New York Magazine reports that Tom McCarthy‘s new film Win Win will be made at Fox Searchlight. McCarthy is one of the most notable, versatile talents in the industry, having done everything from directing Richard Jenkins to an Oscar nomination in The Visitor, to pitching in on the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Pixar’s Up, to starring in the final season of HBO’s The Wire. He’s a hard worker, and his upcoming film Win Win will mark his third directorial attempt after the successful indies The Station Agent and The Visitor.

Win Win will star Paul Giamatti (Sideways, John Adams) and Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) in a drama about “a suburban New Jersey family and the teen runaway who changes their lives and turns around the sagging fortunes of a high school wrestling team.” The film will be produced by Mary Jane Skalski, who produced McCarthy‘s first two films, and Michael London, who worked previously with Giamatti on the smash-hit Sideways. Win Win is set to being shooting in April.

Is there any reason not to be excited for this film?

It’s safe to say that Mira Nair‘s Amelia – a Fox Searchlight production — was one of 2009′s biggest busts. Most people figured that a Hilary Swank biopic was going to be a shoo-in for awards left and right, but the film completely bombed with both critics and audiences. Well, it looks like Fox Searchlight is out for some redemption, as Variety reports that they have acquired the rights to Tony Goldwyn‘s Betty Anne Waters, another true story set to star the Oscar-winning Swank. Read the full story

A few months ago it was revealed that director Danny Boyle‘s follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire will be 127 Hours, which tells the story of Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who had to amputate his own arm with a dull knife after a 2003 hiking accident. It was rumored that Ryan Gosling may take the role, but now Production Weekly confirms it will be James Franco. The script is written by Simon Beaufoy, the man behind Slumdog. The first hour of the film will have no dialogue, as previously reported. Fox Searchlight is also behind this production. Read the full story

Fox Searchlight to be exact, this as reported by Slash Film. And the project is Darren Aronofsky’s sci-fi/psychological ballet drama starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. It’s been floating around for a while now, and it’s sensible that Searchlight would buy Aronofsky’s next project after The Wrestler, which both made back its budget and brought Mickey Rourke back into the spotlight after two decades or bad decisions.

We reported additional cast members added to the project yesterday, all the more reason to be excited about this ambitious, strange film to be made by one the most ambitious and stranger auteurs out there right now.

Slash Film offers: “We’ve heard from the beginning that the film would shoot this fall in NYC, and Reuters is saying it will go ‘before the end of the year’.”

The sooner the better, and under Searchlight’s watch this could something to look at come next winter awards season.

What do you think of Black Swan? Darren Aronofsky?

It feels almost wrong to write words in reporting this news, because the news itself proclaims its wordless-ness. Well, so be it. /Film reports that Danny Boyle intends to shoot the first hour of his new project, 127 Hours, based on the incredible true story of Aron Ralston, who had to amputate an arm to survive a hiking accident, with no dialogue.

Whoa. An intriguing experiment to say the least and one with talent behind the screenplay – one Simon Beaufoy, the Oscar-winner behind Slumdog Millionaire and The Full Monty. Imagine reading 60 pages of a screenplay with no dialogue. You know what they call that? A novella.

Now imagine shooting it. Now imagine acting in it.

And we may get it all by next winter, according to the wishes of both Boyle and Fox Searchlight. Unfortunately, Beaufoy has to finish/start the screenplay first. Either way, The Film Stage will be counting the days to see this thing.

What do you think of this news? Can it work and be accepted by a mainstream audience?

We talked about it a few weeks ago, but it was confirmed by Variety last night that Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is taking on the story of Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who had to amputate his own arm with a dull knife after a 2003 hiking accident. Ryan Gosling was rumored but it looks like they are still in search of a leading man. Boyle is teaming up with Fox Searchlight once again to start shooting next year with a late 2010 release. The film, titled 127 Hours is being written by Simon Beaufoy, who was behind Slumdog. Check out a full synopsis below. Read the full story

What a disappointing year for Fox Searchlight it has been. The studio behind indie hits such as Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, The Wrestler, and Slumdog Millionaire have had a rough year. They kicked off with Miss March, a critical bomb that brought in less than $5 million. My Life In Ruins brought in less than $9 million and didn’t sit so well with critics either. Adam, Post Grad, and Whip It all underperformed as well. Their only real success has been with (500) Days of Summer, which has brought in almost $33 million on a budget of $7.8 million. The film also did very well with critics, finishing with 87% on RottenTomatoes. Their only Oscar hope, Amelia did modestly for a limited release, but was panned critic-wise, leaving no chance for awards. Their most recent film, Jared Hess‘ Gentlemen Broncos has only opened in a few cities where it accumulated a terrible $14,458 on a $10 million budget. Searchlight announced today they are not planning on expanding it to any more markets and are leaving it dead in its tracks. The film, directed by the man behind Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre currently has only 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. Before you run away, there is some good news in this post.
Read the full story

(Max is on the left side)

While I did get to participate in a roundtable for Adam with Rose Byrne and Hugh Dancy, I was also lucky enough to get to interview the film’s director Max Mayer. Max was nice enough to talk about the production process, sundance, and also casting. As a forewarning this interview does contain spoilers.

