Excited for the Manhattan Nocturne (AKA Manhattan Night) Canadian premiere at the Gala Friday June 24th at the Willson Oakville Film Festival. Looking forward to doing Q&A following the screening as well. Come on out for the fun - click thru image for tickets!
REAL CLEAR LIFE
Real Clear Life asks my top 5 noir films and how they influenced Manhattan Night...
MANHATTAN NIGHT OPENS TODAY!
The day has finally arrived! Here's a rundown of where you can see the movie. Check your regular listings for exact theater and times but you will find the movie in the following cities:
Atlanta
Boston
Cleveland
Los Angeles
Minneapolis
New York City
Orlando
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Providence (East Providence)
Seattle - Tacoma
Washington DC
The film is also available On Demand on most major cable carriers. Use search function to find it and enjoy in the comfort of home (with the room as dark as possible).
In addition to the 7:05 AMC Empire 25 Times Square in NYC screening tonight (which is sold out but other times are not yet) I will attend the special screening at Ridgefield Playhouse tomorrow night 5/21 as part of the new Ridgefield Independent Film Festival (RIFF) with Q&A and cocktail reception to follow. Still some seats avail at riff.website. Sunday night 5/22 I'll be at the 7:15 showing in East Providence with the hometown crowd. Tickets available online, though sound like they are going fast.
Thanks for the tremendous support of this dream come true. I couldn't be more excited, proud and grateful.
RIFF Q&A
I'm getting excited to do the Q&A at RIFF on May 21! Makes me start thinking of all the great memories in making Manhattan Night. This photo was snapped during our first morning on set together doing the first scene of the day. (Where Porter is on a story at the beginning of the movie). Adrien asked if Porter should be wearing a hat in that scene. The hat was Adrien's idea and it was a great one because it would pay off in later scenes as well. We would also always check in about if Porter should be chewing gum in a scene. On page 3 of the novel Manhattan Nocturne it says that Porter chewed a lot of bubble gum. There was a rational to the gum chewing in our movie thinking. It went with Porter on the beat - process related, literally "chewing on it" as he worked on his stories. It also calmed Porter when he had to face something unpleasant or stressful. Or it was a reward to follow such a thing, reminding him of his childhood. Nostalgic and soothing. So before each set up of an exterior scene we'd look at each other and say "hat"? "gum"? After a while we both had the same intuitive sense and that turned into "hat and gum" or "No hat, no gum" "hat no gum" or "gum no hat" One of the many things that I loved about working with Adrien is that he also valued the choices in the tiniest details and appreciated the consideration tree that comes with them. Anyway, lots to share for that Q&A! Looking forward to your questions!
Tickets available here
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ridgefield-independent-film-festival-riff-tickets-21724005084
ADRIEN TO BE ON KELLY & MICHAEL MONDAY MORNING!
TUNE IN TO SEE ADRIEN BRODY TALKING ABOUT MANHATTAN NIGHT on LIVE WITH KELLY AND MICHAEL Monday morning on ABC - check listings for timing where you are!
SPECIAL SCREENINGS OF MANHATTAN NIGHT
As a filmmaker, there's the thrill of the process, and the work, and the craft, the art as a goal, and with it, the millions of choices in how to tell the story. For the last many years I have focussed on a feature film project that captured my imagination in a unique and powerful way. Reading the novel Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison in 1999 set in motion a line of dominos that come rumbling down the stretch next month as the film "Manhattan Night" starring Adrien Brody, Yvonne Strahovski, Campbell Scott and Jennifer Beals gets release by Lionsgate Premiere in select theaters around the country and on various digital and cable platforms to watch at home. Now as a filmmaker there's the shift to this movie having a life of it's own as I become the observer to see what effect did those millions of choices have on this audience versus that audience. It's a different kind of thrill, as strangers and dear family alike take it in - each with distinct filters, some similar, many not. All in the eons of tradition back to cave people around the fire listening to stories. It's a humbling kind of thrill.
There are two special screenings of Manhattan Night that I would love to see you at. The first is May 21 st at the Ridgefield Playhouse at 7pm. This will be the first theatrical showing in Connecticut and vicinity as part of the brand new Ridgefield Independent Film Festival who is hosting a Q&A and cocktail reception to follow as well. You can get tickets now at Riff Tickets.
The second is May 22nd also at 7pm, when I will be visiting my hometown to go to a showing at the East Providence 10 where the film will be playing that week. When I was a kid the theater was called the Four Seasons, and was my favorite place to see a movie. So it's a particular thrill to return home and share this long journey with the family and friends who remember me setting off to the big city to make my filmmaker dreams come true all those years ago. Please join us if you nearby. It's what makes the special screenings special.
TRAILER AND POSTER PREMIERE ON IMDB.COM
Excited to announce the trailer and poster for Manhattan Night (based on the novel Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison) starring Adrien Brody, Yvonne Strahovski, Campbell Scott and Jennifer Beals released today on the homepage of imdb.com in the Indie Focus section and on the movie page!
Mark your calendars and get out the word. Movie opens in theaters in select cities and also on demand everywhere on Friday May 20th. If you are near a theater playing it, I highly encourage you to get to it opening weekend!
