Tuesday, June 30, 2009

NEW VIDEO DIGITAL ANNOUNCES LISA KUDROW'S WEBBY-WINNING SERIES "WEB THERAPY" NOW AVAILABLE FOR EXCLUSIVE PURCHASE AND DOWNLOAD ON iTUNES

In her original improvised series "Web Therapy," Lisa Kudrow plays a web therapist with limited patience for other people's problems. She counsels a celebrity cast including Courteney Cox, Victor Garber, Alan Cumming, Steven Weber, Julie Claire & Dan Bucatinsky. Beginning today, "Web Therapy" will be exclusively available on iTunes for $1.99 per episode. Each episode includes five, three-minute webisodes and additional narrative from Lisa Kudrow's character, Fiona. Also available is a free download of the series premiere and behind-the-scenes featurettes from each season.

Lisa Kudrow stars as Fiona Wallice, quite possibly the world's worst therapist. She's not a good listener, she's judgmental, she's easily distracted or bored and sifts through everything she hears only for nuggets of information that might further her own interests. Fiona is a Philadelphia therapist of unspecified credentials who used to work in a financial services company until three years ago. She's very proud of her financial background - "I don't live in an ivory tower, I'm a graduate of the rough-and-tumble world of financial powerhouses" - though truthfully she was merely a mid-level account manager. Each season consists of fifteen three-minute sessions of what our heroine calls "Web Therapy" - chat sessions between Fiona and five hapless victims/clients. She starts Web Therapy because "in an hour's therapy, there's only 3 minutes of real work anyway. Why not just cut to the chase?" What she really means is that her clients don't hold her interest for an hour. Her long-term goal is to "franchise" this concept.

Season One
Dr. Fiona Wallice is sick of hearing about "dreams" and "feelings." She decides that 3 minutes over webcam is better then 50 minutes of patients rambling on. In season one, we're introduced to Richard Pratt (Tim Bagley). Fiona is surprised to learn her new client is a fondly remembered old-flame. Next we're introduced to Jerome Sokoloff (Dan Bucatinsky), a 35-year-old neurotic, hypochondriac jingle writer who's a carry-over from Fiona's former in-person practice. Haley (Rashida Jones), much more sane, is Jerome's girlfriend who joins in the second and third sessions. Jerome is followed by client Ted Mitchell (Bob Balaban), a well known, respected and highly skilled psychiatrist. Ted is almost as politely condescending as Fiona herself. He's brought on by Fiona's potential investor, a former client of Lachman Bros., to "test-drive" Fiona's concept. Following Ted Mitchell, we're introduced to Clare Dudek (Jane Lynch), a tightly wound, confrontational advertising executive who's been ordered by her company to undergo counseling after she threw a stapler at an underling. The season wraps up with clients Bryn (Patty Guggenheim) and Justin (Drew Sherman), a young, hip couple in their twenties who come in -- ostensibly -- for couples counseling.

FAME National Talent Search

The FAME National Talent Search officially launched today on GenerationFAME, MySpace, and Six Flags. Here’s to us discovering the next big talent!

* MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fame
* FAME website: http://www.generationfame.com/
* Six Flags: http://www.sixflags.com/fame

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Jacksonville 48 Hour Film Project Names the Top 15; Awards June 24 at Florida Theatre


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Jacksonville, Fla.– The heat wave got even hotter when Producer Mac McDonald announced the films that will show at the June 24 Awards Screening and Ceremony. This Wednesday’s awards will be the culmination of the 2009 Jacksonville 48 Hour Film Project, scheduled to return in spring 2010. Tonight, nearly 200 filmmakers and fans gathered to hear if their film made it in, but they’ll have to wait a few more days to find out who actually won. Here are the top 15 in random order. The list includes film title, team name and team leader.

1. “Sketchy” – Hutch’s Heroes Part Deux (Keith Hutchison)
2. “Echoes of Elizabeth” – X4 Productions (Glen Vandermolen)
3. “The Forgiven” – Sixth Floor Museum (Mark O’Brien)
4. “Under” – Somebody Call An Ambulance Productions (Paul Melian)
5. “Static Lullaby” – AI Jax Team Red (Nadia Ramoutar)
6. “The Last Soul” – Jacksonville.com’s 14B448 (Tracy Collins)
7. “P.S. I Love U” – Team Distracted (Joseph Murphy)
8. “Romance” – Pick Me! (Marc Boese)
9. “Cars, Tows, Who Knows” – Chicken (Justin Suttles)
10. “The Unwelcome” – Wyldestone Films (Shain Gillete)
11. “There Is No Glass” – Dream Crushers (Marion Scott)
12. “In Every Lie” – AI Jax Team White (Chris Stagl)
13. “Disposable” – KCP Lite Productions (Anthony Kilburn)
14. “The Room” – Mugwump Moving Pictures (Samuel Smid)
15. “Hey, What Are Buds For?” – PB&J Productions (Parker Benedict)


