[nikescream]

Thanks to everyone who provided the following info on the film. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
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INTERVIEWS: Katie Holmes on Pieces of April

Thursday, October 17, 2002 12:59 CDT

Katie Holmes' Abandon opens Friday and Chuck the Movieguy caught up with her to talk about another upcoming project for the "Dawson's Creek" star.

"It's more of an ensemble movie," she says about Pieces of April. "It was very interesting to work on the movie. I love the story. Peter Hedges wrote it and directed it. Patty Clarkson plays my mom and Oliver Platt plays my dad. We shot it in ten days on digital in Alphabet City, in this old apartment building. And it was the strangest experience because it was a tiny video camera shooting a movie. I was like, 'What is going on?' We shot a whole movie in like ten days, which is crazy but so much fun. And it's this little dramady about a girl and a mother somehow making peace after years of turmoil and the mom is sick but it's okay. The movie isn't too dramatic, or melodramatic. I think it brings some levity to a difficult situation which I enjoyed because I think illness is hard enough."

She also talked a bit about carrying a movie like Paramount's Abandon.

"It was very exciting to be number one on the call sheet, I was all psyched and I go there the first day and I had a big trailer and it was big time! And then what I learned after about a week was that I had no days off and really all number one on the call sheet means is that you just work a whole heck of a lot and you better be ready. It was definitely challenging, I was very tired. It was a hard role and a tough shoot, you work every day, so it's not a lot of rest. At the end of the movie I felt so good that we had wrapped. I felt like we did something really different and special and challenging. I'm proud of the movie! I saw it and I'm proud of Stephen [Gaghan]. It's one of the very rare times that I've seen a movie I've been in and it's actually what I thought it was going to be, like it's the same movie I read."

Check out Abandon in theaters this weekend.

http://www.comingsoon.net/cgi-bin/ar...4834379,54592,Link to article</a>
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Patricia Clarkson article that mentions POA here
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I hope it is not considered spoilerish to list the InDigEnt plot description.

Pieces of April" marks the directorial debut of writer Peter Hedges,
novelist and screenwriter of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape. April Burns (Katie Holmes) is a 21-year-old wild child with a very big problem. Against her better judgment, she's invited her straightlaced family for Thanksgiving dinner. Her boyfriend, Bobby, wants to help, but she banishes him from the apartment while she attempts to cook the meal. To make matters worse, she then discovers her oven doesn't work. So, while April is forced to ask her eccentric neighbors for help in cooking her fifteen pound turkey, the Burns family begins a reluctant journey from suburban Pennsylvania toward New York City's Lower East Side. April's Dad, Jim Burns (Oliver Platt) tries to convince the family that the day will be beautiful. Her mom, Joy (Patricia Clarkson) has her doubts and freely voices them. April's teenage sister and brother are squeezed between Grandma Dottie and a bag of snacks in the back seat as the Burns family car hurtles toward Manhattan and what will most likely be certain disaster. Produced by John Lyons, Gary Winick, Alexis Alexanian, Lucy Barzun and
Lucille Masone Smith. In Post Production.

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Pieces of April



Of all holidays, there is something about Thanksgiving that seems to bring out the worst in family gatherings, and in his incisive and spirited melodrama Pieces of April, Peter Hedges examines the preparations for one family's festive dinner - one you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy, The black sheep of the family, April Burns, has for some reason agreed to host her family in the dilapidated tenement home she shares with her boyfriend Bobby. And as if preparing a holiday feast up to her mother's standards, a mother she doesn't exactly have an ideal relationship with, isn't enough, the oven doesn't work, and April must canvass her neighbors in search of a substitute. with her family on the way from suburban Pennsylvania, recounting not exactly positive memories about April, and April knee-deep in the various idiosyncrasies of neighbors she has never spoken to before, the two narrative trains hurtle toward each other as we await the seemingly inevitable collision.

Displaying the talent for writing characters and situations that stray from the norm that he showcased in What's Eating Gilbert Grape and About a Boy, Hedges has created a marvelously fun ride that takes unexpected turns and ends up in our hearts. With a sensational cast - Katie Holmes as April and Patricia Clarkson as her mother are especially memorable - this is another digital delight from the team that produced Tadpole.

