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The biggest unkept secret at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival was that 20th Century Fox’s Eddie the Eagle would be the secret, or “townie” screening for the residents of Park City, Utah on Tuesday night. Eddie’s unofficial world premiere at America’s premier independent film event was more or less announced when stars Hugh Jackman and Taron Edgerton popped up all over the city’s infamous Main St. for press interviews.

The duo made quite a splash introducing the movie – Jackman coaxed the audience to engage in a round of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie,” – but it was the (mostly) true story of Eddie Edwards that likely stuck with them the most.

Edwards made history at the 1988 Calgary Olympics as the first British ski jumper to participate in a Winter Games in over 60 years. He became a global celebrity after landing jumps in two different competitions during those games and earning the nickname “Eddie the Eagle.”

More importantly, he gave hope to millions that no matter what your background or upbringing if you worked hard enough and persevered enough you too could become an Olympian. Remarkably, the Dexter Fletcher directed biopic not only respects his legacy, but also finds a way to avoid mocking the quirky Edwards (wonderfully portrayed by Edgerton) himself.

Continue reading at The Telegraph.

Last night, the Sundance Film Festival premiered Werner Herzog’s new documentary LO AND BEHOLD: Reveries of the Connected World, and after the screening he offered a ton of Herzogian wisdom for filmmakers and non-robots alike.

Herzog’s new film explores the origins of the internet, artificial intelligence, and the future of our species in an interconnected world in classic Herzog fashion, speaking to theoretical physicists, renowned hackers, and regular people who have been affected by new technologies in dramatic ways. No Film School was at the Q&A following the screening to compile these notable quotes for your reading pleasure! Whether you are a die-hard Herzog fan, or just curious about his new film, the following quotes should give you something to ponder.

Continue reading on No Film School.

A group of scientists at Carnegie Mellon believe that by the year 2050, robots designed to play soccer will surpass their professional human counterparts. This juicy nugget of techno-speculation materializes in the middle of Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, a new documentary broadly about the internet from Werner Herzog. Sporty robot prototypes, which look like Roombas with attitude, have already been created by an emotional team of students who have developed love for one robot the way sports fans adore Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. But they disappear just as swiftly as they entered in the dizzying collage of subjects Herzog has stuffed into the 98-minute film.

Divided into 10 parts, each introduced with a Herzogian title like “The Internet of Me,” the doc spends all-too-brief time with the people who create, protect, advance, and fear the internet — and in one stark case, those who have found a way to escape it.

Herzog seems to be in pursuit of what the internet is. A mother who had gory cell phone images of her daughter’s nearly decapitated head sent to her anonymously after she passed away in a car crash calls the internet a “manifestation of the anti-christ.” An addiction therapist compares internet gaming to a drug with potentially lethal side effects; one collective of scientists speculates on the internet as a sentient being; another collective describes it as the Jenga stack on which civilization now balances, ready to be toppled by the unpredictable gust of an intense solar flare.

Continue reading on The Verge.

If all the data transmitted online for only one day was burned on to CDs, the pile would stretched to Mars and back. If a directory of people on the internet – like the one that existed when it was in its nascent form – was to be published, it would be 72 miles thick. There’s a young scientist who’s trying to create a robot that’s better at football than Christiano Ronaldo or Leo Messi.

These are just a few of the things Werner Herzog fixes his critical eye upon during Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, a quizzical look into the seemingly arcane worlds of the web and tech.

Funded by cybersecurity firm NetScout, it’s expansive and ambitious, which is probably why Herzog decided to break it up into 10 chapters, each on a facet of the online and tech world. Via a coterie of charming, if sometimes awkward boffins and geeks interviewed in labs or their own garages, Herzog weaves a fantastical tale that tries to explain the online world inhabited by about 3 billion people.

Continue reading on The Guardian.

Continue reading on The Film Stage.

$600 billion was spent on traditional advertising during 2014, but there is a new advertising approach happening right now, which is a throwback to a bygone age: Brands are shifting away from traditional TV commercials to funding and sponsoring documentaries, television programs and specials, and films.

Brands will emerge as the film and TV moguls of the future.

Sponsored programs are not new. In the late ’40s, brands like Texaco and Admiral sponsored some of the earliest TV shows starring Milton Berle and Sid Caesar. In the 1950’s and 60’s, the term “soap opera” was coined because shows were sponsored by soap brands like Procter & Gamble.

Today, every brand and everyone in the advertising and broadcast industries are faced with a similar challenge- and opportunity. Our challenge now is that consumers are no longer watching traditional TV. Most consumers under the age of 40 do not have cable. The future of advertising is transforming, shifting away from television, billboards and magazine ads to platforms like Netflix, HULU and Amazon.

The 30-second commercial is dying. Consumers ignore or fast forward through ads on their smart phone or computer. In order to reach customers, brands are now in the content business. How do forward-looking brands and advertising agencies adapt to this brave new world?

Continue reading at ShootOnline.

Eddie the Eagle is taking flight again.

The most unlikely Olympic ski jumping hero is now the subject of an upcoming film, Eddie the Eagle (in theaters Feb. 26), starring Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton.

