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One of my favorite things to do is drop the most random, bizarre fact I can remember into a normal conversation during a social event. Don't worry -- these facts are never Nsfw, because I'm a classy lady with standards, but they're certainly weird. One of my favorite facts to use in these situations is that M. Night Shyamalan helped co-write the 1999 rom-com classic "She's All That." I make sure to specify that the film came out in 1999, because that was the same year "The Sixth Sense" came out. Need I say more?

I've gotten some pretty funny reactions to this information. As a result, I often get asked to what extent he wrote the film, and my response was that he ghost wrote the film, attributing it to R. Lee Fleming Jr. instead. Besides, that's what Shyamalan seemed to imply in an archived 2013 interview. As it turns out, however,...

Columbia University School of the Arts Launches New Film Mfa Concentration: Writing for Film & Television Columbia University School of the Arts is proud to announce a new addition to the Film Mfa Program: the Writing for Film & Television concentration. This three-year program is designed specifically for students whose main focus is writing. “Columbia is known around the world as ‘the story school.’ We believe storytelling should underpin every aspect of filmmaking—because platforms and technology may change, but story is eternal,” said Associate Professor of Professional Practice and Chair of the Film Program, Jack Lechner. “Writing For Film & Television is […]

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Columbia University School of the Arts Launches New Film Mfa Concentration: Writing for Film & Television Columbia University School of the Arts is proud to announce a new addition to the Film Mfa Program: the Writing for Film & Television concentration. This three-year program is designed specifically for students whose main focus is writing. “Columbia is known around the world as ‘the story school.’ We believe storytelling should underpin every aspect of filmmaking—because platforms and technology may change, but story is eternal,” said Associate Professor of Professional Practice and Chair of the Film Program, Jack Lechner. “Writing For Film & Television is […]

The post Columbia University Launches New Film Mfa Concentration: Writing for Film & Television (Sponsored Post) first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

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The summer box office season is typically filled with milestones of the blockbuster variety but this July, Columbia University’s film program is toasting one of its own. Four international female filmmakers (and Mfa grads) have their first features hitting theaters this month.

The roster includes Nathalie Alvarez Mesen’s Clara Sola, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Murina, Mounia Akl’s Costa Brava, Lebanon, and Anna Gutto’s Paradise Highway. The latter film, about a truck driver who reluctantly agrees to smuggle illicit cargo (a little girl), is the most star-studded, with Juliette Binoche, Morgan Freeman, Cameron Monaghan and Frank Grillo. Also of note: Columbia grad Ellie Foumbi’s debut feature Our Father, the Devil, picked up an audience award last month during the Tribeca Festival in New York.

Jack Lechner, chair of film at Columbia University School of the Arts, says that every...

Leventhal was a leading figure at the UK’s Channel 4 and a former partner at Hal Films.

Colin Leventhal, a former Channel 4 executive and Hal Films partner, has died aged 73. He reportedly died on August 20 following illness.

Born in London, Leventhal began his career at the BBC in 1974 and was head of copyright at the public broadcaster when he left in 1981 to help set up Channel 4 as a founding director.

He remained at Channel 4 for 16 years, taking on roles including director of acquisitions and managing director of Channel Four International. He led FilmFour International, working alongside Channel 4 head of film David Aukin,...

Colin Leventhal, the highly respected and well liked UK film executive, has died at the age of 73 after an illness. His death was confirmed to Deadline by several people close to him and his family.

Leventhal joined the BBC in 1974 as a lawyer in the Programme Contracts department, rising to become head of copyright. He left the public broadcaster in 1981 to join the team setting up Channel 4 as a founding director when the commercial network launched in November 1982.

His time at C4 saw him take on several roles including director of acquisitions and business affairs, and managing director of Channel Four International, when he also oversaw FilmFour International (later to become Film4 Productions). Working alongside David Aukin, C4’s Head of Film, the pair developed the station into a backer of high-quality, critically acclaimed feature films, including Four Weddings And A Funeral, The Madness Of King George, Secrets And Lies,...

