Welcome to the second part of my look at the duplicity that is the Hollywood we know and love (or love to hate in some cases).   Yesterday I delved into the mainstream films, such as Transformers, which get little to no recognition by the Academy.  These are movies that represent the very monetary foundation of which Hollywood is built.

Today I’m going to slide the other way and talk about the performance side of Hollywood.  Films with limited budgets, little to no marketing and have to fight tooth-and-nail in some instances for distribution as well as theater screens.  They are the darlings of Hollywood, praised for often dramatic portrayal of characters and deeply emotional stories.  Yet, even with all the attention they receive when nominated for an Oscar, only a select group of viewers end up seeing these films.

In contrast to their mainstream counterparts, performance films have always been the underdog.  It starts from the very point the script is completed all the way to getting onto the screen.  It’s the latter which ultimately proves the most critical because without theaters to show it, what good is a movie?

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While most eyes are on Austin, Texas this week for SXSW, many people on the East Coast eagerly await a closer show as this year’s Tribeca Film Festival kicks off on April 21st. The festival is mainly for indie pictures, rather than the larger, blockbuster films, but is also a great place for up-and-coming directors and writers to showcase their work.

With the festival coming up in just over a month, they are already rolling out this year’s schedule and have announced the first 34 films out of a total of 85 feature length and 47 shorts screening at this year’s fest. Among the titles were those submitted to the World Narrative and Documentary competition, as well as the Showcase and Special Events.

Some of the titles look to be quite intriguing, and could include some of the bigger names of the next decade. Be sure to check out the first 34 films to be announced after the jump, and keep it here, as we bring you extensive coverage of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

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Every once in a while, we’ll get an opportunity to check out a new indie film from out of nowhere and get blown away by it. Sadly, this happens less often than we would like, but in this case, it was completely true.

We recently got to check out the short film The Legacy, written and directed by Mike Doto, about a boy who discovers that his father is the world’s greatest superhero. The film is, by all definitions of the word, fantastic. It captures some of the elements that made the original Superman films so great, without treading into campy territory.

With that in mind, we got a chance to sit down with the writer/director of the film, Mike Doto, about what it took to make the project, and where he goes from here.

The Flickcast: With a concept like The Legacy, what drove you to this idea? Were you a big comic fan growing up? If so, which books were you inspired by the most?

Mike Doto: For The Legacy I really wanted to get back to the roots of why I wanted to be a filmmaker to begin with. I feel like I grew up in a time when movies really connected with kids and I’ve never forgotten the impact that those films have had on me.

Most of these films starred a young protagonist that I could relate to quite easily, films such as E.T., Goonies, Wargames, D.A.R.Y.L., The Last Starfighter, and Back to the Future. What I’ve learned is that these weren’t just kid movies, these were movies for all ages, they appealed to the both the young and the young at heart.  So I thought about what movie I would have written when I was 10-years-old and I decided that I probably would have written a movie about being a superhero.

Superman was my boyhood hero so naturally that’s the hero I wanted to emulate.  In thinking further about the Superman story I decided that it would be more effective to write a film about the relationship between the father and the son since this is at the heart of the Superman character. I actually wasn’t a big comic book fan growing up. I was a huge fan of the Superman movies, but I didn’t really spend much time reading comics.

I would much rather dress up as a superhero or play with my action figures and imagine what that world would be like to live in. Even though a camera wasn’t rolling, I think this was the start of my filmmaking career although I didn’t realize it at the time.

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While you’re already getting your big Academy Awards party ready in time for the telecast on March 7th, we’ve got something for even bigger movie fans to enjoy. Of course, we’re talking about a movie marathon!

All month long, Turner Classic Movies will be running over 360 Academy Award nominated and winning films, back to back, with an interesting twist. In the vain of the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” each film will have a common actor or actress from the previous film.

For example, tomorrow night’s schedule consists of The Graduate with Anne Bancroft and William Daniels, which goes into Reds which stars Daniels and Jack Nicholson, into Chinatown with Nicholson and John Huston. Though we’re already about two weeks into the marathon, there are still plenty of great films to look forward to, including some TCM firsts like Gladiator, Titanic, Alien, and Trading Places.

We’re also going to be helping you celebrate the upcoming 82nd Annual Academy Awards on March 7th with a great prize pack, so be sure to keep an eye on our Twitter for details on how to win.

In the meantime, check out the schedule for this weekend’s films on TCM, and be sure to download the full schedule in PDF format. If not, you could always watch them blind and try to figure out the common actor/actress. Have fun!

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With Avatar getting nine Academy Award nominations yesterday, it seemed to put the final nail in the coffin for any films on the bubble between 2D and 3D. Word is now coming in that Warner Bros. has confirmed both Clash of the Titans and the final two Harry Potter films will be in 3D.

This isn’t that big of a deal for the Potter films, but unfortunately sets the entire marketing plan for Titans upside down. This news means that the studio has to go back and convert the original film stock into something that can handle 3D, while still looking state-of-the art.

This conversion will set the release date of Clash of the Titans back to April 2nd, from it’s original date of March 26th. The studio seems convinced that this is the best plan of action, according to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

“We are experienced and have been successful in the conversion of 2D to 3D going back to such hits as ‘The Polar Express,’ select scenes in ‘Superman Returns’ and the last two Harry Potter films,” Warners domestic distribution boss Dan Fellman said.

“We’re excited about 3D and look forward to bringing a rich, involving visual experience to audiences around the world,” Warners film group president Jeff Robinov said.

