In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Toasting the DVD release of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’

    If you haven’t heard by now, Paramount Pictures is launching full speed into a Best Picture campaign for the animated hit “How to Train Your Dragon,” and why not?  When you’re talking about Pixar-level acclaim and a highly respectable box office take, it’s worth it to test those waters.

    A lovely soiree last night toasting the forthcoming Blu-ray and DVD release of the film was an early stop on that journey.  Last year you’ll recall the studio put together a similar event for the “Star Trek” home video release.

    The party was held at the new Red O restaurant on Melrose and among those in attendance were DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg and voice talents Craig Ferguson and America Ferrera.  Ferrera was a delight to chat with, eager to dive into the recently announced sequel.  I also had a nice talk with her fiancee, Ryan Piers Williams, a film buff and himself a filmmaker (Edinburgh hit “The Dry Land”).  The film’s directors, Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, were also in the crowd, as well as, randomly, actor Robert Forster.  Mostly though it was a room full of BFCA, LAFCA and HFPA members, so the aim was clear.

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  • ‘Country Strong’ poster

    Shana Feste’s  “Country Strong” is, along with “Burlesque” and “Nowhere Boy,” one three “musicals” up for consideration in the HFPA’s comedy/musical category.  Perhaps it will be good for an original song nomination, or maybe Gwyneth Paltrow will be impressive enough to find her way through a tough lead actress field.  We’ll know soon enough.  We got a look at the trailer a few weeks back and today, the poster.  Have a look at the full image after the jump.

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  • 10/15 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: An unpolished ‘Hereafter,’ women dominate doc shorts, CGI in story-driven contenders

    • Melissa Silverstein on female dominance in the documentary shorts field. [Women and Hollywood]

    • Turns out Clint Eastwood filmed an early, unpolished draft of Peter Morgan’s “Hereafter.”  Well…it shows. [Vulture]

    • Speaking of which, David Cohen spotlights the impact of digital wizardry on that story-driven film as well as Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” [Variety]

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  • LONDON: Never let me in

    In a year that has seen me give over more of my time than is strictly sensible to covering the Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Edinburgh programmes, there’s something oddly disconcerting about attending a festival in my home city.

    Admittedly, the atmosphere is dampened by the fact that many of the London Film Festival’s biggest drawcards this year are films I already caught at, well, Cannes, Venice and Berlin — I feel rather as if I’ve betrayed the fest that’s been my cinephile lifeline for five years. More than that, however, when your thoughts between screenings are peppered with grocery lists, doctor’s appointments and other everyday intrusions, it’s hard to feel you’re at a festival at all.

    Yet a festival the LFF most proudly is, and a large one at that, incorporating over 170 new(ish) features, plus formidable retrospective and short-film sidebars. The advantage of having got a head start with many of the most anticipated gala screenings (“Black Swan,” “Another Year” and the like) is that I’ve been afforded time this year to seek more buried treasure.

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  • ‘All Good Things’ trailer

    Last week we got our first look at the striking poster for Andrew Jarecki’s “All Good Things.” Today we’re treated to a VERY well-assembled trailer that should help get people to see the film.  Unfortunately it’s all in service of a total misfire, but, well, I’ll save that for tomorrow’s Oscar Talk.  Check out the trailer via Apple by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • ‘Toy Grit’

    This is actually kind of awesome.  It takes a lot for me to really care about a mash-up these days.  It seems they’re a dime a dozen.  But we’re starting to get more and more clever ones each year, and this blend of “Toy Story 3” and “True Grit” is great.  Check it out by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump. after the jump (and thanks to Zack for sending it in).

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  • Nolan tapped for Modern Master Award in Santa Barbara

    Pete Hammond originally reported this news yesterday and the press release dropped shortly thereafter, but “Inception” director Christopher Nolan will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s highest honor — the Modern Master Award — in January.  Here’s the release, in part:

    Established in 1995, [The Modern Master Award] was created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through his/her multi-faceted accomplishments in the motion picture industry. Nolan joins an illustrious group of past recipients including Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Diane Keaton, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Peter Jackson, George Clooney, Will Smith, Cate Blanchett, Clint Eastwood, and James Cameron.

    “Every one of Nolan’s films has set a new standard for the film community, with Inception being the latest example,” comments [SBIFF Executive Director Roger] Durling. “Nolan was the natural choice for this year’s SBIFF’s Modern Master Award.”

