” and got to take part in Amy Schumer’s amazing sketch,...
- 3/17/2017
- by Ben Travers, Hanh Nguyen and Liz Shannon Miller
- Indiewire
Amazon is delivering some prime content (see what we did there?) for its spring season of pilots.
On March 17, the streaming service will launch its new pilot season, which will consist of two hourlong pilots and three half-hour pilots. Amazon claims that after watching the pilots, its customers can review them, which offers feedback on which series will become the next Amazon Original Series.
Read More: Amazon Pilot Reviews: ‘The Tick,’ Jillo Soloway’s ‘I Love Dick’ & ‘Jean-Claude Van Johnson,’ Ranked
Check out first-look photos and a rundown of each of the pilots below:
“Oasis”
Good-bye, Robb Stark. Hello, space chaplain! “Game of Thrones” star Richard Madden trades his winter furs for a clerical collar to play an English pastor who must leave his wife and become a missionary, based on the Michel Faber sci-fi novel “The Book of Strange New Things.” Instead of being sent to a new country though,...
On March 17, the streaming service will launch its new pilot season, which will consist of two hourlong pilots and three half-hour pilots. Amazon claims that after watching the pilots, its customers can review them, which offers feedback on which series will become the next Amazon Original Series.
Read More: Amazon Pilot Reviews: ‘The Tick,’ Jillo Soloway’s ‘I Love Dick’ & ‘Jean-Claude Van Johnson,’ Ranked
Check out first-look photos and a rundown of each of the pilots below:
“Oasis”
Good-bye, Robb Stark. Hello, space chaplain! “Game of Thrones” star Richard Madden trades his winter furs for a clerical collar to play an English pastor who must leave his wife and become a missionary, based on the Michel Faber sci-fi novel “The Book of Strange New Things.” Instead of being sent to a new country though,...
- 3/2/2017
- by Hanh Nguyen
- Indiewire
Jim Parsons plays a brilliant scientist trying to unlock the secrets of the universe on Warner Bros. TV’s hit CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory. Now as a producer, the Emmy-winning actor is tackling a drama series project about eight top scientists conducting a grand experiment involving the future of humanity. The project, titled The Terranauts, has been set up at the CW. It will be written by Zach Helm based on the novel by T.C. Boyle, which is being published today. The Te…...
- 10/25/2016
- Deadline TV
T.C. Boyle’s new novel, San Miguel — his fourteenth (to go with his nine short-story collections, with a tenth due out next year) — is now in bookstores. The subjects of Boyle’s imaginative novels often alternate between wild-eyed eccentrics or lowly outsiders and fictionalized takes on real historical figures (Alfred Kinsey, Frank Lloyd Wright). San Miguel is in the latter camp, and yet with a difference: Boyle says this is his first “realist” novel. Set atop a weather-battered rock pile that makes up the westernmost of the Channel Islands on California’s coast, San Miguel alternates between the diaries of two women — one from the 1880s, the other from the thirties — to tell how they dealt with life on the lonely spot. Vulture caught up with the prolific author at Chez Jay in Santa Monica, where Boyle opened up on topics as diverse as self-discipline, his daunting competitiveness, and why...
- 10/8/2012
- by Claude Brodesser-Akner
- Vulture
The Great American Cereal Book: How Breakfast got its Crunch
By Marty Gitlin and Topher Ellis
Abrams Image. Hardcover. 368 pages. $19.95
Come breakfast time, my kitchen cabinet holds a limited, and boring, offering of ready-to-eat cereals; just some Kellogg’s Raisin Bran and a box of Honey-Nut Cheerios. In my mid-fifties, breakfast cereal no longer holds any importance in my life. To tell the truth, if I’m going to have cereal, I would much rather sit down with a bowl of Quaker Oatmeal and leave the cold, crunchy stuff for when I’m feeling especially lazy.
But, as The Great American Cereal Book: How Breakfast Got Its Crunch reminds me, once upon a time, in that galaxy far, far away of childhood, breakfast cereal was important. Very important. The Golden Age of comic books, as someone once observed, is eleven years old. That is, whatever it is we’re exposed...
By Marty Gitlin and Topher Ellis
Abrams Image. Hardcover. 368 pages. $19.95
Come breakfast time, my kitchen cabinet holds a limited, and boring, offering of ready-to-eat cereals; just some Kellogg’s Raisin Bran and a box of Honey-Nut Cheerios. In my mid-fifties, breakfast cereal no longer holds any importance in my life. To tell the truth, if I’m going to have cereal, I would much rather sit down with a bowl of Quaker Oatmeal and leave the cold, crunchy stuff for when I’m feeling especially lazy.
But, as The Great American Cereal Book: How Breakfast Got Its Crunch reminds me, once upon a time, in that galaxy far, far away of childhood, breakfast cereal was important. Very important. The Golden Age of comic books, as someone once observed, is eleven years old. That is, whatever it is we’re exposed...
- 2/23/2012
- by Paul Kupperberg
- Comicmix.com
Tk Joshua Leonard
Based on a short story by author T.C. Boyle, “The Lie” follows Lonnie and Clover (Joshua Leonard and Jess Weixler), an idealistic thirty-something couple with a 6-month-old baby, lots of bills and jobs that make them question their life choices. Lonnie also has an abusive boss, and while being yelled at over the phone, Lonnie impulsively says something that he knows that he can’t escape from. The movie is written and directed by Leonard who is...
Based on a short story by author T.C. Boyle, “The Lie” follows Lonnie and Clover (Joshua Leonard and Jess Weixler), an idealistic thirty-something couple with a 6-month-old baby, lots of bills and jobs that make them question their life choices. Lonnie also has an abusive boss, and while being yelled at over the phone, Lonnie impulsively says something that he knows that he can’t escape from. The movie is written and directed by Leonard who is...
