If you think the movie industry is churning out a whole lot of expensive nothing these days, you’re not along. Clive Owen thinks so too.

The actor found a script he liked when he first read ‘The Boys are Back,’ which premiered at TIFF this week. ”I never look for genre films,” Owen told the Toronto Star. “It always comes down to the script, and this script really moved me.”

Lately, however, this is not usually the case.

In an interview with Details magazine, Owen, who has featured in such diversified film fare as ‘Sin City,’ ‘Gosford Park’ and ‘Closer,’ wonders at the state of Hollywood. For the first time in years, says the magazine, he’s got nothing definite in the pipeline. A fan of classic movies (and sports cars and David Bowie), the star says he comes home to a pile of new scripts every day, most of which are “not very good.”

“And these are films that are funded and ready to go—expensive movies. You’re amazed that people are funding them. I start to think it’s me—that I’m being too choosy.”

‘The Boys are Back’  is based on a novel by Simon Carr and was adapted by Allan Cubitt. In it Owen plays Joe Warr, a sports journalist grieving the loss of his Australian wife to cancer and dealing with becoming the single parent of a 7-year-old son.

 (Photo by PR Photos)

As TIFF passes the halfway mark, people are still taking sides over festival’s City to City Tel Aviv spotlight.

Protesters angry with the festival’s decision to spotlight 10 Israeli films and accusing organizers of taking part in Israeli propaganda, held a press conference and demonstration at Ryerson University on Monday that drew about 250 people, according to the Toronto Star.

The group, which released an online letter and petition last week, includes Canadian activist Naomi Klein and is backed by such celebrities as Viggo Mortensen, Harry Belafonte, Noam Chomsky, Julie Christie, Eve Ensler, Danny Glover, Wallace Shawn and Alice Walker. Jane Fonda signed the letter but later expressed regret and said her decision to do so was rash. Organizers say they have collected more than 1,500 signatures.

Meanwhile, a separate group is speaking out against the protest. This group, which includes Jerry Seinfeld, Natalie Portman, Sacha Baron Cohen and Lisa Kudrow, took out an ad in Tuesday’s Toronto Star explaining their position:

“We applaud the Toronto International Film Festival for including the Israeli film community in the Festival’s City to City program,” said the statement.

“The visiting filmmakers represent a dynamic national cinema, the best of Israel’s open, uncensored, artistic expression.

“Anyone who has actually seen recent Israeli cinema, movies that are political and personal, comic and tragic, often critical, knows they are in no way a propaganda arm for any government policy.

“Blacklisting them only stifles the exchange of cultural knowledge that artists should be the first to defend and protect.”

Prominent entertainment figures supporting the spotlight also include David Cronenberg, Minnie Driver, Norman Jewison, Lenny Kravitz and producer Robert Lantos.

At the protester’s conference, filmmakers including John Greyson, who pulled his film from the festival over the issue, Elle Flanders and Palestinian-Israeli director Elia Sulieman refuted accusations that they had called for a boycott. Flanders said, according to the Star, “We are not protesting the films or the filmmakers, just the frame that TIFF is using.”

“They wanted to party, and we want to spoil their party,” said Yousry Nasrallah, an Egyptian filmmaker whose movie, ‘Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story’ still appears to be screening at the festival.

The Globe and Mail said yesterday, however, that Nasrallah had announced that three Egyptians films, ‘The Traveller’ by Ahmad Abdalla, ‘Heliopolis’ by Ahmed Maher, and one unnamed Arab short had been pulled as part of the protest.

Festival co-director Cameron Bailey had, prior to their withdrawal, reportedly singled out both films for praise along with Nasrallah’s “Scheherazade, Tell me a Story.”

(Photo by PR Photos)

We’re halfway through the 10-day Toronto International Film Festival and most of the more than 100 films that needed distribution deals when they got here still have none.

The stars are walking the red carpets, the fans are clamouring for pictures and autographs but the New York Times says that off screen there is distress. The Times reports that festival co-director and chief executive, Piers Handling, said in Thursday’s opening-night address that “economic calamity” had informed this year’s film selections.

Thus far there has been no massive bidding war like the one that went down last year over ‘The Wrestler’ and saw Fox Searchlight victorious.

Dean Zanuck, a producer of ‘Get Low’ which stars Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek did tell the Times there are “a handful of interested parties at the table, and there are still people who haven’t seen [Get Low].” But he said the “days of the overnight deal are gone.”

Meanwhile, there is plenty of buzz about other means of getting a film out there, such as do-it-yourself distribution and underground guerilla marketing. These methods are nothing new to many independent film makers but the affluent Hollywood community is perhaps a bit less accustomed.

