SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2012)

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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 19 Feb 2012, 16:53

AUSTIN, Texas, February 17, 2012, Robert Goldrich --- Over the past year, director Jonas Akerlund balanced a workload of close to 30 commercials, five music videos and a feature film, Small Apartments. The latter—with a cast that includes Matt Lucas, Billy Crystal, James Caan, Johnny Knoxville, Juno Temple and James Marsden—makes its world premiere at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival slated for March 9-17 in Austin.
Akerlund is one of several helmers with spotmaking ties (he is repped by Serial Pictures) to have a feature-length film at SXSW this year. Small Apartments is a dark comedy in which a man accidently kills his landlord, kicking off a wild journey that meshes both humor and more serious considerations. "The movie is really about hope and not giving up, opening up your mind to deal with changes in life," related Akerlund. "The film starts out like a traditional comedy with strong characters and funny moments. Yet as the story unfolds, it becomes more serious, offering a bit of a message and an emotional aspect."
Akerlund first came across Small Apartments 10-plus years ago. "I always loved the book. This is one of those passion projects that I've been hoping I could get made into a movie one day." One of the stumbling blocks for Akerlund was finding "someone special" to play the main character, Franklin Franklin. "The question for me was always, 'who is the guy brave enough in Hollywood to become Franklin?' A few years ago I cast my eyes on Matt Lucas, an English actor, mostly known for the U.K. TV series Little Britain. I liked what I saw and promised myself that if he wants to do Small Apartments, I would somehow get this film made. I sent him the book and the script, and got an instant response from him that he wanted to do the movie."
It took another year or two to get the film going. Favors had to be called in so as to make production viable within a limited budget. "We decided to shoot in Los Angeles, which might seem odd to some in that it can be more expensive to produce here. But it was a good decision because this is a character-driven film and we needed a strong cast," noted Akerlund. "We aimed high on the cast and when you're asking actors to do you a favor and work for less, you've got a much better chance if all they have to do is roll down the hill and shoot in L.A. rather than them having to fly to Canada, Prague or somewhere else."
This will mark Akerlund's first time attending SXSW. "I'm not much of a film festival guy," he related. "Yet I've heard about South By Southwest the past two or three years, even got some phone calls from friends who were there and told me I would enjoy the experience. From what I've heard, it seems that it's becoming what Sundance used to be, which sounds like it could be a good place for a weird movie like mine."
Akerlund said that another "good place" for him is the spotmaking arena. "It's what I do the most of and without my experience in advertising, there's no way I could have done movies and documentaries. Commercials have helped me in collaboration, creatively and on the practical side."

http://www.shootonline.com/go/index.php ... 29257890-2

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http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_FS12380
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 23 Feb 2012, 10:58

The novel that SMALL APARTMENTS is based on will soon be available on ebook for Kindle, here is the cover art
Image

Per Gessle Roxette interview
http://www.dailyroxette.com/2012/titles ... -not-good/
TDR: And finally before you go, the "Small Apartments" soundtrack, what can you tell me about that? I hear there's some stuff from Son of a Plumber?

PG: It's got some new stuff, lots of old stuff... not only from Son of a Plumber but also from Mazarin but we're talking about instrumental versions, because it's for the movie. See, in the movie, let's say Jonas Åkerlund) is using 45 seconds from "I Have a Party in my Head" but on the soundtrack we have a full version of "I Have a Party in my Head" but it's instrumental, so we re-recorded all these songs, there's some new stuff and there's actually a cover version as well from... uhh... well... I shouldn't say what it is... but it's a cool album! We tried to make a soundtrack that is not only music from the movie but it's also easy to listen to as a normal record, so it'll be out... I don't know when... but I think the movie's going to be released in March I think?

TDR: Well there are some big stars in the film too.

PG: Yes and it's a great movie! I think the premiere is at a film festival in Austin Texas.
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 29 Feb 2012, 12:38

http://do512.com/c/sx2012/event/2012/03 ... apartments

Synopsis:
Inside his rundown, small apartment on the south side of Los Angeles, Franklin Franklin (Matt Lucas) dreams of spooning with his mighty alphorn deep in the tall grass beside a clear, alpine lake in the perfect nation of Switzerland. The only problem is, Franklin has just killed his landlord, Mr. Olivetti (Peter Stormare), and needs to figure out how to get away with it.
Complicating Franklin’s plans are his neighbors: Tommy Balls (Johnny Knoxville), the slacker pothead, Mr. Allspice (James Caan), the old, nosy, know-it-all who monitors everyone’s movements in the building, and Francine (Saffron Burrows) and Simone (Juno Temple), the hard-working MILF and her daughter—who’s nothing but hot, teenage trouble.
Franklin’s plan to dispose of Mr. Olivetti is not without its flaws and soon L.A. County Fire Investigator, Burt Walnut (Billy Crystal), and a pair of bumbling detectives are close on Franklin’s heels. All the while, Franklin receives recorded “life-coaching” advice from his brother, Bernard (James Marsden), a resident of the local insane asylum. Bernard’s audiotapes are stuffed into envelopes with regular shipments of toenails and sound strangely like the teachings of world-renowned TV mental guru, Dr. Sage Mennox (Dolph Lundgren).
Just when things look bleakest for Franklin, when there seems no way for his escape, and just as each of his neighbors close in on their own destiny, Franklin gets a surprise he never saw coming. And suddenly, that advice from his loony-bin brother doesn’t sound so crazy after all.
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Mosquito on 03 Mar 2012, 01:54

Jox wrote:http://do512.com/c/sx2012/event/2012/03/10/small-apartments

Synopsis:
[...] world-renowned TV mental guru, Dr. Sage Mennox (Dolph Lundgren).[...]