This piece is one part loving obituary and one part urgent call-to-action around the undeniable need for our independent film industry to put some sort of safety nets in place for our beloved and aging indie film leadership. Ironically, when I wrote this piece just two months ago, who could have imagined that the topic of safety nets would become so important to All Of Us given the ways in which our industry has been so dramatically halted and upended by the #Coronavirus public health pandemic?By Marc Smolowitz

30 March

For context, I am currently developing a new film as a director on these topics, and I hope to gather steam among key indie film organizations in the coming months, so we can all come together (either online or in-person when safe to do so) to create new programs and initiatives that help build safety nets for the most vulnerable in our industry.

Of all the terrifying things Harvey Weinstein has ever said — insults hurled, jobs threatened, tantrums unleashed — perhaps the most blood-chilling are these six words: “Don’t you know who I am!?” That’s the line actress Nannette Klatt recalls the producer bellowing when she declined his advances in a private hotel-room meeting. For decades, Weinstein — a Hollywood outsider who’d hustled his way into the industry’s inner circle — was one of the most powerful men in showbiz. He could make careers, and he could crush them.

For the nearly quarter-century he was on top — earning Oscars, making money, and peddling influence — Weinstein was above the law. He was, so to speak, “Untouchable.”

In her powerhouse documentary of the same name, director Ursula Macfarlane turns that word against Weinstein, empowering his accusers while also holding those who’d been complicit in his crimes accountable. For months after The New York Times...

When curating the recent retrospective “NY Indie Guy: Ira Deutchman and the Rise of Independent Film” – a Columbia University exhibit honoring the 40-year career of a leading American independent film producer, marketer, and distributor – programmers Rob King and Jack Lechner made an upsetting discovery: Many of the films they picked to screen were unavailable in any form.

This sent Deutchman into detective mode, to discover what happened to many of the films he helped introduce to the world. He walked away from his initial examination shocked by the situation and with a grim assessment: We are in danger of losing many of the films that defined recent movements in American independent film.

“During the height of in the independent boom back in the ’80s and into the 90s, it was always considered the holy grail for independent filmmakers that to be truly independent they would eventually get back the rights or control the rights,...

A fascinating bit of information has been revealed regarding Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings in a new book detailing the director's journey of making the movie. The book reveals that at one point disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein threatened to fire Jackson and replace him with Quentin Tarantino on the project!

The book is called Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth, by Ian Nathan and in it, we learn that Weinstein hated the idea of breaking the film up into three films. He wanted that whole epic story to be condensed into one movie and the producer threatened to fire Jackson if he didn't do that.

Thanks to The Stuff, we have an excerpt from the book that reads:

"Harvey was like, 'you’re either doing this or you’re not. You’re out'. And I got Quentin ready to direct it'," Ken Kamins,...

Before Peter Jackson teamed up with New Line Cinema on his massive “The Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy, he first started developing his J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation at Miramax under the supervision of Harvey Weinstein. But trying to make an expensive fantasy epic with Weinstein proved impossible for Jackson, as is clear in British film writer Ian Nathan’s new book, “Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson & The Making of Middle-Earth.”

According to Nathan’s book (via The Guardian), Weinstein believed Jackson was wasting $12 million by developing “The Lord of the Rings” as a franchise made up of multiple movies. Jackson was planning to make two “Lord of the Rings” films with Miramax. Weinstein reportedly threatened to replace Jackson with his longtime collaborator Quentin Tarantino if Jackson did not agree to make a single two-hour adaptation of the text. Weinstein was also eyeing “Shakespeare in Love” director John Madden.

“Harvey was like,...

Constant Beta Motion Picture Company, Creative Control and Abramorama are collaborating for the North American distribution of The First to Do It, a documentary about Earl Lloyd, the first African-American to play in the NBA. Abramorama plans a wide theatrical release for the film in February.

Directed by Coodie and Chike, First to Do It was produced by Arka Sengupta and in association with the National Basketball Players Association, and was executive produced by Michael Finley, Tony Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Kawhi Leonard, Pj Tucker, Harry I. Martin, Amit Sharma, Jason Cole, David T. Friendly, Jack Lechner, Michele Roberts and Chrysa Chin. Anthony, Leonard and Chris Paul,...

