Lancaster, California has a film festival. If you've ever been there then you understand my statement. The town is small, was formerly known for its plethora of alfalfa fields and thus has little to attract an audience there. Unlike Palm Springs -- a desert resort community -- Lancaster is over an hour outside of Los Angeles and has a public pool with one adult lane. The point? It still has a film festival.

Darryl MacDonald, Godfather of film festivals, could be partially responsible for Lancaster's conception. MacDonald is partially responsible for most film festivals big and small. For Variety, MacDonald gave some pointers on how to make a film festival -- if you're thinking of creating one -- successful.

Here is a quick outline of what to do:

• Find a distinguishable characteristic for you film festival. Variety stated there are about 1,500 film festivals a year in North America alone.

• Figure out how to attract filmmakers to show their films at your festival.

• Money! You have to pay for publicizing your fest, the facilities to play your film, and much more.

• Gain credibility. MacDonald says this takes time and "you get that one of two ways: You buy it or you get a lot of celebrity participation."

What do you do if Angelina Jolie isn't interested in Lancaster, Pennsylvania or California? Then it's your job as the creator of your festival to come up with something clever. Yes, the festival will cost a lot of money but if you love film and there isn't a festival for miles then make one yourself. Go forth and good luck!

A movie that will be pretty much the exact same thing as the touring musical is on the way, promising an extremely thin plot that is exactly what the title suggests: Naked Boys Singing! The musical features songs like "The Bliss of a Bris" and "Gratuitous Nudity", and has been touring in cities around the world since 1998. In fact, in New York City, it's the 10th Longest Running Off-Broadway Show ever. (Whose job is it to keep a list of these things? Someone must be doing it, tirelessly.)

The show has also had a fair share of controversy, having been shut down in Georgia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and branded as "adult entertainment," although most view the shutdowns as attacks on the gay community and not against the play itself. Basically this is The Full Monty, except stripped (pun intended) of a plot, and replete with songs and nakedness. It's not like people wouldn't be informed of that fact, having most likely at least read the title of the musical, or seen what's printed on their tickets.

At any rate, this will probably be a blip on the radar when it comes out, and then move at the speed of Pauly Shore to DVD. But if you've been waiting for a movie all about male nudity and nothing else, then you can soon end your vigil and treat yourself to a trip to the movies. Hopefully you live near an arthouse theater.

[Via WOW Report]

With another example of blogs making their way toward the big screen, writer-producer-director Marshall Herskovitz has signed on to helm the indie flick Quarterlife, so says Production Weekly. The title is pulled from the fictional blog the main character writes in which she talks about her life, her friends and the apparent "quarter-life crisis" she's suffering through.

However, when her friends discover that she's writing the blog and talking about them ... they all band together and come up with 97 different ways to kill her. (Okay, we don't know if that's actually how the whole thing will go down, but it sounded a lot better than, "they all start their own blogs and nothing interesting happens after that.") Herskovitz (who is also President of the Producers Guild of America) penned the script, and will begin production on the film sometime next month. From there, it appears Quarterlife will not be released in theaters, but instead in serial form online -- an interesting move and one we should definitely keep an eye on. (I imagine they will also try to market the film by creating a fictional blog that mirrors the actual blog in the pic -- at least that's what I would do.)

This material should be familiar to Herskovitz, as the man spent a whole bunch of time writing, producing and directing episodes of the show thirtysomething back in the day. In fact, Quarterlife was originally pitched as a TV show two years ago, but apparently it wasn't picked up. If you want my opinion, expect the cast to be full of unknowns and, if they're smart, they'll use the blogging world to their advantage.

Every year the Library of Congress announces that it will shelter 25 films for posterity and here's the list for this year, from Variety. Joining the 450 films currently in the vaults are a range of pictures from features to documentaries. This year's pack includes the 1913 protest film Traffic in Souls, a very early American feature film with a then-stunning budget of $25,000. A film "so fast-moving and so packed with direct and veiled references to the vice trade that it's a wonder audiences could keep pace with it," comments ace silent film historian Kevin Brownlow.