-Geoffrey Gilmore

(80 min)
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[img]http://www.magiclanternpr.com/films/images/katieholmes.jpg[/img
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Saw this at Jeffrey Wells's Sundance column


PIECES OF APRIL (Dramatic Competition, dir: Peter Hedges. Cast: Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Derek Luke, Oliver Platt) -- One of the "really hot" titles, an agent enthuses. I know nothing more, but I suspect the heat is mainly over Katie Homes having the lead role. I can hear the voices of potential male moviegoers already -- "Does she get naked in it?" Of course, only a pig would say such a thing and there's no place for commentary like that in a Sundance preview piece. But does she?
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Here's a link of a POA's review http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=14239
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Sundance Pieces and Pauly
Peter Hedges directoral debut, Pieces of April, was greeted warmly by the crowds and even respected later in the commuter buses here at Sundance (perhaps the true test of any film in Park City). The film stars Katie Holmes as a rebellious young woman who invites her family (a wonderful ensemble including Oliver Platt and Patricia Clarkson) to her New York apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. If it hasn't been bought by the time I write this it probably will be by the time you read it.
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The picture most likely to inspire a bidding war is the InDigEnt production "Pieces of April," which received a rapturous response in its Sunday morning premiere and bids from Miramax Films, United Artists and Focus Features. Starring Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson in the story of a dysfunctional family Thanksgiving, the picture was written and directed by Peter Hedges ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape").

Also circling are buyers for "The Singing Detective" starring Robert Downey Jr., which sharply divided audiences. The film has interest from both Paramount Classics and IFC Films, but dealmaking has not begun yet.


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'Pieces of April' Receives Standing Ovation
By Vanessa Sibbald
Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 07:01 PM PT


PARK CITY, Utah (Zap2it.com) - The world premiere of "Pieces of April" turned out to be an emotional event Sunday morning (Jan. 19), with director Peter Hedges even shedding a few tears to commemorate the event.

"Oh everyone's used to it," he told the audience after the screening, referring to his tears, "I cried on the set every day."

Thankfully, those were mostly happy tears for the film starring Katie Holmes as a young woman who decides to cook Thanksgiving dinner for her family. Patricia Clarkson stars as April's (Holmes) mother, who has been diagnosed with a case of terminal cancer. Instead of being the warm and fuzzy sentimental kind of film you would expect, "Pieces of April" is instead sharply written and hysterically funny, mostly thanks to the rocky relationship between the mother and daughter. Oliver Platt co-stars as April's father, with Derek Luke ("Antwone Fisher") playing April's African-American boyfriend and Sean Hayes as a rather awful upstairs neighbor who kidnaps April's turkey.

"Pieces of April" was shot on digital video over 16 days in California. All the actors who worked on the movie were not paid in cash, but were instead given a share of the film. But for Hedges and the cast, it was a labor of love.

"I had to make this film," Hedges said, adding that financing for the film fell through apart three different times. Just as the film almost stalled, InDigEnt came in and picked up the bill (although a smaller version of one) to produce the film.

The film received a standing ovation from the crowd, who packed the 1,300-seat Eccles Black Box theatre.

Hedges, perhaps best known for writing the novel and the screenplay "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," as well as the screenplay for "About a Boy," thanked the audience for "skipping church" to see his film.

"This is the first audience we've ever had, and they do say that you always remember your first…" Hedges smiled.

Also on hand at the premiere were stars Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt, as well as producer Gary Winick (who also directed last year's "Tadpole").

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Sundance Buyers Spring Up for a Piece of 'April'
Tue Jan 21, 3:26 AM ET Add Movies - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Dana Harris and Cathy Dunkley

PARK CITY, Utah (Variety) - Multiple buyers jockeyed Monday for the right to distribute the dysfunctional-family drama "Pieces of April," the directing debut of scribe Peter Hedges ("About a Boy").

The dramatic competition entry jumped to the top of the charts at the Sundance Film Festival (news - web sites) after its premiere Sunday afternoon.

The InDigEnt production stars Katie Holmes (news) as a ne'er-do-well daughter who prepares a Thanksgiving dinner in a New York tenement apartment for her family. Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt co-star as her parents.

The film's representative, John Sloss at Cinetic Media, spent Monday evening talking with representatives from Miramax Films, Artisan Entertainment (news - external web site), Fox Searchlight, Fine Line Features, Focus Features and United Artists.


It was deja vu for buyers who pursued Sloss last year in hopes of buying another white-hot InDigEnt title, "Tadpole," which Miramax bought for $5 million. No matter who winds up with "April," however, Sloss doesn't want a replay of 2002, when the losers went home angry. Observers later took Miramax to task for overpaying on "Tadpole," which grossed about $2.8 million domestically.
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It is up a nice Ebert's review of POA, http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-fe...r-ebert22.html
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More POA reviews, etc c/o J Doe..
Movies.com
Film Threat
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Only the DV-shot New York City locations ring authentic in "Pieces of April," a dark comedy from Hedges, the gifted author of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." Everything goes wrong when a living-on-the-fringe New Yorker (an irritating Katie Holmes) agrees to host her Pennsylvania family for what may be her dying mother's last Thanksgiving dinner.

