Screening Gotham: Visa Woes Continue in NYC

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--In keeping with the unfortunate recent theme of refused/rescinded/delayed visas for Middle Eastern filmmakers visiting the United States, Sharon Waxman has one of her better pieces in recent memory detailing the travel misfortunes to recently befall Saudi director Abdullah al-Muheisin. His film Shadow of Silence (above) screened without him Sunday night at the New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival; a US embassy spokeswoman in Riyadh said Muheisin never returned their calls. Oddly, Waxman overlooked the ongoing case of Iran's Jafar Panahi, whose entire NYC promotional tour for Offside is on hold while his own visa stalls.

--While Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal debate the merits of David Fincher, their Zodiac co-star Chloe Sevigny expresses even more genuine regrets about blowing it on the first take.

--Shot on location all over New York and opening one day before the festival's closing night, Spider-Man 3 seemed to be a no-brainer for one of this year gala premieres at Tribeca. Alas, Variety reports that Sony will take the franchise and its stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and filmmaker Sam Raimi where it belongs on May 1: Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills in central Tokyo. That's fine, we'd rather have Drew Barrymore anyway. Ahem.

--This week's New York Magazine features an interview with Kal Penn, described therein as "the world’s most famous Indian-American actor." And you laugh for a second, and then... well, yeah. Kal Penn.

Posted at March 5, 2007 8:17 AM