BOFFO! TINSELTOWN'S BOMBS AND BLOCKBUSTERS

East Coast Premiere

Oscar®-winning filmmaker Bill Couturié examines the high-stakes business of big-budget filmmaking in BOFFO! TINSELTOWN'S BOMBS AND BLOCKBUSTERS. Celebrating Variety's 100th anniversary, the film is an in-depth critical analysis of a new national pastime: betting on what will bomb and what will breakout at the box office each weekend. Couturié goes behind the scenes to interview Hollywood's top executives and stars about what makes a hit, all of whom ironically utter William Goldman's famous phrase "Nobody knows anything." But watching them try is an awful lot of fun.

Exploring risk-taking, the script and the "movie gods", BOFFO! traces the thin line between success and failure. Peter Bogdanov-ich, Pierce Brosnan, David Brown, George Clooney, Danny De-Vito, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Evans, Brian Grazer, Peter Guber, Sherry Lansing, Sydney Pollack, Tom Rothman, John Singleton, Steven Spielberg, Charlize Theron, Nia Vardalos, Richard Zanuck and Robert Zemeckis comment on hits, would-be hits, and the impact on their careers.

Films featured in BOFFO! include JAWS, the first movie to make more than $100 million; THE GODFATHER, the first epic genre built around a best seller; INDIANA JONES, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and their sequels' successes, and unanticipated breakouts FORREST GUMP, TOOTSIE, TITANIC, and DRIVING MISS DAISY.

BOFFO! was suggested by the book Boffo: How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, written by Peter Bart, editor-in-chief of Variety, and produced in conjunction with Variety's 100th anniversary.

The film will be introduced by MPAA Chairman and CEO, Dan Glickman, followed by a post-screening discussion with director, Bill Couturié and executive producers, Peter Bart and Charlie Koones, of Variety.

-Jody Arlington

DIRECTOR BIO
Bill Couturié has a long and distinguished career as a documentary filmmaker. Most recently, he wrote, produced and directed LAST LETTERS HOME: VOICES OF AMERICAN TROOPS FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS OF IRAQ for HBO in 2005. Couturié has directed, produced and written many highly acclaimed films, including EARTH AND THE AMERICAN DREAM which won the Grand Prize at the Telluride Film Festival, and DEAR AMERICA: LETTERS HOME FROM VIETNAM which won two national Emmy® Awards and was a featured film at Cannes and The London Film Festival. He also produced the film COMMON THREADS: STORIES FROM THE QUILT, which received the 1989 Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary.

Gala reception to follow at Discovery Communications World Headquarters at One Discovery Place, just across the street from the AFI Silver. Come bask in the limelight and soak up the glamour of old Hollywood!

Print Source:
Shannon Puckett
HBO
1100 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Shannon.Puckett@hbo.com

6/13 at 7:00 PM

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