- 11/23/2011
- by Dennis Nishi
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Joshua Leonard should look familiar to you by now. Not only was he one of the gang that helped revolutionize no-budget filmmaking with The Blair Witch Project, but he’s also become a go-to character actor over the last few years, including his acclaimed turn in Lynn Shelton’s Humpday. This week, Leonard releases his first feature as a writer-director, a dark drama-comedy titled The Lie, also featuring Jess Weixler (Teeth) and Mark Webber (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), which Leonard stars in as Lonnie, an unsatisfied family man and would-be musician who tells his employers that his newborn daughter has died in order to get out of work. I spoke with Leonard over the phone about his career move, the process of making the film, and the industry as a whole.
This is your first time directing a feature. What was it about the short story that made you say,...
This is your first time directing a feature. What was it about the short story that made you say,...
- 11/17/2011
- by Simon Howell
- SoundOnSight
First-time director Joshua Leonard's The Lie stretches the truth of its source material -- an obsidian fragment from author T.C. Boyle, published by the New Yorker in 2008 -- until its every glint is polished to a self-affirming glow. There's a dark crackle to Boyle's first-person account of a young man compressed to the point of fracture by the drudgery of his work as a tape logger at a film production house and the shackling disappointment of his domestic lot: He has a law student wife and an infant at home. Unable to face another day at the digital mine, the young man's avoidant, off-white fibbing gives way to an inky whopper, and his sins soon yield a shopping bag full of money. If two decades of Coen brothers movies have taught us anything, it's this: As good as a gun, that thing's going to go off.
- 11/17/2011
- Movieline
Author T.C. Boyle has written evocatively about an extraordinary range of subjects, but the common thread is an interest in characters whose idealism proves incompatible with reality. Whether they’re hippies (Drop City), environmentalists (When The Killing’s Done), or historical figures like Alfred Kinsey (The Inner Circle) or John Harvey Kellogg (The Road To Wellville), they face compromises that may be necessary, or may corrupt their souls. Based on a Boyle short story—originally published in The New Yorker, then later in the anthology Wild Child And Other Stories—Joshua Leonard’s perceptive The Lie runs the theme ...
- 11/17/2011
- avclub.com
Lonnie's pretty young for a mid-life crisis but he's having one all the same. A still-shaggy recovering hippie somewhere in his thirties, Lonnie (Joshua Leonard) loves his wife Clover (Jess Weixler) and baby Xana and absolutely hates his job as a commercial editor. Already depressed, he's knocked for a loop when he learns Clover, who's just finishing law school, is about to accept a job at a pharmaceutical company, a decision that flies in the face of their family's progressive beliefs about public advocacy, holistic medicine and organic diapers. The next morning, Lonnie snaps. He plays hooky from work and has a blast smoking weed and recording music with his buddy Tank (Mark Webber). He has so much fun, in fact, he tries to skip out on work again the next day, but this time his boss won't hear it. Fumbling for an excuse, Lonnie blurts out maybe the worst...
- 11/16/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
At first glance, the likely choice for the directorial debut of uber-slacker-hipster actor Joshua Leonard (Humpday, The Blair Witch Project, Higher Ground) would not be an adaptation of a T. Coraghessan Boyle short story published in the New Yorker. And yet The Lie, Boyle's 2008 story, which serves as the basis for the feature film, opening November 18, seems to gel beautifully with the ethos and realms that Leonard has explored as a performer onscreen, especially with his breakout role in Humpday. In that Sundance sensation, Leonard played a wayward Gen-Xer who refuses to grow up; the film's conflict revolves around whether or not he will have sex with his best friend (played by Mark Duplass) in a demonstration of his manliness/hipness/et cetera. In The Lie, which garnered its financing amidst the buzz for Humpday, Leonard is in similar territory, albeit with decidedly higher stakes. Leonard plays Lonnie, a commercial...
- 11/15/2011
- TribecaFilm.com
The mumblecore community (Andrew Bujalski, Joe Swanberg, Lynn Shelton and co.) continue to branch out into the mainstream, with Bujalski's indie muse Greta Gerwig in big-budget pictures like Greenberg and Arthur. This one's not really an exception: The Lie, based on a darkly comedic novella by T.C. Boyle, follows a mildly depressed man approaching middle-age whose life was derailed when his girlfriend (awesome Jess Weixler) unexpetedly became pregnant. He supports his young family with a sh*tty job.
One day he calls out of work and, as an excuse in the face of his supervisor's anger, unthinkingly blurts out a terrible lie. (I won't spoil it, but it's in the trailer below.)
--
More: Ology Film News
Talk back! Want to connect with fellow Sundance Ologists? Join the discussion at My.Ology.
Follow Anna Breslaw on Twitter: @annaology...
One day he calls out of work and, as an excuse in the face of his supervisor's anger, unthinkingly blurts out a terrible lie. (I won't spoil it, but it's in the trailer below.)
--
More: Ology Film News
Talk back! Want to connect with fellow Sundance Ologists? Join the discussion at My.Ology.
Follow Anna Breslaw on Twitter: @annaology...
- 10/4/2011
- by Anna Breslaw
- Filmology
Second trailer for The Lie, starring Joshua Leonard, Jess Wexler and Mark Webber Joshua Leonard directs the drama as well as scripting alongside Mark Webber, Jess Weixler and Jeff Feuerzeig based on the short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle. The film opens on November 18th via Screen Media Films and tells of Lonnie and Clover who, when they first met, were young idealists, but an unplanned baby forced them to flip the script. Lonnie put his music on hold and got a shitty job. And now Clover is abandoning her activism for an "opportunity" in the corporate world. Drowning in disappointments, Lonnie decides he needs some time off work to reexamine his life. He calls in sick, but his abusive boss demands he show up or get fired...
