I’ll be updating Oscar shenanigans with some predictions and charts in a week and a half, and in them, you’ll see that of all the superhero movies this year, I’m counting on “Captain America: The First Avenger” to be the one that registers much at all with the Academy. We’ll see if that pans out, but for now, the final trailer has been released via Yahoo! Movies, and it has some impressive strokes. Check it out by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.
Fox Searchlight is really outdoing itself on “The Tree of Life.” When the studio picked up the title last year, I knew it was in caring hands. But I never really expected such pristine handling every step of the way.
Tonight Searchlight held bi-coastal panel discussions with religious and non-religious leaders to discuss differing perspectives and interpretations of the theological themes within the film. “Insights, Inspirations & Impact” was the name of the program, and I was on hand for the Landmark Theatre discussion in West L.A. this evening.
The panelists included Sister Rose Pacatte of the Pauline Center for Media Studies, Dr. Robert K. Johnston of the Fuller Theological Seminary and author of “Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue”; Rabbi David Wolpe of the Sinai Temple (a bit of a celebrity in his own right); Scott Young, executive director of the University Religious Conference at UCLA; Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at the Islamic Center for Southern California; and Jim Hosney, Professor of Literature at the American Film Institute. The panel was moderated by spiritual author Erwin Raphael McManus.
I’ve had this poster for Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” sitting in a tube in the office for weeks now. Since I don’t really have space for it on the wall, and seeing as it’s a bit fresh given the on-going roll-out of the film in theaters, I thought I’d offer it up in a new contest.
“Tone poem” is a term often used to describe Malick’s work, so I thought we’d go with another haiku contest (as always, courtesy of Sasha Stone at Awards Daily who does them often). So offer up your best Malick-themed haiku (5, 7, 5 syllables, remember) and the cream of the crop wins. You can do something built around his work or around the film itself, up to you.
Let’s give this, oh, until the end of the week. So midnight (PT) Friday is the cut-off. Ready, set, GO!
[Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]
Once again this year, Guy will be covering the Venice Film Festival while I’m up in the Colorado mountains catching this and that at Telluride. Today, via Variety, the former’s opening night film has been announced:
George Clooney’s “The Ides of March” has been tapped as the opening film of the 68th Venice Film Festival on Aug. 31. Fest hasn’t made an official announcement but a source not authorized to speak for the event confirmed the selection Monday. Sony’s dated the political thriller for an Oct. 7 limited release.
Clooney directed from a script he co-wrote with Grant Heslov. He also stars in the film, which is based on the Broadway play “Farragut North,” written by Beau Willmon.
It goes without saying, this one could be a big player on the circuit this year. Which reminds me, mark your calendars because July 4 I’ll finally dip my pen in the prediction ink this year with a new column and reassessment of the Contenders section.
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
The film will be re-released theatrically in 3D September 16 with an October 4 Blu-ray and DVD Special Edition close behind (trailer after the jump). Meanwhile, speaking of today, I figure I’ll shout-out a two-year-old list to commemorate.
I imagine $52 million for the “Green Lantern” start is lower than WB was hoping for out of a potential franchise-starter but solid enough given the critical thrashing (and seems about right for the film). I totally forgot “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” was coming out this weekend, and so did most others, it seems. “Midnight in Paris” expanded wider than any Woody Allen film to date and keeps chugging, while “Super 8” had a pretty good hold.
(Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)
I remember the first time I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band vividly. I was late to the party. Springsteen’s music — still one of my earliest childhood memories — had been thrilling fans for decades before I finally saddled up to what is probably the greatest live show in the business (for my money — money I’ve spent six times since, once in London). But I actually took something pretty specific away from that night.
The lights dimmed and then it hit: a long, slow, nuanced saxophone build-up to “The River.” It was beautiful. It was haunting. It was emotional, tender and, above all, spiritual. The very same show solidified for me what is still my favorite Springsteen track — “Spirit in the Night,” from his debut album, “Greetings from Asbury Park” — and that can be attributed in a big way to to the frolicking saxophone that dances through the story of that song. And now, the voice, the breath, the man behind that instrument has been taken from us.
I gave Martin Campbell’s “Green Lantern” a big fat pass this week, while the rest of the critical establishment was busy tearing it down. (Guy joined their ranks with a take 180 degrees from mine.) I still think there is a lot of reaching for negativity in many of these assessments, but as the steam from the Hyperbole Express begins to clear the loading platform, I’d love to hear what the readership thought of the film, which hits theaters tonight at midnight screenings. (I may even give it another look because I’m interested in the largely hailed 3D conversion.) Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below when you get around to seeing it this weekend.
Anyone else ready for Michael Fassbender to have a big fat coming out party this year? The press release, in part:
Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired the US Rights to David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD from UK based Hanway Films. The film, produced by Jeremy Thomas (THE LAST EMPEROR, SEXY BEAST), stars Viggo Mortenson, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, and Vincent Cassel. The film is currently in post-production…
Seduced by the challenge of an impossible case, the driven Dr. Jung (Michael Fassbender) takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) as his patient in A DANGEROUS METHOD. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud. Both men fall under Sabina’s spell.
“David Cronenberg and Jeremy Thomas have made a film that not only has an impeccable cast and crew working at the height of their talents but tells one of the most fascinating love triangles of the twentieth century. The American public will enthusiastically embrace this picture. We are delighted to be in business again with Jeremy and David,” states Sony Pictures Classics.
