Bay Area Film

For your Friday viewing pleasure, the trailer for the upcoming Dave Eggers-screenwritten Where the Wild Things Are.

The film doesn't open until October 16, but if you're in down in LA-LA-Land on October 1, 826LA is hosting a benefit preview at the Arclight Theater in Hollywood. Eggers, director Spike Jonze, and actors Catherine Keener and Max Records will host a Q&A following the film.

(Via FishbowlLa)

The indy film scene in San Francisco is strong, but hardly a money-maker. Take the case of the romantic comedy, "X's and O's," filmed locally and sold via Amazon.

Or at least attempted to sell via Amazon. Not many people paid attention to it.

It wasn't until it was illegally uploaded into the file-sharing service BitTorrent that it got its first real notice, albeit in a way that didn't do the filmmakers -- who had spent $850,000 making it -- much good: as a pirated bootleg. Before long, the movie was downloaded 150,000 times in a week.

Not much good for the pocketbook, but great for the elevator pitch. The film's director, Kedar Korde, used the new numbers to line up a DVD distributor and possibly a TV deal. There's also the fact that his story was picked up in The New York Times.

It just serves to further the ethos of the hungry artist: work for free today to get paid tomorrow.

The creator of A Few Good Men and The West Wing was only on page three of a 14-page proposal about the founding of Facebook when he said "yes" to the movie project. It was the fastest he's ever said yes to any project, Aaron Sorkin tells Natalie Portman-founded behind-the-scenes-of-the-creative-process Web site MakingOf. (1:28)

(H/t TechCrunch)

For your Friday viewing pleasure, San Francisco comedy troupe Killing My Lobster has made a promotional travel video for Oakland. Suitable for SF scenesters; not so much for their East Bay counterparts.

"Moneyball," the big-budget Hollywood take on Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane (adapted from Michael Lewis' book of the same name), is back on says The New York Times. And Brad Pitt is still apparently starring as Beane.

The project was scrapped last month just days from the beginning of filming when Sony Pictures Entertainment decided that Steven Soderbergh's reworking of the script was not what it had in mind. Now, Soderbergh's out and noted script doctor Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing," "A Few Good Men") has been brought in to fix things.

Still, one wonders how a story that is essentially about savvy drafting will play out on film. But if a studio can wring the drama out of the founding of Facebook (written, coincidentally, by Sorkin), it can probably do similarly for the A's front office.

Yesterday the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival trumpeted the debut of what it's calling "the largest and most comprehensive online resource for Jewish film in the world."

Titled The New Media Initiative, the project is backed by Steven Spielberg and the Charles H. Revson Foundation. It's essentially a media-rich IMBD for Jewish film, featuring titles, podcasts, videos, streaming media, viewer recommendations, educational materials and multiple manners of social networking.

The site will also breathe new life into rare, archival and independent Jewish-themed films by offering a new scope of promotion and distribution.

Yesterday's launch coincided with the announcement of the 29th SFJFF lineup.

"We're carrying on the conversation that happens before and after our screenings," said SFJFF executive director Peter L. Stein, "and making sure it can happen in the boundless space of the Web."

SFJFF will be the first Jewish film festival anywhere to offer its audience the ability to watch festival films in their entirety online; in the beginning it will be shorts from the upcoming festival. Additional films will soon be added monthly.

Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, kicks off its 33rd year today with "An Englishman in New York," starring John Hurt, at the Castro Theatre. Following is an opening-night gala at the Terra Gallery.

All told, 220 films will screen through June 28 at the Castro, Roxie and Victoria theaters, as well as the Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley.

The Contra Costa Times features an advance preview of three locally made films.

Away We Go—the new film penned by Bay Area husband-and-wife team Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, directed by Sam Mendes, and starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as thirtysomething accidental parents-to-be looking for a place to settle down—opens today.