IFC Films has released the trailer for Madonna’s directorial debut, Filth And Wisdom. The official plot synopsis describes the film as “a hilariously sexy tale of three roommates who must delve into mischievous and naughty behavior in pursuit of bigger and brighter futures.”

“A Ukrainian immigrant, A.K. (Eugene Hutz), finances his dreams of ‘trans-continental superstardom’ with his band, Gogol Bordello, by turning tricks as a role-playing cross dresser. As A.K. literally whips the privileged of London into shape, he also secretly pines for the object of his affection, Holly (Holly Weston), an aspiring ballerina looking for her big break while moonlighting as a slippery stripper. Meanwhile, Juliette (Vicky Mclure) steals medicine from her pharmaceutical job in hopes of quenching her dreams of helping Africa’s youth. FILTH AND WISDOM is every bit as erotic and playful as it is poignant and touching, revealing the universal struggles we all face in our pursuits of happiness.”

This 80-minute film began as a half-hour short, and somehow grew and grew. The movie is already beginning to rack up mixed reviews. Emanuel Levy calls the film “too pretentious and structurally messy to exert any real impact”, while Screendaily calls it “no better or worse than the average creaky low-budget Britflick.” Tell me what you think in the comments below.

Filth And Wisdom hits theaters starting on October 17th 2008. Check IFC to see the full listings of theaters and release dates.

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Academy Award winning screenwriter turned director Alan Ball (American Beauty) recently revealed details about two possible upcoming film projects:

He hopes to direct a screwball comedy/romantic farce he wrote right before coming across Towelhead, about two incredibly wealthy egomaniacal people “negotiating their sexual relationship within standards of that time, with that language, and with all the trappings of 1936.” Ball has said in other interviews that it is inspired by that era’s Hollywood comedies, calling it “very stylized but fun”.

But I’m far more interested in a film he hopes to produce, which he describes as “a dark, dark comedy” about “a woman who just gets fed up with being a doormat”. “She snaps and she decides to become a vigilante” and “it’s got a body count!”. Ball admits that the film is a harder sell.

Ball doesn’t do high concept, and I don’t expect any project by the writer to be “an easy sell”. Ball’s directorial debut Towelhead went virtually unseen by audiences, but is probably one of the top 20 films of the year.

sources: MTV, AWFJ

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We’ve heard that digital movie purchases are the future of entertainment, but Dell and Paramount Pictures are taking the concept to the extreme. Customers will be able to purchase new Dell computers with a $20 option to have Iron Man pre-loaded on the machine. The $20 investment will also include “exclusive bonus footage” not included in the DVD release.  If you’re not laughing yet, read the following sentence which comes from the THR story about the deal:

“The offering is the first step Dell is taking toward setting up a broader digital content storefront that could create significant competition for Apple’s dominant iTunes Store.”

This is the first step in Dell’s attempt to compete with iTunes? They can’t be serious, right? And to make matters worse, the film will only be available in standard definition. Iron Man will be the only movie made available for now, but Dell plans to broaden the selections as it signs additional movie studios. Dell will eventually sell movies to consumers who already own Dell computers. Wow, what a concept.

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Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!

MTV has a first look at Harry Potter star Rupert Grint in the dramatic indie thriller Cherrybomb.

Batman-on-film is reporting that “very early pre-production” has begun on a sequel to The Dark Knight. What exactly does this mean? Probably nothing. I’m not sure story development has even started on the third movie. BOF cites Chicago film crew sources, which might mean that Warner Bros is trying to iron out a schedule for the third film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman series. It isn’t unusual for select local crew to be brought on board a project 18 months before principal photography. There are a lot of miscellaneous work that needs to be done during pre-production, before all the big work begins.

WiReD Magazine has an article on the Six New Directors Who Are Making Music Video Cool Again. But will Cat Solen, Rik Cordero, Matthew Cullen, Vincent Moon, Vincent Morisset and Keith Schofield be the next batch of music video directors to break into Hollywood?

