The Official MovieSet Blog
Posts Tagged ‘cannes’
Watch the first 5 minutes of Blindness
Friday, October 03, 2008
Opening today in a limited release is Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness, the movie about a plague of blindness that sweeps…oh just look, if you don’t know what the movie is about just go watch the trailer first and then get back here, OK?
We good? So Blindness is coming out this week in a select number of theaters before rolling out in wider release on the 10th. Yahoo is helping get word out about the filmby offering the first five minutes of the show free for download. You can watch the start of Blindness right here, right now:
Update: You may be having issues with the video player playing. If that’s indeed the case you can still watch the opening of Blindness directly on Yahoo.
Posted at 9:29PM by admin
Quentin’s Bastards May Be Getting Adopted
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
According to this article at Variety Quentin Tarantino’s World War II epic, Inglorious Bastards, may be finding it’s home with Universal.
Scheduled to go into production in the fall in Europe for hopeful release at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, one that has been kind to Quentin with Pulp Fiction garnering him a Palme d’or in 1994.
Posted at 12:39AM by admin
Our return from Cannes
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Our MovieSet team is back from Cannes. After spending the better part of two weeks at the world’s most prestigious film festival, spending time meeting movers and shakers and filmmakers at our booth, our six peeps are glad to be back home. Our intention was to hit Cannes and show off the flexibility, potential and fun of the MovieSet idea and how filmmakers and fans can interact with each other, exchange information and do that social networking thang. Judging from the talk that I heard from the team that flew across the Atlantic, MovieSet was very well received by not just English-speaking producers, directors and corporates but by their counterparts in India and Asia. Seeds have been planted and already a few have started to sprout. While I can’t tell you about everything that’s going down just yet because of confidentiality agreements and other legal matters that could turn me into a poor man, believe me when I tell you that you will be hearing about the good news sooner than you think.
One thing that I can spill to you right now is that filmmakers loved MovieSet in a big way and have been hitting us hard to get their latest projects signed up so we can report about them to you. Graham, our point man at the data nexus, is swamped with new content and is getting new films, trailers, stills and news items on the site as fast as he can. I’ve got two of those new projects to tell you about in my next blog post.
So to recap: hitting Cannes was a good thing — now we have a pile of new films to get on the site.
Posted at 5:57AM by admin
Do the Cannes Cannes
Thursday, May 15, 2008
In 2008 a crack commando unit of MovieSet personnel were sent to the Cannes Film Festival. Their mission? To infiltrate the world’s most prestigious film festival, to get invited to all of the hottest parties, to covertly maintain surveillance on A-list actors and to spread the word to the global film players that MovieSet is open for business.
Undercover MovieSet employee #2 (codename “Swinkle”) has been posting photos from Day 1 of the Cannes Film Fest on the MovieSet Facebook page. I’m going to show you a few of these snapshots along with my description of the action taking place (click on any photo to see it in a larger size):
1. Street banner ads for the 61st annual Cannes film festival greet the international visitors all over the picturesque city. The photo of a beautiful blonde woman wearing blacked-out glasses was carefully chosen by the Cannes governing body so that it represents the panel’s interest in seeing “a hot chick wearing a pair of old person’s sunglasses.” Truly exquisite.
2. As is the case with every Cannes festival each year, this French town is overrun with film lovers, business people, celebrities and video store clerks. Finding a hotel for the duration of the week-long event is a Herculean task in and of itself, but landing reservations for dinner at one of the five-star restaurants is practically inconceivable unless you’re the likes of Angelina Jolie. We don’t know Angie but MovieSet has been able to guarantee that we will always be served fine French cuisine by reserving an entire restaurant for lunch and dinner every day, as this photo will attest. When money is no object you go in style.
3. Mike Myers is back in theaters this summer with the release of his new movie “The Love Guru”. In the film Myers plays a self-help guru named Pikta who is hired by the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs to help the team’s star player overcome his hang-up with his wife who has run off into the arms of another rival hockey player. To help promote the film Paramount Pictures decided to have the same Scottish scientists that cloned Dolly the sheep clone a 35-foot-tall Mike Myers and then have him stand in front of a Cannes hotel holding a flower for the duration of the festival. No expense is too much when it comes to entertaining the masses. Apparently our MovieSet team was so enthralled with the giant Mike Myers clone that our company is considering using the technology to giant clone the MovieSet IT department.
