Der in Tucson tätige High-School-Lehrer Dana Marschz unterrichtet Dramaturgie. Er bezeichnet sein eigenes Leben als eine Parodie einer Tragödie. Marschz erfährt, dass sein Unterricht abgeschafft werden soll. Er schreibt eine Fortsetzung des Theaterstücks Hamlet, die an der Schule aufgeführt werden soll.
Duane Byrge schrieb am 23. Januar 2008 für die Zeitschrift The Hollywood Reporter, der Film sei ein Patchwork der Elemente aus mehr inspirierten Komödien wie Ace Ventura – Ein tierischer Detektiv und Borat. Sein rowdyhafter und unorthodoxer Humor könne für „fürstliche“ Einnahmen an den Kinokassen sorgen.[1]
Rozhetskins Familie emmigrierte 1980 in die USA nach New York, wo er auch zur High School ging. 1987 beendete Leonid Rozhetskin sein Studium an der Universität von Columbia mit einem Bachelor in angewanter Mathematik. 1990 schloss er sein Jura-Studium an der Harvard Law School mit einem suma com laude ab.
1990 bis 1991 arbeitete Leonid Rozhetskin als juristischer Angestellter für den Bundesrichter Sephen S. Wilson in Los Angeles, Californien, USA. 1992 bis 1994 war er bei den Kanzleien Sullivan & Cromwell und White & Case angestellt. 1992 ging Leonid Rozhetskin zurück nach Russland, um seine eigene Kanzlei zu eröffnen. Er vertrat Kunden wie Credit Suisse, Morgan Grenfell, die Moscow Times oder die International Finance Corporation (eine Abteilung der Weltbank).
1995 wechselte Leonid Rozhetskin in die Investment-Branche und gründete die Investmentbank Renaissance Capital.
1998 verließ er Renaissance Capital und wurde Mitbegründer der Risiko-Kapital Bank LV Finance. Zu seinen Kunden gehörten unter anderem der Financier George Soros und der Gründer von CNNTed Turner. Das Unternehmern investierte in mehrere erfolgreiche StartUp Unternehmen, von denen das bekannteste die MegaFon-Gruppe ist, der drittgrößte Mobilfunk Anbieter Russlands. Seine Anteile an LV Finance hat Leonid Rozhetskin inzwischen verkauft.
Von 2001 bis 2005 war Leonid Rozhetskin Vize-Vorstandschef von Norilsk Nickel, Russlands größter Minengesellschaft. Seine Aufgabenbereiche waren Transparenz, externe Investitionen und Corporate Governance. Unter anderem investierte er in die Stillwater Mining Company (USA) und Gold Fields (Südafrika). Heute arbeitet er im Aufsichtsrat weiter.
Nebenbei ist Leonid Rozhetskin noch Anteilseigner der gratis Tageszeitung City A.M. in London. Die Zeitung behandelt hauptsächlich lokale und globale Business-Nachrichten und hat ca. 100.000 Leser in ganz London.
2007 gründete Rozhetskin zusammen mit Eric Eisner die Film Produktionsfirma -L+E Productions. Der erste Film Hamlet 2 erschien 2008 und wurde vom Sundace Film Festival in Utha, USA ausgezeichnet. Die Weiterverwertungsrechte wurden inzwischen für 10 Mio. Dollar an den Verlag Focus Features abgetreten. Die Filme „Three Woloves“ und „Electric Slide” sollen bald erscheinen.
In 1998, Leonid Rozhetskin left Renaissance Capital to co-found the independent venture capital firm LV Finance. The advisory clients of LV Finance included international financier George Soros and founder of CNN Ted Turner. The company invested in a number of highly successful start-up ventures in the media and telecommunications industry, most notably MegaFon, the third-largest mobile phone operator in Russia. In 2003, Leonid Rozhetskin sold his interest in LV Finance.
From October 2001 until January 2005, Leonid Rozhetskin served as Executive Vice Chairman of Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s largest mining company and the world’s largest miner of nickel and palladium metals. Leonid Rozhetskin led the company’s efforts on transparency, corporate governance and external investment, including the acquisition of a controlling interest in Stillwater Mining Company, a U.S. miner of platinum and palladium metals. Leonid Rozhetskin also pioneered an investment of $1.2 billion to acquire a 20 percent interest in Gold Fields of South Africa. Leonid Rozhetskin currently serves on the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel.
This Russian-American financier, Leonid Rozhetskin is also a board member and founding shareholder of City A.M., London’s first free daily business newspaper which covers news on the markets, global and local business as well as contemporary lifestyle features. City A.M. is read by over 100,000 professionals throughout London.
L+E Production’s upcoming film, Hamlet 2, was selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah in January 2008. The film premiered at the festival on January 21, 2008. After the screening, an all-night bidding war took place for rights to distribution, which Focus Features won for a near-record $10 million, acquiring worldwide rights to the film. Hamlet 2 is the first Leonid Rozhetskin and Eric Eisner film to be featured at Sundance.
Leonid Rozhetskin will be producing the movie Three Wolves, a film about the Russian mafia.
Leonid Rozhetskin has one son and divides his time between London and Los Angeles.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here finally catching up on my Sundance coverage. In the last month I’ve seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 films theatrically and another half dozen screeners to add onto that pile.
Of all those movies only about a fifth were damn good and of those only a handful that are what I’d call fuckin’ good or better.
HAMLET 2 made the cut.
Steve Coogan. If that name puts a smile on your face, then get in line now. This is Coogan at his finest. If his name got a “Huh?” response, then that’s okay, too. You’ll be a new fan of his once Hamlet 2 hits and then, I’m sure, you’ll dive into the hilarious world of Alan Partridge.
While Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost broke over here Mr. Coogan was biding his time.
In HAMLET 2, Coogan plays an Arizona drama teacher. In his mind he’s a great actor and in the opening moments of the movie we’re treated to his highlight reel, which consists of bit parts on infomercials and speaking roles in STD treatment commercials.
He gets paid next to nothing, his wife (played by Catherine Keener) is always bitchy to him (she married him and waited for his bit acting career that never came), he’s got a live-in hanger-on (played almost silently by David Arquette) and he’s struggling in a school system that doesn’t value the arts. His classroom has been moved into the cafeteria where his lectures have to compete with the lunch ladies noisily cooking.
In short, his life’s a mess, but he still has a hopeful smile on his face, an almost childlike optimism.
In his new year of teaching he is given a class of delinquents. The irony is not lost on him or the movie as he studies films like DANGEROUS MINDS in order to learn how to make the transition from his pure white-bread theater snob class to a multi-cultural class just trying to get an easy A.
This same year, he finds out that the school has finally cancelled theater and that situation brings the class together to achieve Coogan’s game plan: He’s going to put on a play that is so popular, so good, that the school board will be forced to reinstate the class.
In the past, Coogan’s plays all consisted of stage remakes of popular movies. We’re treated to a glimpse at one of his previous works, a stage version of ERIN BROKOVICH. He has a heated conversation with his biggest critic, the high school newspaper’s entertainment reviewer (a child no older than 12). He asks this kid why he always gets a negative review. The kid simply states that his shows suck. Of course, Coogan breaks down and the kid has to console him and gives him a piece of advice. Do your own thing, don’t just copy everybody else.
With that in mind, Coogan is inspired to create his masterpiece… HAMLET 2. But… everybody dies at the end of Hamlet, right? Aha! Well, that’s where the time machine comes in.
Seriously, the final version that ends up onstage is something they should tour with. You have time travel, historical figures coming in to change the events of the first HAMLET and a dance number involving Christ called SEXY JESUS.
