Movies Til Dawn

A massive case of blog-avoidance coupled with mucho work on behalf of the movie has led me to these neglectful waters from which I drinketh reluctantly. Can you say the above in pig latin? "City Island's" second weekend was as strong as its first, with a more than healthy per screen average of just under seven grand per screen according to BoxOfficeMojo. We are now opening in quite a few more markets and are, I hope, poised for a real word of mouth explosion. I'm curious to hear from anyone who sees the film in non-metropolitan centers as to how it plays for so-called "general" audiences. The thing about the film that we're hoping gets across is that, while it is very New York and ethnic in some ways, the story really could happen anywhere and thus the humor is not relegated to strictly urban communities. Click here for a complete listing of where we're opening over the next few weeks. And New Yorkers--dig that we've added one of my favorite o...

Friday morning (barely) and weekend number two awaits us. "City Island" is still exclusively at the Landmark Theater in LA--it will expand to other theaters in Encino and Pasadena next week. In New York we are still downtown at the Angelika and have added a screen in midtown--the Empire 42nd Street, one of the cities biggest movie palaces, you should pardon the expression. And we've hit four new cities as of today. The movie opens, today, in Philadelphia, Dallas, Miami and Toronto. Next week we hit Boston, Chicago and Minneapolis. But as of today: Check out our excellent Philadelphia Inquirer review. And dig the Miami Heralds heaps o' praise. The Dallas Morning News review aint exactly hay. Whatever that means... And our northern neighbors at the Toronto Sun seem pleasantly pleased with our movie. Have I eliminated the negative reviews, you ask? Of course I have. It's my damn blog! But the above press is indicative of our general reactions... And for those of...

A good Wednesday to ya'. Still coming down off the franticitivity of the past weekend. Multiple plans are being made for mulitple new theaters and cities to show "City Island". The word is spreading like the proverbial wildfire...so much so that we've added an extra screen in New York for this weekend (The Empire 42nd Street). And the film with bow in Dallas, Philiadelphia and Miami this Friday, the 26th. For a very complete list of all our cities and the theaters that we're coming to over the next few weeks, click on this link to the movies Facebook page. There you go. See? Now bookmark it. And then forward it to your whole address book. Whoppee! Again a thank you to you, dear readers and "City Island" hounds...the good news that's coming in about the movie owes much to the steady, never-waivering kind of interest you've all brought to the project. I've truly always felt that since this blog began and the sharing of the production histor...

From IndieWire: Raymond De Felitta’s “City Island” - a big winner at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival - opened on two theaters in NYC and LA this weekend, and while that screen count obviously benefits it, it managed the second best per-theater-average of any film this weekend behind “Greenberg.” Starring Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies, the family drama grossed $35,000, averaging $17,500 and becoming distributor Anchor Bay’s strongest opening ever. Yes, believe it or not, we hit this one out of the park...of course being on two screens helps. But I never thought I'd live to see the day that our little Bronx family comedy would stand up in the company of the mega-plex grossers. Natch the execs are all pleased--enough to begin rolling the film out to multiple cinemas in New York and LA and other cities a little earlier. Next up are Philly, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Boston, Miami, Toronto...and more to come! Meanwhile, read one of the best reviews I've ever gotten-- not j...

I'm happy to report that, while it's early in the game, big time raves are (mostly) coming in for "City Island" , enough to fill our ads and posters for the weeks to come. And these are only in New York and LA. Check out the New York Posts 3 1/2 (out of 4) star review. And the " target="_blank"> New York Daily News gives us a major thumbs up. Here's Marshall Fine's super piece from the Huffington Post. So as to be completely objective, I'll include the not very positive (or even coherent) review from the fast-fading New York TImes. The once-influential "grey lady" now farms out reviews of limited releases (like ours) to people from other papers, in other states--in this case somebody who seems to have been in a bit of a mood... And Peter Travers, long one of my favorite film writers, gave us a glowing write-up in Rolling Stone. I'm deeply moved by the closing lines of his review. Unfortunately it has yet to post on-lin...

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to conduct a four hour, career-spanning, interview with the great filmmaker James Ivory ("Howards End", "Remains of the Day", "A Room With a View" etc.) This was done under the auspices of the Special Projects committee of the Directors Guild of America--the Guild asks directors to interview on videotape other directors to capture an "oral history" of the filmmakers career. Anyway, at the end of the interview I asked Mr. Ivory what the best part of filmmaking is and what the worst part of filmmaking is. The best part, he said, was the shooting. "That's when I'm really living". The worst part? "The days just before your movie opens and you don't know if you have a hit or a flop." Ahem. "City Island" opens tomorrow, March 19th, in LA and New York. What can I say but..PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO GO SEE IT. Click here to listen to a very nice radio interview that A...