Interesting, not exactly his typical role. But if he plays it as awesome as he played the mad preacher in the totally underrated Johnny Mnenonic, it will be just fantastic. The cast sounds really good, too. Actually something to really look forward to?
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby whiteandblank on 03 Mar 2012, 02:15

agreed, it just sounds great
Is there an off switch to your mouth?
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 03 Mar 2012, 02:26

I hear he's quite hilarious in this, probably a wacko like in JM minus the crucifix knife to cut heads off!
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Mosquito on 03 Mar 2012, 02:27

Jox wrote:minus the crucifix knife to cut heads off!


Bummer. :mrgreen:
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby ShawnWatson on 03 Mar 2012, 06:17

Let's hope that this isn't a repeat of Fat Slags.
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 03 Mar 2012, 10:55

The fact that's it's selected and premiering at the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival (big film and music fest in the US for those who don't know) is a rather good sign. 8)
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 06 Mar 2012, 12:48

Juno Temple on the set of SA
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby dolphage on 06 Mar 2012, 14:59

Hello!! I hope Dolph/Sage gets to work his mental guru powers on that young lassie. In real life.
Spring, era jävlar!
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 06 Mar 2012, 16:34

From the cinematographer Par M. Eberg's blog
http://parekberg.wordpress.com/2012/03/ ... rtments-3/

Image
Attachments
franklin_anim_3_large.jpg
still Matt Lucas headshot
franklin_anim_3_large.jpg (209.25 KiB) Viewed 12069 times
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 07 Mar 2012, 00:23

SXSW LINEUP MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS
7. SMALL APARTMENTS

I hate Jonas Akerlund. Be it his awful pieces of feature length filmmaking, or his pretentiously self-indulgent music video work, he’s just far from being my cup of tea. But you know what is my cup of tea? The cast for his new film, Small Apartments, which will debut at SXSW this year. Starring Matt Lucas, Billy Crystal, James Caan, Johnny Knoxville and Juno Temple, the film follows a man who after killing his landlord, must hide the body whilst also trying to make a quick buck with the help of his friends and neighbors. I have absolutely no expectations for this film, but with that odd little cast, this thing has the potential to be either utter garbage, or kind of brilliant. And it is that uncertainty that makes any world premiere great.

http://criterioncast.com/2012/03/05/jos ... ted-films/

15 Most Anticipated Films Of SXSW 2012: From Will Ferrell In Spanish To The Lost Duplass Bros. Movie & More

"Small Apartments"
Synopsis: An overweight man, Franklin Franklin, lives in an apartment complex and dreams of Switzerland, but finds his neighbors leaking into his life.
What You Need To Know: On the "randomly assembled cast" meter, only one film in 2012 is able to compete with "Battleship" -- "Small Apartments." The latest film from music video veteran Jonas Akerlund, it features among its ensemble James Caan, Billy Crystal, Johnny Knoxville, Rosie Perez and Dolph Lundgren. Based on Canadian writer Chris Millis' award-winning novel, British comedian Matt Lucas ("Bridesmaids," "Alice in Wonderland") toplines this quirky dark comedy, compared by some to "A Confederacy of Dunces," with Juno Temple, Amanda Plummer, Saffron Burrows, DJ Qualls, Rebel Wilson, Peter Stormare and David Koechner also along for the ride. Akerlund's hyperactive style did no favors to his near-unwatchable "Spun" or "Horsemen," but this seems like enough of an oddity that we're intrigued to see more. Also interesting to note, ex-Roxette frontman Per Gessle is scoring the film.
When? Sat 10th at the Alamao Lamar, Mon 12th and Fri 16th at the Stateside, and Saturday 17th at the Alamo Ritz.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/ ... -sxsw-2012
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 07 Mar 2012, 11:30

Jonas Akerlund (SPUN) brings to SXSW his new film, which has such disparate actors as Billy Crystal, Dolph Lundgren, James Caan, and Matt Lucas in a film based on Chris Millis' novel, about murder, misfit neighbors, and a possible fortune. Sounds quirky but Akerlund knows strange characters, if SPUN is any indication. Sounds really cool, and a movie with both Dolph Lundgren and James Caan can't be ignored in any way.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/53202
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Re: SMALL APARTMENTS (Jonas Åkerlund, 2011) (March 10 at SXS

Postby Jox on 08 Mar 2012, 01:49

SXSW Preview: 12 Movies We're Psyched to See
'Small Apartments'
You might know Swedish director Jonas Akerlund as the man behind some of the most influential music videos of the past two decades -- he's worked with Madonna, U2, Lady Gaga and the Rolling Stones. He's also a strong feature-film director who's already helmed three mostly overlooked flicks (his best known is probably "Spun," starring the late Brittany Murphy). His latest is an offbeat tale based on Chris Millis' novel that boasts one of the oddest casts in recent memory (Billy Crystal, Dolph Lundgren, Johnny Knoxville and Rosie Perez all star).

http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/sxsw-film ... l-preview/
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