Latest news on Goran's film "Helen" w/Ashley Judd

[AzizalSaqr]

A very cute article mention from: http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/01/sundance-mark-h.html

Sundance: Ben Affleck, Mark Harmon, and The Doors' Ray Manzarek

Jan 17, 2009, 05:21 PM | by Nicole Sperling

Categories: Sundance Film Festival 2009

Was there too much imbibing at Friday night's parties? Or perhaps people just needed to sleep off the uber-depressing premiere of Antoine Fuqua's cop-killer film Brooklyn's Finest. Whatever the reason, the EW photo suite on Saturday seemed a bit subdued at first. Brooklyn's star Don Cheadle left snow country all together, while his co-star Wesley Snipes arrived hours late to his scheduled shoot. But nothing seemed to stop Ashley Judd, Goran Visnjic and the rest of the Helen cast from turning up for some positively cheery group photos. And that's saying a lot considering the crew was here promoting their film centered on a woman's journey with depression. Director Sandra Nettelbeck (Mostly Martha) was the exception. Maybe the strain of her film—which the cast said was very well-received at its premiere Friday night—was too much too handle, or press is not her thing. Either way, Nettlebeck was downright grumpy. "Well, she's German," said a member of the film's entourage, by way of apology. Luckily, things soon got brighter. Mark Harmon was a complete delight, taking photos with fans, regaling journalists with stories from movies past, and, of course, promoting his happy little Slamdance film Weather Girl. Asked when all the attention becomes horrifying, NCIS's leading man simply answered, "When you start believing it." Pause. "They only want you when you’re working."

Harmon's treat for being such a good guy was a brief chat with the legendary Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, who stopped by with his fellow band member Robby Krieger to promote Tom DiCillo's film, When You're Strange, which they don't want to be called a documentary. They say it's more of a narrative using documentary footage. "No talking heads," Manzarek said.

The one man who seems to never stop working is the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof. Best known for his riveting columns in the NY Times centered on the humanitarian crises in Darfur and The Congo, Kristof joined the year’s Sundance to promote his new documentary The Reporter that will air on HBO. Kristof's struggle to get young people to pay attention to the troubling issues around the world have led him to a valuable partnership with director Eric Daniel Metzer and executive producer Ben Affleck—both on hand at the EW suite. The trio have created a film that explores Kristof’s dying brand of journalism and his 2007 trip to the Congo. "We got a huge response," says Affleck of Friday night’s premiere. "This is not the kind of response you usually get for political documentaries that are on subjects that are downers. It's a testament to the skill of the filmmaking and the charisma and talent of the subject." And it helps that a big, fancy movie star like Affleck is here promoting the film too. "I'm trying to navigate the world of promotion and publicity and to deal with the humanitarian world, the filmmaking world and, let's face it, the world of EW lounge suites," Affleck says. Stay tuned for more details from the EW lounge, inclduing a wild interview with Guillermo Del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Gael Garcia Bernal, who popped by to promote their film Rudo y Cursi, and spent most of their time ribbing Del Toro about directing The Hobbit.

[Scabiosa]

Some more nice pictures!

[AzizalSaqr]

Naoko...

You're killing me...that first picture is amazing!

Thank you!

Editing to add some new pics!

[aminem]

more:

http://photo.wenn.com/index.php?ref=gor ... ersion=int

and:

http://photo.wenn.com/index.php?ref=ash ... ersion=int

and:

http://www.wireimage.com/SearchResults. ... %20visnjic

http://legacyeditorial.gettyimages.com/ ... &p=7&tag=1

[AzizalSaqr]

aminem, thanks for the wonderful finds...here are those pics

[Shime02]

Still no theatrical release date yet, huh?

[AzizalSaqr]

The point of Sundance is to build buzz for films and to find distributors, likely a release date won't be announced until they see who snaps the film up and what kind of marketing they want to do with it.

JD

[AzizalSaqr]

Another review..http://thucdoanhuynh.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/helen-sundance-2009/

helen - sundance 2009
17 January 2009
last movie of the day. 2130 hours.

helen with ashley judd!

Featuring a riveting performance by the gifted Ashley Judd and infused with intelligence and detail by Sandra Nettelbeck, a storyteller who clearly knows intimately the parameters of this universe, Helen transcends the usual limitations that besiege portraits of mental illness and depression. In truth, for all that we’ve learned about depression—its causes, its cures, and the breadth of its affliction—the old clichés and stigmas still dominate our tales and popular culture. What Nettelbeck and her colleagues have accomplished is an unapologetically moving examination that offers no simplistic answers and refrains from reductively singular happy endings.Helen focuses on a woman with an apparently perfect life: a successful academic, she seems happily married with a wonderful daughter. But we witness a sudden breakdown and a journey that is enigmatic and heartbreakingly real. When solutions prove elusive and Helen is hospitalized, she forges a relationship with Mathilda, a fellow traveler who both aids and traumatizes her life’s course. When death seems the only answer, and the safe haven of family gives no respite, the pain of bipolarity is exhausting and overwhelming. Told with poignancy and insight—and ultimately concluding with as much courage as inevitable sadness—Helen is the work of artists whose craft and sensibility are special.