Click here to go to Andy Garcia's Facebook page and see a video message that he left for his fans/friends/followers talking about "City Island". And click here to go to the Experience Project and their wildly successful "City Island" promotional kind of thing. It's all about sharing your darkest secrets and if I'm not mistaken, the tote board at the top of the page says that four million plus stories have been received thus far. Four million? Could this possibly be correct? And now for some more promotion--our movie's star is being worked seriously hard by the ravenously hungry publicity machine and is nothing but a super-pro about. Why, over the next forty-eight hours you can see him at... TUNE IN TODAY, Wednesday, March 17th WHAT: Andy Garcia appears on tonight’s THE TAVIS SMILEY SHOW. WHEN: 11:00PM (PST) / 1:00AM (EST) WHERE: KCET(LA) / WNET(NY) – Check local listings TUNE IN TOMORROW! Thursday, Ma...

What better excuse to have dropped the proverbial ball and failed to post for the past few days then having a movie about to open? "City Island" opens this Friday in LA (at the Landmark, Westside Pavillion) and in New York (at the Angelika). But you probably already knew that. You probably also already know that "City Island" has become a grass roots indie fave, a movie that audiences feel belongs to them--a perfectly appropriate reaction given that the films success began with it winning the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. And so, ever since, I have been hectoring--rather, urging--the followers of this blog to spread the word and help get people in the theaters on opening weekend. The weekend after next, we open in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Toronto, Miami, Philadelphia and San Francisco. If folks in these areas fill the theaters in those cities (and it's only opening on one screen in each city) the movie will continue to expand outwar...

Our premiere night was a smash--wonderful crowd, big laughs, awfully pleasant party at Le Rouge Tomate ("The Red Tomato"? Seriously?) I sat in front of Hugh Jackman who very helpfully laughed at the jokes just a beat before everyone else did--thereby encouraging everyone to show that they were as hip as he was. A very nice chap indeed--he and his wife seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. And then I slept late the next day and traveled to Miami for the film fest (I'm writing this from a hotel on the beach). Our red carpet screening is happening tonight, then back to LA. Hence my day off from blogging yesterday. And what the hell of it? " target="_blank">Click here for a bunch of pictures of our New York premiere. As we get closer to our opening, which is next Friday March 19th in New York and Los Angeles, I will once again bug the crap out of you dear readers to turn your friends on to our movie...or this blog...or the various City Island contests th...

For thems that missed it, below is Julianna Margulies terrific appearence on David Letterman which aired last night. Included is a clip from the movie, a very good and amusing summary of the plot from Julianna, the shockingly weird news that Letterman spent a summer on City Island a decade ago attempting to learn to sail, and a wonderful story from JM about being a waitress when she was starting out and having to deal with an incredibly rude Julia Roberts. And here are Andy Garcia and his fab daughter Dominik Garcia-Lorido on The View, which also aired yesterday. More to come...   Subscribe in a reader

Good late morning. Rumor hath it that Julianna Margulies will be on David Letterman tonight (Tuesday) discussing, among other things, "City Island". Check local listings, as they say. Whatever local listings are. This afternoon (Tuesday) rumor hath it that Andy Garica, Julianna Margulies and I will be doing a q&a for the National Board of Review. Since this is a closed screening, I don't know why I mention it. Perhaps to serve as a reminder to myself to show up. And dig my fourth Salon column which posted a bit late --due to Oscar coverage, natch. Day thirteen of our shoot was a predominantly exterior one, with a little bit of work done inside the IGA supermarket. And much of the daylight exterior work involved the wonderful Emily Mortimer. Here we are--Andy, Emily and a few dozen camera guys with rigs all set to do some driving scenes, sans process trailer. Dig and don't forget to click to enlarge: Later that day, we shot my favorite scene in the finished movie--...

