There’s a fascinating article at the New York Times about the Sandra Bullock surprise hit “The Blind Side” – a true tale about a wealthy white woman who adopts a black teenager and helps him to become a football star. Made with $35 million (including $5.5 mill of Georgia state incentives), the movie is currently [...]

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I’m in Tbilisi in Georgia for a few days, working with the Georgian National Film Center. Had a remarkable meeting with the Minister of Culture this morning; there’s clearly a genuine commitment to attracting international productions, creating jobs, passing on skills. I’m loving it. Of course, they had me at the deep fried cheese…..

convert [...]

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Having watched it again last night, I’ve decided that The Prestige is a very good movie.
Beginning in turn-of-the-century London, it tells of two young magicians who set out to carve their own paths to fame. Angier (Hugh Jackman) is a consummate entertainer, while the rough-edged Borden (Christian Bale with a truly horrible accent) is a [...]

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In the greater scheme of things, how an interfering official in the State of South Carolina dealt with the filming of the new Jessica Biel, James Marsden, Jake Gyllenhaal movie Nailed is a lesson on how not to engage with the film industry.
In Nailed, Biel’s character Alice is a sweet, small-town waitress who gets a nail lodged in her [...]

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OK, so it’s been hectic and there’s not been a lot of time for movie watching. Instead, I did see the first couple of episodes of Holly Hunter’s first foray into TV, the oddly bi-polar Saving Grace. It’s part Walker, Texas Ranger, part Touched by an Angel. Though the drunk and wayward cop thing has been [...]

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Durban’s getting a lot of good word-of-mouth as a production location; the Durban Film Office, its staff and its website are well thought of by the SA industry generally.

Made in Durban: Blood Diamond
But here’s more good news that I missed late last week, reported in the Natal Mercury on Feb 15th; in the flurry of [...]

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