And yes, his main inspiration to sequelize HAMLET is that he thought Shakespeare’s original was too much of a bummer and he wanted a chance to make it happier. He takes the tragedy out of HAMLET, essentially.
I can’t write this up without mentioning a particular actress. One of the secondary stories is the difficulty Keener and Coogan are having conceiving a child. So they go to a sperm bank and while they’re waiting, Coogan bumps into a cute nurse, played by Elisabeth Shue. His mouth hangs open and he says, “Excuse… but you look exactly like my favorite actress Elisabeth Shue.” She smiles and says, “I am Elisabeth Shue.”
And so it goes. She quit acting and became a sperm bank nurse in Arizona… and she’s not a throwaway joke. She is a real character in the movie, playing herself, and boy does she still have it. I’ve had a crush on her since my childhood viewings of ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING and KARATE KID. She’s looking great and is as charming as she’s ever been.
The script was whip-smart, as should be expected from Pam Brady. She works with Trey Parker and Matt Stone a lot on South Park, the South Park movie as well as TEAM AMERICA. She doesn’t disappoint here.
The flick just finished filming in November, so the cut we saw in January I’m sure is still rough. There was a little drag in the middle, but I’m sure they’ll tighten the film a bit before release. Even if they don’t, it’s already hilarious.
It was the biggest pick-up at Sundance, with Focus Features dishing a reported $10 million for it, so you know you’ll see a big release. This’ll be one Sundance movie I”m sure will be at a theater near you no matter where near you is.
Anyway, that’s it for HAMLET 2. Still more Sundance/Santa Barbara flicks to go through before I’m done. Keep an eye peeled, squirts!
The raucous comedy had been the subject of tremendous buzz coming into Sundance…before it was even completed, and without a mere mention in the event’s catalogue. Indeed, the unfinished film was such a late entry into the festival that Park City’s primary premiere location, the Eccles Center, was fully booked. But that didn’t stop Hamlet 2 from knocking Sundance out of its mid-festival doldrums with a rowdy debut screening Monday night at the Library Center theater. The room erupted in hysterics about two minutes into the show, and things stayed that way for nearly two hours.
A late entry to the Sundance program, “Hamlet 2″ was described by several distributors as the first indie this year to have commercial crossover possibilities like “Little Miss Sunshine.”
Throughout Sundance, distributors have been asking “Indie hit, wherefore art thou?”
The answer may have come Monday evening with “Hamlet 2,” Andrew Fleming’s frequently hilarious story of an overly dramatic high school drama teacher (played by Steve Coogan) who attempts to salvage his department by putting on a controversial musical sequel to Shakespeare’s play.
The late addition to the fest had intermitent lulls, but it also had every top film exec unreservedly gushing outside the Library screening room. The Weinstein Co., Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Focus, ThinkFilm, Paramount Vantage and other execs all openly agreeing about how funny it was.
“I heard before I came that it needed a lot of work, but it doesn’t need that much work,” said one buyer. Others said some judicious cutting could bring it big success. At a “Hamlet” dinner afterwards, veteran studio director Fleming (”Threesome,” “Nancy Drew”) said he’d be open to working with a distributor on a refined edit, despite saying he avoided the development process initially. “It”s nothing I haven’t been through before,” he deadpanned.
The film’s satirical take on theater types, modern musicals, high school and high school movies like “Dangerous Minds” resonated with the audience, as did top notch performances by Coogan and Catherine Keener (pictured above), Amy Poehler and the amazing newcomer Skyler Astin, who plays a budding drama student many will recognize.
(Full disclosure: after seeking out Astin to speak with him at the dinner, I realized he currently stars in the Tony-winning best musical “Spring Awakening,” co-produced by an old friend, Amanda Dubois. — Gregg Goldstein)
“Hamlet 2″ came together thanks to producers Eric Eisner as well as “Little Miss Sunshine” producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger.” Editors were still cutting the movie as late as December with the possibility that it wouldn”t have made into the festival.
But the filmmakers finished it and got it into the festival just under the wire, not unlike the way the fall’s big indie hit, “Juno,” snuck into Telluride at the last minute.
CAA is selling the title, and top distributors began gathering at their Park City house immediately after the film.
This just in: After receiving an uproarious reaction from crowds last night, “Hamlet 2” provoked the first major bidding war of the festival. After an all-night battle, the film sold early this morning, according to producer Eric Eisner who only arrived home at 7:30 a.m.
The comedy, which stars Steve Coogan as a failed actor turned high school drama teacher, tells the unpredictable, charmingly offensive tale of a high school drama class that stages a sequel to Hamlet. The film is complete with time machines and a modern-day version of Jesus Christ — with sex appeal and a cell phone.
Sundance looks to have its first unqualified hit, and a Cinderella story at that, in “Hamlet 2.” A late addition to the film festival, this bawdy romp, starring Steve Coogan as a failed actor-turned-pathetic high-school drama teacher — who stages a musical sequel to “Hamlet,” with a “sexy Jesus” Christ in a starring role — enjoyed a riotous reaction at its premiere in Park City’s library Monday night.
One of the festival’s running themes has been hope and optimism, as most evident in films about people facing down death, among them Amy Redford’s drama “The Guitar” (which didn’t wow audiences on Friday) and Mark Pellington’s lighter-hearted “Henry Poole Is Here” (which played quite well Monday afternoon and immediately drew interest from several buyers).
But “Hamlet 2,” even as it made sure to insult Christians, gays, Latinos, Jews, the A.C.L.U., Hollywood movies about inspiring teachers and one of its lead actresses (Elisabeth Shue), also managed to puncture the death-defying optimism that has hovered over Park City.
As the acquisition teams from Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Miramax and the Weinstein Company, among others, filed out into the night – some of them, presumably, to huddle and come up with offers – the non-buying audience hung around for a quick Q-&-A with Andrew Fleming, the director of “Hamlet 2,” and several members of his cast.
Mr. Fleming said he and his writing partner, Pam Brady, had been working on the script for five years, but the idea of a “Hamlet” sequel was much more recent, and the actual play-within-the-movie was written on deadline. “It was this kind of panicked, last-minute thing – ‘let’s write some songs and put on a show,’” Mr. Fleming said.
In the movie Ms. Shue plays herself, oddly enough – or a version of herself that could be so smitten by Mr. Coogan that she’d lick his face (as she did again onstage, for good measure). Why’d she take the role? “I just got the script and it said ‘a famous actress who’s a has-been, lives in Tucson and is a nurse,’” she said. “It was hilarious and I had to do it.”
Hamlet 2
Steve Coogan toplines as a high school drama teacher who decides to stage a musical sequel to “Hamlet.” Cast includes Catherine Keener and David Arquette. (CAA)
THE BUZZ: Movies pegged as potential box-office hits include Sunshine Cleaning (Amy Adams); What Just Happened? (Robert De Niro); The Wackness (Sir Ben Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen); Hamlet 2 (Steve Coogan); and Assassination of a High School President (Mischa Barton).
Also featured at the festival will be “Hamlet 2.” Andrew Fleming directs his and Pam Brady’s script for the film, which stars Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Shue, Amy Poehler, David Arquette and Melonie Diaz. The comedy finds “a high school drama teacher [who] injects love and passion for theatre into his students by creating a musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.”
Three films seem to be high on buyers’ radars: Premiere comedies “What Just Happened?” and “Hamlet 2,” as well as Dramatic Competition entry “Sunshine Cleaning,” starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
By Steven Zeitchik and Gregg Goldstein, January 16, 2008
Next week feels far away to many buyers, but distributors already are beginning to eye Plum Pictures’ intergenerational dramedy “Diminished Capacity” and “Hamlet 2,” the comedy-musical starring Steve Coogan that is a late addition to the festival.
