Not sure when this happened, but if you’re in the U.S. you can now download or stream Amigo on Amazon.
No DVD release date yet.
Amigo
Updates: Amigo, Alphas, Raising Hope
But let’s start with Beastwizard. io9.com has a hilarious little interview with TSCC’s Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller this week that you can (and should) check out here: The secret history of Beastwizard.
Syfy has released the promotional pics from Garret’s episode of Alphas.
There are a couple more on the Alphas page. The episode airs on Monday, August 29.
Amigo finally opens in a limited release in the U.S. tomorrow. You can find the list of theatres here. The film will also be shown at the Albuquerque Film Festival tonight.
There are a couple of great interviews with John Sayles at NY Mag and Twitch Film. A couple of snippets:
Where did you base your characters on?
Chris (Cooper)’s character was based on someone very specific named ‘Hell Roaring Jake Smith’ who was famous for telling his subordinates, “I want you to make this place howling wilderness. The more you kill and burn, the more you will please me. And I want you to kill every one out of ten Filipinos who are capable of carrying arms,” which meant anybody older than 10. So yes, we had some hard-ass characters like the Colonel who had bullet in his hip from the Civil War who were useful in that kind of military operation. The Mayor is based on hundreds of other mayors that I read about, who got killed by one side or the other. Garret Dillahunt’s character (Lt. Compton) is very much based on the soldiers’ letters to home, who might have liked the army life but had very mixed feelings about their mission. Garret asked me about the character. He asked if he could play a character who likes being in charge but doesn’t really know where to lead them. …
How is Amigo being distributed?
The supportive mid-90s to early 2000 independent film environment doesn’t exist anymore. Even the movies with big names don’t get distributed and go directly to video. They don’t want to take the gamble with dramas. It’s either comedies or comic book superhero movies. The 30 plus weeks in the theater days are over. It’s all about opening weekend where they recoup the money and the 2-3 weeks run at best. For smaller movies, studios can’t take their chances. Even if they do put up the money to make it, they ask you to spend your money for the promotion and distribution. So I’m going back to what I did with couple of my first films. I made 12 prints of the film (10 on film and 2 digital) and hit 12 mainstream theaters throughout the country where there are large Filipino-American population. If it does well, then we will make more prints and art house theaters distribution will follow.
Last, IGN has the DVD details for Raising Hope. Here is the list of bonus features:
— Exclusive featurettes
— Deleted and extended scenes
— Gag reel
— Commentaries
— Unaired pilot never shown on television
The DVD is out on September 20. You can pre-order it on Amazon.com.
Amigo – new trailer, poster and BTS featurette
Amigo will be out in a limited release (see list of theatres at amigomovie.com) in the U.S. in about a month, so a new poster and trailer have showed up online in the last week or so.
You can also check out a BTS featurette, “The Making of Amigo,” on the film’s Facebook page (you need to be logged in).
The new poster (click to enlarge):
And the trailer:
Variety article & Amigo update
Variety has an article about Garret in the Road to the Emmys column. He is on the ballot for best supporting actor in a comedy (and also for best guest actor, for Burn Notice). There was another little article a few weeks ago that I forgot to link, here. A few snippets from Variety:
Dillahunt says he especially had a lot of fun in the show’s vasectomy episode.
“First and last time you’ll probably ever hear the words ‘fun’ and ‘vasectomy’ in the same sentence. Another high point was in ‘Everybody Flirts … Sometimes,” where he got to let his hair down, proverbially, and take his shirt off, literally.
The thesp won’t be lacking for exposure while “Raising Hope” is on hiatus. Continuing his pattern of being, as he says, “pigeonholed as the guy with no pigeon hole,” he appears in this year’s sci-fi/mystery pic “Looper” — with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt — and the thriller “Cogan’s Trade” with Brad Pitt. (…)
“I didn’t expect to be so challenged physically with this character (Burt),” he says. “With all the fight scenes and stunts I’ve done for past roles, I thought this would be easy. But I have been running, jumping, wrestling, lifting and spitting at alpacas. I’m knackered by the end of the week. And I love every minute of it.”
Raising Hope has been nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy by the Television Crititcs Association. It’s up against Parks & Rec, Louie, Modern Family and Community. The winners will be known on August 6.
There is a new official site for Amigo at www.amigomoviephil.com with a bunch of new BTS photos, production stills and info. The film’s Facebook page has some great looking posters, too. The film opens in the Philippines on July 6.
Release dates for Amigo and Looper
The Film Stage reports that we won’t be seeing Looper for another 15 months or so.
In other highly-anticipated films of 2012 news, BoM reports Rian Johnson‘s Looper has set a date for September 28th, 2012 via FilmDistrict/TriStar, who picked the sci-fi thriller up during Cannes. The time travel film stars Bruce Willis (as an older version of Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s character), Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels and Piper Perabo.
The high-concept story follows “hitmen whose victims are sent back in time from the future to be executed. The Loopers bump them off in the present, so there is no trace of a crime in the future.” We expected a release in the first half of 2012, but I can live with that, even if it is more than a year away. The site also reports a title change from Looper to Loopers, but we’ll wait and hear official word. UPDATE: We got official word from Johnson that the title remains Looper. He also confirmed the release date, saying “I’d love for it to be sooner but it’s a good date for the movie, hopefully it’ll be worth the wait.
When U.S. troops occupy his village, Rafael (played by legendary Philippine actor Joel Torre) comes under pressure from a tough-as-nails officer (Oscar winner Chris Cooper) to help the Americans in their hunt for Filipino guerilla fighters. But Rafael’s brother (Ronnie Lazaro) is the head of the local guerillas, and considers anyone who cooperates with the Americans to be a traitor. Rafael quickly finds himself forced to make the impossible, potentially deadly decisions faced by ordinary civilians in an occupied country.
AMIGO, the 17th feature film from Oscar-nominated writer-director John Sayles, stars multi-awarded Filipino actor Joel Torre as Rafael Dacanay, a village mayor caught in the murderous crossfire of the Philippine-American War in 1900. When U.S. troops garrison his village, Rafael comes under pressure to collaborate with the blood-and-guts Colonel Hardacre (Cooper) as he tries not to betray his people, especially his brother Simon (Lazaro), head of the local Filipino guerillas. A sympathetic American lieutenant (Garret Dillahunt) learns that ‘hearts and minds’ cannot be won at gunpoint. A devious Spanish friar (Tony nominee Yul Vasquez) thwarts communication with his spiteful intrigues. And Rafael is forced to make the near-impossible, potentially deadly decision faced by civilians in an occupied country. An epic portrait of friendship and betrayal, romance and heartbreaking violence, AMIGO is a page torn from the forgotten history of imperialism and a mirror of today’s unresolvable conflicts.
Winner of 10 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress – 2011 Urian Awards (Philippine Film Critics’ Association), AMIGO is written and directed by John Sayles (Matewan, Passion Fish, Lone Star, Eight Men Out), produced by Maggie Renzi, co-produced by Joel Torre, Mario Ontal. Starring Joel Torre, Chris Cooper (Oscar winner, “Adaptation”), Garret Dillahunt, Ronnie Lazaro, Rio Locsin, Bembol Roco, DJ Qualls and Yul Vasquez (Tony nominee, “Mother F With A Hat”).
AMIGO will open across America in major cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc.) on August 19 and will platform weeks later in other cities. It will open in the Philippines (Manila & other cities) on July 6.