Better late than never. What do you want, I’ve been hangin’ with the OTHER Searchlight crew all night. Exclaim or complain in the comments below if you like.
Category: Daily
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BAFTA admits it needs mending
Interesting. Variety reports that BAFTA is to re-evaluate its voting process — and it appears to be a direct response to the widespread criticism that greeted this year’s nominations, which baffled pundits and industry folk alike with some questionable inclusions (Tilda Swinton, Freida Pinto, a whopping eight nods for “Changeling”) and equally baffling snubs (most notoriously, a hurtful donut for Mike Leigh’s widely acclaimed “Happy-Go-Lucky”).To begin with, one needs to understand the eccentric, back-and-forth nature of BAFTA voting. The first round of voting produces a longlist of 15 contenders in each category — 5 of which are selected by the relevant branch (or ‘chapter’) of voters in that field (and marked as such on the ballot), with the other 10 chosen by the general BAFTA membership.
The next two rounds of voting work in a reversal of the Oscar system. The 5 nominees are determined by the general membership, while the winners are decided by the relevant ‘chapter’ voters alone — with the exception of Best Film, Best Foreign Language Film and the four acting awards, for which all members vote.
Confused? I don’t blame you. It’s a ludicrous system that has received a lot of flak in the industry (Mike Leigh himself has been a vocal critic in the past), not least because it frequently leads to some inexpertly chosen nominees. (This, for example, is how a film like “Mamma Mia!” lands a Best Score nod.) The obvious solution, then, would be to use ‘chapter’ voting to determine the nominees, right?
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‘4 Months’ takes BBC award
The BBC Four World Cinema Award is an endearingly unassuming, low-fi ceremony — so unassuming and low-fi, in fact, I’d forgotten it took place until I happened upon the TV broadcast earlier this evening. (It seems nesting on a Saturday night has the odd advantage.)It’s a simple enough prize. UK critics elect a shortlist of the five outstanding foreign-language releases of the year, upon which a jury of industry figures convenes to choose to best of them. The award is now in its sixth year: previous winners include “Belleville Rendezvous,” “The Return,” “Downfall,” “The Death of Mr Lazarescu” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.” This year’s list, heavy on 2007 films that only received a UK release last year, went as follows:
“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” (WINNER)
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
“Gomorrah”
“The Orphanage”
“Persepolis”Jury head John Hurt said the verdict was unanimous. Not a very surprising, or very arguable, result — though with a list of that calibre, it’s hard to go wrong. (Only “The Orphanage,” I think, is a little out of its depth here.) By the way, can you spot what the five shortlisted films have in common? Yep, all were either snubbed or ineligible for the foreign-language Oscar. Make of that what you will.
Meanwhile, Werner Herzog picked up a lifetime achievement award and gave one of the most eloquent speeches I’ve heard all season. I know he doesn’t really have a shot in hell, but I’d sure love to see him on the Oscar stage. (EDIT: If you’re interested, you can watch the ceremony here.)
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A night at the Scripter Awards
USC’s Scripter Awards ceremony is moving on up. It’s evolved form an intimate gathering to a full spread awards dinner over the years, and last night’s festivities marked the first time the Scripter winner was unveiled at the show rather than beforehand.It gave the atmosphere a tinge of anticipation. Even with the “Slumdog” writing on the wall, the Scripter is a place where the adapted screenplay race can at least find some variety. Or at least it used to be. Like any precursor as of late, it seems the Scripter might be bent on predicting Oscar. So of course, Simon Beaufoy’s name was called (along with “Q&A” author Vikas Swarup) for “Slumdog Millionaire,” and the steamroller keeps moving.
Jamie Lee Curtis was a nice enough emcee, bringing her signature brand of dry, slightly crazy humor to the table (a slight shift from Jason Alexander last year). Earlier in the evening, Michael Chabon accepted the Literary Achivement Award (not a Lifetime Achievement Award, as last year’s introductory recipient Steven Zaillian made loudly clear). Zaillian was on hand to present the honor and Chabon’s speech was touching, funny and certainly humble. The best line: “I think it was Vladimir Nabokov who said, “Keep giving me prizes. Prizes are awesome. (Laughter spreads throughout the room.) He had the Russian accent, so…”
Chabon was also quite self-deprecating, noting that he had no creative input into the screenplays adapted from his work that seem to be met with success or at the very least production (2000’s “Wonder Boys” and the upcoming “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh”). But five years of his toiling away at an adaptation of his own “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” has not even yielded a green light, he said. “I was lucky enough to work on the second ‘Spider-Man’ film,” he said. “You know the part where Spider-Man is holding up that big wall at the end and he says, ‘Hi,’ and Mary Jane says, ‘Hi,’ and Peter says, ‘This is really heavy’? That was me.”
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Double feature
I believe this is what graphic designers term the “Washington-movie grid format.” Either that, or the creative well at the Universal/Working Title marketing department is running dry. It wasn’t that great the first time, guys. (EDIT: I see our friend Glenn has joined the dots too. Great minds, and all that.)