On August 16, 2013, I finished the first draft of my second feature film, “Bite Me.” Today, on August 12, 2017, four years and 48 drafts later, I am riding the subway to our first day of production. But the story I am telling begins far earlier and, with any luck, will last far longer.

I have this memory that still guts me when I think about it today. I’m sitting in a movie theater as a middle-schooler and watching “The Princess Diaries.” I’m not sure if you remember that film, but at the beginning the central character played by a young Anne Hathaway is supposed to be a mega-nerd. To indicate the depths of her social pariah-hood, they made Anne wear glasses and frizzed her hair out a bit. But, if you’ve ever seen Anne Hathaway, you can probably imagine that, even in this state, she still, you know, looked like Anne Hathaway.

Produced by Condé Nast Entertainment and Jigsaw Productions, “The New Yorker Presents,” which Amazon revealed in weekly installments starting in February, is unlike anything else. Each of the 10 half-hour episodes is a uniquely curated set of documentary and fiction shorts, comedy, poetry, animation, and cartoons drawn from the rich content of The New Yorker. Both unexpected and hugely entertaining, the series is up for Emmy consideration in the informational program category.

Look at the range of the first two shows. They include Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) on bull riding, Edwidge Danticat on the connection between Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series” and outbreaks of racist violence in America, Nick Paumgarten on closing the $2.4 billion Revel casino, cartoons by Roz Chast, Benjamin Schwartz, and Liana Finck, a look at The New Yorker’s archive library and fact-checking department, a beekeeper and a man who raises pigeons who work atop tall buildings, and...

Produced by Condé Nast Entertainment and Jigsaw Productions, “The New Yorker Presents,” which Amazon revealed in weekly installments starting in February, is unlike anything else. Each of the 10 half-hour episodes is a uniquely curated set of documentary and fiction shorts, comedy, poetry, animation, and cartoons drawn from the rich content of The New Yorker. Both unexpected and hugely entertaining, the series is up for Emmy consideration in the informational program category.

Look at the range of the first two shows. They include Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) on bull riding, Edwidge Danticat on the connection between Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series” and outbreaks of racist violence in America, Nick Paumgarten on closing the $2.4 billion Revel casino, cartoons by Roz Chast, Benjamin Schwartz, and Liana Finck, a look at The New Yorker’s archive library and fact-checking department, a beekeeper and a man who raises pigeons who work atop tall buildings, and...

The first co-production deal has been signed out of Trans Atlantic Partners 2013.

German producer Sol Bondy of One Two Films is working with Jennifer Fox of Us-based Zohe Films to co-produce Fox’s feature The Tale. Vibeke Vindelov is also co-producing.

The documentary director (My Reincarnation, Flying) makes her fictional debut with the 2012 Binger Lab project.

The film is now financing and casting and will be shot in the Us in summer 2014.

“I had promised my business partners not to bring home any new projects, but when I read the script for The Tale I was blown away,” says Bondy.

Oren Moverman and Jack Lechner serve as executive producers.

Co-presenters of Tap are the Eric Pommer Institut, Strategic Partners and Ifp. The programme is aimed at facilitating co-productions and training producers to work together on independent features.

Bondy was one of Screen’s Future Leaders: Producers in 2013.

Director M. Night Shyamalan didn't ghostwrite She's All That. At least, that's what the film's credited screenwriter R. Lee Fleming says. A few weeks after Shyamalan admitted to Movies.com that he had a hand in writing the 1999 comedy, which starred Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook, Fleming took to Twitter to counter the claims. "Only in his mind," Fleming wrote in response to a fan question about Shyamalan's quotes. The tweet has since been deleted. Fleming later posted a famous fibbing quote by Mark Twain reading, "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." However, Nyu professor Jack Lechner,...