The production on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2 are still ongoing, which means that the respective release dates of November 19th and July 15th, 2011 will probably remain unchanged.

While Twilight: New Moon has been sweeping the nation since it’s release last year, and Eclipse already in the can, producers of the franchise realize that they need to look forward to the final book in the series, Breaking Dawn. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to think the films would get this far, as producers are now stumped on how to film some of the outrageous moments of the final book.

For those like myself who have no intention on reading the books, [SPOILERS BE HERE] in the final book Bella becomes pregnant with Edward’s baby, and while pregnant, the baby grows at an accelerated rate. The baby begins to claw it’s way out of the womb, before Edward uses his teeth to perform a makeshift cesarean. They later discover that the baby has psychic powers and werewolf Jacob falls in love with it.

It looks like producers over at Summit finally read Breaking Dawn for the first time and realized that they may be screwed. From the L.A. Times:

Wyck Godfrey, the producer of all the films in the “Twilight” saga, admits that the creative team still doesn’t know how they’ll handle the character in the “Breaking Dawn” movie, but said that the plan is absolutely for the production to go forward — as either one or two installments — with an eye toward beginning to shoot in Vancouver this fall. All three stars are signed for “Breaking Dawn,” he said, meaning that Stewart and Pattinson will be dealing with the joys and woes of interspecies parenting and newly minted heartthrob Taylor Lautner will return as often-shirtless shape-shifter Jacob Black.

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Ghostbusters is one of those films that’s simply timeless. Sure, the special effects are a little iffy these days but the story and comedic beats are still perfect. On the other hand  Ghostbusters 2 didn’t quite hit the mark for most people. That being the case, it’s hard to decide which way a third film may fall.  Would it live up to the original or become a parody of itself like the sequel?

It’s hard to imagine anything being as good as the original. However, I think some sort of transition film, in which a younger Ghostbuster team takes the place of the originals, could work. Original Ghostbuster Harold Ramis thinks so too:

“Something’s going to happen. Dan [Aykroyd] did write a spec GB3 screenplay a few years ago, but no one was motivated to pursue it. Now, 25 years after the original, there seems to be some willingness to proceed and apparently a substantial public appetite for a sequel. We’ll introduce some new young Ghostbusters, and all the old guys will be in it, too. Think Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future … GB3 is progressing with plans to shoot next summer and release in 2011. . . “

So there you have it, right from Egon’s mouth.  Ghostbusters 3 is on track to production and will probably set up a new franchise. The original spec script by Dan Aykroyd Ramis referred to was Ghostbusters Go To Hell which probably wouldn’t work to well. As such, co-executive producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky from The Office TV series have been tasked with writing a new script.

Hmm, Ghostbusters meets Dunder-Mifflin?  Sounds crazy, but it may just work.

Jonah Hill (Funny People, Superbad) who has been working on an update of the 80’s television show 21 Jump Street for Sony, has announced that the movie is in negotiations to sign it’s directors. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who directed September’s Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, are potentially signing on, according to the Hollywood Reporter blog.

For the duo, who have also written for shows How I Met Your Mother, created MTV’s Clone High and Extreme Movie, this will mark their first time directing a live-action feature. Fans of Clone High may also remember Lord as the voice of the deranged Principal Scudworth.

The new version of the undercover teenagers high school drama, as described by Hill in Complex Magazine, will be “an R-rated, insane, Bad-Boys-meets-John Hughes-type movie.” With Hill executive producing and probably starring, along with writer Michael Bacall, currently on the upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, directed by Edgar Wright.

Hill has also gone on record saying that there is room for Johnny Depp to make a return, if he wants. This sounds like a pretty interesting project, but all I want to know is if they’re going to get Holly Robinson (Peete) back.

Sometimes Hollywood’s Cinderella stories come from behind the camera instead of what we actually see up on the big screen. Take a look at Tarantino’s rise from working at a video store to directing such classics as Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs. Now, a virtual unknown named Fede Alvarez looks to make a similar impact because of a video he put on YouTube.

No, it’s not a video of Afro Ninja or the Star Wars kid. Instead, Fede produced a four minute short film of Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital being destroyed by a robotic invasion. The amazing part of this short is that it only cost him about $300. Fede told the BBC, “I uploaded ‘Ataque de Panico!’ on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of emails from Hollywood studios.” After a bidding war, Fede settled on signing with Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures for a reported $30,000,000 deal.

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When I first saw The Punisher: War Zone I pretty much hated it.  Yet another Punisher reboot that simply didn’t work.  However, upon further reflection over subsequent months I realized War Zone wasn’t bad. Actually, it was Ray Stevenson’s performance as Frank Castle that single-handedly saved the film.

Stevenson continued to flesh out his bad ass resume as Titus Pullo in the mini-series Rome. While Titus was a more benign individual at times it didn’t take much to bring out the Punisher-esque tendencies when he reverted to his soldier role.  In fact, Rome had some of the best action sequences ever and Stevenson again was brilliant in this capacity.

So, what happens when you combine The Punisher and Titus Pullo? How about one of  Thor’s Warriors Three: Volstagg? Of course, the most obvious question was how Stevenson would fill out Volstagg’s large, um…physique:

“…a solution is at hand, in the shape of a fat suit. “It’s fantastic,” said a beaming Stevenson. “I’ve tried the suit on, and what they’ve done is kind of sex him up: he’s sort of slimmer but rounder.”

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