“Buyers say they are looking carefully at three star-packed films aimed at young audiences: “Hamlet 2″ (with Elisabeth Shue), about a high-school drama course that puts on a musical sequel to Shakespeare’s play…”
By Steven Zeitchik and Gregg Goldstein
Jan 15, 2008
The prototypical indie producer has evolved too. One of the most buzzed-about titles this year is the last-minute addition “Hamlet 2,” an irreverent comedy musical starring Steve Coogan. It comes from new film producer Eric Eisner — yes, he’s the son of that Eisner, former Disney CEO Michael.
In another era, Eisner the younger might have gone to work as a conglomerate executive like the Murdoch sons, but he decided to branch out. “I’ve always been a little more entrepreneurial,” he said. “There’s a thrill in building a company and starting from scratch.”
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here finally catching up on my Sundance coverage. In the last month I’ve seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 films theatrically and another half dozen screeners to add onto that pile.
Of all those movies only about a fifth were damn good and of those only a handful that are what I’d call fuckin’ good or better.
HAMLET 2 made the cut.
Steve Coogan. If that name puts a smile on your face, then get in line now. This is Coogan at his finest. If his name got a “Huh?” response, then that’s okay, too. You’ll be a new fan of his once Hamlet 2 hits and then, I’m sure, you’ll dive into the hilarious world of Alan Partridge.
While Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost broke over here Mr. Coogan was biding his time.
In HAMLET 2, Coogan plays an Arizona drama teacher. In his mind he’s a great actor and in the opening moments of the movie we’re treated to his highlight reel, which consists of bit parts on infomercials and speaking roles in STD treatment commercials.
He gets paid next to nothing, his wife (played by Catherine Keener) is always bitchy to him (she married him and waited for his bit acting career that never came), he’s got a live-in hanger-on (played almost silently by David Arquette) and he’s struggling in a school system that doesn’t value the arts. His classroom has been moved into the cafeteria where his lectures have to compete with the lunch ladies noisily cooking.
In short, his life’s a mess, but he still has a hopeful smile on his face, an almost childlike optimism.
In his new year of teaching he is given a class of delinquents. The irony is not lost on him or the movie as he studies films like DANGEROUS MINDS in order to learn how to make the transition from his pure white-bread theater snob class to a multi-cultural class just trying to get an easy A.
This same year, he finds out that the school has finally cancelled theater and that situation brings the class together to achieve Coogan’s game plan: He’s going to put on a play that is so popular, so good, that the school board will be forced to reinstate the class.
In the past, Coogan’s plays all consisted of stage remakes of popular movies. We’re treated to a glimpse at one of his previous works, a stage version of ERIN BROKOVICH. He has a heated conversation with his biggest critic, the high school newspaper’s entertainment reviewer (a child no older than 12). He asks this kid why he always gets a negative review. The kid simply states that his shows suck. Of course, Coogan breaks down and the kid has to console him and gives him a piece of advice. Do your own thing, don’t just copy everybody else.
With that in mind, Coogan is inspired to create his masterpiece… HAMLET 2. But… everybody dies at the end of Hamlet, right? Aha! Well, that’s where the time machine comes in.
Seriously, the final version that ends up onstage is something they should tour with. You have time travel, historical figures coming in to change the events of the first HAMLET and a dance number involving Christ called SEXY JESUS.
And yes, his main inspiration to sequelize HAMLET is that he thought Shakespeare’s original was too much of a bummer and he wanted a chance to make it happier. He takes the tragedy out of HAMLET, essentially.
I can’t write this up without mentioning a particular actress. One of the secondary stories is the difficulty Keener and Coogan are having conceiving a child. So they go to a sperm bank and while they’re waiting, Coogan bumps into a cute nurse, played by Elisabeth Shue. His mouth hangs open and he says, “Excuse… but you look exactly like my favorite actress Elisabeth Shue.” She smiles and says, “I am Elisabeth Shue.”
And so it goes. She quit acting and became a sperm bank nurse in Arizona… and she’s not a throwaway joke. She is a real character in the movie, playing herself, and boy does she still have it. I’ve had a crush on her since my childhood viewings of ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING and KARATE KID. She’s looking great and is as charming as she’s ever been.
The script was whip-smart, as should be expected from Pam Brady. She works with Trey Parker and Matt Stone a lot on South Park, the South Park movie as well as TEAM AMERICA. She doesn’t disappoint here.
The flick just finished filming in November, so the cut we saw in January I’m sure is still rough. There was a little drag in the middle, but I’m sure they’ll tighten the film a bit before release. Even if they don’t, it’s already hilarious.
It was the biggest pick-up at Sundance, with Focus Features dishing a reported $10 million for it, so you know you’ll see a big release. This’ll be one Sundance movie I”m sure will be at a theater near you no matter where near you is.
Anyway, that’s it for HAMLET 2. Still more Sundance/Santa Barbara flicks to go through before I’m done. Keep an eye peeled, squirts!
In 2007, he co-founded a movie production company, L+E Productions, with Eric Eisner. Eisner is the son of Michael Eisner, the former Chief Executive Office of The Walt Disney Company. L+E Production’s mission is to finance and develop feature-length films.
He is also a board member and founding shareholder of City A.M., London’s first free daily business newspaper which covers news on the markets, global and local business as well as contemporary lifestyle features. City A.M. is read by over 100,000 professionals throughout London.
From October 2001 until January 2005, served as Executive Vice Chairman of Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s largest mining company and the world’s largest miner of nickel and palladium metals. He led the company’s efforts on transparency, corporate governance and external investment, including the acquisition of a controlling interest in Stillwater Mining Company, a U.S. miner of platinum and palladium metals. He also pioneered an investment of $1.2 billion to acquire a 20 percent interest in Gold Fields of South Africa. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel.
In 1998, he left Renaissance Capital to co-found the independent venture capital firm, LV Finance. The advisory clients of LV Finance included international financier George Soros and founder of CNN Ted Turner. The company invested in a number of highly successful start-up ventures in the media and telecommunications industry, most notably, MegaFon, the third largest mobile phone operator in Russia. He sold his interest in LV Finance in 2003.
In 1995, his focus shifted from the law to financial ventures. He was part of a group that founded Renaissance Capital, Russia’s largest and most successful domestic investment bank. While with Renaissance Capital, he led the firm’s participation in listing the first Russian company on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 1992, Leonid Rozhetskin returned to Russia to open his own law firm, representing clients such as the International Finance Corporation (a division of the World Bank), Credit Suisse, Morgan Grenfell, and The Moscow Times.
From 1992 to 1994, Leonid Rozhetskin worked as an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell and White & Case, both U.S. law firms.
From 1990 to 1991, Leonid Rozhetskin was a law clerk for Judge Stephen V. Wilson, a federal judge in Los Angeles, California.
In 1990, he graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University with distinction in 1987.
“Boogie Woogie”, co-produced by Leonid Rozhetskin, is supposed to be relaesed this Year. Currently the movies status is in “post production” and there arent a lot of details yet. But just have a look at the casting and find all these famous names such as Christipher Lee or Heather Graham and I think you will waite as desperate as me for the final release.
Biopic on charmer, Eddie Dodson, who ran a Melrose art deco store owner as a cover for his exploits as a bankrobber. In 1984, Dodson robbed 64 banks in less than a year. Arrested, Dodson served a 12-year sentence and once released, went on to work as caretaker for Jack Nicholson’s Malibu home. Eventually, though, Dodson was again arrested in 1999 for bank robbery and died at the age of 54 due to a failed liver. ~ Baseline StudioSystems
Movie Details
Title: The Electric Slide Status: Announced Country: United States Genre: Drama, Crime, Biopic
PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) – If art-house theatres still do weekend midnight showings where everyone dresses up as characters from the film, “Hamlet 2″ would be a fitting selection. An erratic, freewheeling satire of Middle American mores, it should thrive as a festival curio, appealing to anti-establishment sensibilities.
