In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Best Original Screenplay: The case for ‘WALL-E’

    I think it was some smart person on Nat Rogers’ most recent podcast who remarked that if you really want to get a picture of what was going on cinematically in any given year, you’d be better off bypassing Oscar’s Best Picture category and heading straight for the Best Original Screenplay nominees – a category that has a far higher tolerance for eccentricity, controversy and the occasional foreign tongue than any other.

    Case in point: 2002. When the top categories were splintered between the respectable but less-than-relevant likes of “Chicago” and “The Pianist,” Original Screenplay afforded voters the luxury of choosing between Pedro Almodovar, Todd Haynes and Alfonso Cuaron. Two years later, the category gave recognition to the otherwise shamefully sidelined “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” just as, a decade earlier, “Pulp Fiction” fans sought refuge there from a merciless shower of Gump. As I’ve said before, from “Citizen Kane” to “The Crying Game,” Best Original Screenplay tends to be the connoisseur’s favourite Oscar category.

    And so it is this year, when the writers’ branch really demonstrated admirable ingenuity and adventurousness in their selections, in the face of some otherwise uninspired voting. For me, it’s by far the most exciting of this year’s major Oscar categories, both for the calibre its competition and the unpredictability of its outcome. It’s one category where the Guild award is of little to no use to prognosticators, as only one title (“Milk”) features on both the Oscar and WGA lists.

    Like Kris, I’m placing my money on Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and “WALL-E” emerging triumphant here, and thus becoming the first animated film in Oscar history to win a major category. This morning, meanwhile, I was interested to see that the majority of the Gurus of Gold are thinking the same way. It’s a healthy vote of confidence for a prediction that, let’s face it, would represent a significant leap for Academy voters. Just last year, the Reel Geezers (AMPAS members both) immediately discounted “Ratatouille” from consideration in the category because it was a “cartoon.” How do we know that most of the notoriously conservative Academy voters won’t feel the same way?

    (more…)

  • 31 days of Oscar on TCM

    I haven’t watched Turner Classic Movies in forever.  It seems I have no time for anything nowadays, but I always liked checking out the “31 Days of Oscar” nightly screening series this time of year.  Here’s a new promo for this year’s series:

  • Hollywood uses the comic book rack for added buzz

    Cover of Star Trek: Mirror ImagesI’ve kind of been expecting a piece along these lines for quite a while now.  Every time I go into my local comic book store (guilty), I see some series lining the shelves based on either a film or television show, sometimes in form of a prequel.  I generally refrain from picking up, say, “C.S.I.” or “Fringe,” but that “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” prequel book has me somewhat interested.

    Here’s the opening few graphs from Scott Bowles’s piece:

    Having plundered comic books for decades, Hollywood is giving a little back.  Studios are increasingly turning their properties over to illustrators and writers before movies are released to generate Internet chatter, early fans and anticipation within the all-important comic-book community.

    The latest comic comes from Push, the sci-fi thriller starring Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning that opens Friday. Wildstorm, a division of DC Comics, has created a six-issue series that fleshes out the movie’s plot about expats with supernatural powers.

    And a magazine rack-full of other movies are here or on the way.

    Bowles then goes on to rattle off a multitude of examples, from “G.I. Joe” to “Terminator Salvation” and everything in between.  I’ve always felt there was a great opportunity with this kind of concentrated cross-medium promotion.  Of course, some viewers aren’t interested in comic books, and that’s fine, but what’s wrong with an amplified experience?  To boot:

    “It’s a great way to flesh out back stories and create references for the movie,” says Hank Kanalz, Wildstorm’s general manager. “You can watch the movie without reading the comic book. But you’ll have a better experience if you do.”

    Interestingly enough, last summer’s blockbuster “The Dark Knight” didn’t come with the usual comic adaptation.

    Check out the full story at USA Today.