It’s no secret that M. Night Shyamalan had a hand in the making of She’s All That, a teen classic released in 1999. Interviews with the Sixth Sense auteur dating back to at least August 2002 have noted this trivial nugget; the movie’s audio commentary also features director Robert Iscove saying that Shyamalan polished up the movie’s script. (Granted, 99.99999 percent of human beings have not listened to director Robert Iscove’s audio commentary for She’s All That — but the .00001 percent who have are avid IMDb users.)

Somehow, though, it took a May 29 interview with Movies.com for...

Afm 2012: Not quite Darren Aronofsky’s Noah in scope, but after mounting a career comeback with the Tiff preemed, critically appreciated Union Square, THR reports that filmmaker Nancy Savoca will be taking on the biblical figure of Mary Magdalene with the adaption of Ki Longfellow’s novel Secret Magdalene. Executive produced by Jack Lechner (The Fog of War, Blue Valentine) and Richard Guay (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai , and Savoca’s Union Square), the 7 million dollar production looks at the character from a different vantage point that the Vatican will surely have something to say about.

Gist: Secret Magdalene is more a “what if” tale re-imagining the life of Mary Magdalene, one of the female followers of Jesus. The book synopsis refers to Longfellow’s novel as a radical retelling of Mary Magdalene to life-not as a prostitute or demon-possessed-but as an educated woman who was truly the “apostle to the apostles.

Director Nancy Savoca (Union Square, Dogfight) has joined Secret Magdalene, a $7 million biblical period drama based on the novel of the same name by Ki Longfellow. Jack Lechner (Blue Valentine) is on board to executive produce the feature together with Richard Guay. New Toronto-based international sales venture Double Dutch Media is handling international sales for the project at Afm. Story: 12 Major Film Markets Impacting Afm This Year Pitched as an alternative to traditional religious films with a more literal interpretation of the Bible, Secret Magdalene is more a "what if" tale re-imagining the life of Mary

read more...

Speaking at a panel moderated by Filmmaker Magazine's Scott Macaulay at the New York Television Festival's Development Day this past weekend, Jack Lechner, the executive producer of indies like "Blue Valentine" and "Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up with People Story" as well as the Sundance Channel series "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys," compared working in film and TV to dating. If he were the lead in a romantic comedy, he explained, film would be the beautiful woman who flirts but then never returns his calls, and TV would be the girl who's always available and willing to make time to go on dates with him. "I feel like it's 'Some Kind of Wonderful,'" he said. "Oh, television, I've been taking you for granted!" Like his fellow panelist Alrick Brown (director of "Kinyarwanda"), Lechner wasn't ready to or suggesting everyone give up on film entirely,...

Although he’s a native to Hong Kong, Wayne Wang has had quite a bit of success directing features here and there in Hollywood over the years — unfortunately Maid in Manhattan was one of them, but what can you do. Coming off the quite disappointing, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, the Chan is Missing helmer has since been hired to direct the feature adaptation of Jim Yardley‘s new book, Brave Dragons. [Deadline]

The novel is about “an NBA coach who moves with his wife to the Chinese industrial city Taiyuan to coach the Shanxi Brave Dragons, one of the worst teams in the Chinese Basketball Association.” It takes a “comedic look” at NBA head coach Bob Weiss and his wife as they “discover the exotic world of China over the course of a single season in the Cba.” The Shanxi Brave Dragons, who are owned by Boss Wang, have done unthinkable things,...

Wayne Wang ("The Joy Luck Club," "Snow Flower And The Secret Fan") is set to direct an adaptation of Jim Yardley's novel "Brave Dragons" says Deadline.

The comedic true life story follows an NBA coach who moves with his wife to the Chinese industrial city of Taiyuan to coach the Shanxi Brave Dragons, one of the worst teams in the Chinese Basketball Association. The team's owner, an irascible steel tycoon, would berate and physically attack his misfit players.

Jonathan Prince is adapting the script while Jack Lechner, Ira Lechner and Jonathan Bing will produce.

