September Court 13 E-mail Update

Here is an email we sent out to all Court 13 supporters. If you're a regular reader of our blog, most of this will not be news to you.

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Hello Court 13 Faithful!

Well it should be no surprise that more than four months have passed since our last "monthly" Court 13 update (The good news is we didn't clog up your inbox though, right?). But don't confuse our lack of communication with inertia, because its source is in fact the opposite: we've actually been busy as bees down here in New Orleans... and so our silence is even less excusable. Let's just get right to the bullet points:


* Benjamin Harold Zeitlin attended the Sundance Directors/Screenwriters Lab in June, in service of the new project, "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD." The Directors Lab allowed Benh to work out directing challenges his and Lucy's script presents, and workshop certain scenes with talented actors. Benh was grateful to work with Ms. Paula Jai Parker (whom you might recognize from her turn as Craig's girlfriend in the film "Friday"), and Mr. Eddie Rouse (star of Court friend Zack Godshall's film "Low and Behold," and frequent player in the movies of David Gordon Green). Following the Director’s Lab, he and "Beasts" co-writer Lucy Alibar took part in a 2nd Screenwriters Lab to continue workshopping the script.

* In July, Court 13's Josh Penn and Dan Janvey were 2 of 6 fellows selected for the 2009 Sundance Creative Producers Initiative. The initiative was created to support a new generation of emerging indie producers. While in Utah, they took part in the Producer’s Lab, which is designed to develop a producer's creative instincts and to evolve their communication and problem-solving skills. At the labs their mentors included Paul Mezey ("Maria Full of Grace," "Half Nelson"), Jay Van Hoy ("Old Joy," "Treeless Mountain"), Lynette Howell ("Half Nelson," "Phoebe in Wonderland"), and Mary Jane Skalski ("The Visitor," "The Station Agent"). As fellows they also attended the Creative Producing Summit and received grants for further development and pre-production. The fellowship will continue throughout the year as they will receive ongoing creative and strategic support from industry mentors and the Sundance staff, and will attend the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

* Spike Jonze tapped Court 13’s Ray Tintori to write/direct an adaptation of Shane Jones debut novel “Light Boxes," which Jonze will produce. The book tells the story of a war waged by a group of balloonists against the seemingly endless month of February. As a side note, Court 13 is officially very excited to see Jonze’s new movie, “Where the Wild Things Are”.

* Work continued full steam ahead on "BEASTS": Benh and Lucy got their creative distributaries flowing by spending a writer's retreat on top of a bait shop, in the very bayous where the film takes place and where we aim to shoot. The final script is in its last stages. Meanwhile we continue to scour every Parish, community center, and school system in the great state of Louisiana, looking for that one girl, one special girl, who can fill the very large (but actually very small) shoes of the main part in the film (If you know any half-black Cajun 8 year-olds who can gut a fish and operate a fanboat, please contact michael@court13.com IMMEDIATELY).

* It was unusually hot in May.

* The Court 13 Acting/Moviemaking Program for Young People, or whatever we're calling it today, concluded with the Premiere of each of the three classes' short films at Colton School. Parents applauded, children blushed, fun was had by all. We have been proudly rolling these movies out on the blog the last couple of weeks; the final one was posted a couple days ago--check it out by clicking here. The kids look forward to appearing in the upcoming feature film.

* Ray Tintori's long-awaited music video for MGMT's "Kids" (filmed at Colton and in New Orleans) was released, and a small blogstorm ensued. Click here to see what all the fuss was about.

* Religious war broke out in the comments section of the "Glory at Sea" YouTube page (page 2 is where the fun is). Everyone is being very amiable and tolerant, as is standard practice for YouTube discourse.

* Court 13 Omnimedia's music video for "Evident Utensil," by Chairlift, was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award, for Best Breakthrough Video. Ray directed, Bob Weisz produced and datamoshed. We expect EVERYONE to tune in to the prestigious ceremony this Sunday, to support your favorite Omnimedia organization.

That's it for right now! Development on the film charges ahead, army and weapons will be assembled in winter, and the big sha-bang will go down in early spring. Stay tuned! You can keep slightly less sporadic tabs on us by visiting our blog at court13news.blogspot.com, and you can catch even more news and silly status updates by facebooking us here.


Thanks for your time, and may you have a good harvest season.



Love,

The Court