    Standing out as one of the greatest minds in cinema, Nolan consistently pushes the boundaries of both filmmaking and storytelling. Demonstrating great versatility throughout his career, he has masterfully taken on the challenges of film as a director, writer, producer, editor, and cinematographer. His films have achieved immense success at the box office, drawing some of the largest profits in history, while at the same time they are recognized and renowned for being intellectually sophisticated and a challenge for all audiences alike.

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  • Weinstein issues statement regarding NC-17 for ‘Blue Valentine’

    In case you missed the news, the MPAA slammed Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” with a bewildering NC-17 rating last week.  The best guess is that a somewhat intense (though by my measure, not all that eyebrow-raising) oral sex scene was the culprit.

    I’ve heard that Cianfrance will not make any further edits to the film so now The Weinstein Company will be appealing the decision.  This morning, Harvey Weinstein issued the following statement:

    We want to express our deepest gratitude to our colleagues in the industry and in the media for their recent outpouring of support for Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine after the film surprisingly received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. We are taking every possible step to contest the MPAA’s decision. We respect the work of the MPAA and we hope, after having a chance to sit down with them, they will see that our appeal is reasonable, and the film, which is an honest and personal portrait of a relationship, would be significantly harmed by such a rating.

    [Photo: The Independent]

  • 10/14 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Eisenberg could bump Damon, Pike’s break-out year, assessing Best Actor

    • Nathaniel Rogers gets delightfully painstaking with Oscar trivia, notes that, should Jesse Eisenberg be nominated for Best Actor, he’ll boot Matt Damon from the list of top 10 youngest nominees in the category. [The Film Experience]

    • Speaking of which, Damon has the directing bug and continues to bone up on the ins and outs via collaborations with Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and the Coens. [The Big Picture]

    • Roy Greenslade sings the praises of “Made in Dagenham.” [The Guardian]

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  • ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ poster

    Fancy this timing, I’ll finally be getting around to “I Live You Phillip Morris” later this afternoon.  Today, via Entertainment Weekly’s Pop Watch blog, we get our first look at the poster.  The film stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor and is set for release December 3.  Check out the full image after the jump.

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  • Academy announces official list of 65 foreign Oscar entries

    For the past few months, we’ve been keeping you abreast of the submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, so this finalized list of contenders, which was sleuthed by Pete Hammond earlier this morning (and officially unveiled by AMPAS via press release here), doesn’t contain too many surprises.

    As usual, however, a few low-profile late entries have snuck into the mix since the October 1 submissions deadline, while one film (Afghanistan’s entry “Black Tulip”) appears to have been disqualified, as the country does not feature on the Academy screening schedule. An eligibility-date snafu, I’ll be bound.

    The four titles new to our list come from Ethiopia (“The Athlete”), Georgia (“Street Days”), Greenland (“Nuummloq”) and Kyrgyzstan (“The Light Thief”). I’m hoping to see the last of those — reportedly a heartwarmer about an electrician coming to the aid of an impoverished rural community — at the London fest later this week, but the other three are unfamiliar to me. Always nice to see more African countries in the running, however.

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  • Tom Hardy cast in Nolan’s next Batman film

    I kind of don’t like calling it “Batman 3,” but in any case, Mike Fleming is reporting at Deadline that Tom Hardy, star of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” has been cast in a “lead role” in the sequel to 2008’s “The Dark Knight.”

    Naturally, “insiders are keeping the role secret and won’t even say if he’s up for a villain role, but that seems a reasonable assumption,” Fleming writes.  I find myself wondering.  I heard an interesting theory (there are many surrounding these films) some time ago that Hardy would be an intriguing choice for actor Basil Karlo, aka Clayface (given his actorly role in “Inception”).  All talk, of course.

    There is also discussion that, solely based on the fact that the film is shooting in New Orleans, the villain might be bayou-centric…Killer Croc.  I’d frankly be all about that if they could pull it off.  Part of me wants this third film to embrace the heightened reality of the universe, rather than boil too much further into realism.  Supernatural elements could be done in a classy fashion, I think.

