Will Billy Joel's Shea Stadium concert film get a theatrical release?

Well, The Hollywood Reporter seems to think so, and as a huge fan of Billy and the Mets, this is fantastic news to me. Here's the story:

Given today’s rough marketplace for indie films, obtaining a theatrical release for even a big-name rockumentary is far from a sure bet. But Billy Joel’s new feature “Last Play at Shea,” which bowed at the Tribeca Film Festival this past weekend, looks like it is poised to beat the odds and could become one of the fest’s first big acquistion titles.

Of course, it helps that Joel and several other musicians featured in the film are long-time Sony recording artists. Jon Small, who directed the concert footage in “Shea,” which was helmed by Paul Crowder, said after an appearance at the fest’s “Docs Doing It Right” panel that it’s looking like Sony Pictures Classics may give “Shea” a limited theatrical rollout later this year, followed by a home video release.

Steve Cohen of Joel’s Maritime Motion Pictures (who produced the film with Nigel Sinclar) added that the filmmakers are in negotiations with Sony for a theatrical release, but there have been conversations with more than one Sony division about its distribution. “It all boils down to finances,” said Cohen, who emphasized that the right marketing budget would be the key to any deal. “As one of the producers, my main concern is the proper promotion of the film.”

“We have a great relationship with Sony Music [Entertainment],” said SPC co-president Michael Barker. “We’ve talked to them about a lot of films involving their artists and this was one of them, [but] there’s no deal.”

Not yet, anyway. The film was completed only four days prior to its Sunday world premiere at Tribeca, and Small says Joel (who financed the low-seven-figure budget himself) was willing to shelve the 95-minute feature if it didn’t turn out to his satisfaction. But the movie, which captures the final two concerts held in New York’s legendary Shea Stadium before its demolition in 2009, met with a warm response to at the fest, thanks to its performances by Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Steven Tyler, Garth Brooks and Tony Bennett, along with tales of the stadium’s baseball players and longtime workers. And that should make its prospects for a theatrical run more likely.

Small is now working on a version for television solely composed of concert footage. No plans for a soundtrack have been finalized.

Exclusive Media is repping sales for producers Spitfire Pictures and Maritime Motion Pictures.

-I know I'd see it...thoughts?

James Mangold is in talks to helm the long in development Joe Namath biopic...

...making today "biopic day" on the blog. Here's the story from the Los Angeles Times:

It's not just because we're hard-core, bleed-green New York Jets fans that we're interested in a Joe Namath movie.

The quarterback and all-around media personality (no Suzy Kolber jokes!) is one of the more fascinating biopic subjects out there. Mediocre subjects get developed as biopics all the time, but Namath -- the brash, victory-predicting, fur-coat-wearing countercultural icon -- is the real deal, cinematically speaking. There's the on-field drama, the off-field exploits, and of course, the historic Super Bowl win that basically changed the face of televised sports and celebrity all at the same time.

Which is why it makes plenty of sense that we're hearing that James Mangold would take on Namath the way Broadway Joe took on the Baltimore defensive line that January 1969 afternoon. The director is in talks with producer Andrew Lazar, who's developing the untitled Namath movie, to come aboard the project.

Mangold is of course best known for taking on a different kind of countercultural icon (more of a working-class icon, actually) in Johnny Cash and "Walk the Line." More than most, the filmmaker gets the intersection of pop culture, image and talent, which is something Cash and Namath both mined to perfection.

Darren Aronofsky, incidentally, was also on the short list for the Namath movie, back when producers were interested in moving it forward and Mangold was working on "Knight and Day." But now "Knight" is finished -- the Tom Cruise vehicle comes out this summer -- and Aronofsky is busy (he's in postproduction on "Black Swan" and likely moving on to the period drama "Serena" with Angelina Jolie). So Mangold it will be.

Lazar (he was behind "Get Smart" and the upcoming "Jonah Hex") is set to meet with the director shortly to see if they can hammer out the details. There's also no official casting yet, though Jake Gyllenhaal had come aboard several years ago; for the sake of moviedom and Broadway Joe's legacy, we're hoping it's someone else, but that's just us. It's also not set up at a studio, but expect both Universal and Paramount to be in the running, among some other big players.

Lazar owns life rights to Namath, which should pave the way to a thorough telling of the Joe Namath story. And hopefully the former NFLer's cooperation will help, not hinder, that goal. (There's also Mark Kriegel's comprehensive book on the quarterback, which Lazar does not own.)

Of course in writing about the Jets and the movies, we can't help but think of the scene from Adam Sandler's "Mr. Deeds." Informed that he now owns the Jets, Sandler, a high-profile Jets fan in real life, quips: "I do? That (stinks). I hope they don't play the Pats."

-I'm a huge Jet fan, so I'd love to see Broadway Joe get the proper film treatment...thoughts?

Diane Lane to star in a Secretariat flick

Variety has all of the gory details:
Diane Lane is set to star in "Secretariat," the Disney film about the relationship between the 1973 Triple Crown-winning racehorse and his owner, Penny Chenery.
Randall Wallace is directing the film this fall from a script by Mike Rich.
Mayhem partners Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray are producing.
While Secretariat showed potential before the horse became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, Chenery's rise to become "first lady of racing" was the real underdog story.
Lane will play Chenery, a mother and housewife who knew little about horse racing when she took over her ailing father's farm in Virginia.
Around the time that Secretariat established himself as a horse with serious potential, she was pressured to sell him and everything else after her father died and she was hit with a large inheritance tax.
Lane last starred in "Nights in Rodanthe."
-Disney has a good track record with their sports movies, so I'll keep an eye on this...

Kevin Smith wants to gun for some awards with his upcoming Sports Flick

Yes, Kevin Smith and awards don't go hand in hand for most, but he seems to think this passion project he has with Mitch Albom might be the one to break through:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Kind of seems like The Wrestler, only with hockey...what do you think of this potential film?