More familiar inductees include recent hits like Blazing Saddles, sex, lies and videotape, Rocky and Halloween. Then you have classics like Notorious, and key works like The Big Trail by Raoul Walsh, The Last Command by Josef von Sternberg, the debut of Rouben Mamoulian, and the first Garbo-Gilbert picture Flesh and the Devil. The rarities are perhaps even more interesting: the early Chinese-American film The Curse of Quon Gwon and long-time experimental filmmaker and critic Jonas Mekas' Reminiscence of a Journey to Lithuania. A couple of the entries are performance films: St. Louis Blues (1929), a two-reeler that is the only existing film of Bessie Smith, seen singling the W. C. Handy song. And for more current relevance, the documentary The T.A.M.I. Show. with the late lamented James Brown performing "Night Train" and the Supremes doing "Where Did Our Love Go?" for purpose of comparison with The Dreams in Dreamgirls.

Domenico Procacci is a man of many talents. Well known for his producing abilities in Italy, he has now started up a production company in New York by the name of Last Kiss Productions. He created this company to continue to work in unison with director Gabriele Muccino in America -- of course, Muccino is the man responsible for The Pursuit of Happyness, last week's number one film. Muccino and Procacci are long time collaborators, although Procacci did not produce Happyness, yet still has no troubles applauding his colleague's success. Happyness marks the first time an Italian director has opened their film at number one in the United States.

Procacci created Last Kiss Productions to go beyond his work in Rome with Fandango productions (he also owns a restaurant and a record company baring the same name). Fandango produces his native Italian language films but Last Kiss will work on bringing Italian-based stories to the English language -- no subtitles necessary. His first English-speaking film, giving him co-producer credits, is Silk starring Kiera Knightly, which will arrive sometime next year.

We have a lot to look forward to. Procacci has a slew of new projects that are in production; many based on books from Italian novelists such as Alessandro Baricco (also wrote the novel that Silk is based off of) and Walter Veltroni's (Rome's mayor) novel La scoperta dell'alba (The Dawn Discovery). La scoperta dell'alba is about a man who travels back in time to 'Italy's terror plagued "years of lead" all by incidentally picking up a phone. Needless to say, I already bought my ticket.

What more can we expect from Procacci? A lot. He is even making his directorial debut in February with Lesson 21 -- shot in English. Even though I love listening to his films in Italian, a language not even comparable to English in beauty, I look forward to seeing how he translates his stories without using his native tongue. You?

Only a couple days after his death, the wheels in Hollywood were turning and Spike Lee has been brought on to direct a biopic based on the life of James Brown. Now, it's important to keep in mind that this project has been in development for quite some time -- Jezz and John Henry Butterworth recently turned in a rewrite of Steve Baigelman's original draft, and all three have either met with Brown before he passed away or spent time with his "people." I do feel, however, that they could have waited -- I don't know -- a bit longer than 48 hours to announce the decision. Ya know, that would have been the "normal" thing to do, I suppose.

Nevertheless, Lee will once again team up with Paramount and Imagine Entertainment (who have already tapped the man to direct a feature based on the L.A. Riots, as well as a sequel to Inside Man) and are looking to swing into production sometime during the latter part of 2007. Seeing as the L.A. Riots pic is the main priority, that will come first and will either be followed by Inside Man 2 (I really hope they don't call it that) or the Brown biopic. Since I assume Paramount will want to deliver the Brown biopic will a little bow around it that reads 'Oscar Potential," it's pretty safe to say it will debut in the fall or late summer of 2008.

Spike Lee directing a biopic based on a legendary performer? What do you think about that? Oh, and who do they get to play James Brown?

Well, the day has finally arrived and we here at Cinematical would like to wish you and yours a happy, healthy, film-inspired Merry Christmas. Should you be looking for something to read while the (turkey? ham? some other random meat?) is cooking in the oven, here's a recap of all the wonderful lists we've thrown together in honor of the holiday season. Enjoy! (Oh, and try not to eat too much.)

Cinematical's 12 Days of Cinematicalmas:

DVDs Your Kids Want, Even if They Don't Know It -- Says Kim: "Sure, there are a few gems here and there, but this Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa/winter holiday of your choice, why not reach back a little into the past for some truly great children's films that your kids may not even know enough about to put on their wish list?"

The World's Most Obnoxious Xmas Comedies -- Says Scott: "So anyway, the Deck the Halls trailer reminded me -- hey, there's been a whole BUNCH of really rotten Christmas comedies over the past few decades! At least seven, anyway! Which brings us to the list; all naughty, no nice."

