Manzarek Working On Doors Documentary

Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the seminal 60s band The Doors, has announced that a documentary about the band is currently in the works and could be released in as little as six months from now.

"This is the anti-Oliver Stone," Manzarek told The Hollywood Reporter, referring to Oliver Stone's 1991 film. "This will be the true story of the Doors." Manzarek also promised that the documentary would have plenty of rare footage of the band.

The documentary is in addition to another documentary already out on DVD called Classic Albums which features new interviews with Manzarek and his former band mates John Densmore and Robbie Krieger. Also featured are interviews with longtime Doors fans Perry Farrell of the groups Jane’s Addiction and Porno For Pyros and Henry Rollins.

Manzarek also revealed that he had several movie scripts in the works, some of which draw on his old band and its music for inspiration.

I've got four scripts. So what, who doesn't have four scripts. I've got a film script based on 'L.A. Woman,' and another one in which three UCLA film school guys go to the desert to take peyote with the Native Americans at the Native American Church. And they run into the people from the Native American Church -- the peyote church. And all the s*** that happens to them, you can imagine. Out in the desert, rednecks, psychic visions and reincarnation visions. Raymond White Eagle Daniels is the old wise man running the peyote ceremony. And that will of course never be made into a film, because it's about peyote. It's a journey into manhood.

This would not be the first time that Manzarek became involved in a script drawing inspiration from the Doors’ music. In 1990, Manzarek wrote, directed and gave himself a cameo role in the indie film Love Her Madly, which featured a Jim Morrison-like musician and which I found to be rather boring and self-involved. Here's hoping these future projects are better.

Moore To Make FAHRENHEIT 9/11 Sequel

Never one to shy away from stirring up people's emotions, Michael Moore is planning a sequel to his biggest and most controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

Paramount Vantage and Overture Films have announced today that they are going to co-finance and co-distribute the as-yet-untitled film. This marks a change for Moore, whose last two films were produced with the Weinstein Company.

Anyone who is even vaguely aware of Moore's political leanings can probably guess what direction the film will take. But with the film not going to debut until sometime next year, long after President Bush has handed over the Oval Office to whomever wins this November’s election, will people still be interested?

Vantage’s head honcho Nick Meyer, seems to think so, being quoted in today’s Variety as saying, "Clearly, we have a movie of global appeal here. Michael Moore is a very talented filmmaker, and this is a branded property."

Moore has directed three of the five top grossing documentaries of all time, so it is safe to say that he definitely carries a certain amount of cache, and baggage, when it comes to getting butts into theater seats. But part of me sort of stiffens at the idea of a "branded property." It sounds as if it is being reduced down to the level of a franchise film like the Batman or James Bond series. (And yes, I’m not forgetting Michael Apted’s Up series of documentaries, but that’s something completely different.)

Look for Moore's film to debut sometime next spring or summer. Look for the Right Wing's repudiation of it to start long before any public screenings of it are ever held.

Philadelphia Film Fest Review: YOUNG@HEART

The Philadelphia Film Festival kicked off its 12 days of films (and the occassional cheesesteak) Thursday night with the documentary Young@Heart.

A crowdpleaser without ever feeling like it's trying to blatantly tug on its audience's heartstrings, the film follows a senior citizens choir that specializes in rock and roll as they prepare for a concert.

You can read our full review here.

Young@Heart begins rolling out to theaters this coming Wednesday, with a staggered release that will take see it opening up in new cities around the country every weekend well in to May. Keep your eyes open for this one.

And also keep your eyes opoen for more reviews from the Philadelphia Film Festival coming soon!

CHICAGO 10 Poster

Documentarian Brett Morgen's portrait of movie mogul Robert Evans, The Kid Stays In The Picture, was one of the most visually interesting documentaries in some time, combinig photography and animation to tell its story.

Now Morgen takes this style and expands with his new documentary Chicago 10, which opens in limited release on February 29 before expanding in March. Just in time for the presidential election season, Chiacago 10 tells the story of the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention and the protestors placed on trial for instigating them.

In anticipation of the film's release Deep Focus has released the film's poster. (Click for a bigger look.)

Trailer: YOUNG @ HEART

Rolling out of last month's Sundance Film Festival with some positive buzz is the documentary Young@Heart which looks at a New England senior citizens choir that specializes in rock and roll songs. Sure, one could make jokes quoting the Who's famous line about dying before getting old or how members of the Rolling Stones aren't too far off in age to the septuagenarians featured in the film's trailer below, but the film looks like kind of sweet. Besides, I'm wondering how the violin player fits into all of this. Do they perform some Dexy's Midnight Runners songs?




Young@Heart opens in theaters April 9.

