One more clip from last night’s episode after the jump.
Category: Daily
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10/4 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: On Gekko and Zuckerberg, Oscar season on Twitter, clamoring for ‘Social’ reactions
• Peter Lattman sits down with “Inside Job” director Charles Ferguson. [Dealbook]• A.O. Scott on the drive and determination of Gordon Gekko and Mark Zuckerberg. [New York Times]
• Scott Feinberg puts together a massive, comprehensive list of Oscar contenders and pundits on Twitter. Follow away! [ScottFeinberg.com]
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‘Moon’ redrawn: own a future classic
I know there are a lot of “Moon” fans and collector types among you, so I thought this worth mention. The great British design studio All City, who dreamed up the justly famous poster for Duncan Jones’s sci-fi debut, have launched a new series of limited edition Redrawn poster concepts for some of their most famous titles of recent years — all of them available to purchase.
The striking sketch-based prints are all eminently frameable: this rejigged take on the “Moon” poster appears to be the most popular, but I’m just as keen on what they’ve done with the likes of “Control,” “Let the Right One In” and “Spirited Away.” At around $120 to $240 a pop, they’re not quite bargainous, but should age pretty nicely. Check ’em out here; some of my favorites after the cut.
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Fincher music video memory lane
I’m thinking about kicking the tires on our Lists series and offering something up Tuesday in honor of the director of the hour, David Fincher. I’ve been digging back into all of his work looking for an idea (I think I settled on one), and part of the digging was giving his music videos another look. I figured I’d offer a bunch of them up here. My favorite below, tons more after the jump.
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John Legend performs ‘Shine’
A few months back we featured a video of John Legend performing Best Original Song contender “Shine” from “Waiting for Superman.” Today, though, via Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog, I stumbled across this more, well, “produced” video of the singer crooning the tune.It’s a gorgeous piece of music (and a highpoint of a post-screening LAFF shindig back in June). I imagine it’ll be in the thick of the hunt this season, possibly even the eventual winner. I don’t think any of the Disney contenders have the gravitas to win and after that it’s, what, stuff from “Burlesque” and “Country Strong?”
Speaking of which, I updated the Best Original Song category in our Contenders section with all of the possibilities I could round up. Let me know if I forgot anything. (I’m sure I did.) Check out Legend’s WSJ performance of “Shine” after the jump.
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‘Tree of Life’ not waiting for Cannes?
When Terrence Malick’s endlessly postponed “The Tree of Life” was finally handed over to Fox Searchlight and ruled a 2011 release, the conversation turned to which festival would get to host the film’s premiere. Many pundits (myself included) assumed that Cannes’s top dog status — in terms of both red-carpet allure and awards heft — would get it the gig, but if this tweet from the ever well-informed Cédric Succivalli is to be believed, we could be seeing it earlier than that.Succivalli writes that the film’s French distributor EuropaCorp has confirmed a February 23 release date, obviously ruling out a Cannes appointment three months later. That leaves only two major fests where it could potentially bow: Sundance (an idea Anne Thompson previously floated on Oscar Talk) and Berlin.
Interestingly, the mid-February Berlinale was the festival of choice for both “The Thin Red Line” (which won the Golden Bear) and “The New World” (which played out of competition), even if neither film actually had its world premiere there. So it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see “The Tree of Life” extend that relationship.
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Celebrating 25 years of Burton/Elfman collaborations
In the “sign me up now, please” category today is a recently announced boxed set of Danny Elfman’s music collaborations with filmmaker Tim Burton. I first heard about the limited edition set via the New York Times in a piece that went up on the Arts Beat blog yesterday. It featured a video with Burton and Elfman discussing the monumental “Batman” score — talk about grabbing my attention.Anyone who knows me knows what role that 1989 superhero extravaganza played in my film-going youth. But the idea that there might be some extra, never-before-heard material waiting in a vault somewhere? Giddiness. Pure giddiness.
But it’s not just “Batman” stuff. The set celebrates “the 25th anniversary of the ingenious collaboration” between the two singular artists, reads a press release that went out today. “[The] numbered box set of 1000…collects expansions of the 13 original scores that Elfman has composed for Burton’s iconic films” and is “a newly produced library of 16 CDs each packaged with artwork by Burton, adding up to more than 19 hours of music.” Wow.
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‘For Colored Girls’ poster
Yes, as usual when it comes to a “For Colored Girls” post, we’re all playing wait and see on Tyler Perry’s latest. Maybe it’s an awards contender (I hear Kimberly Elise gives the stand-out performance), maybe it’s not. The trailer was spiffy, and there was a set of character posters that was just as fetching. Now, courtesy of Movieline, we get a look at the official one-sheet. Check out the full image after the jump.