Every good makeout includes a fondled breast. Say what? I said, click on the above call sheet and tell me why the above stated sentiment is being used to describe Scene 132? Obviously the AD team was having a bit of fun (or alcohol) when they wrote the short description of the scene for our call sheet. Day twelve of our shoot took place in one of the worlds biggest parking lots, in Orchard Beach--adjacent to City Island. In this scene, Julianna Margulies straight up seduces the younger by a decade plus Steven Strait. I won't give you any more information about this scene, other than the fact that it was as uncomfortable to film as any of these sex/love things ever are...and at one point I became rather fascinated watching the two of them make out and kind of sort of forgot to call cut for awhile. When I finally did, Julianna gave me a look and said: "Jesus Raymond!" The only other thing I remember in detail about that shoot day is that it was on August 4th, and my son was...

As you can see from the above call sheet, the page count on this Friday evening--day eleven of production-- was ten and three eighths pages. On a normal day we would shoot an average of four pages of script--which is considered quite a bit if you're a fifty million dollar movie, but if your shooting a 28 day schedule is just about right.(Do the math--28 times 4 equals 112 which is roughly the page count of my script). This eleven page scene, however, was shot all in one night--a considerable feat of energy for the actors as well as the crew. Why? Because it just seemed to be one of those unstoppable scenes, a huge verbal slugfest, that would be better caught in one long go than in breaking it up over a series of nights. I knew it was a risk scheduling it for only one night--by committing to the idea we effectively were cut off from the possibility of letting it spill over into another night--but I felt that the high level of professionalism of the actors (to say nothing of the cre...

We're just over two weeks out from our opening weekend. (Pause). Would you like any more sparkling dialogue? Then let's get started. At the screenings where I've been doing q&a's this week (I've got another one coming up tonight in Westchester) I invariably get asked these three questions: How did you come up with the story? How did you cast all those actors? And what was the hardest scene to shoot in the whole film? I'll skip the first two since I've regurgitated those answers ad infinitum, ad naseaum all over this blog for the past year and a half. But the hardest scene to shoot was one that is coming up tomorrow. Today we do day ten. Tomorrow day eleven. But day ten and eleven were inextricably linked and one served to set up the other. You see--for those of you who haven't seen the film--the ending is a huge climactic family fight on the street in front of the Rizzo's house. The fight begins indoors and moves outdoors. It all takes place at ...

Here's a nifty story on celebrity "spawn" --kids of famous actors who are becoming or have become well known in their own right. And guess who leads the pack? Yep--our lovely Dominik Garcia-Lorido. This piece comes complete with trailer--a very nice way to spread the word as we move into the crucial final weeks of promotion before the movie opens on 3/19. Speaking of crucial...have you considered e-mailing this blog to a dear friend or sworn enemy today? Every little bit helps. I've been doing screening q&a's every night this week--Monday night the movie was screened for the Producers Guild at IFC in downtown Manhattan, last night for a class from the School of Visual Arts. Tonight I head out to Westchester to speak to a group that's headed by Marshall Fine, a very good film historian who wrote a terrific book on Sam Peckinpah called "Bloody Sam". Last nights discussion was moderated by Ralph Applebaum, with whom I share an interesting personal ...

Dig! Want to see 28 production stills of our movie? Click here to go to the IMDB photo page. This posted just this morning and represents the largest bunch of aggregated stills yet available from the movie. Superb placement we got too--we're second under the NAACP awards gallery. Many thanks to Phil "God of Stills" Caruso--for shooting all of these masterworks and for e-mailing this morning to tell me that imdb had put them up. Day eight of the City Island shoot was a split--our call as you can see from the above click-to-enlarge call sheet was noon, making midnight the end of our twelve hour day, with lunch called at the convivial hour of six pm. This allowed the schedule to gradually work itself later and later until, at the end of the week, our call would be six PM for an all nighter ending at dawn. I'll get to what happened on that fateful night by the end of this week. The scenes we shot on day eight mostly involved Steven Strait and Julianna Margulies. Strange...

Good morning. Our movie, "City Island', opens in 19 days--on March 19th (so does that make it 18?). Well, what-evah. After eight years of planning, two years of making, a year and half of incessant blogging, this puppy hits theaters in LA and NY on the 19th and in ten other cities the weekend after. (Psst--if you want to know what cities and theaters, go back a couple of posts and check it out. I'll repost all that info as the time gets closer). How are things going, you ask? Well, dig the above shot of our slightly oversized banner which is hanging on the side of the Westside Pavillion in West Los Angeles--which is where the movie will be playing. The banner is apparently visible from outer space and I, for one, will not feel that our distribution company missed the boat by not loudly proclaiming our presence more effectively. Furthermore, dig the trailer on the sidebar--very well done and, I'm hearing that its being shown in a lot of theaters in front of a lot of ...