The Bat Pug asks “Why So Serious?” [superpunch]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles star Thomas Dekker has signed on to star in the big screen ramek of the 1980 musical Fame, which is scheduled to begin production in February, for a late 2009 release. [FirstShowing]

Nights in Rodanthe screenwriter Ann Peacock has signed on to adapt John Grisham’s 1997 novel The Partner. [THR]

Robert Duvall is developing The Pony Express, a new AMC western television series, which he also plans to star in. Band of Brothers screenwriter Erik Jendresen is writing the pilot, and Richard Donner is expected to direct. [Variety]

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When MTV asked Kirsten Dunst if she would be returning for Spider-Man 4, the actress responded “I’m in.” Which sounds like a done deal if you ask me. But when pressed if she officially signed on to return, the actress changed her tone, “I’m not saying anything, I know there’s rumors…”

This is certainly a change in tone from last year when Dunst was expressing disinterest in returning for more sequels, insisting she wouldn’t even consider the possibility if Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire weren’t involved. “Audiences aren’t stupid. It’d be a big flop without me, Tobey, or Sam,” Dunst told EW. But I guess its now sounding more and more like both Tobey and Sam will also return, and that two sequels will be shot back to back. If I were Raimi, I would kill Mary Jane off in a Empire Strikes Back type cliffhanger.

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Alternative Ending for Back to the Future 2

The Pitch: This alternative ending to Back tot he Future would cut the runtime of the film down to a brisk 23 minutes and eliminate the need for that whole third movie.

Watch More Cool Videos Here!

Video of the Day is a daily feature of /Film showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should be feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.

via: digg

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We knew that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was going to be released in IMAX theaters, but Variety reports that Michael Bay is filming at least three action sequences from the upcoming sequel using IMAX cameras.

This is a growing trend. Recently it was reported that Jon Favreau would like to film sequences of Iron Man 2 in IMAX (possibly even in 3D), while DJ Caruso expressed interest in using IMAX cameras during Y: The Last Man. I’m really glad that filmmakers and studios took notice of Nolan’s use of 70mm footage during The Dark Knight. I was originally concerned that the film’s $60 million IMAX Box Office record would result in more films being digitally up-converted, rather than finding a real value added experience for the IMAX presentation.

source: Variety

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If you’ve read the script, admit it: you’re friggin’ giddy over a farmhouse photo. The beauty of Tarantino is that the man is a perfectionist, a mad hatter for realizing violent fairy tales that make reality his gimpy bitch. The Quentin Tarantino Archives has the first shots of the newly constructed French farmhouse that will open Inglorious Bastards in a soon-to-be-classic and nail-biting fashion. The window on the far right will presumably frame and foreshadow a showdown between the female main character and the Jew Hunter. Smell the glove!

Apparently the title’s spelling is not changing: Inglourious Basterds it is. We feel for the theater employees who have to add a “[sic]” to the marquee.

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Saturday night in L.A., Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill rehearsed their stand-up acts for Judd Apatow’s Funny People in front of a live audience at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Apatow was on hand to MC the event. Friend of Slashfilm, Andrew, emailed us the following report…

“For the past month, Apatow has hosted this event to test out material for his upcoming film. Apatow addressed the crowd—about 100 people—that this was the last rehearsal before the film started shooting this Monday. The lineup for the show was: Jonah Hill, Aubrey Plaza, Kevin James, Adam Sandler (he announced to the crowd that he would be playing in character for his 20-minute set), and Seth Rogen.

Throughout the show Apatow took movie pitches from the audience members.  One member of the audience pitched a road trip movie based on Satre. The guy then said he traveled all the way from Salt Lake City to see the cast perform. Apatow quipped, ‘They’re going to find me dead after the show.’ Hill seemed the least experienced doing stand up, but still kept the crowd entertained. One of the highlights was a joke Rogen made about farting on airplanes. Apatow also suggested Sandler do a bit that he’d already done, leaving Adam to jab, ‘Some director you’re going to be.’ I would have liked to see Eric Bana do stand up. Otherwise, great night.”

Cool. If any of you guys were in the audience, let us know below. I’m looking forward to seeing Apatow head in a more adult direction with this feature, and I wonder if it will be thematically similar to the 2002 doc Comedian, a memorable study in showbiz neuroticism.

Discuss: What’s the worst stand-up comedy performance you’ve ever witnessed? My pick? Neil Hamburger, duh.

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Tune in tonight to Slashfilm’s live page tonight at 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST and hear us chat with fearless leader Peter Sciretta about his recent adventures in the film world. We’ll also be going through massive amounts of film news that broke this week, and reviewing DJ Caruso’s Eagle Eye. Your letters and voicemails can be directed to slashfilmcast@gmail.com and 781-583-1993, respectively. We’ll try to get to them in the After Dark cast as usual. Hope to see you there!

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