The film’s marketers will face a challenge inducing the word-snobs of the smart set to slum with slapstick entertainment. Still, there’s enough rowdy and off-the-wall humour in “Hamlet 2″ to perform princely at the box-office, particularly in college-city venues.
A slam-bang patchwork of more inspired comedies, such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “Borat,” “Hamlet 2″ centres on Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan), who attempts to teach drama in a Tucson, Arizona, high school. With delusions that he is soaring to great heights like Icarus, this doofus presents high school plays based on his favourite movies, including “Dead Poets Society” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” which appeal to his inflated ego but leave his charges flat. His productions are major fiascos, rightfully skewered by a ninth-grade drama critic.
In one of the movie’s many funny lines, Marschz admits that his life is like a parody of tragedy: He’s infertile, his wife is having an affair with their roommate, he has father issues, and he’s a recovering alcoholic. Not to mention, he’s talent-less.
Dramatically, “Hamlet 2″ is a twist on the formula of let’s-put-on-a-show, with the twist being that no one wants the show, least of all the administration, which has chopped the school’s art funds. Even arts-funding advocates would notice that Marschz’s grandiose piffles are a major waste. As such, the film unwittingly makes a case for slashing funds for the arts. Lo, and unfortunately we behold, Marschz does smite the school board Philistines (not exactly a difficult target) with a last-ditch rally and a from-the-rafters opus.
Unlike Ace Ventura, Inspector Clouseau or other lovable loonies, Marschz is merely a knucklehead errant. He’s a creep, but he’s nicely endeared to us by Coogan’s funny, fey performance. Among the players, Elisabeth Shue delivers a winning rendition of herself; her appearance as a Tucson nurse who has rejected her show business career is one of the film’s best absurdities. Similarly, Amy Poehler is hilarious as a WASP-y, anti-Semitic ACLU lawyer.
Screenwriters Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady have slapped together a string of gags in a hit-and-miss dither. Some of it is quite brainy. There’s an appealing anarchic tone and anti-authority bent as well. There also are zany surrealistic moments and a devilish eye for incongruity, especially a rousing rendition of Elton John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” as belted out by the Tucson Gay Chorus for the boondocks high school audience.
Director Fleming blasts the production along with keen comic pacing, which performs double duty in masking some of the more dim-witted moments.
Technically, “Hamlet 2″ is distinguished by production designer Tony Fanning’s sendup of Southwestern suburbia.
Cast:
Dana Marschz: Steve Coogan
Brie Marschz: Catherine Keener
Herself: Elisabeth Shue
Cricket Feldstein: Amy Poehler
Gary: David Arquette
Principal Rocker: Marshall Bell
Octavio: Joseph Julian Soria
Rand Posin: Skylar Astin
Director: Andrew Fleming; Screenwriters: Andrew Fleming, Pam Brady; Producers: Eric Eisner, Leonid Rozhetskin, Aaron Ryder; Executive producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Michael Flynn; Director of photography: Alexander Gruszynski; Editor: Jeff Freeman; Production designer: Tony Fanning; Music: Ralph Sall.
Screenwriters Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady began writing the script in 2003, but they incorporated the Shakespeare play Hamlet into the premise later on. The play shown within the film was written on deadline for production.[2] The film was budgeted at a little over $9 million.[3] Production began in September 2007 in New Mexico.[4] Filming took place mainly at West Mesa High School in Albuquerque, where actual students were permitted to perform as extras in the film.[5] Filming concluded on Halloween, October 31, 2007.[6] The film was executive produced by Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, who also produced Little Miss Sunshine.[3]
A rough edit of Hamlet 2 was prepared for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it was a late addition, three days before its scheduled screening.[3] The film premiered at the festival on January 21, 2008. After the screening, an all-night bidding war took place for rights to distribution, which Focus Features won for $10 million, acquiring worldwide rights to the film.[1] The purchase of Hamlet 2 nearly broke the Sundance Film Festival record set by Little Miss Sunshine, which sold for $10.5 million in 2006.[3]
Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter described Hamlet 2 as “a slam-bang patchwork of more inspired comedies, such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Borat“. Byrge described the premise as “a twist on the formula of let’s-put-on-a-show, with the twist being that no one wants the show”. He thought that the screenwriters had put together “a string of gags in a hit-and-miss dither”.[8]
Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net described Hamlet 2 as “outrageously funny but it does require a certain type of sense of humor and the ability to laugh at very odd behavior and situations”. Douglas thought that Coogan played his character over-the-top, but found that through the film, “you really start to love him”. He described the premise as “ludricous” but said, “Sometimes, you just have to turn off your brain and allow yourself to laugh.”[9]
The New York Times noted of the film, “It made sure to take shots at Christians, gays, Latinos, Jews, the American Civil Liberties Union and Elisabeth Shue, one of its lead actresses.”[2]
If you’re a fan of Steve Coogan, that King Leer of a motormouth British comedian who starred in 24 Hour Party People, came to Hollywood (remember his glorious performance as his own trumped-up self in Jim Jarmusch‘s Coffee and Cigarettes?), and saw his crossover American career do a nosedive before it had even gotten off the ground, then you won’t want to miss Hamlet 2, in which he’s like the son of Peter Sellers crossed with a more handsome version of Tiny Tim. This is the movie that Coogan cultists have been waiting for — the one that finally lets him cut his inner wildman loose, only within a structure that lends method to his madness.
He plays a godawful failed actor, despised by his wife (a scalding Catherine Keener), who has become a self-loathing high-school drama teacher, and Coogan turns this pathetic yet insistently egomaniacal creature into a loser-nerd of genius. He mugs, he glowers, he hams up his telling of jokes too corny-horrible to print, and — most mesmerizingly — he comes on like a sarcastic geek acting like a swishy queen trying to pass himself off as a ”normal” heterosexual Middle American.
Make no mistake: The gay/not gay camp-theatrical weirdness is built right into Hamlet 2, which Andrew Fleming has directed and cowritten like a broader, more looney-tunes version of Waiting for Guffman. To save his job, Coogan’s lowly drama instructor writes and stages a musical sequel to Hamlet 2, in which a time machine returns the great Dane to life, so that he can save himself and everyone else in the play. As opening night approaches, the show becomes hugely controversial, because it is blasphemous (and demented) in almost every way. Yet really, it’s a high school musical that would make John Waters proud. You may wonder what could possibly be funny about a song called ”Raped in the Face,” but when you see this and other numbers, such as ”Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” they give off such a happy blast of cluelessness that the show seems to be rediscovering — through its very offensiveness — the unhinged glory of showbiz.
Hamlet 2 doesn’t have the exquisiteness of Guffman; with Coogan as its maestro/vamp in chief, it’s more like a one-man demolition derby of bad taste. But you will laugh, and, with any luck, you will become a believer in Steve Coogan, who in this film proves as uproarious an anarchist as Sascha Baron Cohen. At Sundance 2008, that’s what independence looked like.
FORMER Disney chief Michael Eisner‘s son, Eric, has done good. Eric and his partner in L+E Productions,Leonid Rozhetskin, just sold their first film, “Hamlet 2,” at Sundance to Focus Features for a whopping $10 million. The duo celebrated over the weekend with the cast, including Steve Coogan, whom Courtney Love notoriously accused of being Owen Wilson‘s drug buddy last year. Coogan arrived with his new girlfriend, China Chow, and the two hung out with another odd couple: author Jonathan Ames and his new lady friend, singer Fiona Apple. Also on hand was Eric’s girlfriend, alice+olivia designer Stacey Bendet, who just bought a house with her pal Moby in the Hollywood Hills, to be closer to her West Coast-based beau. Bendet will now be splitting her time between Los Angeles and New York – where she is unveiling her collection on Feb. 7 at her West 40th Street showroom.
