Possible Description of Colin Kennedy's "Atlantic Bridge"

As things move into the distribution phase for several of the newest films from Sigma of late ("Donkeys"-possible DVD, "Perfect Sense"- in cinemas everywhere this fall, and "You Instead" -new trailer hopefully still yet to come, sorry for those who have been waiting with me) time to turn our attention to the new projects in the works. One of which is the first feature film from award-winning director Colin Kennedy. He is at work on a piece called "Atlantic Bridge" with acclaimed screenwriter Andrea Gibb, she who wrote the excellent "Dear Frankie" for Sigma.

A tentative description of AB has now surfaced online which describes the film as a "drama" about "Three couples descend on their old party haunt for a reunion to discover life is even more complex than it seems in your late-thirties."hmmm a twist on the Big chill maybe, but dunno about how accurate this is. Regardless, seems very cool indeed and I CANT WAIT!
To learn more about Colin and his award-winning short film I Love Luci, be sure to visit the official site here, and the Facebook page for it here.

Sigma Films can also be found on the web via their website here at this link, and at their official Facebook page, here.


As its now April and time is springing forward lol, given the huge and often overwhelming amount of news that happened in the first few months, will try and do a recap for each of the films/segments this weekend. Regardless, its going to be a HUGE summer/fall for Sigma on screens EVERYWHERE! :)

Rumor Alert: A Perfect Sense for Sundance Festival and David Mackenzie

oooh here's an interesting report today...ION Cinema has their predictions for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival now online, and included their wish and hope that David Mackenzie's "Perfect Sense" starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green might debut at the vaunted event early next year. Quotage:
It used to go by another title, it looked pegged for a 2010 release, so there are big question marks with Perfect Sense. Logically a double dip in Sundance and Berlin would occur, but that depends on where David MacKenzie is at with his current project, In the Park. MacKenzie was actually in Park City in 2009 with Spread - the Ashton Kutcher sex dramedy. Will Sundance play host to a romantic drama featuring Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Connie Nielsen, Ewen Bremner, Stephen Dillane and Alastair Mackenzie? If so, we can expect a Premieres category announcement.

This oracle thinks that, while this is just a rumor and speculation, a turn at Sundance makes absolutely perfect sense oooh ;P for what is surely going to be an absolutely perfectly enjoyable film; what do you think?

To Space and Beyond Boundaries with David Mackenzie

Over the past few weeks I've gotten some emails from fellow fans asking what is next for Sigma and most notably David. Short answer, Im not 100% certain to be quite candid sorrryyy!, but I do my best to try and keep up with the events and post accurately as possible given there is so much speculation and rumors rife in the film world. So much of the projects we already know about bubbling away on the backburner depend on funding, which can take years of course. Otherwise, the wonderful folks at Sigma also tend to keep a low key on things and usually remain that way, however there have been a few recent rumblings of interest.

A few weeks ago there was this interview on Goodbooksguide.blogspot with author Toby Litt (his myspace is here) who stated his novel "Journey into Space" is to be adapted for film by Sigma Films and David Mackenzie. Please note, I am uncertain about the year this interview took place, and am quite uncertain if this is actually going to happen eh yea, regardless there was the following: "Journey into Space has been optioned by Glasgow-based Sigma Films, to be written and directed by David Mackenzie, the Scottish film director. He’s made some great stuff in the past, including Young Adam and Hallam Foe, so I’m optimistic. He’s very into science fiction. As for George Bush, I was told by some early readers that this was their interpretation of Orphan. This was their way of reading a character whose political platform, if you can call it that, is happiness, is being happy. I’m not sure if I’d see this as Bush’s defining characteristic. He was more blithe than happy, though the two are easily mistaken."

Recently too after a very short lived run of Spread in UK theatres , there had been some rumors again that maybe Stain in the Snow was actually going to be filmed this year in Germany, but for now still keeping that firmly in the rumor/development stage category for now. LAST WORD of course is very much still on the horizon, and there were several mentions of the film being one of the years anticipated (see here from ioncinema, and here from Dark Horizons, here for The Playlist. Fingers crossed that things will go well in Berlin and we can see a premiere either in Edinburgh or Cannes or somewhere with the film likely to open later this year! Go David Go!