- 9/26/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Second trailer for The Lie, starring Joshua Leonard, Jess Wexler and Mark Webber Joshua Leonard directs the drama as well as scripting alongside Mark Webber, Jess Weixler and Jeff Feuerzeig based on the short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle. The film opens on November 18th via Screen Media Films and tells of Lonnie and Clover who, when they first met, were young idealists, but an unplanned baby forced them to flip the script. Lonnie put his music on hold and got a shitty job. And now Clover is abandoning her activism for an "opportunity" in the corporate world. Drowning in disappointments, Lonnie decides he needs some time off work to reexamine his life. He calls in sick, but his abusive boss demands he show up or get fired...
- 9/26/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Poster and trailer for The Lie, starring Joshua Leonard, Jess Wexler and Mark Webber The Screen Media Films drama opens on November 18th and is helmed by Joshua Leonar, who scripts alongside Mark Webber, Jess Weixler and Jeff Feuerzeig based on the short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle. When they first met, Lonnie and Clover were young idealists, but an unplanned baby forced them to flip the script. Lonnie put his music on hold and got a shitty job. And now Clover is abandoning her activism for an "opportunity" in the corporate world. Drowning in disappointments, Lonnie decides he needs some time off work to reexamine his life. He calls in sick, but his abusive boss demands he show up or get fired. Lonnie panics and tells a shocking lie...
- 9/21/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Poster and trailer for The Lie, starring Joshua Leonard, Jess Wexler and Mark Webber The Screen Media Films drama opens on November 18th and is helmed by Joshua Leonar, who scripts alongside Mark Webber, Jess Weixler and Jeff Feuerzeig based on the short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle. When they first met, Lonnie and Clover were young idealists, but an unplanned baby forced them to flip the script. Lonnie put his music on hold and got a shitty job. And now Clover is abandoning her activism for an "opportunity" in the corporate world. Drowning in disappointments, Lonnie decides he needs some time off work to reexamine his life. He calls in sick, but his abusive boss demands he show up or get fired. Lonnie panics and tells a shocking lie...
- 9/21/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
After writing about the poster earlier today, we now have a trailer for Joshua Leonard‘s The Lie. The Blair Witch actor also wrote and starred in this drama, which premiered at Sundance this year to generally positive reviews and an acquisition from Screen Media Films. This is actually the first trailer for the picture, and it also seems to be our first look at any kind of footage. So, if you were anticipating this — I guess today is your lucky day.
Based off the preview, it would appear that this is a movie that really wears its indie sleeve rights on its shoulder, from the style of directing to the cinematography, and even the way characters dress. Thankfully, however, the driving force behind the story seems like it leaves plenty of room for interesting conflicts and character development; if that’s actually the case, this could override those aforementioned issues I have.
Based off the preview, it would appear that this is a movie that really wears its indie sleeve rights on its shoulder, from the style of directing to the cinematography, and even the way characters dress. Thankfully, however, the driving force behind the story seems like it leaves plenty of room for interesting conflicts and character development; if that’s actually the case, this could override those aforementioned issues I have.
- 9/20/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
This year’s Sundance Film Festival will likely go down in history as “the one with all the cult films,” meaning literal cult films, like films about cults, not box office flops that later gain traction with college kids who are into dress-up. But in between the more buzzed-about titles like Martha Marcy May Marlene and Sound of My Voice, Sundance 2011 also provided a proving ground for films focused on the intricacies of intimacy – namely, how honesty (and the lack of it) between partners can make or break a relationship. Miranda July’s The Future did it with a twee sweetness, and Joshua Leonard’s The Lie did it with a much darker bitterness. And that doesn’t quite explain the first poster for the film (which Leonard also directed from a T.C. Boyle story and some material from Jeff Feuerzeig that Leonard, Jess Weixler, and Mark Webber cobbled into their own screenplay), which makes the film...
- 9/19/2011
- by Kate Erbland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Having already premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, we now have the exclusive poster to "The Lie," directed, written and starring Joshua Leonard of "Humpday" and "The Blair Witch Project" fame. Co-starring Jess Weixler ("Teeth"), Mark Webber ("Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"), Alia Shawkat ("Arrested Development"), Jane Adams ("Happiness"), Kelli Garner ("Thumbsucker," "Pan Am") and an appearance by Gerry Bednob ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin"), "The Lie" is based on a T.C. Boyle short story that first appeared in the New Yorker and centers on a man (Leonard) whose life inadvertently changes when he tells a lie to get…...
- 9/19/2011
- The Playlist
Hi, gang! I don’t know about you, but this has felt like an especially long break to me, and I can’t wait for Stephen to return to the airwaves tomorrow night. In the meantime, if you’re a fan of Stephen’s readings of other people’s literary works, there are two recordings newly available to purchase.
Symphony Space now has available a 3-cd set called Even More Laughs, which features selections from recent seasons of the popular public radio series Selected Shorts. One of the selections is Stephen reading T. Coraghessan Boyle’s The Lie, “about a guy who gets deeper and deeper into a tangled web of deceit — and hilarity.” It’s available both as a CD and a downloadable MP3. For more information, you can check out the press release for details.
If you remember Stephen’s participation in the 50th anniversary celebration for To Kill a Mockingbird last year,...
Symphony Space now has available a 3-cd set called Even More Laughs, which features selections from recent seasons of the popular public radio series Selected Shorts. One of the selections is Stephen reading T. Coraghessan Boyle’s The Lie, “about a guy who gets deeper and deeper into a tangled web of deceit — and hilarity.” It’s available both as a CD and a downloadable MP3. For more information, you can check out the press release for details.