To his credit, Hedges attempts to subvert the melodramatic leanings of his premise with blasts of family-from-hell comedy (Patricia Clarkson, as the nauseated mother, is characteristically wonderful). But the portrait of contentious Manhattan apartment-dwellers comes off as pat and dishonest, when it wants to be quirky and off-center. The Sundance audience eats it up, because this is how Hollywood sitcoms have taught America to regard New York City living.


From Newsday

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From bayarea.com :

• The three lead contenders for the Audience Award in the dramatic competition to date seem to be the "Fame"-style musical "Camp"; director Tom McCarthy's touching drama about a dwarf, "The Station Agent"; and the comic drama "Pieces of April." All three movies are being hotly pursued by buyers, perhaps "Pieces of April" more so than the others. It's directed by Peter Hedges, who wrote "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," and it stars Katie Holmes as the naughty daughter of a terminal cancer patient (Patricia Clarkson, who was so good in "Far From Heaven").

"Dawson's Creek" star Holmes was spotted on Main Street wearing big shades and a nifty fur-trimmed lavender parka. Clearly she doesn't shop the sale rack at REI. ..

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And I guess this explains why POA hasn't been picked up yet:

From Yahoo

One of the most buzzed-about films this week has been Peter Hedges' "Pieces of April," starring Katie Holmes , Patricia Clarkson, Derek Luke, Oliver Platt and Sean Hayes. The digital feature, repped by John Sloss' Cinetic Media unit and produced by IFC's InDigEnt, has been at the top of many indie insiders' lists since it first screened Sunday morning.

However, sources said that the asking price for the film -- $5 million -- has been keeping buyers at bay.
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United Artists picks up "Pieces" for $3.5 mil


Thursday January 23 11:38 PM ET


In the biggest sale of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, United Artists won Peter Hedges' directorial debut, "Pieces of April," with a bid of $3.5 million for worldwide rights.

Katie Holmes stars as a ne'er-do-well, culinarily challenged daughter who prepares a Thanksgiving dinner in a New York tenement apartment as her dysfunctional family drives in from the country dreading the reunion. Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt co-star as her parents.

It was deja vu for many buyers who pursued last year's InDigEnt pic, "Tadpole," which went to Miramax for $5 million and grossed $2.8 million at the box office. But the greatest sense of deja vu belonged to UA: the studio developed "April" and planned to put it in production with a $6 million budget. When its MGM parent pulled the plug, IFC Films' InDigEnt stepped in, but on a budget of less than $1 million.

"Everyone worked for the smallest amount that the unions would allow, and in exchange each of us owns a part of the movie," said Hedges, who previously penned the novel and screenplay "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and the feature adaptations "A Map of the World" and "About a Boy." "It's the InDigEnt model. It's the ultimate irony. You work for less and you may wind up with more."

The dramatic competition entry attracted the interest of every major buyer, including Artisan Entertainment ( news - external web site), Fox Searchlight, Fine Line Features, Focus Features, Lions Gate Films and Miramax Films, but the field narrowed as the price tag grew.

Although execs began drifting out of town Thursday, there were still a number of titles in play and Park City's Main Street remained jammed with traffic.

Fine Line and Newmarket were in the mix to acquire "American Splendor" from HBO Films, and there were offers on Summit Entertainment's "Dot the I," ContentFilm's "Party Monster," MPCA's "Bookies" and Thomas Vinterberg's "It's All About Love." Overall, however, there were fewer deals, and many distributors left Sundance empty-handed.

Some executives opined about the glut of "small films," while others thought the fest had simply gone back to its indie roots.

"I think this year the festival was made up of more films that had a true American independent feel than in recent years, which reflects Sundance's original mission statement," Fine Line president Mark Ordesky said.

Reuters/Variety




<a href=http://movies.yahoo.com/sundance/news/vas/20030123/104339390100.html>Article</a>
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This article shows just how low budget POA is:

THE HUSTLE: How low-budget was Pieces of April, the romantic comedy starring Katie Holmes?

Ask Oliver Platt.

"It was favoured nations -- we had the same size coffee can to pee in," says the actor, who plays Holmes' father in the comedy from Peter Hedges, writer of What's Eating Gilbert Grape and About A Boy.

"The producer would bring us a bag lunch," recalls Patricia Clarkson, who portrays Holmes' mother.

"The smallest thing made us happy. We were literally changing in bathrooms. It was really brutal."

Antwone Fisher star Derek Luke, cast as Holmes' boyfriend, viewed things differently.

