New York

Rumour had it that Christopher Nolan was going to include the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in his latest Batman opus, The Dark Knight Rises. Today after seeing how the authorities have have closed that particular show down he may have to rethink some of his crowd scenes and more importantly the protestors will need a new gig. The film makers amongst them can mosey on down to the School of Visual Arts: Amphitheater 209 E 23rd Street Room 311 – 3rd floor New York, NY 10010 where the Institute for International Film Financing will host it’s Monthly Town Hall meeting. The title is ‘Realizing your dream: How to package your film projects for financiers’. The date is 21 November 2011 and the time is from 6pm till 9pm. Speakers include Joyce Pierpoline award winning producer of Teeth and In the Company of Men, Márcia Nunes international Sales and Acquisitions Manager at Goldcrest, Andrew van den Houten President of Modernciné, Jake Abraham Co-Executive Producer at Stick Figure Productions, Matthew Ballan Founder ScriptLaunch, Jim Brown founder of distribution company Argot Pictures and David Davoli Managing Partner at Davoli Law Firm and Khalid Gross Acquisitions at GoDigital Media Group. They will all be giving their take on what it takes to get your project packaged up to the level where it can be financed. Should be interesting. Sign up here to ensure your pace.

Mr Benn

Attended the graduation screening of a film school recently. Nothing too exciting really until I came across a short film that reminded me of a children’s programme that I used to watch when I was a wee lad. The programme was called Mr Benn and it centred around a cartoon character bowler hat wearing city gent who seeks to escape his 9 to 5 drudgery by disappearing into a fancy dress shop and choosing a fancy dress. The magic and the fantasy starts when the shop owner invites him to step into the changing room which is really a portal to another world that mirrors the costume he is wearing. Adventure and mischief can begin. This clever adaptation (although I am assured by the writer this was purely a coincidence) mixes in a bit more Faustian tension to deliver a spooky tale of a man unsatisfied with life and looking to trade it in at every opportunity. Lifetime Guarantee, the devil is in the details.

Alfred Hitchcock

Went to a private screening recently at the Paramount Theatre in Golden Square, London the guest of a BAFTA award winning Director/Producer. We watched the as yet unreleased film Young Adult by stripper turned Oscar winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, writer of Juno. Young Adult is the a follow up feature that deals with similar but equally quirky issues of human frailty. After the film finished we were gathered by the PR company to give feedback. I got talking to a sweet old lady she must have been 75 years old. She was deconstructing the film for me in precise detail. She was absolutely charming. It wasn’t until later that I learned she was the continuity girl for all of Alfred Hitchcock’s films.