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  • AMPAS, Cinema Eye Honors narrow doc short fields

    The Academy has just announced the eight finalists for this year’s Best Documentary Short award.  They are:

    “Born Sweet”
    “Killing in the Name”
    “Living for 32”
    “One Thousand Pictures: RFK’s Last Journey”
    “Poster Girl”
    “Strangers No More”
    “Sun Come Up”
    “The Warriors of Qiugang”

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  • EXCLUSIVE: Casting Sam Rockwell in ‘Conviction’ (clip)

    Think fast: when was the first time you remember seeing Sam Rockwell on the big screen?  Most people probably caught up with him in the late-1990s in films like “Safe Men,” “The Green Mile” and “Galaxy Quest.” Others perked up, surely, when George Clooney had the vision to give him the starring role in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.” For me, it was a near walk-on in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

    He’s come a long way since taking on the role of a punk kid in the Foot Clan factory.  I’ve loved him in pretty much everything, be it his aptly named Jimmy Silk in David Mamet’s “Heist,” his equally compelling grifter in Ridley Scott’s “Matchstick Men,” his underrated portrayal alongside Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” or, certainly, his pitch-perfect work in last year’s sadly forgotten (come awards season) “Moon.”

    This year the actor is poised to potentially break out into the Oscar scene with a quality, lived-in piece of work in Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction.” Rockwell stars as Kenny Waters, a Massachusetts bad boy wrongfully imprisoned and eventually freed through the diligence of his sister, Betty Anne, who put herself through law school in order to prove his innocence.  Fox Searchlight has provided us with an exclusive clip featuring Goldwyn and Betty Anne Waters discussing the casting of the role.  Check it out after the jump.

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  • AFI Fest announces centerpiece galas, ‘King’s Speech’ tribute

    Already announced, this year’s AFI Fest will be bookended by “Love & Other Drugs” and “Black Swan.” Today, more news.  The press release, in part:

    AFI FEST 2010 presented by Audi today announced its Centerpiece Galas, featuring ABEL (DIR Diego Luna), BARNEY’S VERSION (DIR Richard J. Lewis), BLUE VALENTINE (DIR Derek Cianfrance), CASINO JACK (DIR George Hickenlooper), THE COMPANY MEN (DIR John Wells) and an ensemble Tribute to THE KING’S SPEECH with director Tom Hooper and actors Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

    Also announced today are the films that will be presented as Special Screenings: The U.S. premiere of AMIGO (DIR John Sayles), CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (DIR Werner Herzog) in 3-D, MADE IN DAGENHAM (DIR Nigel Cole) and RABBIT HOLE (DIR John Cameron Mitchell).

    The festival will take place at the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Mann Chinese 6 theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel from November 4-11. The fest will also once again offer free tickets to all films, including Galas and Special Screenings  Learn more here.

    [Photo: The Weinstein Company]

  • Taking questions for Oscar Talk

    You know the drill.  Rattle off any queries you might have for us to address on this week’s podcast.  If we didn’t get to yours last time don’t worry, I’ve saved them all and I’m sure we’ll get around to them at some point.  Anne and I will be joined by both Guy and indieWIRE’s Peter Knegt from London this time around, so it’ll be a fearsome foursome.  So far I know we’ll be addressing “Carlos” and the foreign language film category.

  • 10/13 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Stone worried for Douglas, Aronofsky close on ‘Wolverine,’ assessing a shorter ‘Carlos’

    • Tim Gray weighs in on Oscar’s potential slide to January. [Variety]

    • Darren Aronofsky is closer to jumping on board the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” sequel than we thought/feared. [Deadline]

    • Oliver Stone is pretty worried about Michael Douglas’s health concerns. [Associated Press]

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  • Animated titles up to 12

    I’ve been making notes on this in the comments section of yesterday’s Off the Carpet column throughout the morning, but it’s looking more and more like the magic number of 16 won’t be reached in this year’s animated feature film race.  By my count, we have 12 titles.

    One of them, Bill Plympton’s “Idiots and Angels,” may not have submitted the proper paperwork (I’m unsure at the moment).  But it opened last week in New York regardless and will hit Los Angeles screens on October 29.  Wouldn’t it be great to see Plympton in the mix, though?

    I had originally though the Japanese “Tales from Earthsea” would be eligible, but while opening in a foreign territory one year prior is permitted (more of this arbitrary nonsense — it’s scattered throughout AMPAS rules and regs), more than that is not.  The film opened in 2006 in Japan.

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