An outbreak of zombie-like symptoms plagues the residents of a waterfront town in The Bay, but I can't get over the fact that Barry Levinson, the Oscar-winning director of Rain Man and the maker of such resume-tipping hits as Diner, Good Morning, Vietnam, Bugsy, and Wag the Dog is doing a found footage creature feature that doesn't seem to offer terribly much new or fresh within the genre. Are things that bad, Barry?
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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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Even without Mickey Rourke! "I remember meeting with a studio executive after he saw the movie and he said, 'You have a lot to learn about editing.' I said 'I’m sure I do, give me an example.' He brought up the roast beef sandwich scene. 'Well you’re going on and on with, "Are you gonna eat the sandwich, not eat the sandwich," just cut it and get on with the story.' I said, 'Well, that is the story.' It’s a way to talk about friendship. A lot of time you see movies and people are talking about, 'How long have we been friends?' Friends don’t talk about being friends. From the nature of their conversation, you know they’re friends. That was the point. We talk about problems with girlfriends in abstract ways, we get off the point, we get into arguments that are not essential to what the argument is really about. We’re always messy. That, really was the point of Diner." [Baltimore Magazine via The Awl]
Now, in addition to Goonies, Newsies, Carrie and Rocky, Hollywood is adapting Diner into a Broadway musical. If it works out, Diner could be the next Billy Elliott or Hairspray! And if not, it could be the next Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. Scheduled for a fall 2012 premiere, the adaptation of Barry Levinson's directorial debut will revive the saga of high school buddies played by Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Tim Daly and Paul Reiser. Oh, and did I mention that Sheryl Crow is involved?
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Not to worry, Barry Levinson's still hard at work hammering that Gotti: Three Generations biopic into something that's starting to kinda-sorta resemble The Godfather, depending on how much you buy into Levinson's hype. But first, Deadline reports, Levinson and Gotti co-star Al Pacino (who most recently teamed up on the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning You Don't Know Jack) will film their adaptation of Philip Roth's 2009 erotically-tinged novel The Humbling. Cue the sexy sexagenarian shenanigans!
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Barry Levinson continues to surprise us here at Movieline HQ! After making the isopod creature feature-horror pic The Bay (shudder), the Oscar-winning writer/director behind such films as Diner, Bugsy, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Rain Man and the recent Emmy-winning You Don't Know Jack -- the hits go on, as do the Spheres and Toyses and Envys -- has signed on to direct Fiore Films' Gotti biopic. Yes, that Gotti biopic. After the jump, discuss what this means for all involved.
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After directing Al Pacino to a Golden Globe win in last year's You Don't Know Jack, it seems Barry Levinson needed a change of pace -- like, a major 180. And that's how we come to today's news that Levinson's next film, a found footage creature horror called The Bay (working title: Isopod), has been picked up for distribution by Lionsgate.
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