Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott are opening up about their new movie All of Us Strangers.
06.11.2023 - 11:09 / variety.com
Savina Petkova Hollywood might have ground to a halt in recent months during the recent labor strikes, with the role of artificial intelligence in the moviemaking business a key stumbling block between studio bosses and both the writers and actors guilds. But two-time Academy Award winner Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) quipped at the Thessaloniki Film Festival this week that when it comes to AI, he’s all for it. “If AI could write a script for me, I would be so happy,” Payne joked.
“I trained as a director, not a writer. To be a filmmaker, you write, direct and edit. But I much prefer directing to writing.
Writing is hard, and I’m slow at it.” The Oscar-winning screenwriter is in Thessaloniki to present his latest feature, “The Holdovers,” the “Sideways” director’s portrait of a curmudgeonly history teacher at an elite New England prep school, played by Paul Giamatti. Slated for a wide release by Focus Features on Nov. 10, the film bowed to rave reviews at Telluride, with Variety awards pundit Clayton Davis saying it “feels like the slam-dunk Oscar contender the establishment members of the Academy can get behind.” Speaking in Thessaloniki, Payne, whose two Academy Awards came in the adapted screenplay category, described “The Holdovers” as his “first experience directing a writer.” “I found [David Hemingson, known for ‘Whiskey Cavalier’ and ‘Kitchen Confidential’].
I gave him the premise, we came up with the story together. He showed me many drafts,” he said. “I get involved in the writing, too, even though I don’t have credit, but the result was something personal to us both.
Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott are opening up about their new movie All of Us Strangers.
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In a super weekend for specialty, Saltburn had a lofty open on seven screens and The Holdovers a nice $2.7 million in a major week-three expansion that put it at no. 6 at the domestic box office. Actors are once again out promoting their films and indie/original fare continues to benefit from fewer studio releases in the aftermath of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Alexander Payne, director of The Holdovers, said he gets pushback for the kinds of films that he makes but he plans to persevere and hopes there will be more space for “human” stories in theaters.
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If you watch Paul Giamatti in the new movie The Holdovers, you might be left wondering: is that his real eye?
Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor It could have been easy for Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s role in “The Holdovers” to be yet another stereotypical trope for Black women that Hollywood has lazily thrown out throughout history. If that had been the case, the actress tells Variety that would have passed. “When I meet with these studio execs and they ask ‘What is it you would like to do next?’ she says.
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Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In the most shockingly funny moment of Alexander Payne’s “Sideways,” Miles Raymond, the desperate English teacher and wine aficionado (that is, alcoholic with good taste) played by Paul Giamatti, has just learned that his book was turned down by the publisher he had his hopes pinned on. It’s more than a rejection; it’s the death of his dream. Miles is in the middle a chi-chi Napa Valley wine tasting, and suddenly he’s in dire need of a drink.
William Earl Netflix film chief Scott Stuber once ran Universal Studios – today he sometimes feels like the operator of “the AMC 6000” given the volume of movies that Netflix produces and acquires. From Greta Gerwig’s plans for Narnia adaptations to wooing Denzel Washington and Steven Spielberg, Stuber shared Netflix’s vision of film’s future in a wide-ranging Q&A with Variety executive editor Brent Lang that was held Nov. 8 as part of Variety’s Business Managers Elite Breakfast presented by City National Bank.
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Born in Omaha, Nebraska, to two parents of Greek heritage, two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne was awarded Greek citizenship last year around the time he was working on his latest feature, The Holdovers.