Of course the latest buzz heh appeared this week in various UK newspapers over a short list for Creative Scotland's "Visual Sparks" Award. One of the reasons I adore his work so much is due to his willingness to take on the forbidden the unexpected push boundaries of sorts with his non typical stories, and it seems with this recent proposal he would be continuing the trend. I think I have this correct (please tell me if this is wrong!) but this would see David reuniting with one of the composers for Young Adam and an acclaimed visual artist to create a side project that sounds really promising, but details are vague alas. All Media Scotland:

Collaborators: Raymond MacDonald (composer and musician)

Martin Boyce (visual artist)

David MacKenzie (film director)

Towards the cost of three artists (art, music and film) joining together to experiment in new forms and produce a work that will adapt to gallery, concert hall and cinema spaces. Amount requested: £100,000.

Winners will be announced March 1, and will update then.

Rumor Alert: Jamie Bell to Star in New Film "A Single Man"

Rumor Alert! In Marc Malkin's column for E! Entertainment, it claims actor Jamie Bell (Hallam Foe) will be starring in designer Tom Ford's first directorial effort "A Single Man" based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood.

Quotage:

Sources reveal exclusively to me that it looks like Colin Firth will star as a gay college professor who deals with the sudden death of his lover. The character is helped in his efforts by a lifelong female friend and one of his students.

Firth's rep tells me "he's in discussions" but it's not a done deal.

Julianne Moore will play the friend while Jamie Bell has signed for the student role, my sources say. The story takes place in 1962 in Los Angeles.

No studio is attached to the project, but Ford plans to begin filming in L.A. in November.

Seems I remember the last rumor about a new Jamie Bell role in that Chuck Russell film did not take flight, so no idea if this has any merit or not. Jamie has been looking for new projects, so perhaps this is the real deal, and working with Julianne Moore would be fabulous of course. We shall see.

Through the Eyes of Children

News on the progress of Rounding up Donkeys is slow, but bits and pieces do trickle out now and then. If you brave and patient enough to endure the comments on IMDB, in the midst of some of the ZOMG SOOOOHOOOTTT!!! and random trolls, every once in a while there will be a good intelligent thread or if you are really lucky, a piece of filming news. Now there is no way to verify any of this, and having learned my lessons several times over that you simply cant always trust what is read over there, however there were two pieces of news saying that RuD was filming the other night on some place called Victoria Bridge in Glasgow, and even better a bit of news from an extra in the movie who says he took part in some location work was done at some place called "Nice n sleazys" on Sauchiehall street last week. LOL with a name like that naturally I had to go look it up. The street looks like a happening place, and this club is apparently one of the hip places to go hear bands so I will add that to my itinerary when I go to Glasgow .I'm well aware now that Glasgow has a seriously awesome new music scene, and although Im going on the first trip by myself, it should be ok I think and cant wait to see if I happen to hear a great band while Im there.

I think extras in movies are always cool people, showing such enthusiasm just to be part of films so I appreciated hearing this. Speaking of extras there was a news story online involving extras and Rounding Up Donkeys. The story was about a young child who was lucky enough to be cast as an extra for the movie. Quotage:

"The eight-year-old was given her own scene, in which she had to stare at Cosmo from the doorway of a high-rise flat. Although she will only be on screen for seconds, she was introduced to the film’s star and the director, and said she was treated like a VIP by the crew.

She told The Courier, “I was really surprised that I got in the film and was really excited. I was really nervous, but it felt like being a real actress. I got my own car and they gave me an umbrella so I didn’t get wet.

“James Cosmo was really, really nice to me. When my mum asked him if we could take a picture he just said yes straight away.

“But the film’s an 18 so my mum’s just going to show me the clip that I’m in. She’s seen the first one and it’s a bit too adult for me so I don’t think she’ll let me see this one.”