“There were some real surprises,” says McDonald. “We had first-year participants nudging out some of the most recognized teams from past years. When it came to audience voting, we had to count one of the nights three times because there were only two votes separating the winner from the runner-up.”

As for the quality of the films, there was some outstanding work that Jacksonville should be very proud of. Three of the top 15 films were made by students and two of this year’s breakout stars turned out to be a regular guy with one arm and a lovelorn puppet. And then there was Sketchy, a character brought to life by local actor Kenny Logsdon --- whose significant other and their daughter were on a competing team that didn’t make the finals --- made such an impact on audiences that many say they’re coming back Wednesday just to see it again. The short film is a mockumentary about a guy obsessed with drawing chalk outlines like the ones used at crime scenes.

“I was impressed with the level of creativity,” says first-year Assistant Producer Masarra Sandage. “All three nights I had audience members telling me how hard it was to pick their favorites.”

There’s a close race in the judges’ scores too, but McDonald wasn’t sharing any of those secrets even though he has the official results. You’ll have to be there Wednesday night, he quipped, when hopeful competitors tried to pump him for information.

Jacksonville 48 Hour Film Project Awards Screening & Ceremony
Wednesday, June 24
7 p.m. @ Florida Theatre

128 E. Forsyth Street,
Jacksonville, Fla. 32202 (doors open at 6)
Tickets only $10 (plus handling)

The required elements for all of this year’s films were as follows:
Character: Peter or Penny Dupree, Car Salesperson
Prop: Disposable camera
Line of Dialogue: "What did you do that for?"

Now appearing for its third consecutive year, the Jacksonville 48 Hour Film Project is presented by PRI Productions; other 2009 sponsors include Digital Video Arts and Comcast Spotlight. Keep up with all the happenings at www.48hourfilm.com/jacksonville.

About the Jacksonville 48 Hour Film Project

Presented by PRI Productions and produced for its third year by Mac McDonald, the Jacksonville 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend during which teams make a movie — write, shoot, edit and score it — in just 48 hours. At the Friday night kickoff, teams get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre; 48 hours later the movie must be complete with the required elements. The Jacksonville films show at the Florida Theatre, where the audience and judges will determine the “Best in Jacksonville 2009.” In 2008, some 30,000 filmmakers made films in 70 cities around the world. Contact the Jacksonville team at Jacksonville@48hourfilm.com or 904-622-6800.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Michael Moore’s new as-yet-untitled documentary

Michael Moore’s new documentary will be released by Overture Films domestically on October 2, 2009 and internationally by Paramount Vantage. The as-yet-untitled film will explore the root causes of the global economic meltdown and take a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that culminated in what Moore has described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country” – the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions.

James Bond announcement

MORGAN, PURVIS & WADE TO WORK ON BOND, JAMES BOND

LOS ANGELES, CA – Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions Ltd and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures have today announced that Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen), Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale) will be the screenwriters of the 23rd James Bond adventure.

Daniel Craig will reprise his role as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 in the film, which will be a MGM release of an EON production. Bond 23 is the latest installment in the longest-running franchise in motion picture history and will be produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. A date for the start of production is yet to be confirmed.

“Peter, Neal and Robert are extraordinarily talented and we’re looking forward to working with the three of them,” commented Wilson and Broccoli.

Peter Morgan is the award-winning writer of such films as The Last King of Scotland, The Queen and Frost/Nixon, which was based on his play. He has also scripted the upcoming The Special Relationship for HBO and Hereafter for DreamWorks. He will turn his attention to Bond 23 on completion of these duties. Morgan is represented by UTA (US) and Independent Talent Group (UK).

Since 1991 Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have collaborated on a diverse range of projects including The Italian Job, Johnny English and the past four Bond films. They recently adapted John Le Carre's The Mission Song and are also working on the upcoming sequel The Brazilian Job. Purvis and Wade are represented by Endeavor (US), Casarotto Ramsay & Associates (UK).