With the Toronto Film Festival ready to ramp up next week, we’ve just gotten our hands on a ton of new production photos from some of our most anticipated films of Fall 2007. Michael Moore’s documentary about the Slacking UprisingTour of 2004 is set to premiere at the festival, and we have seven photos from the film, Captain Mike Across America (a horrible title, hopefully they change it). From the look of the first batch of photos, this seems like a much different documentary than I was expecting. It seems aimed at the Bush supporters that crashed the 2004 tour. I could be wrong. No word on when this film [...]

Michael Moore has tackled Downsizing, School Shootings, the culture of fear, The Iraq War, President Bush, and most recently - the American healthcare system. What’s next for the controversial documentary filmmaker? Homophobia. That’s right, Moore has revealed that homophobia and the anti-gay Christian right movement might be the topic of his next documentary.
“I think it’s a very ripe subject for someone like me to make a movie about. Simply because we are not there yet and it remains one of the last open wounds on our soul that we are not willing to fix yet,” Moore told The Advocate. “There is nowhere in the four Gospels where Jesus uses the [...]

I’m not sure if you caught this yesterday, but it has become one of the hot topics of conversation today. Michael Moore appeared on CNN to promote Sicko, and was sideswiped with a piece which attempted to disprove some of the facts in the film. Moore was live on the show and hucked everything and the kitchen sink at host Wolf Blitzer. Moore called the report “biased” and “crap.” Moore promised to dissect all of CNN’s false claims in a report on his website which can be read at this link. The controversial documentary filmmaker then attacked Blitzer and CNN for spinning the BIG lie:
“Tell the truth to the [...]

In my review for Michael Moore’s latest film Sicko, I referenced a segment from Moore’s short lived television show The Awful Truth. The segment featured a father who was being denied an operation by his HMO which could/would save his life. Moore confronted the HMO company Humana with the case, and when they didn’t respond, they held a public funeral for Chris in front of the HMO’s offices. I won’t ruin the end result, but I will say it’s a must watch, one of the best things Moore has ever done. This segment was the origin of the Sicko documentary. One of the /Film readers sent me a link to [...]

The numbers are in and Michael Moore’s Sicko has made an estimated $4.5 million in it’s first weekend on just 441 screens. This is well above expectations. The Weinstein Co has plans to expand the release in the coming weeks, beginning with the addition of 200 more screens on Tuesday. And with 93% of moviegoers saying they would strongly recommend the film (according the studio’s exit polls), this film could have legs. The film was leaked online weeks before it’s theatrical release. This could be the first case where movie piracy helped greatly in the promotion of a Hollywood release. Check out the studio’s release after the jump.

 
I’ve always thought that Michael Moore doesn’t get the credit he deserves. People complain that his films aren’t documentaries because they only show one side of the story. These same people watch a film like Super Size Me or, well, see that’s the problem. There aren’t that many documentaries that are overtly accessible to the public.

More Sicko News (yes, it’s the week of release, so expect this to be the final ramp up): As we previously reported, Michael Moore’s film premiered this weekend on one screen at an New York City Upper West Side AMC/Lowes theater. The good news is that the film sold out ALL of its shows, and made $70,000. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, remember that’s just for one screen. To give you perspective, 1408 made around $7,500 per screen this weekend.
Apparently tons of moviegoers were turned away, and ticket scalpers were hawking tickets outside the theater. Michael Moore even showed up unannounced on Friday night. Sicko also sold out [...]

In the wake of the internet leak, The Weinstein Co are doing all they can to promote Sicko. It makes me wonder if they hired new people since the Grindhouse disaster. The latest idea involves the movie trailer for Michael Moore’s latest to be projected on buildings across the country on Monday June 25th, beginning at sundown through 1:00am.
The trailer will be projected with full sound and subtitles on the outside of buildings near the headquarters of leading HMOs, insurance companies and hospitals in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Oakland. Sounds almost like one of those clever commercials by the anti-tobacco group Truth. Check out a full [...]

Earlier today, we told you that The Weinstein Co was planning “sneak previews” of Michael Moore’s SiCKO this weekend in 27 markets where Moore’s films have played well in the past. We now have more information. Weinstein is holding almost 50 screenings total in the 27 markets on Saturday, June 23rd. Check out the list after the jump.

We usually try not to focus on the personal lives of actors or directors, but this caught our eye. Someone has posted on craigslist claiming to be a director looking for a date to a big hollywood movie premiere which is happening the last week of June. You can read the posting below followed by our thoughts on which director it could be (if this is in fact real):
director needs a (fake) date for a (real) movie premiere - m4m - 33
As bizarre as this sounds, I am looking for a date for a movie premiere. I directed a movie and it’s premiering the last week in June. I want [...]

So the film has hit the interweb, and The Weinstein Co are freaking out that no one will pay tickets to a movie that everyone can download for free (not an unreasonable thought). So the guys at The Weinstein Co and Lionsgate have announced plans to release the film ahead of schedule in a single screen at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square theater in New York City this Friday (June 22). The company will also offer “sneak previews” this weekend in 27 markets where Moore’s films have played well in the past. A list of cities includes: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia. A quick search of the movie [...]

We were one of the first people to report last week that Michael Moore’s Sicko had been leaked to the internet. We debated for over an hour to post the information as it could do more bad than good. But the more we looked into the situation, the more weight the story had. This was the second film distributed by Lionsgate this month to get “leaked” online. And Michael Moore has made previous comments saying he was okay with people pirating his movies. Those two facts made the story too good not to post, so we went for it. Within 24 hours we received an e-mail from an organization hired [...]

A few weeks ago, a copy of Eli Roth’s Hostel: Part II was leaked on to the internet. It was not a video taped copy, like you normally find on canal street or the torrent sites. It was an unfinished production screener missing some visual and sound effects (and may-be even a scene or two depending on who you read). But all in all, it was supposedly a very watchable copy of the film. But this was enough to cost the film an estimated $5 to $10 million at the box office.
And tonight I returned home from Sacramento, the state capital of California, where Michael Moore premiered Sicko in [...]

Michael Moore’s new film attacking the American Heath-care system has premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews (heck, even Fox News loved it). Cinematical has posted two new theatrical posters from the film, as seen above. Click on them to see a higher resolution version. I love the film’s new tagline (”Get Well Soon”). For those who are interested, Salon.com has a great article on the film and Moore’s Cannes press conference. Variety is also running a piece that has a quote from Moore commenting on his critics’ relentless attacks:
“People say I’m the propagandist, but I’m the one voice marching against the lies that are put on the [...]

If you’ve watched the news this past week then you’ve probably heard something about the US Investigation into Michael Moore’s trip to Cuba. It’s been a hot topic of conversation, in most part because his new film i question will debut at the Cannes Film Festival this week. The following e-mail was sent from Michael Moore to his mailing list (which I am proudly part of). I thought you might be interested in hearing about the situation involving the film from the filmmaker himself. Check it out after the jump.