If you remember Stephen’s participation in the 50th anniversary celebration for To Kill a Mockingbird last year,...
- 3/21/2011
- by Ann G
- No Fact Zone
Bill Maher's chat salon is fired up for Friday, as HBO hosts "Real Time with Bill Maher" and has a great panel lined up for the night. The series continues its ninth season Friday, March 4 (10:00-11:00 p.m. live Et/tape-delayed Pt), on HBO, with an instant replay at 11:00 p.m. following the live presentation. This format allows Maher to offer his unique perspective on contemporary issues, the show includes an opening monologue, roundtable discussions with panelists, and interviews with in-studio and satellite guests. The guests this week are Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, Cal. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and political activist Gloria Steinem. Author T.C. Boyle is an interview guest. Klein cover politics and recently penned...
- 3/3/2011
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Jamieson Fry Tc Boyle
“Eagles Arrive as Pigs are Killed.” The headline intrigued novelist T.C. Boyle so much that he kept the article from a local California paper for some seven years, stuck to his refrigerator. It became part of his vast file on the Channel Islands, the wild, ecologically diverse archipelago off the coast of Southern California.
The islands serve as the backdrop for his 13th novel, “When the Killing’s Done.” The plot, which careens from the 1800s to contemporary times,...
“Eagles Arrive as Pigs are Killed.” The headline intrigued novelist T.C. Boyle so much that he kept the article from a local California paper for some seven years, stuck to his refrigerator. It became part of his vast file on the Channel Islands, the wild, ecologically diverse archipelago off the coast of Southern California.
The islands serve as the backdrop for his 13th novel, “When the Killing’s Done.” The plot, which careens from the 1800s to contemporary times,...
- 2/25/2011
- by Alexandra Alter
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
T.C. Boyle’s novels persistently measure the distance between idealists’ visions and how far human nature keeps them from the mark. As such, his work is steeped in irony and hypocrisy, from John Harvey Kellogg’s quest for clean living through breakfast cereal (among other remedies) in Boyle’s 1993 breakthrough The Road To Wellville to California hippies bringing their communal naïveté to Alaska in 2003’s superb Drop City. So it follows that his unsparing assessment of human nature would bleed into the savagery of actual nature in When The Killing’s Done, a sprawling account of ...
- 2/17/2011
- avclub.com
Rating: 3.5/5
Writers: T. Coraghessan Boyle (short story), Jeff Feuerzeig (additional material), Joshua Leonard, Mark Webber, and Jess Weixler (screenplay)
Director: Joshua Leonard
Cast: Joshua Leonard, Mark Webber, Jess Weixler
Based on T.C. Boyle’s short story of the same name, The Lie sees Joshua Leonard using his directorial feature film debut to craft a film that’s a funnier and richer take on some already outstanding source material. A veteran actor of the indie scene (The Blair Witch Project, Humpday, and another Sundance pick from this year, Higher Ground), Leonard also helped script the film (along with co-stars Jess Weixler and Mark Webber) the film in which he also stars.
Read more on Sundance 2011 Review: The Lie…...
Writers: T. Coraghessan Boyle (short story), Jeff Feuerzeig (additional material), Joshua Leonard, Mark Webber, and Jess Weixler (screenplay)
Director: Joshua Leonard
Cast: Joshua Leonard, Mark Webber, Jess Weixler
Based on T.C. Boyle’s short story of the same name, The Lie sees Joshua Leonard using his directorial feature film debut to craft a film that’s a funnier and richer take on some already outstanding source material. A veteran actor of the indie scene (The Blair Witch Project, Humpday, and another Sundance pick from this year, Higher Ground), Leonard also helped script the film (along with co-stars Jess Weixler and Mark Webber) the film in which he also stars.
Read more on Sundance 2011 Review: The Lie…...
- 1/29/2011
- by Kate Erbland
- GordonandtheWhale
Calling into work and lying about your grandmother, or your uncle, or a cousin passing away is a rite of passage for everyone who has ever sat in a cubicle, a free pass to get out of a couple of days work. Most employers, or at least the ones who have got a clue, even understand that it's as likely a lie as not, and in most cases, won't bother to follow up. It's kind of a white lie. But what if that lie were bigger? What if, instead of saying your grandfather died, you told your boss that your girlfried or wife died? Or your six-month-old daugther? That'd make you some kind of asshole.
That's the untruth that drives the narrative in Joshua Leonard's The Lie, a modest dramedy that -- like some other mumblecore flicks -- takes an extraordinary premise and follows it organically to its natural conclusion.
That's the untruth that drives the narrative in Joshua Leonard's The Lie, a modest dramedy that -- like some other mumblecore flicks -- takes an extraordinary premise and follows it organically to its natural conclusion.
- 1/28/2011
- by Dustin Rowles
To grow up or not to grow up? Three days into Sundance, three very different films have asked this same question.
Bellflower, The Future and The Lie are all, nominally, about the same thing: white people in Los Angeles, unsure of their relationship, trying to reconcile their adulthood with their self-image. Surely these topics – who am I? who should I be with? — are not new to cinema, but their prevalence in the films here at Sundance and in recent American indies can sometimes overwhelm. Last year’s The Freebie, for instance, followed a Los Angeles couple on a journey to self-discovery through infidelity. Happythankyoumoreplease was set in New York (though made by an La-based actor/director) and chronicled a group of twenty or thirty-somethings trying to love themselves enough to grow up. There are dozens more which cover this same territory, not to mention the oeuvre of Judd Apatow and...
