Updated: Journalists sometimes make mistakes, and it’s not the end of the world when they do. But you have to give Deadline‘s Andreas Wiseman credit for really knocking it out of the park today in a recently posted interview with Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera.
In the since-corrected article, Wiseman quotes Barbera saying that Steven Spielberg‘s The Fabelmans, recently announced as a Toronto Film Festival premiere, will go to Telluride. Except it’s not playing Telluride.
Barbera quote: “There was only one film we couldn’t see, which was the Spielberg film [The Fabelmans]. They decided to go domestic with Telluride. It was a film that all the fall festivals wanted to see but no one got a chance to see it internationally other than Toronto.”
Wiseman didn’t misquote, I’m told — Barbera’s remarks were recorded, and he said that.
If I’d been the interviewer, I would’ve said “whoa, wait…you’re saying The Fabelmans, a big ‘get’ for Toronto, is playing Telluride first?” And Barbera might’ve corrected himself and all would be well in the state of Denmark.
At a later point Barbera is quoted saying that “Noah Baumbach’s film [The Whale] is also another contender.” Wiseman mistakenly posted the title of Darren Aronofsky‘s The Whale into brackets — he meant to type White Noise.
Barbera’s Telluride-Toronto conflation (and Wiseman reporting it without double-checking) is one thing — fatigue, a long day. But the Baumbach-Aronofsky switch makes two.