After the huge succes of Hamlet2 at the sundance film festival. Leonid Rozhetskin co-founded Production Company L+E Productions announces to produce ” Three Wolves” a tale of the Russian Mafia.
We are excited!
Actress Elisabeth Shue poses for a portrait during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Monday, Jan. 21, 2008. Shue is at Sundance promoting the feature film “Hamlet 2” in which she has a starring role.
PARK CITY, Utah
Steve Coogan is the toast of Sundance. The British actor stars in the biggest acquisition of the film festival, “Hamlet 2,” a bawdy comedy directed by Andy Fleming that takes politically incorrect jabs at inspirational teacher flicks like “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”Focus Features bought the film for a reported $10 million in the wee hours of Tuesday after a premiere the night before at which it was greeted with loud laughter.
Catherine Keener co-stars as Coogan’s unhappy wife, and Elisabeth Shue plays herself, under the concept that she has given up on Hollywood and moved to Tucson, Ariz., to become a nurse.
“Choke,” starring Sam Rockwell, sold to Fox Searchlight with trade papers putting the deal at $5 million. Actor-director-writer Clark Gregg adapted the screenplay from “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk’s 2001 novel.
In announcing the buy, the studio described the dark comedy’s themes as “mothers and sons, sexual compulsion, and the sordid underbelly of Colonial theme parks.”
“Henry Poole is Here,” a spiritual comedic drama starring Luke Wilson, sold for a reported $3.5 million to Overture Films. “We think we managed to find a little gem,” Overture CEO Chris McGurk said Wednesday.
Before the festival, filmmakers and sellers had hoped the halt in production due to the writers strike would put pressure on buyers. It turned out that distributors were actually more reticent than usual.
“There did seem to be more caution this year, I guess, as opposed to prior years,” McGurk said. “There were some instances of buys that were made last year that with 20/20 hindsight, that amount of money shouldn’t be paid.”
Among documentaries, HBO Documentary Films purchased “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” for U.S. distribution, while the Weinstein Co. got international rights. “The Black List” sold to HBO, and “American Teen,” a cinema verite crowd favorite tracking four high school seniors, went to Paramount Vantage for about $1 million.
Steve Coogan, Elisabeth Shue, and David Arquette talk about their high-school-set comedy, likely to remain the fest’s biggest acquisition
STEVE COOGAN (left, with Catherine Keener) on Hamlet 2: ”Ours is a film that makes you laugh. It’s not a film that makes you think. But if you want to think, you can”
By the eighth day of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Andrew Fleming’s comedy Hamlet 2 remained the biggest acquisition, selling to Focus Features for $10 million. The comedy revolves around a high-school drama teacher (Steve Coogan) who stages a sequel to Shakespeare’s play in order to save his department from budget cuts.
On the afternoon before the film’s premiere, EW.com chatted with Coogan and his fellow cast members David Arquette and Elisabeth Shue at EW’s photo studio. (Sadly, Hamlet 2 costar Catherine Keener did not make the trip to Sundance this year.)
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Are you excited for tonight’s premiere? DAVID ARQUETTE: I haven’t seen it yet, so I’m nervous. It seems like people have been enjoying it, though.
And you play…? ARQUETTE: I play Gary. I’m the guy who lives at [Steve Coogan and Catherine Keener's] house. They only let me live there because I have a car. They don’t have a car. I drive them everywhere. I think I’m supposed to be a trainer in it. I’m very fitness-oriented, but I don’t have any actual clients. I have a small part. I only have about 10 lines in it. And I think one of my scenes got cut, too. I was sad. I play a dumb guy in it. Which I tend to do well.
Well, you’re playing against type. ARQUETTE: I hope so. [Laughs] Or maybe I’m just dumb.
[Arquette gets called to get his picture taken. Elisabeth Shue steps up.]
Hello. Are you enjoying Sundance? ELISABETH SHUE: It’s really fun to be back. The most moving time I’ve had at Sundance was two years ago because Davis [Guggenheim, Shue's husband] premiered An Inconvenient Truth [which he directed] here. That will go down as the most meaningful trip to Sundance. I remember the first screening of An Inconvenient Truth, they gave it a standing ovation. I was crying so much. It still makes me cry thinking of it.
It’ll be hard to measure up to that ever again. SHUE: I know, it’ll never measure up to that, but it doesn’t have to. I love this movie, actually. It’s really funny. Unique and different. And I just think Steve is a brilliant comedian. I want to do another comedy — and with him. [She points to Coogan, who's been sitting nearby, ostensibly minding his own business.] I want him to write me a movie where we can be lovers. [Laughs]
[To Coogan] Would you like to join our conversation? SHUE: Don’t you think he’s hot?
He’s not bad. STEVE COOGAN: I’m not too pale for a Brit. SHUE: With his new haircut! He’s got really funny hair in the movie. COOGAN: It’s kind of ’80s: long, wavy. I had this long, fair hair. It was dyed and bleached and straightened. And then it got so brittle I just had to get rid of it all.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: [To Shue] How did you like working with the great Steve Coogan? ELISABETH SHUE: Ah…. It was really incredible. It’s so easy. STEVE COOGAN: We had great chemistry. SHUE: We did. COOGAN: We still have great chemistry. SHUE: I want him. COOGAN: I want her.
Well, don’t let me stand in the way. [To Coogan] So, what about working with the wonderful Elisabeth Shue? COOGAN: It was tremendous and stupendous and chemically… SHUE: Destabilizing. COOGAN: Destabilizing! SHUE: He plays this has-been actor whose most important role was being in the background of a herpes commercial. COOGAN: I was in the foreground of a herpes commercial! The herpes commercial was all about me. And I’ve had a cold sore in real life. Carry on. SHUE: And then, I play myself, Elisabeth Shue. I’ve quit the business and I’ve gone to Tucson, Ariz., to become a nurse. He comes into the fertility clinic where I work and he’s so excited to see me, because he’s a great lover of film and he thinks I’m just so wonderful. COOGAN: I’m obsessed with Elisabeth Shue. I metaphorically and literally kiss her ass. And I invite her to my school to give a talk. It’s very exciting. She says some very explicit things. I won’t tell you what they are. But they’re shocking for fans of Elisabeth Shue.
You play yourself — or a version of yourself? SHUE: It was definitely a version of myself. The first day, I was really self-conscious and nervous because I didn’t know anybody. There were no rehearsals so I just showed up and started shooting. But Steve made me feel comfortable because he was so excited to see me in the scene that it just made me laugh every single time. [She laughs just talking about it] I felt like I understood the version I was supposed to play once he started to react to me.
[To Coogan] And your character — was he fun to play? COOGAN: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I play kind of a heroic fool whose heart’s in the right place, but he’s a bit of a jackass and he tries to save the drama department at his school by writing a sequel to Hamlet. SHUE: It’s a musical! COOGAN: It’s a happy version. He figures that the original Hamlet — Hamlet 1 — it’s a bit depressing when everyone dies at the end. So he wants he want to do a more uplifting, positive, Hollywood version. SHUE: Jesus is in it. He comes in a time machine. COOGAN: Jesus Christ. And Albert Einstein. He travels through time and meets a bunch of people.
Wow, so it’s like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure? COOGAN: It is like that, except that…it doesn’t star Keanu Reeves.