Exclusive: Wayne Wang will direct Brave Dragons, a film based on Jim Yardley’s new book about an NBA coach who moves with his wife to the Chinese industrial city Taiyuan to coach the Shanxi Brave Dragons, one of the worst teams in the Chinese Basketball Association. Jonathan Prince is writing the script. The film is being produced by Jack Lechner, Ira Lechner and Jonathan Bing. Brave Dragons takes a comedic look at veteran NBA head coach Bob Weiss and his spectacularly loyal wife as they discover the exotic world of China over the course of a single season in the Cba. The Shanxi Brave Dragons are owned by Boss Wang, who did things that even Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wouldn’t conceive. An irascible steel tycoon, Boss Wang would sit on the bench and berates and even physically attacks his ragtag cast of international misfit players. That included...

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has announced the nominees for its 22nd annual GLAAD Media Awards! In the Outstanding Film (Wide Release) category, Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right" will duke it out with "Burlesque," "The Girl Who Played With Fire," "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World," and "Easy A."

In the Outstanding Film (Limited Release) category, the nominees are "Howl," "I Love You Phillip Morris," "La Mission," "Patrik, Age 1.5," and "Undertow"

In the TV categories, "Glee," "True Blood," and "The Oprah Winfrey Show" are among those honored.

We will know the winners of the GLAAD Media Awards on March 19 in New York, April 16 in Los Angeles, and May 14 in San Francisco.

Here's the full list of nominees:

Outstanding Film - Wide Release

Burlesque (Screen Gems)

Easy A (Screen Gems)

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Music Box Films)

The Kids Are All Right (Focus Features)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World...

Passionate and intense, words to describe Derek Cianfrance. Same words I would use to define "Blue Valentine," the fantastic new movie starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams about the degradation of love.

This movie will pierce your heart.

I love talking to directors of films, they're the authors of their projects, and Cianfrance gave a deeply insightful look into the world of romance, love, and acting!

Oh yeah, he mentioned that controversial Nc-17 rating the film initially received from the MPAA.

In this interview, we talked about:

*** His interest in making "Blue Valentine"

*** Why he chose Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams to star in the film

*** The controversial Nc-17 rating that the film initially received. How did he fight it?

Here's more info on "Blue Valentine" from Yahoo:

The story of love found and love lost told in past and present moments in time. Flooded with romantic memories of their courtship,...

The incredible Ryan Gosling turned in two incredible performances in 2010, one for .All Good Things,. and the other, for .Blue Valentine.. The latter, from Weinstein Company, is getting wider release this month, and you guys should not miss it! Gosling and Michelle Williams provided powerful performances in a movie that talks volumes about the degradation of love.

Check out my interview with Gosling where we talked about his attraction to making the film, and what.s up with the .love degradation. theme?

Here's more info on "Blue Valentine" from Yahoo:

The story of love found and love lost told in past and present moments in time. Flooded with romantic memories of their courtship, Dean and Cindy use one night to try and save their failing marriage.

Genres: Drama and Romance

Running Time: 1 hr. 54 min.

Release Date: December 29th, 2010 (limited)

MPAA Rating: R for strong graphic sexual content, language, and a beating.

When I read Dan Savage's The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant, the last thing I ever thought would come of it was a musical. Told in Savage’s hilariously raunchy style, it’s a great read, and astonishingly moving in certain scenes. It’s one of those books that stays with you for months after you read it.

But a musical?

My fears were assuaged when I saw The New Group’s production of The Kid, currently running at Theatre Row. Book writer Michael Zam wisely has Dan, played by a lovable Christopher Sieber, breaking the fourth wall constantly, keeping the tone similar to the memoir on which it's based, and allowing the characters to jump around in time and space without grandiose set changes.

The plot is quite simple – Dan and his boyfriend Terry (Lucas Steele), who have been together for two years,...

As previously reported, Shrek vet Christopher Sieber will lead the cast of The Kid for The New Group. Based on the book by Dan Savage entitled The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant, the new musical The Kid features music by Andy Monroe, book by Michael Zam and lyrics by Jack Lechner. Today it has been announced that the first preview has moved from April 10 to Friday, April 16. Official Opening is now Monday, May 10 at 7:00 (moved from May 6, announced previously). Final performance is May 29.

