IN AN unwelcome trend, more and more producers and distributors are using film festivals as test screenings and hauling movies back into the editing suite if the response is negative, writes Michael Dwyer in Toronto
Screaming girls lined the streets of Toronto for Orlando Bloom's arrival at the world première of his new movie, the Cayman Islands drama Haven. However, the critical reaction was tepid at best, and producer Bob Yari says the film is now likely to be reworked before it's given any further exposure.
Several other movies turned up in Toronto running shorter than they were at Cannes in May. Niels Muller's underestimated The Assassination of Richard Nixon, starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Don Cheadle, has lost 10 minutes, and Mondovino, Jonathan Nossiter's documentary on globalisation and the wine industry, is now 35 minutes shorter than it was in Cannes.
Wong Kar-wai's 2046 arrived late at Cannes this year and then went back into post-production, and the new, final version will be seen at the London Film Festival next month. Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny lost a full half-hour after it was screened to derisory reviews at Cannes last year.
The Libertine, starring Johnny Depp, had its world première at Toronto last weekend, but turned up as a work-in-progress. A publicist for the film told me I was welcome to attend the screening but that I couldn't review that version, which all seemed rather pointless.
'Crash' in a clash
David Cronenberg has expressed his displeasure with the decision of fellow Canadian Paul Haggis to use Crash as the title for his first feature, given that Cronenberg made a controversial film of the same name in 1996. "I wish Haggis would call his movie something else," Cronenberg says. "It's self-defeating if they use the same title, and will just lead to a lot of confusion and marketing problems."
Haggis argued it is not unprecedented for two films to share the same title, citing Bad Boys, the title of films starring Sean Penn (1983) and Will Smith (1995). Cronenberg countered by pointing out that he originally planned to use Twins as the title for his 1988 film starring Jeremy Irons as identical gynaecologists, but changed it to Dead Ringers when he learned that Ivan Reitman was making a comedy by the same name with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Cronenberg says that Reitman eventually paid him a substantial sum to change his title.
Cronenberg is now shooting A History of Violence, starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Maria Bello and William Hurt, and will follow it with the film of the Martin Amis novel London Fields. Haggis joked that his next movie will be titled Naked Lunch.
Taxing days for Toronto
Following last year's debate about the retention of the Section 481 tax incentive for film production in Ireland, it's worth noting that the number of US-set productions shooting in Toronto is estimated to have dropped by 20 to 25 per cent this year, since the disappearance of tax shelters for Hollywood studio productions in 2003.
He smokes 'em if he's got 'em
The most photographed actor at the Toronto festival was Sean Penn, with all the Canadian dailies carrying pictures of him smoking during his press conference at the city's Four Seasons hotel, which, the Globe and Mail noted, does not even allow smoking outside its doors. Nevertheless, at no stage did anybody from the hotel attempt to stop Penn from lighting up, which he did three times.
'Ishtar' still gets a laugh
Quote of the week, from Dustin Hoffman, in Toronto for the premiere of I Huckabees: "My first time here was with Ishtar and it's been all uphill since."
mdwyer@irish-times.ie
