March 31: Entertainment Tonight: Chris April 3: The Talk: Chris & Octavia April 3: Ellen: Chris & McKenna April 3: Jimmy Kimmel: Chris April 6: GMA: Chris
Am I sensing that this film is now getting a lot more 'push' than was intended due to the positive feedback? Will we see it getting a wider release now?
Fox Searchlight knows how to open and expand a small film so this isn't atypical except they have enough star power to get the actors on most of the high profile talk shows. Fox Searchlight produced the film instead of acquiring just for distribution so they have a bigger stake in seeing succeed (unlike Weinstein with Snowpiercer) as much as possible. They've already been running ads on TV.
The current plan to expand it into 1500 theaters by April 21st but that's also dependent on how well it does in limited before it. That's not ultra wide like a blockbuster but is more than Moonlight had until it's 20th week when it won an Oscar. If it does very in that expansion it might expand even more but that might be difficult since that's pushing up against the start of May blockbusters.
Hopefully there will be more press released around the time of the expansion on the 14th and wide push on the 21st.
These are just those Facebook videos I've uploaded to Vimeo.
We all have a multitude of people inside us. OK, that sounds bad. I don't mean I have multiple personality disorder and think that's normal I just mean we can all be different people at times. I can be the clown but I can be serious too and I'm usually naively optimistic but can be hit with bouts of pessimism. So back to Chris - he's all sorts of Chris's in these junkets. With Helmsworth he's the clown and just laughs all the time. He can be the jock too. On his own he's a lot more serious. In some hard to define way this is a new Chris for me and I suddenly feel I have more in common with him that I thought.
God, this is hard to explain. It's to do with kids. When I became a father I suddenly felt a stronger connection to other guys who had kids because you know they 'get it'. Apart from the dickheads who shouldn't allowed near a child but you know what I mean. I remember when a good friend of mine became a father (Lee!) , a couple of days after his daughter was born he sent me a text which just said "Aah, NOW I get it!" It's just the feeling you get when you love a kid so much they're in every part of you. You don't need to be a biological parent to feel it you just need to have that relationship where you know you'd give your life in a heartbeat for them.
Watching these interviews and also the trailers I've suddenly felt that 'he gets it too' feeling that you get when you're chatting with other fathers/father figures. It's just the way he has behaved having to do a junket 'whirl' with a child. The chemistry between those two is phenomenal. It's friendly but it's a child/caregiver friendly. It bodes well for how they must be in the film. It's actually real. I have no idea if it's just a side to Chris that I just haven't seen before or if he's really grown making this film. Whatever. I really like this Chris very much indeed. I'll put him on our babysitter list. Actually, next Tuesday ........... Evans? Half six at our place?
Movies: “500 Days Of Summer” Direcor Marc Webb’s Latest Charmer “Gifted”
From the director of the surprise hit “500 Days of Summer,” Marc Webb helms his latest endearing story “Gifted” - starring the world’s beloved captain Chris Evans along with the über-talented Oscar winner Octavia Spencer and rising young star Grace McKenna.
Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is a single man raising his spirited young niece Mary (Mckenna Grace) in a coastal town in Florida. But Mary is a brilliant child prodigy and Frank's intention that she lead a normal life are thwarted when the seven-year-old’s command of mathematics comes to the attention of his formidable mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan)—a wealthy Bostonian whose plans for her granddaughter threaten to separate Mary and Frank. As family tensions and disconnections flare, uncle and niece find support in Roberta (Octavia Spencer), their protective landlady and best friend, and Mary’s teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate), a young woman whose concern for her student soon develops into a relationship with her uncle as well.
“Gifted” began its journey to the big screen when producer Karen Lunder, who has produced an assortment of films including “Arrival,” remembers a conversation with producer Andy Cohen in which she asked: “‘What do you have that’s great and different? What is the thing you’re most excited about?’ He sent me “Gifted.” When I read the script, it had this timeless quality to it. It felt like the kind of movies I grew up watching: it was a throwback of sorts to films of the 70’s and early 80’s that weren’t afraid to make you laugh and cry – that were both escapist and real.”
Like Lunder and Cohen, director Webb responded immediately to the writing. “I kept on waiting for this script to get bad, but it just kept getting better. It was simple, warm and uncynical. The writing felt nourishing to me. Mary and Frank are something like a comedy team with a lot of heart. After spending so many years on bigger movies, I just wanted to hang out with these two.”
In his career, Chris Evans has judiciously chosen a balance of blockbuster and smaller, more interior films. He picked “Gifted” for many reasons but says: “It was more the director than the role. You can have a great role and a great script. You can have a lot of pieces in place but if you don’t have a great director, you don’t have much. So for me it was Marc Webb.”
Webb is particularly pleased that “Gifted” is a movie in which all the intellectual powerhouses are women. “It’s a movie where women are really brilliant and it’s not done as a stunt. It’s something that feels weirdly rare, I don’t know why. I love the idea of having girls who are good at math, women who are good at math. I mean, it happens in the world but we just don’t always recognize that in cinema.”
Webb also thinks that fathers will respond to the message of the film, if his own reaction is any example: “I’m a forty-year-old dude, and I got choked up. All the burly grips hid behind the duvateen (light blocking fabric) because they were crying. I think men are not encouraged to feel, which I think is one of the challenges that Frank has to face, but of course men are emotional creatures too.”
Webb also thinks that fathers will respond to the message of the film, if his own reaction is any example: “I’m a forty-year-old dude, and I got choked up. All the burly grips hid behind the duvateen (light blocking fabric) because they were crying. I think men are not encouraged to feel, which I think is one of the challenges that Frank has to face, but of course men are emotional creatures too.”
Ah, you see. I could feel there was a definite father thing going on here. Sorry, that wasn't very articulate but ..... yeah, there's a definite father thing going on here.
"The movie came to life every time you were on the screen." Stan Lee to Chris Evans.
The thing is, you can't fake it with a child. They are perceptive and transparent. They can see right through someone who is not authentic. I am loving the press with the two of them. They clearly have a very sweet friendship.
I see this father thing going on as well. I love it when men are portrayed with feelings, emotions that they are not reluctant to share and smart when it comes to kids. Men get so bashed on sometimes and yet I know so many wonderful men who are amazing dads.
"My favorite human" I don't think I can recall recent exes being so darn laudatory about each other.
Oh, dear. Not sure if his parents and siblings will be thrilled to read that! What's that in your mouth, Evans? Oh, it's just your foot. That quote is going to come back at him on a regular basis I suspect.
Not sure what to make of that 'why not share' thing. Has somebody hit him on the head or has he changed his tune? Interesting. After all these years of his tight lipped discretion about his love life I think I'd be mortified if he started talking about it now! Don't particularly want to know. I may be in a minority of one here I realise!!
Oh, dear. Not sure if his parents and siblings will be thrilled to read that! What's that in your mouth, Evans? Oh, it's just your foot.