Documentary Box Sets to Add to Your Christmas List -- Says Christopher: "When it comes to movies, single-title DVDs just aren't going to cut it. Criterion editions are almost there, but not quite. No, for your present demands, you need something bigger, like a box set."

Essential Home Theater Gifts for the Film Buff -- Says Chris: "If you watch movies at home and want to maximize the "cinematic experience" of those movies, following are some essential tools that will help you get there."

Seven Things You Didn't Know About It's A Wonderful Life -- Says James: "Here are seven things you may not know about the Frank Capra / Jimmy Stewart classic, from where it began to its reverberations in the here and now."

Movies to Wrap Presents By -- Says Jette: "I'm very fond of putting on a movie in the background while I'm wrapping presents. The idea is that the movie should be something I've seen before, so I am not tempted to put down the scissors and ribbons and watch closely."

Non-Christmas Movies Set During the Holiday Season -- Says Jeffrey: "Sometimes a movie simply set during the holiday season can weave Christmas into its storyline without making an overt holiday statement, and these can evoke a warmth and nostalgia -- or sometimes the opposite -- of their own."

I stood where James Dean stood before he got "stuck" in Rebel Without a Cause. I know that it's been many years since his feet were there but just the idea is still exciting. I also turned into a huge geek after seeing Casino Royale at the famous Grumman's Chinese Theatre when I stuck my hands in Sid Caesar's. That's the fun part of living in Los Angeles; nearly everywhere has been used as a location for a film. It makes the city potent with history and lore and I simply love it. But more and more filming is done outside of California (Vancouver may be the new Hollywood) and this past year outside the United States.

This year filming in Europe and Africa was bountiful. Marie Antoinette and The Da Vinci Code were two that rolled camera in France and Catch a Fire and Blood Diamond are two out of many that were filmed in Africa. The Hollywood Reporter attributes it to filmmakers' rising interest in creating more complex films about the difficulties existing in our world (globalization for one) as well as tax incentives that are stealing filming from California.

It also is incredibly fun for everyone involved in the production to travel to new places. I wouldn't mind going to France, Africa or Vancouver -- especially if it were to make a film. But I wonder if all this traveling to the real Champs Élysées is making the sound stages at the Universal Studios back lots really dusty. ...

Do you prefer fact to fiction or fiction to fact? I think it's inevitable after watching any film based on real life individuals or happenings that you may find yourself fact checking choices made by the filmmakers. Did Johnny Cash really ask June Carter to marry him on stage like in Walk the Line? Yes, he did. But what if he didn't? Would you be annoyed or angry by the writer, director, and actor's choice to make the story more whimsical?

Variety did a little fact checking of their own on this year's films with notable historical references. The article rated films such as Catch a Fire, Pursuit of Happyness and The Last King of Scotland according to their historical relevance and gave a little synopsis of the filmmaker's "spin" on the story.

Almost all the films had a high rating according to factual validity although none scored a perfect ten. Why all the twisting of the truth to make an already good story better? Well first of all, most stories do not come with that tried and true "Hollywood Ending" that viewers love so much. A story, no matter how difficult it is throughout (Hotel Rwanda anybody?) ultimately needs to have an awe-inspiring ending -- leaving the audience member uplifted and with a sense of hope.

So which movies ranked the highest and the lowest? World Trade Center received a nine on the fact meter. The story is about two NYPD officers who survived after their extraordinary heroism following the attacks on 9/11. Writer Andrea Berloff had the upper hand though as she had direct accounts from the real life survivors; whereas Sofia Coppola couldn't have a word with Marie Antoinette. If she had a dialogue with the late queen she may have found out that Manolo Blahniks were not yet available at street markets and New Order wouldn't be arriving on the scene for a couple hundred more years -- but that doesn't mean the film is any less fun.

I say, write it well, direct it well, perform it well and then maybe I won't even care if it's fact or fiction.

It is extremely gratifying that one of Hollywood's quality comedy directors can still get impressed by things like sitting next to Eric Idle at a screening of Borat. Judd Apatow tells this story and also sums up the comedic scene from 2006 in a column at MTV. Apatow, who has directed and produced episodes of Freaks and Geeks, as well as last year's hit 40 Year Old Virgin, writes that he had met with Sacha Baron Cohen about doing a feature film version featuring his Borat character from Da Ali G. Show. He candidly admits that if he had been hired to make that film, it wouldn't have been anything like the Borat that hit screens this year, and that we would have been robbed of a classic.

