Che Follow-Up & Other Stuff

A week or so ago I blogged about the ambiguous status of Stephen Soderbergh's Che Guevara film. At the time of that writing there was no US distributor and it seemed as though the only US screening would be at the New York Film Festival.

I am now proud to announce that the film has been picked up by IFC Films (not Magnolia Films as originally rumored). The film will be shown in full (both parts with an intermission) in both LA and New York so as to qualify it for the Academy then in 2009 we will get it as two separate films in select theaters.

Source: http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/2008/09/toronto-watch-c.html?referrer=sharethis

In somewhat related news...

Another highly anticipated film has been picked up by an American distributor. "The Wrestler" staring Mickey Rourke and directed by Darren Aronofsky was picked up by Fox Searchlight after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and garnering strong word of mouth at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Source: http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117991826&cs=1

Both "Che" and "The Wrestler" could really shake up this year's award season. Many magazines and Newspapers have already done their "Fall Sneaks" editions and hypothesized on possible contenders. Both of these films seem to have strong Best Actor vibes.

"And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!"