Bellflower, The Future and The Lie are all, nominally, about the same thing: white people in Los Angeles, unsure of their relationship, trying to reconcile their adulthood with their self-image. Surely these topics – who am I? who should I be with? — are not new to cinema, but their prevalence in the films here at Sundance and in recent American indies can sometimes overwhelm. Last year’s The Freebie, for instance, followed a Los Angeles couple on a journey to self-discovery through infidelity. Happythankyoumoreplease was set in New York (though made by an La-based actor/director) and chronicled a group of twenty or thirty-somethings trying to love themselves enough to grow up. There are dozens more which cover this same territory, not to mention the oeuvre of Judd Apatow and...
- 1/24/2011
- by Alicia Van Couvering
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
When you hear a quick description of what The Lie is about, you’re going to think you don’t want to see this movie.
Ready? Okay. *deep breath* – (and spoiler alert) … It’s about a guy who skips out of work by claiming his baby has died.
Wait, wait … Hang on, just for a moment. Keep reading, because this ultra-low-budget dark-comedy also may be one of the upcoming Sundance Film Festival’s most touching family dramas.
Josh Leonard (Humpday, The Blair Witch Project), who wrote the screenplay, directed and stars in The Lie, actually plays the dissembling man as a very good,...
Ready? Okay. *deep breath* – (and spoiler alert) … It’s about a guy who skips out of work by claiming his baby has died.
Wait, wait … Hang on, just for a moment. Keep reading, because this ultra-low-budget dark-comedy also may be one of the upcoming Sundance Film Festival’s most touching family dramas.
Josh Leonard (Humpday, The Blair Witch Project), who wrote the screenplay, directed and stars in The Lie, actually plays the dissembling man as a very good,...
- 1/10/2011
- by Anthony Breznican
- EW - Inside Movies
Last year, to much hype about the future of film festivals bringing films into people’s homes over the Internet, the Sundance Film Festival launched Next, a curated series of 8 “innovative” and “low-budget” films that also played on YouTube — for a price — for the duration of the fest.
As an innovative program, Next proved to be largely disappointing — to the indie film industry anyway, not to the filmmakers themselves. Getting into Sundance is a cachet for any filmmaker in and of itself, so that was bonus for these films. However, during the fest at the time, many film bloggers and writers complained that the Next films were impossible to find on YouTube. Plus, the entire program didn’t end up turning the industry or the current film festival paradigm on its ear, and financially it sounded like it was all a big bust.
But, Next, or as the festival also...
As an innovative program, Next proved to be largely disappointing — to the indie film industry anyway, not to the filmmakers themselves. Getting into Sundance is a cachet for any filmmaker in and of itself, so that was bonus for these films. However, during the fest at the time, many film bloggers and writers complained that the Next films were impossible to find on YouTube. Plus, the entire program didn’t end up turning the industry or the current film festival paradigm on its ear, and financially it sounded like it was all a big bust.
But, Next, or as the festival also...
- 12/4/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
After announcing the 58 films in four categories that would be eligible for awards at Sundance, the film fest has now announced the next 57 movies to be screened this coming January. These 57 films are of course out of competition and will be included in Premieres, Next, Spotlight, New Frontiers and Midnight categories. Most are big name projects from already established filmmakers and some have already made their way around film festival in 2010. The list includes Kevin Smith’s Red State, Tom McCarthy’s Win Win, Morgan Spurlock’s documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Submarine, I Saw the Devil (which had plenty of buzz at Tiff) and my most anticipated film of 2011, Hobo With a Shotgun.
Here is the full list:
Premieres
To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, the Sundance Film Festival Premieres section offers the latest work from American and international directors as well as world premieres of highly anticipated films.
Here is the full list:
Premieres
To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, the Sundance Film Festival Premieres section offers the latest work from American and international directors as well as world premieres of highly anticipated films.
- 12/3/2010
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Festival Adds New Native Showcase
As Previously Announced, Slacker to Screen From the Collection
Park City, Ut – Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival out-of-competition sections Next (<=>), Spotlight, New Frontier, Park City at Midnight, as well as a new Native Showcase. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/.
Trevor Groth, Director of Programming said, “The Sundance Film Festival is uniquely a festival of discovery and we are once again privileged to showcase the work of talented new artists, including a special section devoted to Native filmmakers. But it’s also exciting to see returning directors honing their skills and emerging with dazzling new films. And the Next section highlights visionary work that shows aesthetic creativity is not limited by budget.
As Previously Announced, Slacker to Screen From the Collection
Park City, Ut – Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival out-of-competition sections Next (<=>), Spotlight, New Frontier, Park City at Midnight, as well as a new Native Showcase. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/.
Trevor Groth, Director of Programming said, “The Sundance Film Festival is uniquely a festival of discovery and we are once again privileged to showcase the work of talented new artists, including a special section devoted to Native filmmakers. But it’s also exciting to see returning directors honing their skills and emerging with dazzling new films. And the Next section highlights visionary work that shows aesthetic creativity is not limited by budget.
- 12/3/2010
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Yes, you read that right, they are out of competition but into lesbians courtesy of the midnight lineup.
What do we have to look forward to waiting two years for? Let's see..
Hobo With a Shotgun
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (you had me at lesbian)
Attenberg (I'm loving the coming Greek weird wave)
And many many more films, some of which we'll probably never get to see. Damn.
Full list after the break.
Next ()
Eight American films selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking. Each is a world premiere.
Bellflower / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Evan Glodell) - A ballad for every person who has ever loved and lost - with enough violence, weapons, action and sex to tell a love story with apocalyptic stakes. Cast: Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah Brandes.
The Lie / U.S.A. (Director: Joshua Leonard; Screenwriters: Jeff Feuerzeig,...
What do we have to look forward to waiting two years for? Let's see..
Hobo With a Shotgun
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (you had me at lesbian)
Attenberg (I'm loving the coming Greek weird wave)
And many many more films, some of which we'll probably never get to see. Damn.
