---

Friday, October 24th, 2003

After several months of delays, the first part of Louis Black's highly-anticipated Jonathan Demme article, written exclusively for Storefront Demme, is now available. Louis Black is the editor and one of the founders of The Austin Chronicle. An archive of his writing for The Austin Chronicle is available here.

Black is also a director and founder of the SXSW Music, Film, and Interactive Conferences and Festivals in Austin. He does non-profit work with Richard Linklater and Elizabeth Avellan (Robert Rodriguez' wife and producer) and, most importantly, he is one of the original Jonathan Demme fans and a friend of Demme's since the early 1980s.

In other Austin-related Demme news, Austin's Aint it Cool News has posted a report from the set of The Manchurian Candidate. Among other things, this report confirms that Tak Fujimoto is photographing the film. It's his thirteenth collaboration with Demme.

"As much as I hate the idea of this movie and remakes in general I found this fascinating. The Manchurian Candidate has been filming in Times Square. They have constructed a set which is still there for future filming. It is a campaign headquarters for Liev Schreiber's character and his running-mate. The building is on Broadway between 42nd and 43rd Street, it is the building that used to house the Time Warner store. On Friday I saw them filming several scenes which included a campaign rally outside the set, many interior set-ups, and some car interiors outside. I saw Schreiber, Jonathan Demme, and even DP Tak Fujimoto who photographed such movies as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. I encorage anyone who is in the area to check out the set which you can walk right up to, and maybe even see some filming. It is pretty rare to have such easy access to a big budget production such as this, so I will be there as much as possible."

Next update: another report on The Manchurian Candidate from Jeffrey Wells' Hollywood Elsewhere.

Yesterday, Dark Horizons posted a report from the set of The Manchurian Candidate. It is by someone who stumbled upon shooting in New York City, on Friday night. According to the report, Beloved co-star Kimberly Elise has been cast in the film. Anyway, here it is:

"Last night (10/3), while trying to catch a late train home, I literally stumbled onto The Manchurian Candidate set in Penn Station, NYC. It was a little after 1 a.m. and all of the cast and crew were grumbling since they'd been shooting since 1:30pm, in and around Penn Station, and they were supposed to have wrapped by midnight. The source that I was speaking to said that the crew was upset because Meryl Streep was supposed to be there to shoot some of her scenes as well. Apparently she never showed. As for what I saw, I had an opportunity (and good vantage point) to watch Jonathan Demme directing Denzel Washington (Bennett Marco) coming up the escalator, tracks 13 and 14 east, with Kimberly Elise. I couldn't hear the dialogue, but I over heard some of the extras say that this was one scene that was integral to the plot, so it shouldn't get cut. In the time that I was there, they must have done at least 10 takes of this one scene. I also overheard some other extras talking about possibly being in some of the other scenes that they'll be filming through out New York."

Viola Davis (Solaris, Far From Heaven) has also joined the cast, according to the internet movie database.

I've also added a link to an article about Robyn Hitchcock and Storefront Hitchcock from Salon.com.

Next update: the first part of Louis Black's highly-anticipated article about the life and career of Jonathan Demme.