  • I’m totally buying one (last Bale update, I swear)

    Christian Bale T-shirt

    Get yours today. (via /film)

    There’s also a nifty soundboard for your prank calling pleasure.  Patrick Goldstein has gone a little deeper on what it all means (and whether it matters).  Brad Brevet runs down a few more on-set eruptions.

    Oh, and if you want to have the biggest laugh of all: Harry Knowles says he’s above it all.

  • 2/4 Oscarweb Round-up

    Angelina Jolie at the 72nd Annual Academy Awards• Patrick Goldstein reports on his self-moderated producers panel from last week’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival. [The Big Picture]

    • The Gurus o’ Gold pick their ones and twos. [Movie City News]

    • Angelina Jolie has, uh…misplaced her “Girl, Interrupted” Oscar. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Tom O’Neil, meanwhile, gives Meryl Streep shit for leaving hers in the bathroom back in 1980. [Gold Derby]

    • David Denby smacks “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” down for good measure. [The New Yorker]

    • Jeffrey Wells is amused. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Mary McNamara talks to “five-time Oscar loser” Kate Winslet. [The Envelope]

    • Susan King does the same with first-time nominee Frank Langella. [The Envelope]

    • And speaking of Winslet, Tim Wilson writes up the box office symbiotism of her films across the pond. [The Guardian]

  • Putting a bow on the Bale dust-up

    Christian Bale in American PsychoIf you’ve paid attention the last 24 hours, you’re well aware of the Christian Bale F-bomb tirade.  And if you haven’t made yourself familiar with the techno remix of same, do yourself a favor…now.

    Well “Terminator Salvation” assistant director Bruce Franklin (called out by name in the recording: “Shut the f— up, Bruce!”) has spoken to E! Online about the incident, giving what I feel to be a level-headed assessment of something like this, even if it was a bit overblown on Bale’s part.  Franklin says:

    “If you are working in a very intense scene and someone takes you out of your groove…but was the most emotional scene in the movie,” said Franklin. “And for him to get stopped in the middle of it. He is very intensely involved in his character. He didn’t walk around like that all day long. It was just a moment and it passed.”

    “This was my second movie with Christian and it has always been a good experience with him,” added Franklin, who also worked with the actor on 2000’s Shaft. “He is so dedicated to the craft. I think someone is begging to make some noise about this but I don’t think it’s fair. The art of acting is not paint by numbers, it’s an art form.”

    Well, it’s been a nice diversion in this slow news week.  Moving on…

    (via /Film)

  • Best Vanity Fair shots

    (from left) Darren Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke

    (from left) Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger

    More here.

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

    Moving along…tell us in the sidebar!

  • The last time Taraji P. Henson was on Oscar’s stage

    I was inspired to hunt this clip down after that Three 6 Mafia item I mentioned yesterday.  Eesh, remember the awful scene recreations for the original song contenders that year?  Ouch.  Anyway, maybe Taraji will grace the stage on different auspices this year.  For now, this is what we’ve got:

    My guess is this will get yanked soon enough.  The Academy is pretty stingy with its content.

  • 2/3 Oscarweb Round-up

    Oprah Winfrey• Lionsgate picks up Sundance sensation “Push” with Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry in on the publicity push. [Variety]

    • Aseem Chhabra wonders why negative portrayals of India from westerners always cause people to “freak out.” [Mumbai Mirror]

    • “Little Miss Sunshine” producer David T. Friendly, meanwhile, smartly tells reporters sniffing around the “Slumdog” smear story to “consider the source,” calls the whole scenario “fueled by sour grapes.” [The Wrap]

    • David Poland on the evaporating post-Oscar theatrical bump. [The Hot Blog]

    • Another Oscar section for all our obsessive enjoyment. [E! Online]

    • Michael Cieply reads into the body language of the season’s contenders at yesterday’s nominees luncheon. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Peter Bart chimes in from the scene as well. [Peter Bart]

    • Tom O’Neil on the steady leak of Oscarcast surprises. [Gold Derby]

    • Christopher Campbell’s reasons bot to underestimate “The Reader” at this stage. [Spout Blog]