Full list after the break.
Next ()
Eight American films selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking. Each is a world premiere.
Bellflower / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Evan Glodell) - A ballad for every person who has ever loved and lost - with enough violence, weapons, action and sex to tell a love story with apocalyptic stakes. Cast: Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah Brandes.
The Lie / U.S.A. (Director: Joshua Leonard; Screenwriters: Jeff Feuerzeig,...
- 12/2/2010
- QuietEarth.us
Following yesterday's announcement of the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions, the Sundance Film Festival has unveiled the second part of their lineup, which includes the more starry-eyed Premieres section, the best-of-fests Spotlight section, the sure-to-be-culty Park City at Midnight section, the low-budget Next section, and the more experimental New Frontier section (an extension of New Frontier Program, the collection of video art installations which has already been noted here for playing James Franco's dramatic multimedia examination of "Three's Company.")
In addition to the return of filmmakers like "Chuck & Buck"'s Miguel Arteta, "Clockwatchers" director Jill Sprecher, Kevin Smith and "The Station Agent"'s Thomas McCarthy to Park City, the festival will also welcome less frequent or first-time Sundance attendees such as Hollywood types Al Pacino ("Son of No One") and Tobey Maguire ("The Details") and mumblecore alums Joe Swanberg ("Uncle Kent," which announced it's been...
In addition to the return of filmmakers like "Chuck & Buck"'s Miguel Arteta, "Clockwatchers" director Jill Sprecher, Kevin Smith and "The Station Agent"'s Thomas McCarthy to Park City, the festival will also welcome less frequent or first-time Sundance attendees such as Hollywood types Al Pacino ("Son of No One") and Tobey Maguire ("The Details") and mumblecore alums Joe Swanberg ("Uncle Kent," which announced it's been...
- 12/2/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Now in it's second year, Sundance's Next section which helps put the spotlight on low and no-budget films is stacked with familiar names and faces and of the eight we predicted Andrew Dosunmu's Restless City and Joshua Leonard's The Lie. Here are the list of eight world premieres. Bellflower /U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Evan Glodell) A ballad for every person who has ever loved and lost – with enough violence, weapons, action and sex to tell a love story with apocalyptic stakes. Cast: Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah Brandes. The Lie /U.S.A. (Director: Joshua Leonard; Screenwriters: Jeff Feuerzeig, Joshua Leonard, Mark Webber and Jess Weixler, based on the short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle) A man overwhelmed and disappointed with life tells a lie to avoid going to work… what could possibly go wrong? Cast: Joshua Leonard, Jess Weixler, Mark Webber, Alia Shawkat,...
- 12/2/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Park City, Ut — Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival out-of-competition sections Next, Spotlight, New Frontier, Park City at Midnight, as well as a new Native Showcase. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. Trevor Groth, Director of Programming said, “The Sundance Film Festival is uniquely a festival of discovery and we are once again privileged to showcase the work of talented new artists, including a special section devoted to Native filmmakers. But it’s also exciting to see returning directors honing their skills and emerging with dazzling new films. And the Next section highlights visionary work that shows aesthetic creativity is not limited by budget. All of this speaks to the vibrancy of independent film.” Next Eight American films selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking.
- 12/2/2010
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
The Sundance Film Festival announced the in competition film line-up for the film festival running January 20th through January 30th 2011 in Park City, Utah.
Today the festival has announced the line-up for the non-competition films and there is one hell of a line-up! There are a ton of great films that will be premiering at the festival, and if you're going you have a lot of great films to choose from!
Each film has an incredible cast and a great story. These films include Cedar Rapids, about a man traveling to an insurance conference, featuring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly and Sigourney Weaver; Kevin Smith's Red State, about a group of misfits encounter extreme fundamentalism in Middle America; The Details, about domestic tensions spawned by raccoons with Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney, Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert; I Melt With You, starring Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Christian McKay,...
Today the festival has announced the line-up for the non-competition films and there is one hell of a line-up! There are a ton of great films that will be premiering at the festival, and if you're going you have a lot of great films to choose from!
Each film has an incredible cast and a great story. These films include Cedar Rapids, about a man traveling to an insurance conference, featuring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly and Sigourney Weaver; Kevin Smith's Red State, about a group of misfits encounter extreme fundamentalism in Middle America; The Details, about domestic tensions spawned by raccoons with Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney, Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert; I Melt With You, starring Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Christian McKay,...
- 12/2/2010
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
Well, yesterday, we saw the full list of films in-competition; today, we get to see those titles that have been selected for Sundance 2011′s out-of-competition lineup.
And as I said with yesterday’s post, I’ll be going over the complete list, highlighting titles that need to be, taking into consideration this blog’s specific interests. The only title that immediately stands out is Brit John Akomfrah’s The Nine Muses, which MsWOO positively reviewed, after seeing it at the London Film Festival in October. Read her review Here.
But look for future posts profiling any other titles I deem worthy. I’ve applied for press credentials to attend next year’s festival. I won’t know until the 23rd of this month, whether I’ve been granted press access or not. If I am, I will attend the festival; and if I’m not, well, I probably won’t.
And as I said with yesterday’s post, I’ll be going over the complete list, highlighting titles that need to be, taking into consideration this blog’s specific interests. The only title that immediately stands out is Brit John Akomfrah’s The Nine Muses, which MsWOO positively reviewed, after seeing it at the London Film Festival in October. Read her review Here.
But look for future posts profiling any other titles I deem worthy. I’ve applied for press credentials to attend next year’s festival. I won’t know until the 23rd of this month, whether I’ve been granted press access or not. If I am, I will attend the festival; and if I’m not, well, I probably won’t.