CAST
Ashley Judd, Goran Visnjic, Lauren Lee Smith, Alexia Fast, Alberta Watson, David Hewlett

[AzizalSaqr]

A cute blog...http://backseatcuddler.com/2009/01/17/goran-visnjic-hits-sundance/

Goran Visnjic Hits Sundance



Goran Visnjic was out and about at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah today. I miss him on ER. It just doesn’t seem the same with Luca and Abby on that show. And now they have extended the last season a few more episodes. I will miss ER since I have been watching it ever since it premiered back in 1994. I’m hoping they will be able to land George Clooney by the end of it.

[AzizalSaqr]

Sundance Shakedown with Alexia Fast of 'Helen'

[Trainerjen]

mmmmmmmmmmm. I'm LOVING the shiny jeans. I want to share that coffee with him. Anybody else?

[Andrejia]

The coffee in the morning? Sure :d

[AzizalSaqr]

From: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/etoday/story.html?id=bac7c59b-2503-4524-ac19-be55ed09b9b7

Nap time's over for Alexia Fast

helen co-star: Vancouver teen heading to Sundance filmfest
Glen Schaefer, The Province
Published: Sunday, January 18, 2009
You have to admire an actor who is so cool about a big-movie break that she can fall asleep on the job.

Sixteen-year-old Vancouver actor Alexia Fast was cast last fall alongside Ashley Judd and Goran Visnjic in the drama Helen, about a university professor (Judd) battling depression. As Judd's daughter, Fast had a scene where Judd sits and watches her sleep.

When director Sandra Nettelbeck called "action," no acting was required.



"I was supposed to be asleep and Ashley was stroking my hair," Fast recalls. "So Sandra arranges my limbs on the bed and says, 'You can't move a muscle or we have to rearrange the whole shot.' I'm like, 'OK.'

"Of course, we've been shooting day after day. I'm really tired. So I fall asleep, which is fine. When I wake up the whole crew is snickering, and Sandra is lying on the bed two inches from my face, staring. She was watching me sleep. I started laughing."

Fast has no time to sleep this week as she heads to Utah's Sundance Film festival for Helen's premiere. She's joining Nettelbeck, Judd and Visnjic, who plays her stepfather, for days of interviews, parties, movie-watching and meetings. It's a high point in a career ride that started four years ago for the precocious kid, who wrote and filmed her first short movie at age nine and then spent years pestering her mother, Vancouver producer Sheryl-Lee Fast, to let her act.

Alexia starred in her own short, The Red Bridge, as a fairy whose plans to bake cookies are thwarted when a troll takes her money. A childhood friend played the troll. Her roles since have included playing the daughter in a family of cannibals in TV's Supernatural, being possessed by a witch in the mini-series Tin Man, and a major role as a little girl in a 1950s town full of domesticated zombies in 2006's Canadian horror comedy hit Fido.

For the Vancouver-filmed Helen, Fast, Visnjic and Judd spent time together before filming started, having dinners and walking Judd's many cats and dogs, so they could better play a family in the movie.

"Ashley really invested in getting to know me and getting to know Goran," says Fast.

A lot of their talk was about acting, with Judd challenging her to come up with her own definition for the craft.

"At the time I didn't know -- Ashley's opinion was something like, acting is telling the truth through untrue circumstances. Over this year, I came up with this idea that every human being has all the colours of the rainbow inside them. But what makes them unique is that they only show certain colours. I try to search really deep inside myself and find that one really tiny grain that I have in me."

Helen details a family's struggle with the mother's depression. "My character, Julie, is the everyday girl next door. My mother is acting suicidal, she's sleeping during the day, up at night. Julie is trying to keep things light, always containing her emotions, walking on eggshells."

After filming Helen, Fast went to Los Angeles for meetings with studio casting types, which resulted in some pending movie offers. There'll be more business meetings at Sundance, where Helen's cast and director will be staying together in a Park City condo. Amid the work schedule, Fast has her own hopes for a celeb encounter. "If Gus van Sant is going to Sundance, I'd love to meet him. I just saw his new film Milk and I really loved it."

[Zone3120]

OMG, what a way to start a Sunday! Thanks so much guys. Those pics are wonderful, he must be having a good time there. I just wish I would live nearby Salt Lake City (sigh)

[Zone3120]

There is a cute interview clip here: http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/01/sundance-goran.html
Can anybody make it downloadable, please?

Sundance: Goran Visnjic on 'Helen' and the ER finale
Jan 18, 2009, 04:32 AM | by Whitney Pastorek
Categories: Sundance Film Festival 2009

A cabbie mistakenly called to take him to the airport at 5:30 a.m., but we're glad he stayed in town: Our first guest in the EW Loft Saturday morning was Goran Visnjic, attending his second Sundance with Helen, a film tackling the oh-so-sunny subject of clinical depression in which he co-stars with Ashley Judd. Of course, we also couldn't resist pumping him for info on the ER finale. Didn't get much... but then, do you really want to be spoiled?