In a previous article on the subject from August, The Times refers to one relative success story of this approach, Sacha Gervasi’s documentary about Canadian metal band, Anvil.

Gervasi, who wrote the script for Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Terminal,’ began filming ‘Anvil! The Story of Anvil’ (not showing at TIFF) with the hopes of finding a distributor the easy way but after screening at Sundance 2008, offers were low, though praise was high. Gervasi continued to throw his own money, upwards of a hundred thousand dollars, into the project, distributing through Abramorama, a small company, and selling the DVD and television rights to VH1.

The aging rockers of Anvil played for theatre audiences. Famous fans like Courtney Love (an extremely avid Tweeter) started chattering about the movie online. And a Web consultant recruited an army of “virtual street teamers” to flood social networks with raves.

“Anvil!” had earned roughly $1 million worldwide at the box office in August, said The Times. Chump change for a Hollywood bigwig but the bigwig is playing with larger numbers to begin with.

So, those in the film biz may have to get creative and adapt to a more meager situation.

One might ask how meager it really be when this summer’s box office broke sales records to the tune of $4.17 billion but the reality of the situation is that actual ticket sales were the lowest recorded in over a decade.

Colin Farrell got into a confrontation with a photographer at the TIFF premiere of his latest film ‘Triage.’

The 33-year-old Irish actor brought his sister, Claudine, who is also his assistant, with him to the event at the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre Centre Saturday night. According to the Toronto Star, Farrell got miffed when a photographer shouted at Claudine to get off the red carpet. 

The photographer, Joe Alvarez, says Farrell grabbed the back of his neck after he yelled at Farrell’s sister and another woman to move along so that he could photograph the star.

Photographer Jorge Rios told the Star that everyone was yelling, but when Alvarez “screamed ‘Get off the carpet’ everybody stopped.” Then Farrell pointed at Alvarez, “went right up to him and grabbed him by the back of the neck. He said, ‘You don’t yell at my sister like that.’”

Alvarez apologized but Farrell apparently told him “You should not be yelling at any woman like that.”

Alvarez said Farrell overreacted and that he is considering pressing charges.
(Photo by PR Photos)

‘Creation’ star Jennifer Connelly made Astral Media’s president of television networks look like rather a heel on Friday morning.

The actress was brought to tears at a ‘Creation’ press conference while explaining why she and her costar and husband Paul Bettany did not stay longer at the film’s TIFF opening night gala on Thursday. After the couple’s departure, Astral Media’s John Riley held a photo of Connelly up in front of party guests and ripped it in two, saying, “This is my former favourite actress.”

Connelly addressed the issue at the conference, according to Sun Media. She said, “I had to leave early because yesterday was the first anniversary of my father’s death.

“And I’m very sorry. I would have loved to have stayed longer but was not able to. So please accept my apology.”

Riley released a statement claiming the comments were a joke. “My remarks and actions were completely in jest,” he said, “and were an attempt to bring humour to an awkward situation where our guests were anticipating [the] imminent arrival [of Connelly and Bettany.]‘ I was in no way serious when I made the comments and the ripping of the picture was for effect. I sincerely regret if Ms. Connelly was saddened by my actions as I certainly didn’t wish to detract from the premiere of her film at the festival. Clearly, I was unaware of Ms. Connelly’s personal situation and, having lost my own father four months ago, I have great empathy for how difficult an anniversary such as this can be. I continue to be a tremendous fan of hers and hope that she will take my words and actions in the light-hearted spirit in which they were intended and not give this matter another minute of consideration.

The Sun says the pair did actually make a brief appearance at the party and do the press line before leaving.

(Photo by PR Photos)

Neil Young did not cancel his appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival. He didn’t even know about it.

TIFF had the Canadian rock legend scheduled to appear Monday at Yonge-Dundas Square for a public screening of the new concert film ‘Neil Young Trunk Show,’ with director Jonathan Demme. But the Canadian Press said yesterday that Young will not make the planned trip to Toronto. A festival spokesperson, they said, did not provide a reason for Young’s absence.

The reason, according to the Toronto Star, is that Young new nothing about it. The paper’s Peter Howell spoke to Young at his California home and was told “This is the first time I ever heard I was supposed to be there.” Young said, “I didn’t know I was a scheduled event.”

Clearly, there’s a lost pigeon somewhere with a missive tied to its leg.

According to CP, Demme will still appear at the event without Young.

(Photo by PR Photos)

Everything is going green these days. Even porn. And Isabella Rossellini is doing her part for the environment.

