If You Have a Spare $200 Million or So …

… you could buy the rights to what is probably Broadway’s greatest back catalog. The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, the private company which controls the rights to such shows as Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific and The Sound of Music, is up for auction.

Want to See ‘W.’ Before Your Friends?

Oliver Stone’s film about George W. Bush, W., hits theaters Oct. 17, but our local rep for Lionsgate, the film’s distributor, passed along to me a couple of passes to an advanced screening of the film on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the Dallas Angelika. And being the nice guy that I am, I’m offering our readers a chance to win them. All you have to do is correctly answer the following trivia question:

“Oliver Stone has directed many actors to Oscar nominations, yet he shares a birthday with only one of them. Name this person.”

The first three people to send the correct answer to artandseek@kera.org with “W.” in the subject line each will win a pass good for you and a guest to attend the screening. Good luck.

UPDATE: We have our three winners. Thanks to all who took a guess. And for the record, the answer is Tommy Lee Jones.

Photo credit: Lionsgate

The War of the Brass and the Woodwinds

It was probably Professor Peter Schickele (a.k.a. PDQ Bach) who first composed a musical work that actually set different musicians at each other’s throats (the Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra), although one wonders if it hadn’t been done before — the way some composers have orchestrated their works as if the instrumental sections were in a bear-baiting pit (yes, I’m looking at you, Richard Wagner).

At any rate, Jeff Curnow, the former principal trumpet of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, tears the lid off the simmering warfare going on between the brass section and the woodwinds in this helpful, animated commercial (”Penetrating sonic target barriers”) for a line of weapons-grade mouthpieces.

Anthony Hopkins and the DSO

We all know that Anthony Hopkins is a great actor (an Oscar and three other nominations ought to prove that). But what kind of composer is he? You can find out Oct. 17 when he comes to Dallas for the world premiere of his original compositions, played by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. And you can possibly attend for free by e-mailing clayton@landmarktheatres.com with the subject line “Anthony Hopkins” plus your name and mailing address in the body of the message.  Winners will be notified by e-mail on Monday.
And if you do win, please let us know how the performance was.

On a side note, I think I should be commended for not working any cannibal jokes into this post. Just know that it took great restraint.

The Big Center Hires the Big Voice for a Walk-On

And the answer to Stephen’s question (see below) about who the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts would get to make their opening-day announcement is really quite simple.

Just get the Greatest Voice for Announcing Anything in the World.

James Earl Jones

– who promptly gave the dignitaries and million-dollar arts patrons assembled at the Belo Mansion a little sampler (Jacques’ Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It, some reminiscences of playing Of Mice and Men at SMU, Fences on Broadway and The Great White Hope on stage and film — funny, there was nothing about this guy, though). And then Jones didn’t even announce the one (the only) new fact. The official opening date of the DCPA. That was left for John Eagle, head of the opening ceremony committee.

October 12, 2009.

Memo to Mine Owner: Most of the Canaries Are Gasping

A quick roundup of news items about the economic meltdown and the arts:

• The Telegraph (London): Bad for British theater

• Hollywood Reporter: Bad for media companies

• Bloomberg: Bad for art auction houses

• Bloomberg: Bad for art galleries

• Bloomberg: Bad for the whole entire art market

• Washington Post: Bad for high fashion

• The New York Times: Bad for New York theaters

• Boston Globe: Bad for Masschusetts art groups

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Bad (maybe) for Seattle Art Museum

• Orlando Sentinel: Bad for Central Florida art groups

• The Independent (UK): Great for an online satiric series

• Bloomberg: Great for a French comic book

• Bloomberg: Great for movies — if you like Depression-Era Hollywood

Arts on Campus: There, but Not There

Marjorie Garber, author of the superb Vested Interests:Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety as well as Patronizing the Arts,  writes in the Boston Globe:

This is an era of what could be called the “visual intellectual.” Students on college campuses and members of the general public flock to hear - and see - addresses by filmmakers, artists, and performers. Cultural attention, and cultural primacy, have shifted to encompass art installations, the moving image, technology, and performance. Phrases like “visual literacy,” “aural literacy,” “digital literacy,” and “media literacy” are increasingly common.

But although artists and performers are highly prized as visitors to colleges and universities, the kind of work they do has not reached a comparable importance in the curriculum.

Art and higher education might seem a natural fit in many ways, but they have a long and uneasy relationship. The arts are often still consigned to a secondary role within universities, sometimes viewed as not intrinsically intellectual, or not intrinsically academic. Even when a university invests significantly in the creative arts, and offers an array of courses in painting, sculpture, creative writing, and performance, many scholars and academic administrators remain unconvinced: Arts do not seem to lend themselves easily to the “tenurable” standards of other university subjects.

Why Even Movie Companies Need Critics

From Variety:

Tom Bernard, the veteran co-head of Sony Pictures Classics, has a theory about critics. He believes when critics in key communities are fired by their penny-pinching newspapers, it’s the movies that suffer – especially art movies. He feels he can statistically demonstrate that filmgoers learn to trust certain local critics and that, when they leave, box office sags.