Producer Jack Lechner has signed a first-look deal with Joshua Blum's production and talent management company Washington Square Arts & Films. Lechner, who will be based at Wsf's Manhattan office, will be charged with bringing in new projects as well as shepherding select projects already on Wsf's roster as Wsf expands to produce four to six projects annually.

Both Lechner and Wsf also will continue to pursue projects independently.

Wsf's projects include the Emmy-winning documentary "Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life" and the feature "Old Joy," directed by Kelly Reichert. The company is currently developing a documentary about Spalding Gray with Steven Soderbergh.

An independent producer, Lechner has served as a senior executive at Miramax, Film Four and HBO, among others. He was executive producer of the Oscar-winning doc "The Fog of War" as well as the new doc "Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story," which will premiere...

Special Screening

"The Fog of War" is arguably the most conventional documentary made by Errol Morris and, perhaps equally surprising, it displays sympathy toward its subject, Robert S. McNamara, one of the American political figures most closely associated with the disastrous war in Vietnam and consequently a bete noire to many. Morris doesn't launch any investigation into the case of McNamara. The movie grew out of 20 hours of recorded interviews with the 85-year-old man so the movie has only a single voice. No one contradicts him or bears witness to other historical possibilities. It's all McNamara.

Sony Pictures Classics should see lively theatrical business in adult venues thanks to the subject and Morris' name. But the movie's natural home is on TV, where it will reach many more viewers wanting to better understand the major dilemma the movie grapples with, namely the uses and morality of war in the modern world. Unfortunately for us all, the movie could not be timelier.

Morris fleshes out the interviews with archival footage going back to the First World War and a few, if only a few, Morris-isms -- playful visual creations that underscore a theme such as dominos falling down on a map of Southeast Asia to illustrate the foreign policy theory of the Vietnam era.

The film is subtitled "11 lessons from the life of Robert S. McNamara." Morris extracts these "lessons" from ideas and comments made by the former Defense Secretary, such as Empathize with your Enemy and Rationality Will Not Save Us. One lesson that is not among the 11, yet hits home in these weeks following our invasion of Iraq, is McNamara's belief that the U.S. should never apply its incredible military power unilaterally.

Three major areas are explored. The first and most surprising emerges during McNamara's reminiscences about World War II. He served under General Curtis LeMay, who ordered the firebombing of Tokyo and 67 Japanese cities in 1945. McNamara makes the unsettling point that had the Allies lost the war, his and LeMay's actions would undoubtedly have classified them as war criminals.

The second area is more familiar, the Cuban Missile Crisis. McNamara urges a point of view unlike the one dramatized in the fictional feature "13 Days". McNamara believes nuclear catastrophe was avoided mostly through "blind luck."

The third, of course, is Vietnam, but here too the film offers a new viewpoint. Thanks to recently declassified recordings made by LBJ in the Oval Office and this interview with McNamara, a more complex and much different picture emerges of the role played by McNamara, long believed to be the Administration's biggest hawk. The Pentagon's head constantly urged President Johnson to pull troops out of the Vietnam quagmire and to wind down our involvement. But he was never able to persuade the President, which led to his bittersweet resignation/firing.

"The Fog of War" will not be the first or last word on McNamara but it is one of the most important. His life raises key issues about war and peace that defy easy answers. And this understandably ambivalent portrait of McNamara challenges conventional wisdom about the man and his place in history.

A major plus in the film is a quietly insistent score from Philip Glass.

THE FOG OF WAR

Sony Pictures Classics

A Senart/@ Radical Media production in association with Globe Department Store

Credits:

Director: Errol Morris

Producers: Errol Morris, Michael Williams, Julie Ahlberg

Executive producers: Jack Lechner, Jon Kmen, Frank Scherma, Robert Fernandez, Robert Mayh, John Sloss

Directors of photography: Peter Donahue, Robert Chappell

Production designer:

Music: Philip Glass

Editors: Karen Schmeer, Doug Abel, Chyld King

Running time -- 116 minutes

No MPAA rating...