4. When the PR department of a Hollywood movie studio comes to Cannes to promote their latest blockbuster, you have to go all-out to make sure that your message is heard by the masses. While Paramount had its giant clone of Mike Myers standing outside a French hotel, DreamWorks decided to cut its costs and rent out two dozen panda suits, fill them with extras and then sing the theme song to “Kung Fu Panda” across the water to the visiting cruise ships. While the strategy gets points from me for its novel approach to thinking outside the box, the shame and humiliation faced by these brave, poor souls whence they return to their families may not be worth the paycheck they received. You try singing ” ‘Kung Fu Panda’ opens in theaters June 6″ for ten hours facing open water and wearing a panda suit in a foreign country and then see how you feel. Is there a psychotherapist in the house?
5. One of the biggest hits of last year proved to be the Warner Bros. film “I Am Legend”, making nearly $300 million domestic and securing Will Smith’s place as one of today’s hottest movie stars. Even with the stunning success of the movie, it took everyone by surprise when the movie studio decided to film “I Am Legend 2″ at this year’s Cannes. Sparing no expense the production blocked off several Cannes boulevards and shut down numerous businesses to give the streets an eerie, deserted look. Here is our photo of one of these exteriors just before filming took place. I smell another hit!
6. We’ve seen what Paramount did for “The Love Guru”, splicing together a Frankenstein-like monster version of Mike Myers that needs to be fed 4 tonnes of apples and rice a day to contain his hunger, but what are they doing for the sure-to-be-blockbuster “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”? While the film will have its red carpet premiere at Cannes with director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford in attendance, apparently the heightened competition from Uwe Boll’s “Postal” has played an unexpected part in the visibility of the film’s marketing. Whereas “Postal” is being promoted with a nightly parade/sideshow and fireworks, all that’s being done to let the public know that there is a new “Indiana Jones” movie has been to post up three small signs above the world’s biggest Cartier watch. Maybe Spielberg thinks that he doesn’t need to promote “Indy 4″ against “Postal”, but I’ll let his hubris be his downfall.
7. The fleet of cars that the MovieSet team have rented for their stay at Cannes. Not that we like to brag about lavish displays of money but, well, there it is. Yes, we paid extra to have the Canada flag flying above our parking space.
8. While the MovieSet team has a tight schedule to maintain we do like to spend some time now and then to remember that we wouldn’t be where we are without the support of our fans. That’s why we wanted to take a few moments while in France to meet our European supporters and shake their hands in person. While we were heartened to see so many smiling faces waving to us it was the presence of the paparazzi that really surprised us. Quickly our MovieSet camera person spun the tables on these vultures and took photographs of them leering over the security fence surrounding our hotel as the team walked to their cars on the morning of the first day of the festival. How do you like those apples, huh? You bottomfeeding scum.
(P.S.: All marriage proposals should be sent via official courier to our hotel’s front desk reception and not screamed across the street. Please also include a current photograph of yourself so we know whether to get back to you or not. Thanks!)
That’s all for now from the sunny seaside coast of Cannes but I’ll have more photos to share with you later! Until them, adieu!
Posted at 4:29AM by admin
MovieSet is off to Cannes!
Monday, May 12, 2008
With the arrival of May there comes two big events associated with movies: the arrival of the summer blockbuster season and the annual Cannes Film Festival. The world’s most prestigious screening party attracts an international crowd and attention from the worldwide media. Red carpet screenings are going on everywhere, tuxedo rental stores have next to no inventory and young slender starlets seek to attract the attention of cameras, news crew and the eyes of movie producers. Hot buttered popcorn and soda pop are replaced with caviar and champagne . For one solid week everybody who is anybody in film roll into Cannes, conduct business, watch movies, network like crazy and party like it’s 1999. And MovieSet is going to be there this year!
MovieSet will be giving you on-the-scene reports from Cannes, telling you what’s going down, who’s doing what and what the vibe is like at this year’s film fest. While the fest kicks off on the 14th, keep your eyes peeled before then for the start of our reports. We’ll be trying to publish as many photographs as possible and if we can take some snaps of what the stars are wearing, we’ll do so and then show you the goods. For now, settle back and get prepared for the coming ride.
Posted at 1:54AM by admin
