Sundays are a good time for soul-searching — which makes it a good time to check in with filmmaker Alex Gibney, whose chilling documentary about sexual abuse in the Catholic church, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, is a must-see for anyone interested in the subject as well as the larger issue of what happens when religion becomes big business. more »
Also in Monday afternoon's round-up of news briefs: Oscar-winner Alex Gibney is boarding the new CNN Films for doc projects. The Weinstein Company scores first Oscar DVD mailer for one of its titles. And Girls' Lena Dunham scores cha-ching for a book project.
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After rolling out its Galas and other spotlights last week, the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled a swarm of new films added to its lineup, including documentaries by Ken Burns, Alex Gibney and Julien Temple. TIFF also added its genre-heavy Midnight Madness section including new work from Oscar-winners Martin McDonagh and Barry Levinson as well as Don Coscarelli and Rob Zombie. The festival's Vanguard section includes international work that "defies convention" and includes work from North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Also joining the 2012 roster is TIFF's City to City lineup which this year will spotlight Mumbai; the TIFF Kids lineup including the new Finding Nemo 3-D animation and a collection of restored work. In all, the festival announced over 70 films Tuesday.
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Also in Monday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, the proposed Magic Mike musical appears to move forward with Soderbergh's involvement; Emma Watson for Fifty Shades of Greay?; Oscar-winner Alex Gibney hires two key people at his production outfit and Jason Alexander goes anti-gun in Tweet.
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It may seem like an unlikely pairing, the academic and author Douglas Brinkley teaming up with one of the world's biggest movie stars to edit a little-known unpublished novel by the late folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie titled House of Earth. But that is in fact in the works. Johnny Depp is partnering with Brinkley whose writings eventually informed documentaries including Spike Lee's Hurricane Katrina work When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts as well as the 2004 doc Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. Brinkley stumbled upon the work, which Guthrie finished in 1947, while researching an article about Bob Dylan for Rolling Stone.
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