Awww so cute! and Lol to the mother, totally understandable of course because these films are hardly Disney/Potter/Speed racer stuff, I was glad to read this story. Working with children is always hard ,and I think the labor laws always make filming with children a hard thing to work around or at least that is what I understand. Children in any sort of production can be a mixed blessing of course- impatience over the waits in between shoots etc, but then there is such pure happiness enthusiasm and earnest ness that must make it such a joy in the end run. I remember once before I made the decision to go into news, I wanted so badly to have a career in theatre, and I worked my summers at these permanent summer camps as a the head counselor for their theatre department. Frankly these were camps where the affluent of New York sent their kids (often times straight away after they came home from boarding school-heartbreaking at times to see teh younger ones esp-the 6 78 years old desperate for the affection of their parents only to be shuffled off yet again) Anway, I loved these kids and vividly remember the challenges in putting plays. Everyone got to be in a productions and I will never forget ne summer when putting on Cinderella for the younger groups how proud the kids were to just be mice and lizards lol! bless such fun!

David Mackenzie's "Spread" Hits a Small Snag?

Well it would seem that fate and possibly erroneous tabloid gossip are the order of the day with an update on the upcoming David Mackenzie/Ashton Kutcher film "Spread." Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh was announced to co-star in the new film, which I thought was due to begin production this week. However if the longtime US gossip column PageSix.com is to be believed,  rumor has it that Jennifer actually dropped out of the film last week, as she is apparently expecting and will be unable to take part in this movie. 

The part, which is described as a lawyer who is a 'jilted lover' of Ashton Kutcher's womanizer character in the romantic comedy, is now apparently going to be played by the awesome Laura Linney. Perhaps this is an active agent at work trying to subtly work some hype into the film (and take the focus off the tabloidesque hepatititus A story involving Ashton's bday party in New York) but if true, then I say  WOOHOO.

Laura Linney is a SUPERB actress, one of the finest "independent" actresses working today imo,(along with the always superb Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand, Shirley Henderson, Kathy Bates, Tilda Swinton, Julie Walters, Fiona Shaw, and to some extent the amazing Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett-dunno if you can include Emma Thompson in this category too but she surely is one of the finest actresses EVER) , so I hope this part is true. Nothing against JJL and its quite possible she can film of course while pregnant, but that should be her personal decision and I applaud her either way. Anyway if this rumor proves correct, and gives director David Mackenzie the opportunity to work with the calibre of actress that Linney is, she would totally both give Ashton some credibility that frankly is lacking, as well as surely deliver a good performance at the guiding hand of David. Yay!

ps-Laura Linney for the win on the red carpet at the Oscars when a clearly wacked out (ok more than normal) Gary Busey sandbagged her and Jennifer Garner during Seacrests interview on E. 

David Mackenzie, Wherefore Art Thou?

As it's Sundance week, and the media is currently enthralled with the slew of indy and semi- independent films ready to be hyped and released this year, it's sad that there is no news of a new film from my favorite David Mackenzie. Yes I know the last we heard via Colin's blog is that David has been off circling the globe promoting HF at various film festivals (which we still dont know how it did -hint hint colin!) but an update on Mr. Mackenzie would be great

So while there is nothing definitive at this point, there are the various rumors and reports of projects in the works, which we saw in a few articles around the UK release of Hallam Foe (due on DVD Feb 4). Last word he was either in the wild west of the highlands, singing the Nico blues, trying to find humor in the horror of Somalia, or perhaps making another kinky sex film about couples who swing in Scotland, although all of these seem dubious at the moment. I had to chuckle at the latest random bit of news, this coming from the Independent which claims David is in the lead for directing a film with Emily Mortimer, who appeared in Young Adam, and who has apparently written the screenplay for this movie. While I think Ms Mortimer is a talented person, lets hope this film has less flinging of condiments and more joy. David was able to show his deftness and skill with comedy all within a more serious film in manner that was really quite well done; I believe he can do this more and fervently hope his next movie will continue to showcase his talents in this area better. Please Hollywood and the powers that be, pay attention to the unique and talented voices coming out of Scotland and Sigma!

On a related note, the whirl- a -US- release- date-game of Hallam Foe continues today, as not only is there word of a possible May date, but also Coming soon says June, with Aol saying July! good fffing grief. I continue to be appalled and dismayed by the lack of clear promotion and information on the release of this very fine film here in the States via Magnolia, and fear that the momentum for this movie to achieve widespread box office success (not to mention getting screwed and overlooked by the various award shows) is all but lost. Perhaps not, but I still remain baffled over all of this, and hope that in the coming days once they release the Misterfoe website, things will change course.