Rossellini was in Toronto Wednesday to promote ‘Green Porno: Scandalous Sea,’ a series of short films she wrote, directed and starred in for Sundancechannel.com. The second season of the series is showing at the ROM during the Toronto International Film Festival. The films are also available on the Sundance Channel website.

In the shorts Rossellini costumes herself as the males of various creatures and explains their method of copulation/reproduction, demonstrating on a paper model of the female (when necessary). Season one was bugs and insects: a dragonfly, an earthworm, a spider. Season two is, obviously, sea creatures: a barnacle, an angler fish, starfish and more.

The informative and very funny series reportedly came about when Rossellini was approached by Robert Redford to create a series of Internet films focusing on the environment. Rossellini told Reuters, “I’m interested in animals, people are very interested in sex: why not combine them?”

According to Reuters, the surprise of Green Porno isn’t the fact that it stars the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and former face of Lancome dressed as a blue whale with a massive penis. No. “The surprise of Green Porno is the variety of reproduction,” says Rossellini. “If we just did mammals it would be the same thing: a penis and vagina – penetration!”

In ‘Green Porno: Starfish,’ for example, Rossellini demonstrates that a starfish reproduce can asexually by fragmentation.

“It was interesting to talk about animals that are hermaphrodites and that have orgies,” Rossellini said. “All of these things happen.”

(Photo by PR Photos)

Heading into the 10-day whirlwind of celebrity sightings and movie mania that is the Toronto International Film Festival, almost 100 of the 330 titles to be screened are still looking for distribution deals.

On August 27, TIFF released a list of these titles. It includes films from all over the globe like ‘Castaway on the Moon’ from South Korea’s Lee Hey-jun, ‘The Dirty Saints’ from Argentina’s Luis Ortega, and ‘Bare Essence of Life’ from Japan’s Satoko Yokohama. It includes films by Canadians: ‘Chloe’ by Atom Egoyan and ‘Cooking with Stella’ by Dilip Mehta; films by established directors: Neil Jordan’s ‘Ondine,’ Barry Levinson’s ‘The Band That Wouldn’t Die;’ films by unknown directors: ‘Mall Girls’ by Poland’s Katarzyna Roslaniec; and films by actresses turned directors ‘The Unloved’ by Samantha Morton.

The National Post’s Adam McDowell reports that two titles on the list, ‘Suck’ by Canada’s Rob Stefaniuk and ‘Creation,’ by the U.K.’s Jon Amiel (which is opening the festival) have since found deals, though the former’s is only in Canada.

The market for selling movies is apparently terrible. TIFF co-director Piers Handling told the National Post he doesn’t think he’s ever seen it this tough.

If you are buyer, on the other hand, things are looking pretty good. Handling also told the Post “There’s a lot of product in the marketplace right now, so [buyers] can afford to be choosy.”

Industry bigwigs will be looking for treasures like ‘The Wrestler,’ which sparked an all-night bidding war last year.

(Photo credit: Sofiia Kravchenko | Dreamstime.com)

The Globe and Mail reports that actor Jon Voight is accusing actress Jane Fonda of “aiding and abetting those who seek the destruction of Israel.”

Fonda, Danny Glover and Wallace Shawn are among the more than 50 signatories of an online letter protesting the Toronto International Film Festival’s spotlight on Tel Aviv. The letter accuses TIFF organizers of being part of an Israeli propaganda campaign.

In his own letter, released yesterday, Voight said “Jane Fonda is backing the wrong people again.’

Voight, 70, is a former liberal who once made public appearances with Fonda, 71, and Leonard Bernstein in support of the Unidad Popular group in Chile. Recently he renounced his former activism as the result of “Marxist propaganda.”

The Globe says Voight states, “people like Jane Fonda and all the names on that letter are assisting the Palestinian propagandists against the State of Israel. … Jane Fonda’s whole idea of the ‘poor Palestinians,’ and ‘look how many Palestinians the Israelis killed in Gaza,’ is misconstrued. Does she not remember what actually took place in Gaza? Did Israel not give the Palestinians of Gaza the hope that there could be peace? In response, did Hamas not launch rockets from Gaza into Israel, killing many innocent people?

“This seems to me to be another one of Jane Fonda’s misplaced ‘patriotic’ duties toward the wrong people. I was in Israel. I saw the rockets coming down on Sderot, and visited many families who lost their loved ones. How long can a democratic country keep from defending itself?”

“Time and again, [Israel] offered the Palestinians land,” his letter says. “They always refused. They don’t want a piece of the pie, they want the whole pie. They will not be happy until they see Israel in the sea.”

Voight and Fonda co-starred in the 1978 anti-Vietnam war movie ‘Coming Home.’