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For the video game fans…
So yeah, ever since I got the PS3 for Blu-ray reasons, I’ve been diving back into the video game world like a true geek. My girlfriend rolls her eyes at me constantly. It’s like I’m in 6th grade again.
Anyway, in addition to the summer’s release of “Ghostbusters” (which should be awesome), I am, of course, totally looking forward to “Batman: Arkham Asylum.” Here’s a recently released trailer for the game:
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WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Slumdog,’ Sundance, Santa Barbara
It slipped my mind to do this yesterday, but here’s the week that was:• “Slumdog Millionaire” steamrolled through the week’s precursors, taking the Producers Guild Award…
• … before landing top honours at the SAG Awards, which we live-blogged for your pleasure.
• Still on “Slumdog,” a potential smear campaign against the film was duly foiled.
• No surprise, then, that this week’s Off the Carpet column declared the race pretty much over.
• The Academy settled “The Reader” producers’ dilemma by breaking its ludicrous “three-nominee” rule.
• Meanwhile, some are wondering whether Harvey Weinstein’s tactics could harm the film’s chances, particularly in the Best Actress race.
• Away from the Oscar race, gritty urban drama “Push” cleaned up at Sundance.
• The Santa Barbara fest carried on, with an interesting screenwriters’ forum among the highlights.
• Still at Santa Barbara, Danny Boyle, Kate Winslet and this year’s six Virtuoso stars were among those celebrated.
• Could “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” really go 0-for-13 on Oscar night?
• Finally, rounding off a very “Slumdog”-flavoured week, be sure to check out our interview with the film’s brilliant craftsmen.
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Crikey
Thanks to The Film Experience for pointing out this tease of a still from Stephen Frears’ Berlin-bound period romance “Chéri,” which promises something of a return to form for star Michelle Pfeiffer. (IMDB tells me she’s 50. You kidding me?)
More stills can be found at this fansite, showcasing what looks to be predictably lavish production design and costuming by Oscar nominee Consolata Boyle (“The Queen”). Do we have a 2009 craft-category contender already?
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In praise of Kate’s … feet?
I’m not sure where I stand on David Thomson these days. He is surely one of the greatest film writers still at work today; few of his rivals manage such a fine balance of personal appreciation and critical insight, particularly in the area of performance. (As a prose stylist, Thomson at his best leaves Ebert for dust, in my opinion.) His “Biographical Dictionary of Film” is as essential as it is idiosyncratic, while last year’s “Have You Seen … ?” is a bedside-book delight, ideal for dipping in and out of at leisure.But in recent years, his work has grown increasingly sloppy and, in some cases, frankly unhinged. His further “Biographical Dictionary” entries for the Guardian have been spotty and back-handed of late, but the clincher was his factually malnourished and unavoidably creepy 2006 “biography” of his long-time cinematic crush, Nicole Kidman, which paid stomach-churning tribute to the Australian’s “commas of breast” and “gingery pubic hair.” An embarrassment for all concerned, it truly has to be read to be believed.
It’s difficult to say, then, whether it’s good or bad news for Kate Winslet that Thomson appears to have set his sights on her instead, writing an extraordinarily generous tribute to her in today’s Guardian, calling the actress “the finest performer of her generation,” and waxing lyrical about her performance in “The Reader” (“easily the best and most disturbing film of the year”). It is, in fairness, a civil and intelligent appreciation for the most part, after an eccentric opening that focuses on her, er, feet:
Near the end of The Reader there is a large close-up of two bare feet … The feet are less than lovely – mottled, calloused, the toenails out of shape, everything well-worn. My wife opined, “They can’t be Kate Winslet’s feet – must be a stand-in, a foot-in. Perhaps they are Sam Mendes’s feet, and he did the shot so she could have a lie-in.”
Not to disparage the consideration and fondness between Mendes and Winslet, husband and wife, director and actor, I preferred to think that Winslet is too much the perfectionist to let false feet into her picture. “She’d have been up at four in the morning,” I said, “getting the make-up people to give her the opposite of a pedicure” … I assume that Winslet would take any trouble, from the tips of her broken toes to the proper split ends in her elderly German hair. “Would Meryl Streep entertain anyone else’s feet?” I asked my wife. She agreed not. And that is the standard here: Kate Winslet is the heir to Meryl Streep.
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POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST SOUND EDITING
Tell us in the sidebar! Thanks for chiming in on these guys. They’ll come fast and furious over the next week or so, one per day.
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‘WALL-E’ shut out of the Annie Awards?
Wow. “Kung Fu Panda” pretty much cleaned the floor with all comers. Did anyone see that coming?
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Life is short, etc, etc, etc…
Today’s Telegraph carries an interview with Brad Pitt that somehow manages to be simultaneously personal, honest and thoroughly unilluminating. There’s plenty of contented musing on fatherhood and Angelina Jolie if that’s your cup of tea, but I couldn’t help being somewhat disappointed by the banality of his take on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”:“I walked away realising that time is short,” he says, talking on a sound stage at the Warner Bros studios in Burbank, California. “I don’t know if I have a day or 10 days or 10 years or 40 years. Am I halfway or am I close to the end? I don’t know, so I have to make sure I don’t waste those moments in any kind of pettiness or bitterness or laziness, and that I surround myself with the people who are most important to me.”
