Blog Posts by Danny Bowes

Mike Coppola/Getty ImagesComedian Mike Birbiglia is set to continue his budding career as a filmmaker, following up last year's Sundance Audience Prize-winning “Sleepwalk With Me.” He is slated to write and star in an adaptation of his stand-up act “My Girlfriend's Boyfriend.” The film will “have a different name, but that's the jumping-off point,” Birbiglia told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Sleepwalk With Me,” also derived from Birbiglia's stand-up, led to a book by the same name and a segment on “This American Life.” The program’s host Ira Glass liked Birbiglia’s stuff so much that he co-produce the film. After making a splash at Sundance and elsewhere on the festival circuit, “Sleepwalk With Me” went on to make a number of best-of-2012 lists, with Film.com—which picked it as #11—saying “Veteran comedian/first-time director Mike Birbiglia does something that Billy Crystal, Woody Allen, and Judd Apatow were never able to quite pull off: Making a film that honestly portrays the life of a stand-up.”

Birbiglia

Photo: WireImageOscar winner Marion Cotillard, coming off a highly successful 2012 with “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Rust and Bone,” is nearing a new prestige project that could very well land her another nomination: Benoit Jacquot's adaptation of the classic French novel “Diary of a Chambermaid.”

Octave Mirbaud's novel, a sensation upon its 1900 publication in France, tells the story of an ambitious young woman's time working for wealthy French families. It was controversial in its day for addressing the working conditions of servants.

“Diary of a Chambermaid” has a rich history in cinema too, having been adapted first in 1946 by Jean Renoir with Paulette Goddard in the lead, and in 1964 by Luis Bunuel with Jeanne Moreau. Jacquot's version, produced by Jean-Pierre Guerin (who also produced Jacquot's 2012 Berlinale-opening “Farewell My Queen”) would be the third version.

Guerin told Variety that Cotillard, after a positive meeting with Jacquot, is looking forward to reading the script. The role

Photo Courtesy of SundanceSpeaking at a press conference at this year's Berlinale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt said he would cut graphic sex scenes from his directorial debut, “Don Jon's Addiction,” to secure an R rating. “Yes, we expect we have to do that and I'll be getting started on it as soon as I get back,” the actor-director said.

Photo: WireImageJesse Eisenberg, Emile Hirsch, and Diane Kruger have all signed on for the upcoming film “Midnight Sun,” about the making of the atomic bomb. The film marks the second feature as director by veteran character actor Chris Eigeman.

Eigeman's razor-sharp, hyper-articulate performances in ‘90s indie films like “Barcelona,” “Kicking and Screaming,” and “The Last Days of Disco” established him as something of an icon (the scene in “The Last Days of Disco” where Eigeman snorts hot black coffee to determine its similarity to cocaine being a particular highlight).

While a few unsuccessful projects followed, Eigeman persevered, appearing in memorable recent appearances on TV's “Girls” and “Bunheads.” In 2007 Eigeman directed his first film, “Turn The River,” which received positive critical notice. For “Midnight Sun,” his follow-up, Eigeman has enlisted Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the book “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” as a consultant. (When making a film about the

Photo: Alliance FilmsRob Zombie's “Lords of Salem” leads an enticing slate of features at South By Southwest (SXSW)'s Midnighters program this year. The rocker-turned-horror director's latest, a riff in his inimitable style about witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September and hits theaters this April 19^th.

Photo: Coatwolf.com

The filmmakers behind 2011's indie cult hit "Bellflower" are turning to crowd-funding to help complete their new film "Chuck Hank and the San Diego Twins." Calling the new project "influenced heavily by 80s action films and side-scrolling video games," Coatwolf Productions have produced a short video outlining exactly what they need the additional funding for.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (Photo: Fox Searchlight)

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" screenwriter Lucy Alibar, for her new project, is partnering with a producer who knows a thing or two about fantasy himself: Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro is set to produce Alibar's adaptation of Francis Hodgson Burnett's classic novel "The Secret Garden" for Universal.

Photo: John Sayles

John Sayles, one of the great American independent filmmakers, has a new film, and a typically intriguing one at that. “Go For Sisters,” the writer-director's latest, will be premiering at Austin's South by Southwest (SXSW) festival this year.