Tribeca: War, Inc after party

Thanks to IGotShotGun.com, I was able to attend the Cadillac Lounge after party at Tenjune on Little West 12th Street (a block away from where I used to live) for the satire film War, Inc., which premeired at Tribeca. It stars John Cusack (who also wrote the screenplay), Hillary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Sir Ben Kingsley and Joan Cusack. However, the only cast members to appear at the 11 p.m. Tribeca party was Hilary Duff with her sister Hailey, plus the director Joshua Seftel and producer. Everyone was asking “Where’s John?” even celeb guest Chazz Palmanteri asked a PR person if he was there too. Apparently he had a filming conflict or something.

Luckily, I was the only one to interview Hilary Duff at the after party, beating out several broadcast reporters that were there. I made sure I was on the other side of the barricade and the first in line after the still photos. My other "in" was that I was wearing her perfume With Love. She was very cute and pretty in her black strapless dress with a bow on top and in her black pumps. She was about my height (5’2) too. I couldn’t help but notice that War, Inc seemed very different than the other films that she’s been in, IE she went from Disney and Cheaper by the Dozen to this political satire where she plays an oversexed pop star, Yonica Babyyeah, so I had to ask her about that too.

I went on to speak with the director Joshua Seftel who said the film was shot in Bulgaria and made to look like Turaqistan, which is the fictional war town where the film is set, however he was a bit abrasive in his responses.

The producer was there too, but yeah whatever, I didn’t bother. It was rainy and late, so I can’t really blame the rest of the cast for not being there especially since they just did the red carpet screening hours before. Too bad about Tomei though, I was going to do my best My Cousin Vinny impression of “I bet the Chinese food here is terrible!”

Walking in with Chazz was Robert Davi, one of the bad guys in the movie The Goonies. I told him "I loved you in Goonies," and he smiled and said "you've seen that?" I responded, "of course!"

Below is the resulting video with Hilary. I had a professional cameraman for this and the IGotShotGun team did the editing, I’m sure you’ll notice the difference:


For a review of the film itself check out my write up at Film School Rejects. Also, more Tribeca interviews can be found on IGotShotGun.com with different interviewers.

Tribeca Closing Night: Speed Racer

Closing the Tribeca Film Festival this year was the anime cartoon inspired action film, Speed Racer from the Wachowski brothers, who created The Matrix trilogy. The film hits theaters on May 9th and stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox. The premiere’s red carpet was one of the busiest I’ve been to and this time I was definitely way at the end of the press line, however John Goodman was kind enough to speak with me though, as was the young actor Paulie Litt from Hope & Faith and actor Kick Gurry. I also saw and snapped photos/video of Christina Ricci (she’s so tiny), Susan Sarandon, Vincent D'Onofrio and Limp Bizket’s Fred Durst. Stephen Colbert also attended the premier with his family, but he passed by while I was on the phone.

I stayed late again on purpose hoping that Robert DeNiro would once again make an appearance and this time I was ready and grabbed a video of him as he entered the screening. Yay! Below is the final cut, as you can see I got a little fancy by adding in a remixed version of the Speed Racer theme song, which also helped reduce the background noise throughout the clips:

The film meanwhile is supposedly more based on the video game and geared towards gamers than it is based on the original cartoon.

Tribeca: Tennessee Red Carpet Premiere

Yesterday, an indie film called Tennessee gave its world debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Aaron Woodley and written by Russell Schaumburg, Tennessee is an intimate road movie with two brothers traveling to the hometown that they fled as teenagers to find their estranged father. When they are joined by a spirited woman (Mariah Carey) running from her abusive husband, they begin to grow closer and the truth of their journey comes to light. This is Mariah’s first feature film since the disaster that was Glitter. I’m seeing a screening of the film this week, so a longer review will be up at Film School Rejects soon.

In the meantime, I got some inside information on the film from Ethan Peck, the grandson of the famous Gregory Peck, who plays Ellis, one of the brothers in Tennessee. I also got up close and personal with the diva herself, Mariah Carey, who looked professional in her white top and straight hair. She also seemed pretty unphased by all the paparazzi's shouts and microphones being shoved at her. Apparently, according to her response to another reporter she lives nearby Tribeca in walking distance. Other guest celebs in attendance at the red carpet premiere included: Sir Ben Kingsley, Robert DeNiro and Soprano’s Edie Falco. Here’s the resulting inside video that I created:



For more photos, check out my Tribeca Photo Set on Flickr.

Update: The Mother's Day GiveSimple.com Giveaway winner is Katelin from Gorgeous Footsteps in the Sand.

I saw Robert DeNiro

and a dream of mine has finally come true. While at the Tribeca Film Festival today covering the red carpet premiere of Tennessee I got to see stars like Mariah Carey, Ben Kingsley and the great Bobby D, my favorite actor ever. I already finished my interviews and most of the press left the minute Mariah Carey went by. For some reason I was taking my time gathering my stuff and good thing because a last minute suprise arrival was in store for the remaining 15 or so press. Robert DeNiro came walking down, gray hair and in a nice suit. I swear I was stunned and I ran back to my spot to get a photo, however in my haste I stupidly hit the stop button instead of record. I'm kicking myself now because when I daringly yelled out "Bobby" to him, he looked right at me, smiled, nodded his head and continued on into the theater.

I was freaking out. My cameraman said I looked like a little girl and that my voice went all high pitch. I started crying after he walked by. I know this sounds pathetic, but I swear this is literally a dream come true for me and I cursed like a truck driver when I realized I messed up on the video. I would have had a video of him staring right at me, dammit!!! Anyway, it was still awesome. I'm so surprised he was even there since he's known to be reclusive despite the fact that he was the founder of the festival and for rebuilding so much of the Tribeca area in Manhattan. It doesn't help that he looks so much like my deceased father, for a second it felt like my dad was smiling and nodding at me. In fact, my dad often got mistaken for Robert DeNiro when he was younger a la Midnight Run time. Once we were at the airport and someone asked him for his autograph, instead of clarifying that he wasn't the actor, my dad signed the paper Bobby D, lol. After seeing him I was elated for awhile and then it felt like I was coming off a sugar high. Hell, this whole post is just an elated mess.

Update: I saw him again and this time I got video (see Speed Racer post), however it wasn't as intimate of a moment though ;)