The Win

Wow, thank you. Thanks to the Academy. Like any other human endeavor, making a film can be a transformative experience, and I want to thank Gravity because for many of us involved in this film, it was definitely a transformative experience. And it’s good, because it took so long that if not, it would be like a waste of time. What really sucks is that for a lot of these people, that transformation was wisdom; for me, it was just the color of my hair. I want to share this with all these wise people who made this movie happen: my amazing son and co-writer Jonás Cuarón. Sandra Bullock. Sandy, you’re Gravity. You are the soul, the heart of the film. You’re the most amazing collaborator and one of the best people I ever met. George Clooney, for your absolute trust. David Heyman, Chivo and Tim Webber for making this film happen. The wise guys of Warner Bros., the wise people at Warner Bros., Kevin Tsujihara, Sue Kroll, [unintelligible], Greg Silverman, Lynn Harris, Chris De Faria. And the film took so long that we went through two different administrations, so I have to honor as well Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov. Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro et Gabriela Rodriguez et Steve Rabineau, Henry Holmes et Jim Berkus, Tracey Jacobs, Cristina, [Spanish] Sheherazade, Bu, Olmo. [Spanish]. Bye, guys.

Transcription c/o the Academy Awards 2014— I’ll fill in the “unintelligible” bits later.

Just because I haven’t been blogging or tweeting these past several months doesn’t mean I haven’t been super excited about all the success and recognition Cuarón, el Chivo, Webber, et al have been experiencing this award season.  In addition to winning this blog’s namesake the Academy Award for Excellence in Cinematic Direction, Gravity also took home the Oscars for Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), Best Original Score (Steven Price), Best Sound Editing (Glenn Freemantle), Best Sound Mixing (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro), Best Film Editing (Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger), and Best Visual Effects (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould).

You can watch the full video of the presentation and acceptance of the award here [Perez Hilton].

October update

In my last post, optimistic-but-ultimately-naïve that I would get to see Gravity from the TIFF rush line (did not, obviously), I ended with a link to ScreenRant’s summary of early reviews/previews.  Per the archival aspirations of this blog, I’ve since begun collecting reviews from Venice (I started with Sandy Schaefer’s original list, and kept going with whatever Google turned up in my inbox) and from Telluride.  Toronto’s next (and I’ll tell you about how I waited for three hours only to not see Gravity).

By the way, I feel really good about my decision to avoid all the reviews and promotional interviews and other news alerts. ;)

Desierto to begin production this month

Early on during the Venice Biennale, Variety announced Jonás Cuarón’s next feature, Desierto. The film, about a pair of undocumented immigrants crossing the border into the United States on the run for their lives from a drunk American who has taken border control into his own hands, will be produced by Esperanto (Alfonso Cuarón), Ítaca (Alex Garcia), BN Films (Carlos Cuarón and Lucas Akoskin), and Canana (Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, and Pablo Cruz). The screenplay was written by Jonás Cuarón and Mateo Garcia (who appeared in Cuarón’s first feature, Año uña).

According to the LA Times, Alfonso Cuarón was inspired by script’s stripped-down narrative and immersive character experience to invite his son Jonás to collaborate on Gravity with him.  Desierto will star Gael García Bernal as Moises, one of the two migrants who, fighting for their lives, learn to fight for each other.

Production begins in Mexico this month.

Sources:

• Gael Garcia Bernal Heads To ‘Desierto’ (Variety, August 26)
• ‘Gravity’ co-writer Jonas Cuaron nabs greenlight for ‘Desierto’ (LA Times, August 29)

September update

I could be one of the laziest fanbloggers around. I guess there’s a reason why this blog is called an Alfonso Cuarón Archive. ;)

David Heyman, Alfonso Cuarón, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, and Jonás Cuarón
on the red carpet at Venice

I was going to tell you that I’ve been having a very busy summer, but to tell you the truth, as I began to catch up with the clippings for Gravity from the last month (from Venice and from Telluride), I realised that I don’t really want to read the reviews before I get to see the movie for myself. I’ve been sitting on a copy of the screenplay for months for the same reason.

Fortunately, I am writing from my hometown Toronto, home of the Toronto International Film Festival where Gravity will receive a red carpet Canadian premiere this Sunday evening (September 8), and screen another three times before the festival closing (September 5 to 15).  I’ll do my best to get myself a ticket for one of the screenings, and do some red carpet creeping this weekend. It won’t be long now. :)

Besides Venice, Telluride, and Toronto, Gravity will screen at San Sebastian and Zurich before its commercial release October 4 (and then London and Morelia). I’ll be sure to catch up on archiving before then. In the meantime, I will leave you with this Daily Mail link: good ol’ red carpet fun: Sandra Bullock stuns in a scarlet strapless dress as she joins George Clooney at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Gravity

If you are really desperate to know, ScreenRant began summing up the many positive reviews from Venice (August 28) almost as soon as the critics hit send: ‘Gravity’ Early Reviews: Is Alfonso Cuarón’s Space Thriller a 3D Masterpiece?

Gravity to premiere at Venice, and the first official still

The first official still from Gravity, featuring Sandra Bullock as medical engineer Ryan Stone

The marketing machine has begun for Gravity, with a couple weeks of rumours followed by an official announcements last week that the film would premiere at, and indeed open, the 70th edition of the Venice International Film Festival on August 28; and that Cuarón personally show off exclusive footage from the film at ComicCon in San Diego, the weekend of July 18-21.

Earlier this week, Warner Bros. released this first still from Gravity, featuring Sandra Bullock ~floating in the doomed space station. Cuarón told USA Today:

She’s confronted with the idea that Earth is so far away. She can see the whole Earth and she doesn’t belong to it. What is really scary for people is being lost or alone in the immensity of the void.

He also spoke to the depiction of Earth, which film writer Bryan Alexander described as a a major character in the movie, “When you see this Earth from outer space with all of its beauty and colors, you don’t see all of these separations between these countries. Earth is just one organic, beautiful thing. We happen to live in a very stunning and beautiful place.”

NBC to premiere ‘Believe’ mid-season, Sunday nights at 9pm

Following the exciting announcement earlier this month, NBC presented its fall line-up last week at Radio City Music Hall. Apparently, the trailer for Believe was left out of the Upfront presentation (source) but Cuarón, Abrams, and members of the cast were in attendance (source) and on the red carpet to promote their new series (photos below). TV Fanatic caught up with Cuarón, Johnny Sequoyah (Bo), and Delroy Lindo (Winter) and asked about the concept.

***

“It’s a clash between innocence and experience, and this young lady [Bo] is in the centre. She’s kind of the fulcrum around which all of this activity is taking place,” explained Lindo. Cuarón also discussed how the show came to be, including his initial reluctance about television, and Abrams’ encouragement, “Just do it the way you would like to do a show.”

We just approached it as if we were doing small films.

While NBC is yet to officially* release the trailer, it’s already started up the social media machine, including

Gravity trailer released