PARK CITY, Jan. 22 - All the latest coming-and-goings from Park City:
The controversial documentary "Kurt and Courtney" may have found
a distributor. Following a surprise midnight screening Sunday at the Slam
Dunk Film Festival, October Films president Bingham Ray expressed serious
interest in distributing Nick Broomfield's documentary, according to sources.
There are still legal matters yet to be ironed out regarding music rights,
but Broomfield seems confident his film will see the screens later this
year. Meanwhile, Courtney Love continues to issue lawsuit threats and salvos
and even sent a representative to view the screening. Love is apparently
steamed regarding the film's speculation over her involvement in late husband
Kurt Cobain's death. Don't be surprised if all the legal hassles wind up
as the epilogue to the British filmmaker's epic...
Broomfield's fellow countryman and docu maker Fenton Bailey, whose "Party
Monster" is screening at Sundance, called the "Kurt and Courtney"
chaos "typical Broomfield" for its masterful marketing effect.
"He found a distributor, didn't he?" he asked rhetorically. Meanwhile,
Bailey and co-director Randy Barbado claim that they, too, were worried
about the possibility of "Party Monster" getting withdrawn from
Sundance due to legal threats. It seems the documentary about "club
kids" hints at certain allegations about troubled New York Limelight
club owner Peter Gatien, currently on trial for larceny and drug possession,
among other charges. Bailey and Barbado say Gatien's attorney is calling
"Party Monsters" a work of "pure fiction"...
Parker Posey returned to Park City this year and didn't know what to do
- she only had one movie to promote ("The Misadventures of Margaret")
rather than the Posey-standard two or three. So instead she waxed nostalgiac
about her big break in Richard Linklater's homage to the '70s, "Dazed
and Confused." Comparing the 1993 film to a sort of "American
Graffiti" for this generation, Posey noted all the careers spawned
by the film, including Matthew McConaughey, Joey Heather Adams, Ben Affleck,
Milla Jovavich and Renee Zellwegger. Posey even joked about the possibility
of a sequel, following the Texas teens into the decade of the '80s. "We
thought it would be fun to see where they were in 1984 or 1987," said
Posey, adding that those were both fine years for pop music. And where would
her character, the bossy senior Darla, end up in the '80s? "Probably
in San Francisco... as some Camille Paglia-type"...
The gifts that keep on giving? PR agencies will do just about anything to
promote a Sundance entry, so they flood journalists' mailboxes with all
sorts of goodies and giveaways hyping a film. We've seen plenty of soundtracks,
calcutors promoting the brain-teasers "Conceiving Ada" and "Cube"
and even afro picks for the black-themed film "Brother Tied."
However, the most humorous tie-in item must be that promoting the nymphocomedy
"Relax... It's Just Sex" - a Wet-brand package containing a prophylactic
condom and light pillow.
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