FREAKONOMICS Gets A Cadre Of Directors

When released in 2005, the book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything created a stir with its application of economic theory to a variety of subjects not normally associated with economics. Now Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's book is set to be turned into a documentary under the guidance of producers Chad Troutwine (Paris, Je T'Aime) and Seth Gordon (The King Of Kong).

But rather than hire just one director, Troutwine and Gordon have decided to collaborate with a number of today's documentary directors to film various sections of book. Signing up to contribute fifeteen minute segments are Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room), Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight), Jehane Noujaim (Control Room), Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country) and Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me). In addition to producing, Gordon will also contribute the films introduction and linking segments.

Feature Documentary Oscar Short List Announced

Fifeteen feature length documentaries have made it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's short list for Academy Award consideration. The films are-

• Autism: The Musical- directed by Tricia Regan
• Body of War- directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro
• For The Bible Tells Me So- directed by Daniel G. Karslake
• Lake of Fire- directed by Tony Kaye
• Nanking- directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
• No End in Sight- directed by Charles Ferguson
• Operation Homecoming - Writing the Wartime Experience,- directed by Richard Robbins
• Please Vote For Me- directed by Wejun Chen
• The Price of Sugar- directed by Bill Haney
• A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman- directed by Peter Raymont
• The Rape of Europa- directed by Richard Berge and Bonni Cohen
• Sicko- directed by Michael Moore
• Taxi to the Dark Side- directed by Alex Gibney
• War/Dance- directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
• White Light/Black Rain- directed by Steven Okazaki

I've only seen a few of the nominated films, so I can't speak to the others' worth. Still, I am a bit surprised that such critical well received films as In The Shadow Of The Moon and The King Of Kong didn't make the cut.

Out of these 15, five films will be selected to be placed on the ballot for Oscar voting. The official nominees will be announced on January 22, 2008.

Moore's SICKO: Third Highest Grossing Doc

Sicko, documentarian Michael Moore's look at the failings of the United States health care system, has just past Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in box office receipts, to become the third highest-grossing documentary of all time.

Released by the Weinstein Company, the film has already earned $24.2 million domestically in its first nine weeks of release, placing it behind Moore's controversial Fahrenheit 9/11 and March Of the Penguins on the box office charts. In a break with his past, more partisian works, Sicko received positive notices from critics across the political spectrum including Fox News, whose Roger Friedman called the film “brilliant and uplifting,”

You can read the FilmBuffOnLine review here.

Weinstein Company co-chair Harvey Weinstein said in a press statement, “It’s an incredible achievement for Sicko to have become the third highest grossing film in the history of documentaries. We are going to keep the movie in theaters and plan to re-release it during the Fall so that audiences continue to have a chance to experience this entertaining and profound documentary.”

Trailer Park: SHINE A LIGHT

I have to wonder if it's more than just a coincidence that in the same week that the website for Martin Scorsese's documentary/concert film on the Rolling Stones Shine A Light goes live that rumors begin circulating that the current tour the band is on may well be their last. This wouldn't be the first time that Scorsese has given a band its cinematic farewell. His 1978 film The Last Waltz captured the final performance of The Band in such a way that it transcends being just a simple concert film.

The trailer for Shine A Light (below) shows that the Stones are probably as energetic as they have ever been (with the exception of drummer Charlie Watts who looks as catatonic as ever), even if they their age definitely shows on their faces.

But what's more interesting about the trailer is the glimpsesof what is going on behind the scenes. Scorsese looks at times bemused and at other times annoyed with what appears to be a lack of coperation he is getting from the band's organization. "Can we kind of know, if at all possible, what they're going to play?" he asks at one point. This certainly hints at a film about the backstage goings-on could be as at least interesting, if not possibly moreso, than a film that just captures the Stones in a smaller, more intimate venue than they are used to playing.



Shine A Light is scheduled to hit theaters next April.

KING OF KONG Clip

If you're a regular moviegoer like me, at this point in the summer you're probably suffering from a bit of what I like to call ''blockbuster bloat'' and are probably looking for something a little different. Normally, I'd recommend something like the documentary King Of Kong, which opens today. In fact, when I saw the film - which tells the struggle of a laid-off Boeing engineer attempting to break the world's Donkey Kong record high score and discovering himself suddenly entrenched in the surprisingly internecine world of competitive video gaming - this past spring at the Philadelphia International Film Festival, I gave the film a positive review.

Unfortunately, Picturehouse is only opening the film on a total of five screens, so unless you live in New York City, Seattle, Austin or Los Angeles, you're out of luck. However, according to the film's website, it will be making its way to at least 25 more markets within the next couple of weeks.

To whet your appetite, though, Picturehouse has supplied us with a clip from the movie featuring an explanation from some of the folks in the video game world about the degree of difficulty to be found in Donkey Kong-




And if that's not enough- here's the film's trailer-