How does it feel to be at Sundance with a comedy? COOGAN: Great. [At film festivals, there tends to be a lot of] interesting, quirky, odd, individualistic, kind of esoteric films that make you sad. Ours is a film that makes you laugh. It’s not a film that makes you think. But if you want to think, you can. It’s a kind of optional-thinking movie. You don’t have to think too much. SHUE: Not at all. COOGAN: Not at all, actually
Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Andrew Fleming’s comedy Hamlet 2, a world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Focus Features CEO James Schamus and president Andrew Karpen made the announcement today.
Directed by Andrew Fleming (Dick, Threesome) from an original screenplay he wrote with Pam Brady (”South Park,” Team America: World Police), Hamlet 2 is produced by L+E Pictures’ Eric Eisner & Leonid Rozhetskin and Aaron Ryder (Memento, The Prestige). The movie was executive-produced by Bona Fide partners Albert Berger & Ron Yerxa (Election).
In the irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (Steve Coogan of Night at the Museum) rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” The film also stars David Arquette (the “Scream” movies), Melonie Diaz (soon to be seen in Be Kind Rewind), two-time Academy Award nominee Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler (”Saturday Night Live”), and Elisabeth Shue as herself.
Schamus and Karpen commented, “Andrew Fleming and an extraordinary filmmaking team have brought everyone at Focus an amazing New Year’s present. We can’t wait to share this riotously inventive movie with the whole world.”
Eisner said, “We’re extremely excited to work with the talented Focus group on ‘Hamlet 2,’ and we look forward to a bright future for the movie after what was an exceptional response at Sundance.”
L+E Pictures was formed in 2007 by Eisner and Rozhetskin with a mission to finance and develop feature-length films. L+E Pictures provides equity financing for films with budgets in the range of $5 to $30 million dollars.
To sell or not to sell? That has been the question dogging every fledgling filmmaker at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where sales have been remarkably slow. But it wasn’t a concern for the producers ofHamlet 2 — the bizarro comic farce about an about an eccentric high school drama teacher (Steve Coogan, pictured) who tries to save his drama program and his marriage to his fed-up wife (Catherine Keener) with his production of a sequel to Shakespeare’s masterwork. Their quandary was more about how much to sell their movie for, and to whom.
The raucous comedy had been the subject of tremendous buzz coming into Sundance…before it was even completed, and without a mere mention in the event’s catalogue. Indeed, the unfinished film was such a late entry into the festival that Park City’s primary premiere location, the Eccles Center, was fully booked. But that didn’t stopHamlet 2 from knocking Sundance out of its mid-festival doldrums with a rowdy debut screening Monday night at the Library Center theater. The room erupted in hysterics about two minutes into the show, and things stayed that way for nearly two hours.
Afterward, Harvey Weinstein hovered by the door, ready to kick off the deal-making. He was far from alone. Producer Eric Eisner and Leonid Rozhetskin, whose L+E pictures financed the film, fielded offers “from all the usual suspects,” including Fox Searchlight and Lionsgate. But it wasn’t until after he spent the whole night hashing things out at the bargaining table in his condo that he finally settled on a deal to sell the worldwide rights to Focus Features for an astronomical $10 million — one of the highest sums ever fetched by any movie in the history of Sundance. Eisner insists it wasn’t simply Focus’ deep pockets that helped that distributor win the bidding war. “We love their whole overall approach to marketing and filmmaking,” say Eisner and Rozhetskin, who will confess that Hamlet 2 outperformed even his high expectations. “It’s been quite a ride. Now it would be nice to get some sleep.” —Christine Spines (with additional reporting by Missy Schwartz)
Finally, there’s a huge sale at Sundance. Hamlet 2is a satirical comedy about a failed actor turned high school teacher (Steve Coogan) who stages a musical sequel to Hamlet. And it screened so well that Focus Features snapped it up for $10 million. That’s the second-biggest sale in history, the first being Little Miss Sunshine.
So, what are the ingredients to the most appetizing Sundance spread?
1. Set the Table with Mickey Mouse-Themed Place Mats!Hamlet 2producer Eric Eisner hasa dad named Michael Eisner. You might have heard of Michael? He worked for some company called Disney or something. Anyway, Eisner didn’t make the deadline for Sundance. But he used his pull to secure a last-second screening of the rough cut so that the film could be shown. Well done, Eric.
2. Break Open a Bottle of Superexpensive 1787 Château Lafite! Hamlet 2 is classy. Even common folk moviegoers will hear the title and think, Dang, Shakespeare, that’s probably good.
3. Open Up a Box of Twinkies! Hamlet 2 sends up Dangerous Minds. Phew. It’s not all about Shakespeare.
4. Garnish with Eight Packs of NutraSweet! Everyone at Focus should send a fruit basket as a gesture of gratitude to Paris Hilton. The reformed party girl has been ditzing about, helping remind buyers we need Shakespearean-themed entertainment to distract us from, well, Paris.
5. Laugh So Hard That You Spit the Wine All over the Twinkies! Hamlet 2star Elisabeth Shuehad this to say to the New York Times: “I just got the script and it said, ‘A famous actress who’s a has-been, lives in Tucson and is a nurse.’ I had to do it.” Ha.
6. Light Estrogen-Scented Candles! Catherine Keenercostars, which is reason enough to think seriously about buying or seeing any movie. Plus, Hamlet 2 is cowritten by South Parkvet Pam Brady. And while less than 30 percent of the WGA is women, fortysomething percent of this year’s Oscar-nominated screenwriters are women. Neat!
- highest Acquisition ever achieved at Sundance! -
Andrew Fleming‘s “Hamlet 2” has been acquired by Focus Features in a $10 million worldwide deal swiftly sealed within 12 hours of the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was produced by L+E Pictures‘ Eric Eisner & Leonid Rozhetskin and Aaron Ryder, from an original script by Fleming and Pam Brady. In the words of a description, “In the irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (Steve Coogan) rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Cast joining Coogan include David Arquette, Melonie Diaz, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler and Elisabeth Shue (appearing as herself). Calling the film “an amazing New Year’s present,” in a statement, Focus’ James Schamus and Andrew Karpen, added, “We can’t wait to share this riotously inventive movie with the whole world.” [Eugene Hernandez] [permalink]
This just in: After receiving an uproarious reaction from crowds last night, “Hamlet 2” provoked the first major bidding war of the festival. After an all-night battle, the film sold early this morning, according to producer Eric Eisner who only arrived home at 7:30 a.m.
The comedy, which stars Steve Coogan as a failed actor turned high school drama teacher, tells the unpredictable, charmingly offensive tale of a high school drama class that stages a sequel to Hamlet. The film is complete with time machines and a modern-day version of Jesus Christ — with sex appeal and a cell phone
After “Hamlet 2” premiered tonight, every major distributor, from The Weinstein Co. to Focus Features, huddled outside the theater in the cold, discussing plans and trying to decide whether to make a bid. Harvey Weinstein declined to comment on his plans, talking to two friends outside the theater.
But all signs point to a late-night bidding war tonight.
John Lyons of Focus Features huddled with the company’s acquisition team outside the Library theater, discussing the film — specifically the line: “I was raped in the face” — and their plans to bid.
“This is finally the hit that everyone’s been waiting for — it’s wickedly smart and funny,” Mr. Lyons said after the huddle. “It’s the hit of the festival — this is it.”
The bidding war will begin tonight and may last until dawn if the offers are well received. It may be the only major bidding war of this year’s festival, which has been unusually quiet in terms of deals. CAA is representing the film.