The underdog tale is based on Michael Edwards’ incredible leap to universal fame as “Eddie the Eagle,” the plasterer who became Britain’s first Olympic ski jumper. The beloved loser with the signature thick glasses finished last in the 70-meter and 90-meter jumps at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, but captured hearts around the world.

Taron Egerton makes mark as ‘Kingsman’ newcomer.

“Eddie the Eagle is a folk hero,” says Jackman, 47, who recalls watching Edwards’ efforts on TV in his native Australia. “He’s British, but Eddie embodies that quintessential have-a-go quality that Aussies love. He really just went for it as the whole world watched.”

Directed by Dexter Fletcher, Eagle follows Edwards’ improbable path to the Games – dealing with everything from novice skills in the dangerous sport to secondhand equipment that included a helmet with string chin strap.

Continue reading on USA Today.

Written by: Rupert Maconick, EP Saville Productions

Last year alone, $600 billion was spent on traditional advertising. But there is a new advertising approach happening right now, which is a throwback to a bygone age: Brands are shifting away from traditional TV commercials to funding and sponsoring documentaries, television programs and specials, and films. Brands will emerge as the film and TV moguls of the future.

Sponsored programs are not new. In the late ’40s, brands like Texaco and Admiral sponsored some of the earliest TV shows starring Milton Berle and Sid Caesar. In the 1950s and ’60s, the term “soap opera” was coined because shows were sponsored by soap brands like Procter & Gamble. In the successful TV series “Perry Mason” (1957-1966), the protagonist drove a new car model in every episode, reflecting the different models of cars that the auto sponsor produced at the time. The insurance company Mutual of Omaha sponsored “Wild Kingdom” until they became firmly connected with the title.

The traditional advertising agency art-and-copy creative model was born in the 1930s for print advertising. A copywriter writes an ingenious print advert which is combined with eye-catching images from an art director. In the 1960s, the real “Mad Men” came along and in conjunction with the world-wide explosion of TV sets in every home, they invented the 30-second hard sell spots for the captive TV audience. In other words: They modified their existing methods of advertising to match the trends of the time and made the changing marketplace an opportunity for incredible growth.

Today, every brand and everyone in the advertising and broadcast industries are faced with a similar challenge – and opportunity: Our challenge now is that consumers are no longer watching traditional TV. Most consumers under the age of 40 do not have cable. The future of advertising is transforming, shifting away from television, billboards and magazine ads to platforms like Netflix, HULU and Amazon.

Continue reading on Media Post.

Winter is coming and Canada Goose is ready. The high-end outerwear brand, which has become ubiquitous on the streets of New York and in cities around the world, launched its first global marketing campaign on Tuesday. In an intimate setting at The Explorers Club in Manhattan, the Toronto-based brand showed “Out There,” a four-minute film depicting the outdoor explorations of five prominent adventurers who wear Canada Goose coats.

Filmed in New Zealand and directed by Paul Haggis of “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” fame, the piece shows a dogsled chased by a polar bear, a plane nearly crashing in the Canadian Arctic, and a woman falling through the frozen tundra in the Arctic Circle — all are actors portraying events inspired by history. Viewers can watch the film on Canada Goose’s website and pause it at any point to hear the actual adventurers tell their story with voiceovers and archival footage.

“We’re not a traditional magazine ad campaign-type brand,” said Kevin Spreekmeester, CMO for the 58-year-old retailer. “We try to find smarter, more tactful ways to deliver our message.” He noted that the campaign is primarily digital with a few out-of-home billboards. In Europe, the film will be shown in unauthorized “guerrilla-type screenings” on the walls of prominent buildings such as a well-known castle through the end of November. Part of the campaign’s budget, which was in the single-digit millions, was set aside for fines associated with such broadcasts.

The film marks only the second time that Mr. Haggis, a Canadian, has ventured into the world of commercials. When Canada Goose approached him with the script, he agreed to direct because of his national pride and personal affiliation with the brand. “It’s the unofficial coat of film crews,” he said. “I’ve been wearing it myself for 25 years.”

Canada Goose worked with Creative Artists Agency, its agency of record, and Huge on the campaign.

Continue reading at AdAge.

Set in Yonkers, N.Y., in the late 1980s and early ’90s and starring Oscar Isaac as an ambitious, embattled young politician, it bears all the hallmarks of the Simon style – the exploration of place through character and of character as an expression of place; naturalistic acting and dialogue; intercut multiple story lines that make the pace feel leisurely in its parts and propulsive overall; and a propensity to ask questions rather than to fix answers.

Written by Simon and longtime colleague William F. Zorzi – they worked together at the Baltimore Sun, and Zorzi later wrote for “The Wire” – and directed in its entirety by Paul Haggis (“Crash”), the series takes its substance and characters from a 1999 book by then-New York Times reporter Lisa Belkin; the title quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald – “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” (In the series, a newspaper reporter pronounces and explains the line, which is just the sort of disillusioned thing reporters in the talking pictures say.)

Belkin’s book – which Simon first pitched to HBO in 2001 and which Zorzi spent years re-reporting – tells the story of the Yonkers housing case. Sued in 1980 by the Department of Justice and the local branch of the NAACP over segregated schools and housing, the city was under court order to build 200 low-income and 800 affordable units in white, middle-class neighborhoods.

Continue reading at LATimes.com.