He also hilariously includes Babel amongst the top comedies of 2006, and also talks about the darker side of living in Los Angeles. Although I'm hoping that he doesn't move back to North Carolina, because he'll be really missed in Hollywood. He's been behind films like Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and the upcoming Knocked Up. He tends to use the same cast members in his projects, so we'll have seen Seth Rogen go from supporting actor in Freaks and Geeks to a tiny role in Anchorman, to a hilarious supporting role in 40 Year Old Virgin, and he'll be the leading man in Knocked Up. All thanks to Apatow.

So please Judd, hear our cry, and stay in Los Angeles. We need the quality movies to keep on coming.

It's supposedly known as one of the best unproduced scripts floating around Hollywood, yet the thing has gone through three directors (Michael Mann, Jonathan Mostow, Gabriele Muccino) and it's taking a heck of a long time to get this puppy up on the big screen. According to Production Weekly, Jason Bateman (who's got a great little role in Smokin' Aces -- trust me on this one, he steals the show) is close to starring alongside Will Smith and Charlize Theron (I'm sorry, but were we aware that she signed on to this film? If so, no one told IMDB) in Tonight, He Comes.

While we've known for awhile that Smith will be playing some sort of slacker superhero, PW provides a bit more of a plot description, one that sounds decent enough for a big summer film -- it's currently eying a July 2, 2008 release date. Basically, Smith is a superhero with a drinking problem who causes lots of "collateral damage" while solving crimes. Thus, he has a bad image with the public. That is, until a public relations consultant (Bateman) swoops down to save the day as payment for Smith rescuing him from (insert problematic situation here). Yet, as our friendly PR dude works to save the superhero's image, his newest client is off romancing Bateman's beautiful wife (Theron).

Peter Berg is now (hopefully) attached as director, and he's working off a script penned by Vincent Ngo (which was rewritten by Vince Gilligan). Shooting is set to begin this May in Los Angeles ... though I thought the film was supposed to be set in Brooklyn, so I imagine they'll be making their way to New York soon enough.

The extremely popular online virtual reality world of Second Life is getting a new real-world addition: the Sundance Film Festival. If you haven't ventured online in Second Life yet, the best way I can describe it to you is to imagine The Sims times about one million. It's an extremely detailed virtual world that allows users to customize every possible aspect of their appearance, and even develop professions, as well as own real estate and build whatever you want on them. Second Life has many real-world counterparts that exist virtually, like Dell and Toyota, and now Sundance will be joining them.

The first time I ventured into Second Life was a couple of years ago, and after an extremely disorienting first 30 minutes or so, I began to get the hang of things. It's a bit like Tron meets Virtuosity meets What Dreams May Come. Once you create your avatar, the virtual representation of yourself in the game which can be male or female, and look like you or not, then you are released head-first into the sprawling vastness of the Second Life universe. Your character can literally fly, like Superman, to any location in the game, and interact with the environment and other denizens of the virtual. You can do things like find a job, go sightseeing, and even purchase genitalia for your avatar. Yes, it's that detailed.

Sundance is going to be trying to duplicate the festival experience online, by way of the Sundance Channel. Vincent Tibbett, one of the Sundance avatars for Second Life told Netscape's Karina Longworth, "Imagine hanging out with people from your local art house theater. That's the environment we plan to replicate in SL." Having spent two trial weeks inside this world, and also being a veteran of the Sundance experience, I'm not sure how well it will translate, virtually speaking. Still, if it serves as another outlet to introduce films to the world, real or not, I'm all for it. Sundance is a great film festival, but it is often limited by the fact that you have to journey to Park City, UT in order to see many of the films, especially in the different Shorts and Animation categories, that you might never see anywhere else. If Second Life can give users a chance to experience Sundance films from the comfort of their own home, then how can it not be a step in the right direction?

The film launching the Sundance Second Life experience is Four Eyed Monsters, which was written and directed by two people popular in the vlogging world, Arin Crumley and Susan Buice, which should help it make an easy transition to the digital world. We'll be tracking more with the Second Life Sundance presence as it develops. In the meantime, be sure to visit our sister site dedicated to all things Second Life.