    • Hilary Alexander reports from the BAFTA talent photo shoot. [Daily Telegraph]

  • Gilliam to receive BAFTA Fellowship

    In one of the few good decisions BAFTA has made this year, Terry Gilliam will receive the Academy Fellowship (yes, that’s a lifetime achievement award to you and me) at Sunday’s ceremony in London. That’s a pleasantly inspired choice, if you ask me. Here’s an extract from the press release:

    Awarded annually by the Academy, the Fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed upon an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film. Previously honoured Fellows include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Christie, John Barry, Stanley Kubrick and Judi Dench. Last year’s recipient was Anthony Hopkins.

    Finola Dwyer, Chair of BAFTA’s Film Committee, said:  “We’re delighted to make Terry a fellow of the Academy: he is one of the most original, imaginative and innovative directors working in the industry today.”

    Terry Gilliam adds: “This is a great honour for someone who needs so many other people to do his job.”

    Because they’re genuinely clueless about how to stage an awards telecast, BAFTA tends to place the Fellowship award right at the end of the ceremony — you know, after Best Film has been presented and most viewers have flipped channels. I suspect they’ll make the same error this year, but stay tuned. Gilliam ought to be worth watching.

  • Fly on the wall

    Come on, who wouldn’t want to listen in on this particular conversation? Rourke’s way with the dainty teacup makes me smile. And his outfit (loving that pocket square) is strangely awesome.

    Sasha Stone has a bunch of nice pics from yesterday’s nominees luncheon, including the Class of 2008 shot. Check ’em out here.

  • That was fast…Bale tirade techno YouTube video

    I just laughed my ass off for two-and-a-half minutes.  Click here for the back story, then feast your ears:

  • Denby nails it

    If you saw his TV chat with Charlie Rose and A.O. Scott, you won’t be surprised to read that critic David Denby doesn’t think much of this year’s Oscar crop. (And if you didn’t, you could probably guess.) Anyway, in this very lucid New Yorker piece, he expands on the points he raised on the show, tearing apart every Best Picture nominee but “Milk,” and lamenting the exclusion of “Happy-Go-Lucky” and “Rachel Getting Married.” I don’t agree with everything he says (and I do think he’s unnecessarily cynical about “Slumdog Millionaire”), but he’s bang on-target here:

    In the well-acted “Frost / Nixon,” a nice journalistic coup—David Frost’s pushing Richard Nixon into semi-confessional mode, in 1977—has been elevated to a great transformative moment in history, which, alas, it was not. These two films (“Frost/Nixon” and “The Reader”) may have been controlled more by their directors and their writers than by their studios, but they’re still the kind of middlebrow pictures that the Academy used to nominate in the bad old studio-dominated days—the contemporary equivalents of “Judgment at Nuremburg” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” They are “important” pictures that “say” something about public issues. They’re good for the industry’s image.

    Note the quotation marks. The rest here.

  • Sid Ganis: Big surprises in store for 81st Oscarcast

    From Dave Germain, reporting from this afternoon’s nominees luncheon:

    Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, told the 112 contenders gathered at the annual nominees luncheon to expect a lot of new things at the Feb. 22 ceremony.

    “Your categories are being presented in a completely different way. Heads up,” Ganis told actors. “Cinematographers, editors, composers. All of you guys. You’re in for a big surprise.”

    Hmm.  Curiouser and curiouser.

  • Christian Bale flips out on the set of ‘Terminator Salvation’

    Christian BaleIt must have bubbled up inside Christian Bale real good and hot for him to lose his shit like this.  TMZ broke the story (hate to link to them, but this is spicy stuff).

    Apparently “Terminator Salvation” D.P. Shane Hurlbut wasn’t being sensitive enough to Bale’s acting process, walking around and being somewhat distracting off camera during a scene between Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard, and Bale went off like a friggin’ fireworks display.