"It reminded me of a hustle back in the east coast," says Luke, who in a few short months has been propelled from struggling unknown to stardom, thanks to his role in the Denzel Washington-directed film.

"It hasn't been crazy -- it's been extremely crazy. But it's been a dream come true.

"It's better than packing boxes. Now that's crazy."
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From Screen Daily.

Some highlights:

Budgeted at some $150,000, the film looks good and hits all the same buttons you would expect from a studio-produced family comedy. That’s why United Artists shelled out some $3.5m for domestic rights to the picture - and a generous slice of the backend for international rights - at the Sundance Film Festival last week where the film was far and away the most sought after property.

and

Holmes is a surprise as April. Downplaying her looks and cutesy persona, she is convincing as an awkward 21 year-old living with her black boyfriend (Luke) in a run-down tenement building on the Lower East Side of New York City.

<a href=http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=10977>Article</a>
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Film Threat - Tim Merrill

That Cow
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There's another nice review of POA on Aint't cool
here http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=14344
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Youn can download the "PoA" Sundance pressbook here

Need ADOBE ACROBAT READER
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Thanks to Melissa for letting us know about this clip from POA that is at the Independent Film Channel site [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Click to view
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<img src=http://www.katieholmespictures.com/pictures/pics/misc/pg6/misc196.jpg>
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From the "POA" page at Yahoo Movies - Greg's Preview

Release Date: --- 2003 (LA/NY); expands to other cities at later dates

Release Date Note: (4/13/03) At first glance, it seems a little odd that a Thanksgiving-themed movie is being scheduled for September 19th, but given the gradual pacing of many platform releases, the idea might be that this allows the film to build up to a wider release in November
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Release date change:

Pieces of April" (APRIL)to 10/17/03 from 9/19/03.
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'April,' 'Casa' kick off Woodstock film fest

Event takes place Sept. 17-21; concert skedded for the 17the

By LILY OEI

The Woodstock Film Festival will kick off its fourth year with the East Coast premiere of Peter Hedges' "Pieces of April" in Woodstock on Sept. 18 and, simultaneously, a screening of John Sayles' "Casa de Los Babys" in nearby Rhinebeck, N.Y.
Fest has increased in size and geography and decided to acknowledge the expansion with twin openers. "Casa" will screen at arthouse theater Upstate Films in Rhinebeck, where other events will take place during festival weekend.

"These are two great films that will have very different audiences," said festival director Meira Blaustein. "But everyone will come together for the party."

"Pieces of April" stars Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson and Derek Luke. Written and directed by Hedges, story follows family members reuniting for Thanksgiving.

Ensemble drama "Casa de Los Babys" is the story of six women who are in South America to adopt babies. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marcia Gay Harden and Lili Taylor star.

Woodstock Fest will take place Sept. 17-21, with a concert skedded for Sept. 17. Full lineup will be announced Aug. 18 at fest's annual kickoff party at Gotham's Knitting Factory.
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[chazman]

Thnaks for #2 [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[CrazyJoey8]

thanks for the new thread! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[JudeNeary]

Yeah thanks for that thread.

She's so fun is those pics ! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Indri]

Thank for the New Thread Nike [img]smilies/clap.gif[/img]

[Stateside]

Thanks for compiling all the info, Nike. [img]smilies/glow.gif[/img]

[sugarfist]

Patiently waiting for the release date. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

<center><img src=http://home.earthlink.net/~lacenribbons/images/misc/katie_229c.jpg></center>

[*~Jessabelle~*]

I'm really looking foward to seeing PoA. Maybe some people will finally see that Katie really is a talented and versatile actress. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[img]smilies/love.gif[/img] Jess

[chazman]

Saw this lil pic at the MGM website..

[stealingbeauty]

Thanks for that pic Chaz.

[sugarfist]

Nice pic Chaz, I hope we get more soon.. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[ 08-08-2003: Message edited sugarfist ]

[nikescream]

Originally posted by chazman: [QB]Saw this lil pic at the MGM website.. /QB]

Main word in that sentence: "lil". [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] Thanks chaz. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Hmm..Now only if that circle in the middle of her shirt wasn't there... [img]smilies/devil.gif[/img]

:arentyoutiredoftheicon?:

[chazman]

Originally posted by nikescream: <STRONG> Main word in that sentence: "lil". </STRONG>

Happy? [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

[nikescream]

Originally posted by chazman: <STRONG> Happy? [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] </STRONG>

Nah. That circle still bugs me. Thanks for trying though. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

[sugarfist]

Umm, the United Artists site had a little larger one. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

<center><img src=http://www.unitedartists.com/images/film/img_big_april.jpg></center>

[ 08-07-2003: Message edited sugarfist ]