The other major picture open for bids tonight is “Choke,” which premieres later in the evening. Top distributors say they will attend that screening, as well. It will be one of the final big premieres of the festival, as many of the executives are flying out tomorrow
Park City, Utah–The 2008 Sundance Film Festival opened today with a press conference at the Egyptian Theatre featuring Robert Redford, President and Founder of Sundance Institute, Geoffrey Gilmore, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, and Martin McDonagh, director of the Festival’s Opening Night film, IN BRUGES. The Sundance Film Festival is a core program of Sundance Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences. The Festival runs from January 17-27, 2008, in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. In addition to film screenings, the Festival showcases emerging talent in the fields of visual arts, music, animation and dialogue. The complete Festival program is available at www.sundance.org/festival.
“As from the beginning, the Sundance Film Festival is about discovery of new talent and of issues that are resonating with filmmakers and artists alike,” said Robert Redford, President and Founder of Sundance Institute. “This year filmmakers are putting a personal focus on issues relating to the world we live in rather than addressing them on a macro-political level. And it’s exciting to me to see a new community of storytellers cross over from different points of origin: the playwright who brings his words to the screen, the poet who shares her story through music, the advocate who invokes social change through documentary and many other artists whose works extend beyond the screen.”
For the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, 125 feature films were selected from 3,624 submissions. This year’s Festival includes films from 34 countries ranging from Columbia, Denmark, Jordan and New Zealand, to Japan, Panama, Pakistan and Russia. The Festival also presents 83 short films from a total of 17 countries representing dramatic, documentary, and animated forms selected from 5,107 submissions. Panels, workshops, music, multimedia installations and other experimental film works at the Festival’s New Frontier on Main art space round out the Program.
“We can never predict what will capture the collective consciousness of filmgoers; however the range of diverse voices this year suggests a Festival at its very best: thought provoking, enticing and expansive,” said Geoffrey Gilmore, Director of the Sundance Film Festival. “There are 55 first-time filmmakers; selections from countries never before represented; ambitious, raw performances, and well-known actors in unexpected roles. What is provocative, exciting, is the process of films finding their audience.”
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival gets underway tonight at the Eccles Theatre with the Opening Night film, the world premiere of IN BRUGES, written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker and award-winning playwright, Martin McDonagh. With an international cast starring Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, IN BRUGES tells the suspenseful, twisted tale of two London hit men ordered to take a forced vacation in Bruges, Belgium, and how their subsequent time in exile goes awry.
“In many ways IN BRUGES is a quintessential Sundance film—it’s brutal, philosophical, funny, and totally original,” said Gilmore. “Martin McDonagh is a masterful storyteller, a tremendously gifted playwright and provocative risk-taker and we are thrilled to showcase his feature-length directorial debut.”
McDonagh’s first foray into filmmaking was with the short film, SIX SHOOTER, also starring Brendan Gleeson, which won the Academy Award for best live-action short film in 2006. A winner of two Olivier Awards for the plays The Lieutenant if Inishmore and The Pillowman, he is also a four-time Tony Award-nominated playwright of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lonesome West and The Pillowman. McDonagh is recognized for his sharp dialogue and vivid storytelling that is both provocative and powerful.
“Geoffrey Gilmore and the good people of Park City have truly rolled out the red carpet for my lead actors, our producers, and myself. It’s a thrill to be world-premiering our movie IN BRUGES in the Sundance Film Festival. Since I expect that at least some of us will have worn out our welcome by Sunday brunch, I’m going snowboarding while there’s still time.” said McDonagh.
Audiences will have an opportunity to hear McDonagh’s views on filmmaking at Film Church with Martin McDonagh, to be held on Sunday, January 20 at Filmmaker Lodge.
Other Festival highlights include the Salt Lake City Gala on Friday, January 18 at the Rose Wagner Theatre featuring the World Premiere of THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD, directed by Sean McGinly and starring Colin Hanks, John Malkovich and Emily Blunt about a law school dropout who answers an advertisement to be a celebrity’s personal assistant. On Wednesday, January 23, Sundance en Espanol, a celebration of Latin films and filmmakers participating in the Festival, will screen a collection of six Spanish language films and four films in English by Hispanic and Latino directors. Those screenings will be held at three Salt Lake City venues.
On Friday, January 26, the Closing Film screening in Park City signals the Festival’s final weekend. This year’s Closing Film is the world premiere of Neil Young’s CSNY DÉJÀ VU which examines Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s connection to its audience in both political and musical terms, and the relationship between Vietnam-era sentiment and today’s political environment.
The premier showcase for the best new work by American and international independent filmmakers, Sundance Film Festival provides audiences with abundant opportunities to discover today’s most innovative films. In addition to the four Competition categories, films screen in five out-of-competition sections.
Films in the Documentary Competition represent a broad section of new documentaries by American independent filmmakers. From examinations of the American political system and the country’s use of natural resources to explorations of cultural development and intimate portraits of legendary artists, these films represent a thematic and artistic variety. All world premieres, this year’s 16 films were selected from a record 953 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.
One of the most recognizable sections of the Festival, Dramatic Competition includes films that employ a range of aesthetic invention and reinvention of genre. From the light-hearted exploration of the darker side of human nature and relationships to stories that address serious issues of class and race, the 2008 Dramatic Competition represents a range of distinctive voices and unique storytelling. This year’s 16 films were selected from 1,068 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.
Sixteen films screen in the World Documentary Competition. This year’s films were selected from 620 submissions represent 8 countries including Pakistan, Jordan, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Canada. The range of human experience is played out in these engaging stories about the artistic process, the cost of conflict, faith and nationalism, and the triumph of personal spirit.
The World Cinema Dramatic Competition reflects Sundance’s commitment to championing the independent spirit in filmmakers everywhere and to fostering creative dialogue between divergent cultures. This year’s 16 selections from 983 submissions represent 17 countries including Spain, Peru, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Panama, Russia, and Sweden. From sexual exploits to criminal minds, coming-of-age stories to life-altering events, these films introduce us to characters with tenacity, imagination, and spirit that transcend borders.
A tribute to the abundance of compelling new voices and the creative spirit in independent filmmaking, the Spectrum program presents out-of-competition dramatic and documentary films from some of the most promising filmmakers in the world today. For 2008, Sundance Film Festival features a new sidebar, Spectrum: Documentary Spotlight. Unfulfilled dreams, storybook heroes, joyful octogenarians, and gangsters with a heart are revealed in these new films.
The Festival continues to expand its online offerings to include a selection of short films premiering over the10 days, as well as behind-the-scenes interviews with filmmakers and exclusive Festival coverage. All content is available to online audiences free of charge at www.sundance.org/festival; new content will premiere daily. Each day of the Festival, one new short film will premiere online for 24 hours. The Short Film Program, both at the Festival and online, has been graciously supported by Festival Presenting Level Sponsor, Adobe Systems Incorporated.
In addition, a selection of 45 Festival shorts — dramas, comedies, documentaries and animation– is available for purchase and download on three platforms: Apple’s iTunes Movie Store, Xbox LIVE, the online entertainment network for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and the Netflix member Web Site. Presented in collaboration with Sundance Channel, the shorts available online will launch simultaneously on all three platforms beginning January 18, 2008 and run through 2011.
Cinematic installations, live multimedia performance events, and panel discussions will be featured in New Frontier on Main, the Festival’s art space for showcasing films and work from the cutting edge of cinematic culture. Serving as a platform for artists, New Frontier highlights the intersection of art, film, and emerging media technologies. The artists involved use the moving image to explore new concepts of narrative structure. A vital part of New Frontier is the screening of seven feature films and 12 shorts at Festival theatre venues. New Frontier on Main will also present 15 installations by artists working in the moving-image medium.
In addition, the 2008 Sundance Film Festival celebrates film culture with a variety of panels and forums with filmmakers, industry leaders, journalists and scholars. The Festival provides a unique platform for discussing and debating an array of issues and topics addressed in the films or present in the independent film industry. Panel attendees at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival will be treated to lively conversations about filmmaking technology, the culture of new cinema, perspectives from Middle Eastern filmmakers, film criticism, digital distribution and more.