- 12/2/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Well, if the Competition titles at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival don't generate any early year Oscar buzz, I think it's safe to say the Out of Competition titles will. Several films that have already been seen and positively reviewed can be found in the fest's Spotlight Line-Up along with a batch of anticipated hopefuls in the Premiere Section.
Beginning with the festival's premieres, Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt) is bringing Cedar Rapids to Park City where it will debut before it hits theaters only a couple weeks later on February 11. "Big Love" co-producers, Jill and Karen Sprecher are bringing an impressive cast for their crime drama The Convincer. Jacob Aaron Estes's The Details, which was shot only a few miles from my house in the Queen Anne district of Seattle, arrives with Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Tobey Maguire in tow.
Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies) will debut I Melt with You,...
Beginning with the festival's premieres, Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt) is bringing Cedar Rapids to Park City where it will debut before it hits theaters only a couple weeks later on February 11. "Big Love" co-producers, Jill and Karen Sprecher are bringing an impressive cast for their crime drama The Convincer. Jacob Aaron Estes's The Details, which was shot only a few miles from my house in the Queen Anne district of Seattle, arrives with Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Tobey Maguire in tow.
Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies) will debut I Melt with You,...
- 12/2/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Wednesday, the 2011 Sundance Film Festival announced the 58 films in four categories [1] that would be eligible for awards. Today, they've announced the next slice of their line up - 57 out of competition films in the Premieres, Next, Spotlight, New Frontiers and Midnight categories. This is generally where you get many of the bigger name projects and this year is no exception. We already knew [2] that Kevin Smith's Red State would be on the list, but there's also Tom McCarthy's new film Win Win, Morgan Spurlock's documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, the highly buzzed-about Submarine, Fantastic Fest darling I Saw the Devil as well as Hobo With a Shotgun and a whole bunch more including films with Al Pacino, Tobey Maguire, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Rudd and others. As we said yesterday, the announcement of the movies playing the 2011 Sundance Film Festival is like looking into our film futures.
- 12/2/2010
- by Germain Lussier
- Slash Film
Yesterday we revealed the in-competition line-up for this years Sundance Film Festival. Today the programmers have announced the second wave, the out-of-competition line-up. It includes six categories and you can check them all out below. We already knew Kevin Smith‘s Red State would be screening, as he announced on his podcast last night. The rest of this out-of-competition line-up is pretty unbelievable.
We get Cedar Rapids (from Youth In Revolt‘s Miguel Arteta), Mark Pellington‘s I Melt With You, My Idiot Brother starring Paul Rudd, Tom McCarthy‘s Win Win, as well as Dito Montiel‘s third feature The Son of No One. We also have new documentaries by Morgan Spurlock and Eugene Jarecki. Some of my favorite Tiff films are also making an appearance, including Submarine (pictured above) and Meek’s Cutoff. Check it out below.
Premieres
To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, the Sundance...
We get Cedar Rapids (from Youth In Revolt‘s Miguel Arteta), Mark Pellington‘s I Melt With You, My Idiot Brother starring Paul Rudd, Tom McCarthy‘s Win Win, as well as Dito Montiel‘s third feature The Son of No One. We also have new documentaries by Morgan Spurlock and Eugene Jarecki. Some of my favorite Tiff films are also making an appearance, including Submarine (pictured above) and Meek’s Cutoff. Check it out below.
Premieres
To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, the Sundance...
- 12/2/2010
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Tacoma - Who could imagine making a documentary about dolphins could lead to so much trouble. When director Louie Psihoyos exposed what the Japanese locals were doing to dolphins in Taiji, Japan in The Cove, he found himself a wanted man. This sea-side community celebrates their relationship with the dolphin. But there’s a darkside when they herd dolphins into a cove, sell the prized ones to aquariums for $150,000 each. The remaining dolphins are slaughtered and given to school kids as whale meat. He found himself wanted by the Japanese law for various charges including videotaping undercover police officers.
Certain folks have defended this slaughter as cultural dining. How dare Americans protest what the Japanese eat. The falsely labeled dolphin meat has toxic levels of mercury. Remember that this is the same Japan that will shut off imports of American agriculture and livestock with the rumor of something being amiss.
Certain folks have defended this slaughter as cultural dining. How dare Americans protest what the Japanese eat. The falsely labeled dolphin meat has toxic levels of mercury. Remember that this is the same Japan that will shut off imports of American agriculture and livestock with the rumor of something being amiss.
- 12/17/2009
- by UncaScroogeMcD
In this year's Humpday Joshua Leonard played the kind of character who reminds office drones of what they're missing, a 30-year-old vagabond living a life of travel and adventure and sex, rather than the monotonous but maybe more content life his old friend (played by Mark Duplass) has built for himself. But it seems Leonard will be slipping into the other role in The Lie, an indie he will direct based on T.C. Boyle's short story that ran in The New Yorker last year (you can read the full story online here). According to Variety Leonard adapted the story with Jess Weixler and Mark Webber, both of whom will star in the film as well. Jane Adams, Kelli Garner, P.J. Ransone, Gerry Bednob and Kirk Baltz will round out the cast as well. The original story is pretty slim on plot and characters, and presumably Leonard and company...
- 10/16/2009
- cinemablend.com
Joshua Leonard ("Humpday") is set to make his feature directorial debut and have a starring role in the adapting of T.C. Boyle's short story "The Lie." The indie film's screenplay was adapted by Leonard and his co-stars Jess Weixler (from the eerie "Teeth") as well as Mark Webber ("Broken Flowers") with additional story penned by Jeff Feuerzeig. The story ran in the New Yorker last year and tells of a man who tells a lie to get out of work and inadvertently changes his life.