    The best part is when he sounds like he’s literally going to get up and go beat the living hell out of Hurlbut toward the end of the tape.  I can’t really hear what’s going on in the background, but judging from Bale’s reaction, Hurlbut must have been stating his case a little too much for the actor’s taste, or perhaps he was egging him on in some way, I can’t tell.  But jeez, talk about a testy moment.  My guess is the “Shut the f— up, Bruce” comment is aimed at 1st A.D. Bruce Franklin (the toughest job on any film set).  This incident happened just before his London arrest, apparently, but the audio just made it out today.

    After Bale’s recent legal troubles, something like this is bound to add to the gathering snowball that paints him as a hot head, a loose cannon, whatever.  I’ve met him a couple of times, and he’s certainly a serious fellow.  But he’s also got a sense of humor buried in there that is quite hysterical.  Then again, you can always sense he could quite easily be on the verge of snapping like a twig and going atomic on someone’s ass.

    I hope Hurlbut made it out alive.

  • Nominees luncheon under way

    Taraji P. Henson at the 2009 Academy nominees luncheonToday is the big Academy luncheon for this year’s Oscar nominees.  The AP’s Sandy Cohen and The Carpetbagger’s Michael Cieply are filing from the event.

    This is one of the most fascinating aspects of the season for me because of the varying personalities you find mingling together.  Right now, M.I.A. is chowing down with Kate Winslet (assuming they both showed up).  An interesting picture.

    It reminds me of three years ago when I couldn’t help but ask the guys from Three 6 Mafia what they thought of the luncheon, rubbing elbows with everyone from Steven Spielberg to Reese Witherspoon.  The quote I wrangled didn’t disappoint:

    I was thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ You know, you’re used to sitting in the studio with a bunch of guys drinking beer and smelling like something they shouldn’t be smelling like, and then you pull a switcheroo and you’re in Hollywood in a room with Steven Spielberg and Reese Witherspoon. And she’s sexy, man.

    I laugh every time I read that.

  • Standard crowns ‘Hunger’ best film

    I have to hand it to the Evening Standard Awards: they are a breath of fresh air in a suffocating awards season. While their choices can have a bit of an over-democratic, drawn-from-a-hat feel to them (Stephen Daldry for Best Director? On what planet?), they are never afraid to veer from the herd.

    And so they have done this year, justly and imaginatively handing their Best Film prize to Steve McQueen’s magnificent “Hunger” at last night’s London awards dinner. It’s a small but prestigious citation for the film, voted as it is by a panel of leading British critics, including Standard stalwart Derek Malcolm and the Telegraph’s excellent Tim Robey.

    If you ask me (which no one did, but I’ll say it anyway), they royally fluffed Best Actor, curiously settling on a tie between Michael Sheen and the admittedly very good Pat Shortt, which rather embarrassingly left Michael Fassbender — easily the most deserving nominee — the lone loser.

    They redeemed themselves, however, with an inspired choice in Best Actress. Bypassing the obvious Kate Winslet option, they instead honoured Tilda Swinton for her extraordinary, bruising work in “Julia,” which I’m beginning to think may well be the thesp’s finest performance to date. (No mean feat, that.) The fact that BAFTA essentially handed Swinton a nod for just showing up in “Burn After Reading,” but failed to even longlist her for “Julia,” is yet another reason why we shouldn’t even be paying attention to that particular shindig this year. (But hey, tune in for my BAFTA live-blog on Sunday!)

    Elsewhere, Martin McDonagh racked up another screenplay win, filmmaker Joanna Hogg deservedly took the Newcomer award (beating Dev Patel in the process), and the wonderful Sally Hawkins pipped co-star Eddie Marsan (now wouldn’t that have been a good tie opportunity?) to the Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. (I still wouldn’t quite call “Happy-Go-Lucky” a comedy, but let’s not split hairs.) Yep, the best performance of 2008 still won’t go away, no matter what the Academies on either side of the Atlantic think.

    Mike Leigh, meanwhile, bagged a career achievement award. Full list of nominees and winners (in italics) after the cut.

    (more…)