Further on, he lets loose with the stunning insight that the film is “about looking back on the significant moments in your life.” Well, I’ll be. I could have sworn Eric Roth had more than that in mind when he adapted F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story, but what do I know?
I’ve always liked Brad Pitt. A lot. He’s a strong actor — even if “Button” is a million miles from his best work on screen — and a smart, funny, charismatic celebrity. Or he used to be, at least. Why then, throughout the whole “Button” publicity run, has he restricted himself to such bland, humour-starved soundbites, both in print and on camera?
It’s clear he’s in a happy place personally right now, and that’s great for him. But am I the only one tiring of the relentless earnestness, and longing for a bit of movie-star dash from the man? Some are apparently counting on Pitt’s presence to “save” the Oscar telecast, but as long as he keeps following this script, I’d look elsewhere.
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Out of here
I’m heading back down the 101 for Los Angeles and tonight’s USC Scripter Awards gala. As reported, this will be the first year the winner will be announced at the show. I think we’re all expecting Simon Beaufoy to reign supreme as “Slumdog Millionaire” continues its dominant streak, but this is one area that presents a case for a “Button” upset more than most, so who knows?
I’ll post the winner from the show as soon as the announcement comes. The dinner starts at 7:30 so I’d figure on, oh, an announcement around 9-ish (PST)? Not sure. Nothing from me until then, though, so talk amongst yourselves.
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‘Narnia’ franchise finds new life at Fox
I am actually a big fan of the “Chronicles of Narnia” franchise that Disney and Walden Media have been responsible for over the past few years. So when the news came a few weeks ago that the brand had effectively been rubbed out because of a dispute between the two companies, I was a little bummed.Patrick Goldstein did a nice job at the time of summing the fallout up:
According to multiple sources, the once-close relationship between Disney and Walden began to unravel when, after the first “Narnia” film cleaned up at the box office, Anschutz essentially put a gun to Disney’s head and demanded that the studio renegotiate its deal with Walden. Anschutz insisted that Disney either gave back a sizable chunk of the studio’s lucrative distribution fee or Anschutz would distribute the “Narnia” series on his own. Believing the franchise was too good to give up, Disney reluctantly changed the terms of its Walden deal, but the renegotiation poisoned relations between the two behemoths. When the second film faltered, there was so little good will left over that Disney had far less qualms about cutting its ties with the franchise.
Well news came earlier this week (I somehow missed it) that 20th Century Fox has taken up the reigns of distributor for the franchise, breathing wind into the sails of the third installment: “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”
Here’s a bit from Michael Fleming and Tatiana Siegel’s Variety story:
Fox, which was entitled to first crack at “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” after Disney dropped out because of the shared Fox Walden marketing and distribution label, has made a commitment to develop the project. The two sides are still working out budget and script issues, but the hope is to shoot the film at the end of summer for a holiday 2010 release through the Fox Walden label.
This graph also caught my eye:
After budget and script concerns are settled, Fox and Walden are expected to greenlight the film. The intention is to move the production away from Mexico, where, ironically, it was going to be shot at the Fox-owned Baja facility called Rosarito used for “Titanic” and “Master and Commander.” “Dawn Treader” will instead likely shoot in Australia because of concerns for the drug violence and kidnappings that are taking place near Baja.
Interesting. Anyway, here’s to the continued creative success of the franchise (and a better choice for release date next time around).
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Tom O’Neil…here’s your sign
Really, is there any reason to “jump off a cliff” and predict a DGA victory for David Fincher tomorrow night? Other than the usual hopes of perceived (but fluke-ish) brilliance, I mean.
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Ways the Academy blew it, episode #4,623
I haven’t really dug into the stinging Bruce Springsteen snub from eight days ago properly yet, but really, how off-the-mark could the Academy possibly be? Not that the membership considers itself in the business of appearing relevant, but The Boss just played in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. He’s got a new album out as of Tuesday (though admittedly one of his weakest to date). He’ll be performing in front of one of the largest audiences in the country tomorrow.Oh yeah, and his song was clearly the best “original song” from a movie this year. One that combines the ethos of the central character and the performer in such a way that its existence over a credit roll simply shouldn’t have been a factor.
Way to miss the boat.
Of course, I thought this was going to be his second Oscar. And maybe I’m biased, since I worship at Springsteen’s altar. I’ve seen him play four times, once in London, and the guy simply puts on the best show in rock and roll.
This would have been a fine way to prove yourself in the groove of what’s now, fresh, tangible. I love the nomination of “O…Saya,” mind you. I think it’s a much, MUCH better choice than “Jai Ho” (which never spoke to me), and of the nominees, the M.I.A./A.R. Rahman track is, I feel, the best of the lot. And it’s hard to argue with “Down to Earth,” the likely winner (I’d imagine), but good lord.
Am I alone here?