On the Saturday night May 21 at 7pm, we will be at the Ridgefield Playhouse for a special screening followed by Q&A and a cocktail reception hosted by.the inaugural Ridgefield Independent Film FestivalAll you Westchester friends please come out for the fun and to support RIFF. You can buy tickets now at
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ridgefield-independent-film-festival-riff-tickets-21724005084 by clicking on the green “Get Tickets” button.
On Sunday May 22, I’ll be at the 7pm (ish) screening in RI at the East Providence 10. All you fam, friends, Feehanites, come on out!
U.S. NEW TITLE!
The movie we've been working on based on the novel "Manhattan Nocturne" by Colin Harrison, is now titled "Manhattan Night" for the U.S. audiences. If you are in another english speaking country it will still be Manhattan Nocturne. If you are in a non-english speaking country, it will be translated into the primary language. Update your google alerts for "Manhattan Night" !
INTERNATIONAL NEWS.....
The movie will be released in territories around the world with the list growing. Here's an announcement in Variety.
MANHATTAN NOCTURNE RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED
Mark you calendars!!! This is the big announcement. Manhattan Nocturne will be released worldwide on May 20th! It will be in theaters in select cities across the country and abroad and simultaneously available on VOD. What is nowadays called a "multi-platform release". I highly encourage you to see it in the theater with all your friends first and then again at home the next day! Many many talented people came together to make and support this film, and they would all love for you to see it! More details to come.
Adrien Brody as Porter Wren
FIN!
Yvonne Strahovski as Caroline Crowley. Porter: Does the invitation still stand?
It’s always the last 10% that you have to put in the care of the previous 90%. The last few months have been focussed on final touch ups and tweaks, but I can finally say that Manhattan Nocturne is finished! I couldn’t be happier with the result! After years of planning and making, it’s quite an exhalation to say that the work is finally done. I’m so grateful to this exceptional cast, fellow producers and crew for putting so much heart into the making of this movie. It all shows. I just can’t wait to share it with the world! Will have more on that soon.
Picture and Sound
In each phase of post production, I am just so grateful to work with such talented artisans so skilled in their craft. This work often goes unappreciated by the casual viewer of a film, but the work is so important to creating the overall movie watching experience. In the category of Visual Effects for example, sometimes the job is to make things in the frame not appear at all. When we get to the Blu-Ray commentary, I want to point out some of those things, because it’s impossible to tell they were ever there. Shout out to wizard Hernan Herrera for making the magic in well over 50 VFX shots.
We just completed the mix and the subtleties and tweaks make such a difference. Being on the mix stage at Goldcrest NY feels like being on the bridge of a spaceship with each person manning their post facing the screen. Props to the whole post sound team lead by Marlena Grzaslewicz, Michael Barry and Isaac Derfel.
Let there be color. Coloring this movie was a sheer pleasure with Jack Lewars at Technicolor Postworks NY. The images are as rich as I always imagined and hoped. Without giving too much away, there is an epilogue scene that occurs in the fall 10 months after the main story. When we dialed in the deep color of the autumn leaves and the orange October light, I almost wept with joy.
I wrote about the orchestra and original score, but also the movie contains original songs that I’m proud to be a part of. Music Supervisor Jay Levine is a song partner in crime, and we had a blast creating songs and working with talented artists such as Catey Shaw, Brix, Julian Soto, Lucy Woodward, and my old bandmates of Cuban Missile Crisis, Andy Kadison on guitar and Campbell Scott on drums.
This is the phase of movie-making that most people understand the least. There are lots of moving pieces that make the moving pictures and the sound. Thanks to Post-Production Supervisor Brian Golding for keeping all those pieces on their tracks. Unsung heros like Brian G and Peter Boychuk, project manager at Technicolor Postworks NY, are relied so heavily upon to make all the technical aspects align to form the final picture and sound.
Lastly, a shout out to our friends at Adolescent, for creating new logos and animated company logos for Untravelled Worlds and DeCubellis FIlms. Great work as always. Putting on the finishing touches.
Score One For the Orchestra
One of the most fun aspects of making this movie is the music. Composer Joel Douek has written a brilliant score - eerie, lush, mysterious and moving. Seen here with orchestrator Greg Pliska, we had the thrill of hearing the score come to life as performed by the Slovakian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Johannes Vogel. As you see on the screen, all 53 players and Johannes were visible via Skype from Bratislava while we could hear via Source Connect in the studio in LA. They sounded just amazing and we were able to work closely on the interpretations as if we were in the room. It was a really thrilling experience to be able to say "molto misteriouso" and on the other side of the planet it get's discussed in German and then a world class orchestra plays it again with more mystery. Now that's some movie making fun.
Locking
I’ve spent a lot of time in an edit room, starting as a teenager. My career started as an editor. I love editing. The magic of creating meaning that Eisenstein discovered when splicing one image against another still surprises me. Living in the Manhattan Nocturne edit room these months has been intense and thrilling in large part because editor Andy Keir is a Jedi Master. He’s a craftsman to his core and a storyteller of untouchable integrity. Everyday we cut and add and trim and sharpen and invert and reverse and whittle and build and imagine the film a little bit closer to what it will ultimately be. Now on the morning of locking picture, and I’m savoring every second. I’ll go to bed tonight complete with the 14 and a half million choices that I’ve made to this point and will wake up excited to start the next phase of post production. I mean what’s more fun than music, visual effects, color and sound?!
