Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with Sheldrake's chat with Ebert's sidekick supreme, Richard Roeper who has judging duties at the Howard Stern Film Festival. Enjoy!!!
HOWARD STERN FILM FESTIVAL
SHELDRAKE TALKS WITH RICHARD ROEPER
APRIL 24th 2006
Sheldrake reporting, live from New York City the day before the Tribeca Film Festival—or (it all depends on how you look at things) a few nights before the HOWARD STERN FILM FESTIVAL, a one night affair in New York that’s the culmination of a months-long short film contest. Tonight I’m talking to RICHARD ROEPER, the Chicago Sun-Times reporter and, of course, star of EBERT AND ROEPER. Last year I got a chance to debate Richard on CNN Showbiz News Tonight, but we haven’t spoken since, so it was a real pleasure connecting with him again. He’s going to be one of the judges for the Howard Stern Film Festival and he’s here today to stand up and tell us What the Hell He Was Thinking…here’s Richard!
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SHELDRAKE: Let’s talk about the Howard Stern Film Festival. I just found out about it last week when the invitation came! This is Howard’s first film festival—right?
ROEPER: Yeah.
SHELDRAKE: When were you asked to be a judge?
ROEPER: Well, I saw the contest a couple of months ago when they first started kicking it around. A couple of the guys on the staff did a movie, ‘cause now Howard’s got his In-Demand thing going, and they asked me to review it a few months before that, and I had a lot of fun, you know, ripping it to shreds (LAUGHS). So that’s probably how my name came up with them.
SHELDRAKE: Well, that and being Richard Roeper…
ROEPER: Yeah, there is that, but it showed them that I’d, like, be willing even to DO something like this? Whereas Roger’s, like, “are you kidding me?” (BOTH LAUGH) Roger’s got his Overlooked Film Festival this weekend, so, he might have done it as well but he’s… otherwise occupied.
SHELDRAKE: C’mon, I think it’s great to get in the ground floor of something like this—it’s first year. Just when you thought he couldn’t get any bigger, Howard’s name continues to grow...
ROEPER: Well, here’s the thing: on one level, you KNOW going in that a lot of these films are going to be, obviously, No Holds Barred. They’re gonna be crude. There’s gonna be sex. There’s gonna be language. They’re gonna be tasteless. On the other hand, they’ve received more than 2000 entries and obviously, with the quality Howard brings to anything, it’s a legitimate opportunity for a lot of young filmmakers. My guess is that whoever wins this festival, we’ll hear from that person again, it won’t be a one-off and you never hear from them again.
SHELDRAKE: I saw a lot of the Tribeca shorts last year and was very impressed with the quality. Did you see the winner, DUAL AT RED TABLE, about the ping pong game with the Devil, with someone’s soul as the stakes?
ROEPER: Yeah! That was great! There’s a lot of good stuff out there looking for a venue.Even though this was initially launched, probably, as just an entertainment vehicle for Howard and the staff and everybody, that now it’s really kind of gained a momentum of its own. Now I haven’t seen any of the movies yet, but my guess is, is that the finalists I’m going to be judging are all going to be Sundance quality.
SHELDRAKE: One of the movies I’ve seen recently is Steve Anderson’s great documentary FUCK. Seen it yet?
ROEPER: No, it’s on my list.
SHELDRAKE: The movie shows the history of the word, the attempts by the FCC to restrict its broadcast and, so, naturally Howard’s name comes up in the course of the film, his battles with the FCC. I wanted to see some of that emphasis in the film’s coming up, and it looks as if it’s another battleground for the First Amendment. Now, all the film’s in the HSFF have to have something about Howard in them, right—they have to be about Howard in some way?
ROEPER: They have to be Howard related one way or the other. That’s still a pretty broad area though. It doesn’t have to be about Howard himself—they can be about someone on the staff, or a running joke on the show, or it could be about someone who’s a fan and how it affects their lives. So I think you can take that nugget of the qualifications that you must do
SHELDRAKE: But you can’t just, you know, pan past a picture of Howard on the wall in the titles and then make a picture about Chernobyl…
BOTH LAUGH
ROEPER: Hey, maybe you could! I’m not in any way involved in what film qualifies and what doesn’t. Whatever they decide the eight or ten finalists are, that’s where I come in and serve as a judge to select the winner.
SHELDRAKE: So it’s all happening, the festival, on this one night.
ROEPER: Yeah, they’re gonna have it narrowed down so that, that evening…I’m flying into New York on Wednesday, I’m Howard’s show on Thursday morning, but that evening is the festival and we view the finalists. I guess it’s kind of AMERICAN IDOL-like, we’ll just be onstage judging right on the spot, which is fine by me—that’s a fun way to do it, just get the immediate reaction to these films.
SHELDRAKE: Howard’s filming the event for television?
ROEPER: I believe so, yeah. And I believe they’re gonna make some of the films available immediately on In-Demand. I’m sure they’re gonna have coverage for the radio as well, and of course there’ll be mainstream press there because, whenever Howard’s holding an event, you are definitely going to get the media!
SHELDRAKE: Yeah, you sure are. Now, it can’t be a coincidence that Howard has picked a night for the HSFF kinda close to the end of the Tribeca Film Festival. And I was thinking to myself, gee, if you’re gonna pick someone’s territory to muscle in on, you might want to think twice about it if that territory belongs to Robert DiNiro, you know? You really wanna do that, and the next morning Howard’s got a show in search of a host, ya know what I mean?
ROEPER: Well, it’s a shame, because maybe we could have gotten DiNiro to show up as a judge! (BOTH LAUGH) Honestly, I have no idea if that went into it. The TFF is gaining in prestige and momentum every year. If I were them, in terms of coverage, in terms of getting attention, I wouldn’t want to go against HOWARD! You can look at it the other way around, right? I’d move MY dates to stay away from his film festival!
SHELDRAKE: Ok, that’s definitely going in the article,
ROEPER: I mean, if he made it the same day as the Academy Awards, THEY might want to pick a different date!
SHELDRAKE: HAhahahah. Yeah. That’s great. Now this is the first time you’ve been interviewed for AICN?
ROEPER: I think so! I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong, but yeah, I believe it is.
SHELDRAKE: Well. Thank you for speaking with us. It’s great having one of the most famous critics in America take time to talk to us.
ROEPER: Oh, well, come on, so are you guys. It’s my pleasure. I’m a fan of the site, I go there all the time, every day.
SHELDRAKE: Let me just ask you quickly if you’ve seen anything lately that we should keep an eye out for.
ROEPER: Oh, well, gee, hmm. As you know, it’s not the greatest time right now…I actually kinda like ANDY GARCIA’s movie that’s coming out right now, THE LOST CITY. BILL MURRAY gives one one of his most insane, insane performances. Ever. And I love when Bill Murray is in a movie and he pretty much just acts like he’s in his own movie? And the other movie just seems to be taking place AROUND him? And this is a classic example of that.
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I have another interview with Richard Belzer, another judge for the HSFF tomorrow, so stay tuned for that and much, much more coverage, interviews and a few pix of the TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL from SHELDRAKE, MIRAJEFF and others. And keep an eye out for my review of FUCK from the GENART festival, as well as a review of LIVE FREE OR DIE, a comedy by Seinfeld Junior Mint writers Andy Robin and Greg Kavet! On it’s way. I promise. No, I mean really!
Mr. Sheldrake
NY, NY
April 2006
