Toronto: Madonna, Parties, And Harvey Weinsteins New Premiere World Record

Harvey Weinstein just set a newair, land and sea worldrecord for attending movie premieres. The Weinstein Company mogul managed to show up at three, count ‘em, three different premiere events in two different countries all on Monday night. “Yeah, this was some fun wasn’t it?” he deadpanned when I asked him about hislandmark photo-op achievement. Although he has been in Toronto this week, Weinsteinhad to go back to New York City Monday night to attend the premiere of his company’sromantic comedy I Don’t Know How She Does It, which starsSarah Jessica Parker and opens nationwide on Friday. Then it was rightback to Canada and two more North American premieres: Madonna’s directorial outing W.E. and the Ralph Fiennes-directed Coriolanus – and he made ito toboth post-parties at Soho House. On one floor he was dining with Madonna and her exclusive guest list, then he did a walk-throughone floor down at the Coriolanus preem. Then it was back up to the third floor where he huddled with Jennifer Garner and Olivia Wilde, the stars of yet another Weinstein Company movie, Butter, which premieres here on Tuesday (I saw it in Telluride). I am told they will open the film for a one-weekOscar qualifying run on October 28 andreopen it sometime inearly 2012. As for the Madonna film, which was criticallylambasted in Venice, the spin I got from one of its international reps was that it’s really not all that bad. It’s just that it’s not all that good either. There are some nice visual touches but the material about the romance between King Edward and Wallis Simpson (written by the Material Girlherself) just isn’t all that compelling. My overall impression is that she is to be commended for trying something different with this British period piece, but for someone normally so edgy,this film very much lacks edge. It is undoubtedly an older person’s movieand facing a daunting commercial climb. Before the film started (a half hour late) Madonna told the hometown crowd, “As you know I grew up in Detroit Michigan so I almost feel Canadian. Even when I have been arrested here I had a heck of a time,” she said. At the earlierMonday morning press screening apaltry crowd ofless than100 reportedly showed up for their first opportunity to see her directing and writing efforts. By the time it was finished, less than halfremained in the massive 555-seat ScotiabankTheatre.But following the evening screening at the Roy ThomsonHall,the crowd gave Madonnaa brief standing ovation before heading for the exits. But it wasn’t the kind of enthusiastic standing applause heard at the Machine Gun Preacher screening just one night earlier. Speaking of that film, I caught up with its star Gerard Butler after the premiere of his second film at this festival, Coriolanus. The response was far more subdued for that one. “You could hear a pin drop in those final scenes,”he said. He said he was awestruck by Vanessa Redgrave who should emerge as the front runner for Best Supporting Actress when this contemporary treatment of one of Shakespeare’s most obscure playsopens later this year. I asked if he was enjoying his festival experience with two different films in play and he said it would be a lot more fun if he wasn’t stuck in a hotel room all day doing interviews. He does give the city of Toronto high marks though. He reeled off a list of cities he’ll be takinghis films to next, beginning with San Francisco, so he’s a busy guy. His next film will be Oscar-winnerCurtis Hanson’s surfing drama Mavericks, in which he plays asurfing mentor to a 15-year-old kid. He’s just getting into the surfing training now. I suggested he check out the new Greg McGillivray documentary Hollywood Don’t Surf, which screened at the end of Telluride this year. It’s an enormously entertaining lookat thecheckered history of Hollywood actors and surfing and could be veryinstructive for Gerry. Michael Fassbender is anotherhot actor with two films at the festival –Shame andADangerous Method– and he also showed up at the Weinsteinparty. He wasin their Inglorious Basterds although the boyslost the biddingfor Shame to Searchlight. We both hit the fourth-floor ping-pong room at the same time along with his Shame director Steve McQueenand he told me he was pretty much speechless about getting the Best Actor award for Shame at the Venice Film Festival last weekend. I told him I saw the controversial film on sex addiction at Telluride last week and he said he was really sorry about having to miss that fest, he heard it was great. Fassbenderemphasized that he hopes people will appreciate the challenging film the way filmgoers did regularly in the 1970s, before Hollywood lost its creativemojo. He’svery proud of Shame and appreciative that Fox Searchlight had the courage to pick it up. Another actor with two films to push at TIFF is Jessica Chastain who gets my award for nicest new star in the business. She waited years for her long list of finished films to actually be seen and now she is doing nothing but travelling around promoting them as they either hit festivals or come out one after another. She was also at the Weinstein party.Consider The Help and The Debt, which wereNo. 1 and 2 at thebox officea week ago. Then there wasWilde Salome with Al Pacino and Texas Killing Fields at Venice and now Coriolanus and Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter at TIFF. And don’t forget about The Tree Of Life which finally got the ball rolling in Cannes earlier this year. Although it has to be a bit of a painto do all this promotion at once, she’s got a good attitude and sense of humor about it. “I told Jeff Nichols before he hired me on ‘Take Shelter’ that there is a Chastain curse and if you hire me your movie will never get released, but he said he wanted to take the risk anyway,” she laughed (Take Shelter opens September 30). Chastain is worried that Wilde Salome still doesn’t have a distributor but it should get one eventually. It is Al Pacino after all. Among other movies premiering here I caught the charming Lasse Hallstrom comedySalmon Fishing in the Yemen with two terrific performances from Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. As Deadline broke on Sunday, the film was picked up by CBS Films which in its young history has been known more for far less charming films including The Back Up Plan, Beastly and The Mechanic. This will class up the joint and give newly installed academy memberLes Moonvessomethingdecent to push to hisfellow members. I have heard that they want to turn this film around quickly and get it qualified for awards considerationin 2011, another case of a film taking the Toronto ball and running with it. It may be too whimsical for Oscar but could certainly make a strong Golden Globe run, and maybe even win there. The Lady was the premiere that followed Madonna’s film tonight at Roy Thomson Hall. It’s director Luc Besson’s true story of the Nobel Peace Prize-winningAung Saan Su Kyi, who became a Burmese resistance leader only to be held under house arrest for 15 years.Shewas released last yearbutisstill prevented from bringing her people’s struggles against a tyrannical governmentto the outside world. Perhaps that’s why starsMichelle Yeoh and David Thewlisand director Luc Besson feel such a senseof urgency to get this film out this year (when Yeoh and Thewlis would be strong Oscar nomination contenders).I talked with all three earlier today and will post the best of that discussionsoon, but their hope is that this film’s releasewill make a real difference in her situation just as winning the Nobel Peace Prize did, albeitbriefly. It’s a real departure for the more action-oriented Besson and played extremely well in its screenings hereon Monday.I am told there are a couple of likely distributors circling this one already. Finally,Summit held a post-premiere dinner and party for their 50/50 cancer comedy starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Seth Rogen, and Focus threw a sit-downdinner at the Roosevelt Roomfor their Pariah, a film the distrib will bepushing for Oscars. In light of thesuccess of the Oscar-winningPrecious, they could have a real shot although Focus exec Adriene Bowles likens the movie more to Winter’s Bone, a Best Picture nominee last year.Star Adepero Oduye is a real discovery and in person is nothing like the character she plays in the film. Writer and director Dee Reessaid the ride since Sundance has been wild but well worth it. The ride at TIFF has been wild too, but everything good has to come to an end. I’m headingback to L.A. for Emmy week but I will continue to keep my eye on Toronto.A wrapof all the fall fests will come after TIFF winds down this weekend.

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