2008 Sundance Film Festival Jurors
This year the Festival welcomes to its jury a stellar collection of US and international filmmakers, curators and actors including:
Dramatic Competition: Marcia Gay Harden, Mary Harron, Diego Luna, Sandra Oh and Quentin Tarantino; Documentary Competition: Michelle Byrd, Heidi Ewing, Eugene Jarecki, Steven Okazaki and Annie Sundberg; World Dramatic Competition: Shunji Iwai (Japan), Lucrecia Martel (Argentina) and Jan Schuette (Germany); World Documentary Competition: Amir Bar-Lev (US), Leena Pasanen (Finland/Denmark) and Ilda Santiago (Brazil); American and International Shorts: Jon Bloom, Melonie Diaz and Jason Reitman; and The Alfred P. Sloan Prize: Alan Alda, Michael Polish, Evan Schwartz, Benedict Schwegler and John Underkoffler. Awards will be announced on the evening of January 26 at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony at the Park City Racquet Club.
2008 Sundance Film Festival Sponsors
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival Sponsors help sustain Sundance Institute’s year-round programs to support independent artists, inspire risk-taking, and encourage diversity in the arts. This year’s Festival Sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors – Entertainment Weekly, Volkswagen of America, Inc., HP, and Adobe Systems Incorporated; Leadership Sponsors – American Express, Delta Air Lines, DIRECTV, and Microsoft Corporation; Sustaining Sponsors – 360 Vodka, Blockbuster Inc., ChaCha, L’Oréal Paris, The New York Times, Ray-Ban, Sony Electronics, Inc., Stella Artois®, Turning Leaf Vineyards, Utah Film Commission, and ZonePerfect® Nutrition Bars. Sundance Channel is the Official Television Network of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film. Held each January in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah, the Festival is a core program of Sundance Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Presenting dramatic and documentary feature-length films in nine distinct categories and approximately 80 short films each year, the Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative films of the past two decades. Since 1984, the Festival program has evolved to include music, art, and dialogue. Beyond the streets of Park City, the official website of the Sundance Film Festival, http://www.sundance.org/festival shares the Festival experience with a global audience with short films, filmmaker interviews, videos, podcasts, photos, news stories, and more.
Sundance Institute
Dedicated year-round to the development of artists of independent vision and to the exhibition of their new work, Sundance Institute celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2006. Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Film Festival and artistic development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights, and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative risk-taking, and discovery continue to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with U.S. artists and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world.
Presentation by Leonid Rozhetskin, Deputy Chairmain of the Management Board at BMO Nesbitt Burns Natural Resources Conference in Tampa (Florida) on February 24, 2003 Download, 884KB
20.01.2003
Presentation by Leonid Rozhetskin, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at UBS Conference “Giants of Global Emerging Markets” in London Download, 969KB
To the right of Earl the person, is yours truly. Next we have second board SM Jeremy Barth, then NM Simon Yelsky (I think he went to Joel Benjamin’s high school and we nicknamed him “Old Yeller” for no reason) and finally Leonid Rozhetskin. We were the highest rated in the 1985 version, but as the article points out, “one of our players was so convinced he had a winning game he hallucinated a piece away.” Well, that player was me and my bungle was versus University of Florida’s Miles Ardaman. But any press is good press, right? Right.The Fabulous 80s: Columbia U fails to repeat in the 1985 Pan-Am
January 8, 2008 by nezhmet
Here’s a funny picture from the Columbia University’s “Daily” newspaper reporting on the Columbia squad’s failure in the 1985 event, held in New Brunswick, NJ (Rutgers U. home town). Click to enlarge.
Man or Building?
The first thing to note: the player on the left, Earl Hall, had the same name as a Columbia University building! I kid you not. “Earl Hall” on campus had a lot of chaplain events. Earl the person was a monster third board and a very strong player (Senior Master strength) who helped us win the 1984 event in Kitchener, Ontario (side note: I recently found the winners page – showing all historical Pan-Am winners). There have been very few Pan-Am’s outside the USA and Columbia took gold in 1984!
And on an unrelated 1980s matter, here are some 1980s photographs.
This was the August 1985 Eeklo, Belgium prizegiving. From left: IM Jan Adamski (POL), IM Gabor Pirisi (HUN), and me. Pirisi has an odd-looking trophy! I was lucky enough to defeat Pirisi in short-order in the IM round-robin as black when he played too riskily versus a Sicilian Scheveningen. Note the 1980’s hair style and glasses. I don’t know who took this photograph.
Moving back a year to Lugano, Switzerland 1984, we have Tatiana Lematchko (WGM, Bulgaria) on the left battling future WC Candidate Hungarian GM Gyula Sax. Photo by intrepid Frenchwoman Catherine Jaeg.
In August 17, 2006, at Cote d’Azur in France the third Bal de Fleuers took place. About 400 guests gathered in one of the most beautiful houses of Cote d’Azur – villa Edfussi-Rotshild, where the holiday took place. The organizers are the businessman Leonid Rozhetskin and his Rozhetskin Foundation and the promoter Andrey Fomin who acts as a producer of this event already for three years in succession. Among the guests are the president of the company Palais Royal Julia Evdokimova and the famous wine-maker and the owner of «Villa Mangiacane” Glynn Cohen.
In August 17, 2006, at Cote d’Azur in France the third Bal de Fleuers took place. About 400 guests gathered in one of the most beautiful houses of Cote d’Azur – villa Edfussi-Rotshild, where the holiday took place. The organizers are the businessman Leonid Rozhetskin and his Rozhetskin Foundation and the promoter Andrey Fomin who acts as a producer of this event already for three years in succession. Among the guests are the president of the company Palais Royal Julia Evdokimova and the famous wine-maker and the owner of «Villa Mangiacane” Glynn Cohen.
Leonid Rozhetskin was born August 4th, 1966 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Leonid Rozhetskin is an international financier and lawyer credited with bringing significant financial and legal advances to modern Russia. Leonid Rozhetskin currently co-owns L+E Productions, a movie production company in Los Angeles, California.
Leonid Rozhetskin had to select a film, produce it, and finance it, but I was trying to make that “How do you get to Carnegie Hall” joke. You know I have been rubbing shoulders with Hollywood producer Leonid Rozhetskin. Well, it looks like Leonid Rozhetskin and L+E Productions does a fine job of selecting scripts and projects because I got some breaking news: the Sundance Film Festival selected L+E Productions’ Hamlet II in its premiers category.
“The Sundance Film Festival nomination of Hamlet II is not up on the Sundance website, but here’s some information about the Premiers Category: To showcase the diversity of contemporary cinema, the Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres program offers a selection of the latest work from established directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films. This is not a competitive category. It’s L+E Production’s first Sundance selection.” (More about Hamlet II)
There are a lot of famous Leonids
Here is a list of the most important ones!
Leonid Andreyev
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of Leonid Andreev
Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev often also in Latin transcription Andrejew (Russian: ?????? ?????????? ???????, August 9, 1871-September 12, 1919) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who led the Expressionism movement in the national literature. He was active between the revolution of 1905 and the Communist revolution which finally overthrew the tsarist government.
He is one of the 20th century’s most famous Soviet violinists. Together with David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan ranked among the best representatives of the Russian-Jewish tradition of violin playing. Kogan shunned publicity, and as a result his career became overshadowed by his good friend David Oistrakh who was strongly promoted by Soviet authorities.
To sell or not to sell? That has been the question dogging every fledgling filmmaker at this year’s 