Right now, The Guardian has a neat little thirty-question quiz up called 2006: The year in film. How well do you remember everything (film-related) that happened this year? And when I say everything, I mean even the tiniest details -- like quotes from actors, marketing mishaps and deaths. That's right, The Guardian has assembled a unique list of multiple choice questions that are, at best, extremely random.

Personally, I found the quiz to be rather easy, but then again I write for a movie blog -- I should know these things, right? However, I was surprised to only score 28 out of 30. Yes, even I'm not perfect. They got me with one death question (pick the actor who died in 2005, not 2006), as well as on a question about a marketing mishap that occurred during Lucky Number Slevin's promotional campaign. Now, if you're a faithful Cinematical reader, then you should be able to answer most (if not all) of the questions correctly, seeing as we've covered each topic at least once. Have fun, and definitely come back after you've finished to let us know your score.

Bonus Cinematical question not included in The Guardian's quiz: Which film did Erik predict would gross the most money at the box office this past summer? And was he right?

[via Hollywood Wiretap]

Say what you want about Tom Arnold and all his personal nonsense, but the guy always finds a way to entertain me -- be it on screen or off. He's a jumpy actor -- kind of like Jimmy Fallon, who I mentioned earlier, but not as annoying -- and I've enjoyed him in a number of things, including True Lies and Happy Endings. Recently, Arnold has decided to go the indie route and take (what I assume is) less money for juicier roles. Stuff that's more dramatic and doesn't have him playing someone's wacky best friend. And how is that going for him?

Well, in 2006 he had one role as the voice of a character in something called Lolo's Cafe. In 2007, however, the guy has a whopping eight films lined up. Eight films! Did someone find a better agent, or what? Should we start calling 2007 "The Year of the Other Tom?" Heh, I like the way that sounds. Among the eight films we have the comedic thriller Remarkable Power, in which Arnold has just signed on to play a role. This is a bit confusing as IMDB already has the film in post-production -- did they add his role and begin re-shoots? Or was this a story that should have been written about six months ago, except The Hollywood Reporter just never got around to it? Regardless, pic revolves around a late-night talk show host who attempts to pull off some elaborate stunt in an effort to save his canceled show. When said stunt turns into murder, we see how it affects an eclectic group of Los Angeles locals whose lives intertwine as a result of the whole mess. Arnold will play some sort of private detective, and will star alongside folks like Kevin Nealon (remember him?), Evan Peters and Nora Zehetner.

How do you feel about Tom Arnold and the eight films he has coming out next year? Does he still have time to turn things around and get serious? Would you be able to watch him in a dramatic role and not chuckle once or twice?

According to Sci Fi Wire, Guillermo del Toro's next project after the completion of Hellboy 2 next year may be an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. The story deals with an Antarctic expedition from Miskatonic University (a school that appears in much of Lovecraft's work) that discovers remains of utterly alien creatures that pre-date humanity's time on earth. When members of the expedition are slaughtered, the survivors deduce that it is the work of "shoggoths," shape-shifting servants of the creatures they have discovered. Del Toro has been working on the adaptation of the 1931 novella since 2003.

"The whole idea of Lovecraft's position towards the universe, he's very much like an Albert Camus position," says del Toro, referring to the French novelist and philosopher. "He's an existentialist. He says the cosmos is indifferent to man. At the very best is indifferent. And [it] just sees us as fleas, or ... are hostile to us."

I find the idea of del Toro doing a Lovecraft film quite exciting, and it's not like it's a huge leap for him. Remember those enormous tentacled creatures descending from space to destroy humanity in Hellboy? Pure Lovecraft. Lovecraft's fiction does not adapt easily to film, though many have tried, most notably Stuart Gordon who directed Re-animator, From Beyond and Dagon. The latter captured Lovecraft's style better than most, but was hampered by an inadequate lead actor. The other two, while highly entertaining, are very free adaptations of the source material.

The writer/director says he is unsure whether his next project will be At the Mountains of Madness, or Montecristo -- an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's novel that moves the action from France in the 1830s to Mexico in the 1870s. His adaptation of Tarzan, which Christopher Campbell discussed here just a few days ago, would come some time later. Del Toro's latest film, Pan's Labyrinth goes into limited release on December 29, with a wider release to come in January.