[Photo: Sony Pictures Classics]
Yesterday there was an Entertainment Tonight sneak peek at the trailer for Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball,” based on the best-selling book with a screenplay by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin and starring Brad Pitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It has all the pieces to make it LOOK like an awards play, but it’s still to be seen if it reaches those heights. The full version of the trailer has dropped via Yahoo! Movies. Check it out by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.
Filmmaker Chris Weitz has taken a ride on a rather inconsistent career path since making a splash (along with brother Paul) with 1999’s “American Pie.” He followed that raunchy comedy with the critically mauled Chris Rock starrer “Down to Earth” before bouncing back with the beloved intimate romantic comedy “About a Boy.” He then fled to the arms of big budget filmmaking with 2007’s “The Golden Compass” and last year’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” This year brings an effort hearkening back to the character-driven work of his early career, “A Better Life,” which premieres at the Los Angeles Film Festival next week.
The film could be read as a riff on Vittorio De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thieves,” though transplanted in Los Angeles with a heavy dose of Mexican-American culture. But it’s unfair to hold it up to that agreed-upon masterpiece of neorealist cinema. Yes, the films share some plot details — “A Better Life” tells the story of an undocumented Mexican landscaper who purchases a truck and equipment to start his own business, hoping to make a better future for him and his street-smart son, only to have it stolen — but it is a successful piece of slice-of-life dramatic filmmaking that was a breath of fresh air for Weitz after his blockbuster detour.
Those are three heavyweight names to stuff into one headline, but thanks to some shrewd marketing on the part of Fox Searchlight Pictures, it’s a reality.
Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” continues to roll out in its platform release, landing in a boatload of new cities this weekend. As the film prepares to go wider, the studio has tapped the thoughts of filmmakers Christopher Nolan and David Fincher to get their perspective on the famed auteur.
“His work is immediately recognizable, but it’s very tough to put your finger on why that is,” Nolan says in a new featurette launched at Apple. “The technique is not immediately obvious.”
Fincher, meanwhile, notes that “with Malick, you’re seeing something that was thought about and meditated over. You’re seeing someone who’s making choices that are specifically designed to evoke a feeling.”
Last week the trailer for Sundance Selects’ “Tabloid,” one of Errol Morris’s best films in some time, hit the net. The poster has also been floating around, so I thought I’d toss that up as well. Have a look at the full image after the jump.
It didn’t really hit me how excited I (still) was for “Green Lantern” until the lights dimmed and the green hit the screen. It can’t be understated how much of a long-time-coming type of thing this is, a theatrical version of such a vast cosmic comic book creation. And given the mechanics of the world, the amount of digital wizardry needed to conjure it, not to mention some dense continuity that never presented a clear-cut story for the screen, it’s understandable that it took so long.
But things started to change in 2004. Geoff Johns, a long-time DC guy who had written on a number of the company’s books (and already had a nice film education under his wing from his time as a Richard Donner mentee), started re-tooling the DC universe, beginning with one of his favorite characters: Hal Jordan. The “Rebirth” storyline led into a revitalized line of books featuring the Green Lantern Corps, a more than 3,000-member strong organization of intergalactic peace keepers, with Jordan right in the center of things. The elements Johns began tinkering with and re-envisioning — which were themselves building toward the “Blackest Night” and “Brightest Day” comic events of the last two years — began to reveal a way into the material for the screen. And now, “Green Lantern.”
With the big news out of the way, there are a few other annual house-cleaning rule alterations that ought to be addressed.
First up, the Best Animated Feature Film category — which seems to get a face-lift in the rule book every summer — will now have anywhere from three to five nominees. As it was, in a year with 16 qualifying titles, five nominees would be selected. Less than the magic number 16 would yield just three nominees. Now, if 13 to 15 films qualify, four of them will be nominated by the branch. Under that, I’m assuming it’s just three as always.
VERDICT: I’m okay with this, I suppose, but the qualifying numbers still feel quite arbitrary. Still, this keep quality-heavy films that happen to be quantity-thin for animated output from being slighted.
The Academy has added a new twist to the Best Picture category, which was shaken up two years ago with the expansion of the field from five to 10 nominees. According to a late-breaking press release Monday, the organization has elected the field to include anywhere from five to 10 nominees, depending upon what percentage of number one votes contenders receive during the ballot-counting process.
Think of it as kinda/sorta like the Best Original Song category, which can have anywhere from two to five nominees, but in order to place, a hopeful must first land a certain “score” from the branch. In this instance, the “score” would be the percentage of number one votes received by a given film, with 5% being the minimum. Assuming they hold onto the rule, we could have different years with different numbers of Best Picture nominees, etc.
It’s interesting because the race could shake out predictably — given that a handful of films are agreed upon leading up to the nominations announcement, with one or two already conceded as barely making the cut — or it could be ignited even more with a dash to squeeze into that top percentile. Who knows? But I’m a BIG fan of this measure. It seems like a happy medium between the exclusivity of five nominations and the perceived diminishing of the honor of 10. And maybe even a bit more dialed in. Not to mention, the resulting number of nominees could be a nice representation of the Academy’s stance on an overall year of film. Nicely done.
Full press release follows…
Rod Lurie’s “Straw Dogs” will be hitting theaters this September. The trailer hit last month. Today, the poster. I’m glad marketing went head-on by not just invoking, but straight up reconstituting the striking imagery from the original film’s one-sheet. If you’re gonna do it, might as well go all out. Lurie revealed it today via Twitter. Check out the full image after the jump.