- 10/16/2009
- Upcoming-Movies.com
The last time Joshua Leonard stepped behind the camera, it caused quite a stir. That, of course, was on The Blair Witch Project when he played one of the three ill-fated student filmmakers who tangled with the eponymous menace.A decade on, and Leonard is ready to go behind the camera again, this time for real, on the indie drama, The Lie.The movie is based on a short story, written by T.C. Boyle, that appeared in The New Yorker, about a man who changes his life when he lies in order to get out of work. Sounds a little like The Invention of Lying – let’s hope that Leonard’s film hits the mark that Ricky Gervais’ appalling comedy missed so spectacularly.Leonard, who finally buried the Blair Witch curse this year by starring in the acclaimed indie comedy, Humpday (and the HBO show, Hung), will also star in the movie,...
- 10/16/2009
- EmpireOnline
Vastly entertaining and well-nourished by a large and splendid cast, Alan Parker's ambitious screen adaptation of T. Coraghessan Boyle's 1993 novel "The Road to Wellville" puts the audience through a rigorous workout of Reform Era slapstick, sexual awakening, "biological living" and early 20th century confidence games. The film recently unspooled at the Tokyo Film Festival.
Fast-paced and beautifully mounted, Columbia Pictures' offbeat period comedy is one of the delights of the fall release schedule, but possesses no single element or combination of assets that will ensure runaway success at the boxoffice.
Too sexy and scatological for general acceptance and too literary for easy consumption by the date-night crowd, the marketing of "The Road to Wellville" will no-doubt concentrate on its stellar cast. Alas, ultimate success will come down the ancillary road.
With a billy-goat beard, buck teeth and an American accent and delivery reminiscent of John Huston, Anthony Hopkins plays corn flake inventor and dietary guru Dr. John Harvey Kellogg with far more pep and animation than his usual reserved Englishman. As the driving force at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, Kellogg believed in lifelong celibacy, but Hopkins opts for a cheery tone and extrovert's confidence when delivering such gems as "an erection is a flagpole on your grave."
Set in 1907, the story follows the wild experiences of the Lightbodys (Bridget Fonda and Matthew Broderick), a New England couple going through marital strains who hope to get healthy at the "San". Paralleling their story is that of a well-intentioned go-getter (John Cusack) who dreams of striking it rich in the cereal business.
On the fringes of the story, and the subject of hilarious flashbacks underscoring the tyranny of Kellogg's approach, is the doctor's decidedly unhealthy and revenge-minded son (Dana Carvey), one of 42 children adopted in his lifetime.
Parker finds the right balance of satiric commentary and outright comedy. Overall the spirit of Boyle remains intact in such lines as "behind every shining fortune lurks the shadow of a lie."
THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures and Beacon present
A Dirty Hands proudction
An Alan Parker Film
Writer-director Alan Parker
Producers Alan Parker, Armyan Bernstein, Robert F. Colesberry
Based on the novel by T. Goraghessan Boyle
Executive producers Tom Rosenberg, Marc Abraham
Director of photography Peter Biziou
Production designer Brian Morris
Editor Gerry Hambling
Costume designer Penny Rose
Music Rachel Portman
Casting Howard Feuer, Juliet Taylor
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Dr. John Henry Kellogg Anthony Hopkins
Eleanor Lightbody Bridget Fonda
Will Lightbody Matthew Broderick
Charles Ossining John Cusack
George Kellogg Dana Carvey
Goodloe Bender Michael Lerner
Dr. Lionel Badger Colm Meaney
Running time -- 119 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Fast-paced and beautifully mounted, Columbia Pictures' offbeat period comedy is one of the delights of the fall release schedule, but possesses no single element or combination of assets that will ensure runaway success at the boxoffice.
Too sexy and scatological for general acceptance and too literary for easy consumption by the date-night crowd, the marketing of "The Road to Wellville" will no-doubt concentrate on its stellar cast. Alas, ultimate success will come down the ancillary road.
With a billy-goat beard, buck teeth and an American accent and delivery reminiscent of John Huston, Anthony Hopkins plays corn flake inventor and dietary guru Dr. John Harvey Kellogg with far more pep and animation than his usual reserved Englishman. As the driving force at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, Kellogg believed in lifelong celibacy, but Hopkins opts for a cheery tone and extrovert's confidence when delivering such gems as "an erection is a flagpole on your grave."
Set in 1907, the story follows the wild experiences of the Lightbodys (Bridget Fonda and Matthew Broderick), a New England couple going through marital strains who hope to get healthy at the "San". Paralleling their story is that of a well-intentioned go-getter (John Cusack) who dreams of striking it rich in the cereal business.
On the fringes of the story, and the subject of hilarious flashbacks underscoring the tyranny of Kellogg's approach, is the doctor's decidedly unhealthy and revenge-minded son (Dana Carvey), one of 42 children adopted in his lifetime.
Parker finds the right balance of satiric commentary and outright comedy. Overall the spirit of Boyle remains intact in such lines as "behind every shining fortune lurks the shadow of a lie."
THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures and Beacon present
A Dirty Hands proudction
An Alan Parker Film
Writer-director Alan Parker
Producers Alan Parker, Armyan Bernstein, Robert F. Colesberry
Based on the novel by T. Goraghessan Boyle
Executive producers Tom Rosenberg, Marc Abraham
Director of photography Peter Biziou
Production designer Brian Morris
Editor Gerry Hambling
Costume designer Penny Rose
Music Rachel Portman
Casting Howard Feuer, Juliet Taylor
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Dr. John Henry Kellogg Anthony Hopkins
Eleanor Lightbody Bridget Fonda
Will Lightbody Matthew Broderick
Charles Ossining John Cusack
George Kellogg Dana Carvey
Goodloe Bender Michael Lerner
Dr. Lionel Badger Colm Meaney
Running time -- 119 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 9/30/1994
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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