What was it like for you being at Sundance this year?

Max Mayer: Well for me it was fantastic! You know I went with pretty much zero expectations and I think I was vaguely annoying to my producers, because I felt like anything from here on in is great. We got into Sundance and thats cool, but they kept saying, “but we have to sell it for X amount of dollars!”. (laughs)

But you just cared whether people liked it.

Max Mayer: Yeah! Then there was this terrifying moment we had been calling the Adams Family when we arrived at the theater to show the film. We had only shown it to six people at a time before and this was like a packed theater with a lot of people. Hugh and I looked at each other and said, “is this going to work out?”.

Did Fox Searchlight pick up distribution at Sundance?

Max Mayer: They did.

How relieved were you that they picked up the film? Considering most of their films do well.

Read the rest of this interview below >>

About a week or two ago I had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable interview with actors Rose Byrne and Hugh Dancy for their upcoming film Adam. If you’re a fan of these two actors, which you should be, then you’ll most likely find this a fun read. Adam is an actual good love story that doesn’t feel completely contrived like most films of its kind. It’s definitely another success for Fox Searchlight.  Adam will start out with a limited release on July 31st.

Hugh, your character Adam has a hard time dealing with social situations and grasping the emotions of people. Did you find that difficult when you were doing scenes with Rose to sort of not react to those emotions?

Hugh Dancy: I did find it difficult and that’s a pretty good description of the challenge. I suppose, because well first of all that’s so out of my ordinary experience in life and secondly as an actor normally what you rely on is responding to people, listening to them, empathizing, and communicating with them. That’s what we do for a living so having all that taken away was a very unusual experience.

My question is kind of unrelated, but you worked with Frankie Fasion and I loved him from The Wire.

Hugh Dancy: Yeah, me too. I love The Wire.

In that he played the most corrupt and awful police commissioner.

Hugh Dancy: Well, he’s not the worst police commissioner. He’s alright there, he was a pawn.

So what was it like working with him and seeing how warm he could be?

Hugh Dancy: Yeah, it was great. Frankie is warm and empathetic, but he’s not a softy. Don’t get that impression, there’s a lot of bluster to Frankie and he’s kind of tough love. Just a little bit of him in the movie kind of colors the entire experience and I think he adds something that changes the dynamic. It’s the same with his presence on set and he was only there for a few days, but he was like a breath of fresh air. For some reason though I never got up the nerve to tell him I love The Wire and to ask him to tell me stories about that. I just blew it.

Did you guys know about Asperger’s Syndrome before reading the script?

Rose Byrne: I have a family friend who as Asperger’s Syndrome so I did. Yeah, I knew a little bit about it.

Hugh Dancy: I didn’t. To be honest, when I read the script nobody told me that the character had Aspergers. If someone had, I would have bothered to find out what that was. I got to the point in the script where he says, “Aspergers,” and I was like what? So I had to start from scratch.

Rose did you sort of help Hugh telling him about experiences with your friend?

Rose Byrne: I didn’t actually no! (laughs) I never brought that up and I never offered any help at all! No, I didn’t.

Hugh Dancy: It was misdirection.

Rose Byrne: (laughs) No, I didn’t on the contrary. He was pretty much immersed in the character and we had like only a one day rehearsal. It was shot in like twenty-five days.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Hilary Swank is looking to take home her third Oscar playing the title role in Mira Nair‘s (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) Amelia. Co-starring Ewan McGregor, Richard Gere and Virginia Madsen, the biopic follows the life and mysterious disappearance of famed aviator Amelia Earhart. The film was scripted by Ronald Bass, who won an Oscar in 1988 for his work on The Rain Man.

Fox Searchlight has released the official trailer for the film which we’ve embedded below:

Frankly, it looks like a pretty by-the-numbers affair. I’m hoping that the film is just victim to poor trailer cutting and that it’s more than just an attempt at blatant award-grabbing. No doubt the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will fall all over itself when it comes to the Golden Globes.

But if I’m wrong, I’m ready to eat crow later this year. The film opens in limited release October 23, 2009.

Hat tip to First Showing.

What are your impressions of the trailer?