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OPENING SHOTS EXTRA

Find out here first!


 Fight Club director David Fincher is prepping an adaptation of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story from the collection Tales of the Jazz Age. Brad Pitt will star as the man who turns 50 only to find himself getting younger and younger with each passing year. Complications ensue when he falls in love with a 30-year-old woman, to be played by Cate Blanchett. Shooting starts next year once the director has wrapped Zodiac, his upcoming thriller (about the notorious San Francisco serial killer who terrorized the Bay Area from 1966 to 1974) that stars Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards, Jake Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, and Mark Ruffalo.

Abdellatif Kechiche's follow-up to L'Esquive (soon to be released stateside by New Yorker Films under the title Games of Love and Chance) will be La Graine et le mulet [The Seed and the Mule]. Starring Sabrina Ouazani (Frida in L'Esquive), it recounts the story of an Arab family, which settles in a town in the south of France.

Gus Van Sant goes sci-fi with his adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel The Time Traveler's Wife. The novel tells the story of a man who has a gene that enables him to travel in time and who decides to explore his future life and that of his wife. The director describes it as a love story.

Meanwhile the Last Days director is shooting a short featuring Orlando Bloom for the multi-director project Paris je t'aime. The project consists of five-minute films featuring romantic encounters in each of Paris's 20 arrondissements. The other directors involved? Well, Jean-Luc Godard, the Coen brothers, Olivier Assayas, Alfonso Cuaron, Gerard Depardieu, Alexander Payne, Walter Salles, Ettore Scola, Nobuhiro Suwa, Daniela Thomas, Tom Tykwer and, er, Richard LaGravenese. The all-star cast includes such notable French cinema icons as Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Natalie Portman, Tim Robbins, Javier Bardem, and Gael Garcia Bernal. Is the French acting community on strike or what? Whatever. At any rate, Juliette Binoche and Eva Green appear to have been squeezed in.
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SPECIAL OFFER FROM OUR FRIENDS AT KINO ON VIDEO

Enter to win a copy of Kino's new AVANT-GARDE DVD box set, or the 3-disc JOSEPHINE BAKER collection.

For a limited time, Film Comment E-News subscribers will receive 15% off plus free shipping for orders over $50!

 

Our friends at Kino on Video have quite a few notable new releases this season. Of special interest is AVANT GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA OF THE 1920s & 30s featuring two dozen of the most influential short films ever made. This two-DVD set is a virtual catalogue of famous images from artists who quite literally expanded the vocabulary of the moving image, including Orson Welles, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Epstein, and Man Ray.

Also from Kino is the THE JOSEPHINE BAKER COLLECTION, newly remastered from 35mm prints ZOU ZOU, SIREN OF THE TROPICS, and PRINCESS TAM TAM are finally available on DVD.

To learn more about these titles and more visit Kino at www.kino.com/video.

** Enter to win one of the DVD sets above! Email marketing@filmlinc.com, subject line "KINO VIDEO" along with your name and your choice: "Avant-Garde" or "Josephine Baker" before Wednesday, August 10, 5 pm EST. Winners will be randomly selected and will receive notification by email.

** For those of you who don't win the raffle, you can always buy the DVDs online at www.kino.com/video. For a limited time, apply the offer code SOCIETY in your cart to receive 15% or more off retail price and free shipping (US & Canada) for orders with subtotal over $50.

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FILM COMMENT SELECTS EVENTS IN NYC

If you live in NYC - stay tuned for more FILM COMMENT SELECTS events in September.

Film Comment Selects

Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street, plaza level, NYC
212.875.5600


Film Comment Selects: An Evening with Anton Corbijn, Jonathan Glazer, Mark Romanek, and Stéphane Sednaoui
Tuesday, September 13 at 7 pm

Film Comment Selects, Palm Pictures, and the Director's Label (who released the platinum-selling 2003 DVD collections of Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, and Chris Cunningham) celebrate the release of the next four volumes by the innovative directors above. This special event will screen highlights, rare director's cuts, and previously unseen footage, followed by a roundtable Q&A with all four directors. MCed by the inimitable Michel Gondry.
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Film Comment Selects: An Evening with Rip Torn
Wednesday, September 21 at 6:30 pm

Join legendary cult actor Rip Torn and indie filmmaker Ira Sachs for a special double feature: a sneak preview of Sachs's Sundance-winning film 40 Shades of Blue, followed by the 70s road movie Payday. Q&A with Torn and Sachs between the screenings.

For more events coming in September
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