Toronto: For the Love of Film

Guest blogger Greg Brown is the managing director of AFI Dallas International Film Festival.

We’re still six months away from the 2009 AFI Dallas International Film Festival (March 26-April 5, 2009), but our programmers are out and about looking for the best films the world has to offer. That includes them traveling to film festivals around the world. AFI Dallas senior programmer Sarah Harris headed north to the Toronto International Film Festival and has this report …
Although we’re on our way with the construction of the largest urban arts district in the United States, Dallas can still learn a lot from Toronto. It’s a city that has fully embraced its love for its art community, particularly film.
For the past 32 years, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has been held in early September, and many people believe it launches the new awards season. TIFF is a powerhouse of international and independent cinema that many festivals in North America strive to be. After attending the last two years, I completely understand why.
Toronto is a film town. The public loves movies and the city (and Ontario and Canada also) support their film industry. It doesn’t matter what public screening you go to, whether a gala screening, a block of short films or an obscure narrative feature film from Finland, there are people eagerly waiting to find a seat in the theater. Then, afterwards, passionate conversations spills out into the streets. And that energy is contagious. It’s a great model for those of us producing film festivals here in Dallas.
TIFF is by far one of my favorite film festivals. With more than 300 films screened there each year, the choices of what to see can be a little daunting, but exciting all the same. I was lucky enough to see several films while in Toronto, some of which we are working to bring to town for AFI Dallas next spring.
One film I enjoyed was Valentino: The Last Emperor. The film spans Valentino’s 70th birthday and his last couture show, unveiling not only the trails of putting on a celebratory final runway show but more importantly, the 50-year relationship Valentino has had with Giancarlo Giammettti, his business partner, best friend, lover and confidante. In an industry where each season brings something completely new, the film shows how powerful and meaningful this fashion icon has become, not through the money the company has made, but through the relationships with people, especially with Giammetti, that he’s kept.
The industry buzz that came out of the screenings of both Slumdog Millionaire and Synecdoche, New York is only the beginning. With very different voices, Danny Boyle and Charlie Kaufman, respectively, have created two unique films that film lovers have been hungry for this year. After being a part of the Toronto conversation, I can’t wait to hear audience reactions when both films release later this fall.
There is nothing else like the Toronto International Film Festival, and thankfully the love it has for film will push the rest of us to spread the beauty of cinema as well. For more information on TIFF, visit www.tiff08.ca.
If you’re lucky enough to go, you’ll love it. In the meantime, check out the excellent festivals our own area has to offer, including the Dallas Video Festival coming up in November.

Exposed and Rolling in Dallas

Best boy grip Sloane Schoeneberg on the set of Exposed.

Actors are being coiffed, grips are hauling equipment between sets, Joey Stewart is barking at his crew, and Jon Keeyes is being a great guy. This could describe a lot of film shoots that have taken place in North Texas in the past 10 or so years. This particular project, Exposed, is being financed by big time studio Warner Brothers. So when I visited the final day of shooting last Saturday at The Art Institute of Dallas, why did a set production assistant ask me not to use his name if I posted his picture?

“Eh, I’m really a producer, and this is just for the Web.”

Dude, really? Admittedly, I have a softness toward original content for the Internet - my hands are blogging in it - and Exposed pushes the new media boundaries of North Texas film production.

Supervising producer Joey Stewart in the inner sanctum.

“It’s the Metaverse,” says supervising producer Jon Keeyes. What Jon calls the Metaverse, I call transmediating, a term purloined from a book that rocked my world, Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins. Transmediating is telling a story through several media platforms simultaneously. Most famously, The Wachowski brothers transmediated The Matrix series; you could go see the movie and then go on with your life OR you could play the video games and read the comic books, too. The optional platforms don’t just repeat the films, they add exclusive information and make the whole Matrix universe a lovely onion screaming to be peeled (really bad but vivid metaphor by me).

Supervising producer/great guy, Jon Keeyes

For Exposed, one character will have a MySpace page with alternative perspectives on each webisode through blogging, social networking capabilities (with real people), and possibly even additional footage. (You might think interactivity and corporate copyright cannot mix, but the Hogwarts camp is doing an excellent job, from what I’m told.)

The details on Exposed:

– North Texas cast and crew (the lead actor was born here)

– Thirty episodes, each three to four minutes long, spread out over 16 weeks

– National promotional campaign, televised

– Coming soon to a computer near you (http://www.thewb.com/). Premieres November 3, 2008

I was on set for two hours when it dawned on me that I hadn’t asked about the plot (former Russian Mafia guy escapes his tormentors by posing as an American college student/janitor), then I realized my fascination came from form, not content. The Metaverse is here, baby! And it’s the wave of the future, so surf’s up, North Texas. The medium is the message.