After her Oscar nod for “Apollo 13,” Kathleen Quinlan’s newie movie “After” is “a haunting powerful psychological drama set in wintry 2002.” What that means, who knows. I know it’s set in New York. Nobody knows more.
Kathleen: “We filmed three years ago. In Rochester. Young filmmakers directed, shot, wrote it, got things put together but didn’t realize how difficult distribution is. Amazing it’s finally coming out. Maybe now this happened because the market’s opened with additional movies on cable, in house and more venues. We did it so long ago I can’t remember much to tell you.”
I suggested their PR people might help . . . but . . .
“No budget for PR. They’re depending on word of mouth.”
To fatten this rapidly shrinking interview, I asked where’s she live.
“Ojai, California. For 10 years. In a cabin on a ranch. Cattle, bear, coyotes, rattlesnakes, raccoons, deer leave little deposits on our doorstep.”
I figured better to ask about her previous movies.
“Hard to find work today you can be proud of. My former projects, like ‘Apollo 13,’ are not in my library. They’re in a plain simple container. Actually, a box. I have nobody to categorize that stuff. Ranch work keeps you busy. I’m like an Irish workhorse.”
So, listen, whoever sees “After,” call. Tell me what it’s about.
Odds & ends
About masses of humanity, who knows. About humans with checkbooks, I know. Donors are lining up for Hillary’s White House leap . . . Shia LaBeouf must’ve straightened up because he ate out. In Hollywood’s restaurant Tender Greens . . . May not come up in conversation, but Madonna nicknamed Carlos Leon as “Carlos the Tackle.” Supposedly due to certain endowments — and we are not discussing insurance policies.
Telling Terminal’s tale
Here’s how best-selling Linda Fairstein wrote “Terminal City”: “You must grab the reader fast. I struggled. Learning the Waldorf’s connected to the Terminal underground, I finally had a dead body in the Waldorf within two pages. Then, online Grand Central history, endless 2012/2013 personal research of 750,000 daily commuters, 36,000-square-foot concourse, train arrivals every 47 seconds, secret basements, hidden stairs, isolated VIP platforms and 600 homeless living beneath an upside-down 10-story building.
“Next a storybook, notebook with characters, pages and pages, with clues on a pin board, photos, visuals, plus, after many hours, a headache. And eight months later — The Book.”
In between she found time for, what nobody should know, a near future wedding.
Panetta book it
Joining big mouths who have big advances for big memoirs, October brings “Worthy Fights” by ex CIA chief, ex Defense Secretary Leon Panetta . . . “A Book of Days” states in 1846, on July 23, “Protesting US involvement in the Mexican war, Henry David Thoreau wouldn’t pay his $1 poll tax. After jail in Concord, Mass., he wrote ‘Civil Disobedience.’ ” No need to thank me for this information.
Celeb chatter
“RISING Star” host Josh Groban: “It’s a stressful situation. I’ve tried to have fun. Not be judgmental.” . . . COMEDIAN Whitney Cummings on which Twitterers she follows: “Seth Rogen. Also Louis C.K.” . . . ADVERTISING mantra: “Every passing minute, data you left behind degrades, and with it the marketer’s knowledge of your intent.” . . . THE Kim-Kanye wedding. Anyone see his accountant come down the aisle holding a little white satin pillow — with Kim’s wallet on it?
Some yutz at the Lincoln Square concessionaire asked: “You got popcorn. How come no momcorn?”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.