Blamblog - Brett Lamb's Blog

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Here's Comes TIFF '07

International Man of Mystery ... er, International Press agent, Stephen Lan, just launched his new website. That must mean the Toronto International Film Festival is right around the corner!

Here are a few to consider:

Lisa Ray and Rachael Leigh Cook do not get makeovers in All Hat.

Right now, we're puttin' together the artwork for the modern-day western heist movie, All Hat. Yeehaw! [ trailer-ish promo ] The flick also stars Keith Carradine, Luke Kirby and Ghostbuster, Ernie Hudson. I wonder if Ernie Hudson ever gets tired of the novelty of being the fourth Ghostbuster? If it were me, I never would. Speaking of novelty, Noam Jenkins -- who played the fourth 9/11 hijacker in that strange Path to 9/11 miniseries -- is great as the baddie.

I just did a press kit (but not the website) for This Beautiful City -- also in the fest -- and Jenkins is in that, too. Maybe he's the new Don McKellar and there will be a new rule saying that he has to appear in every Canadian film ever made. In which case, they could digitally insert he and McKellar in Goin' Down the Road at the same time. If they ever get to A Married Couple, they should insert them as the hipster guys at the party.

The This Beautiful City director's blog is here:

Adapted from a play I wrote years ago called DESCENT, the film is cataclysmic weaving through five lives that connect when a woman plummets from her balcony in Queen West. Not exactly the most marketable fare, but we felt there was an uncompromising truth to the voices of the characters and a unique style and structure that separated from some it's peers.

What was I writing about? ... 9/11! Right!

Ok, here's how buzz works in Canadian entertainment: last fall I was back in my hometown (a tiny rural village) and I bumped into Sean at church. Sean said that he was leaving Toronto, and heading off to LA. A couple of months later, my sister landed a new job and her new boss mentioned that he's seen Sean's play about the married couple who have to deal with everyone in their town being killed at their wedding reception ... some inspiration for the play coming from 9/11. Anyhow, the boss loved it. It's a funny play, go see it next time it's playing somewhere. Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago I bumped into Sean at the coffee joiny across from the gym (double-bumped the next day) and he says that he's back from LA and they did a film called Breakfast With Scott and he was hoping that it would get into TIFF. And it did. So I told him the story about my sister's new boss and he said,

"Yeah, your mom told my mom."

You actually have to go through up to six people's moms just to get Telefilm funding.

I've heard positive things about the movie so far, but not so many good vibes from the more extreme religious folk:

As a work of homosexual propaganda, the film is clearly meant to target the last vestiges of resistance to normalized homosexuality among Canadians. In the book, the homosexual couple live in Cambridge, Massachusetts and are a chiropractor and magazine editor; hockey does not figure at all.
....
The homosexualist ideology asserts that the condition is natural and unchangeable and therefore that children can be born with it and have it be part of their normal sexual development. The depiction of an eleven year-old boy as a homosexual might be more than audiences are willing to accept.

I guess the people at 'LifeSite' aren't Ugly Betty fans. Besides, I think audiences are willing to accept a lot, which is why I'm busy penning my treatment for the biopic about the gay 9/11 priest!

TIFF starts Sept. 6.

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