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EXCLUSIVE: ‘True Grit’ teaser poster
A mesmerizing teaser trailer for the Coen brothers’ “True Grit” hit the web Monday, ratcheting up the anticipation further. Today Paramount has offered us an exclusive first look at the teaser poster for the film, a striking, minimalist, wanted poster-esque assemblage that looks like it would make a handsome book cover. There will be a secondary poster down the line that I imagine will be more traditional. Have a look at the full image after the jump.
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Tell us what you thought of ‘The Social Network’
It seems like David Fincher’s latest has been talked to death the last few weeks. My thoughts are here. Hopefully you aren’t bored with it before it had a chance to release (I doubt you are), so once you get around to seeing “The Social Network” this weekend (or whenever), head on back here and give us your thoughts.
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10/1 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Harris on his career, McCarthy remembers Menke, King wants vampires done right
• Ed Harris opens up about his career (speaking of which, P.S.: I’m hearing a one-week qualifier for “The Way Back” may just happen after all). [MakingOf]• Stephen King: Do vampires right! [Entertainment Weekly]
• Speaking of vampires, Steven Zeitchik sits down with “Let Me In” director Matt Reeves. [Los Angeles Times]
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‘The Tourist’ poster
The trailer for Sony’s “The Tourist” hit a few weeks ago and revealed what looks to be a frothy romp with Johnny Depp giving fun performance. Today we get a look at the poster for the film, which, I’m sorry to see, is latching on to a recent trend of boxed in imagery framed by a solid color. Where’s the creativity? Ugh. Anyway, check out the full image after the jump (and be sure to check back tomorrow for an exclusive look at another poster for one of the season’s most anticipated efforts).
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Tony Curtis (1925-2010)
This has been such a grim week for losing major industry talents — Gloria Stuart, Sally Menke, Arthur Penn and now Tony Curtis — that I’m almost loath to mention it, lest fate be tempted. But the passing of Curtis can hardly go without at least brief notice: for many, he’ll always come to mind first in the guise of his gleeful Cary Grant send-up from “Some Like It Hot,” but he was also one of the tartest and most evasive leading men of his generation, balancing rote beefcake duty with broad comedy and excitingly off-kilter choices like “The Boston Strangler” and “Sweet Smell of Success.”
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On the art of ‘Wall Street’
Last week, Kris and I came to a disagreement over the merits of Oliver Stone’s splashy, silly and consistently surface-level sequel “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” Neither of us is disputing that the film is a mess, but where Kris thought it clumsy, ill-judged junk, I was more forgiving in my Cannes review: for me, the film partially succeeds on the level of campy self-satire.One thing we can both agree on, however, is that subtlety is not in the film’s vocabulary — least of all when it comes to its gaudy collection of visual cues and symbols. Four months after watching the film, the one that sticks most insistently in my mind is a certain highly recognizable painting in the office of Josh Brolin’s character Bretton James.
Not content with underlining James’s Mephistophelean deviousness by clothing Brolin in a maroon-colored suit, Stone and ace production designer Kristi Zea (“GoodFellas,” “Revolutionary Road”) have Francisco Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son” (pictured) as his office backdrop to drive home the capital-E Evil of the character.
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Jacki Weaver gets a T-shirt (and, it seems, a campaign)
Fans of David Michod’s “Animal Kingdom” have been holding out hope for a campaign and maybe even a potential underdog nomination for Jacki Weaver, whose supporting performance in the film has been one of the high marks of the year thus far. And given how thin that field continues to appear, it’s worth it to go all out.Sony Classics is certainly aware of this. And the studio is frequently out of the gate early with screeners for its contenders (which really did “Frozen River” a lot of good a few years back). Today a mailer arrived with screeners of Michod’s film and Rodrigo García’s “Mother and Child,” but most interesting was the accompanying garment.
That’s right, Jacki Weaver has her very own, mommy dearest-like T-shirt. Simple, but indicative of a real affinity for the performance and clearly a starting gun for the actress’s awards campaign. AMPAS members received both screeners today but, of course, not the shirt. Check out a quick iPhone snap shot after the jump.
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Gotham tributes for Duvall, Swank, Schamus, Aronofsky
The press release, in part:The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, announced today that director Darren Aronofsky, actors Hilary Swank and Robert Duvall, and Focus Features CEO, James Schamus, will each be presented with a career Tribute at the 20th Anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards™ on Monday, November 29th at Cipriani Wall Street, New York, New York.
Signaling the official kick-off to the film awards season, the Gotham Independent Film Awards™ is one of the leading awards for independent film. Anchoring the evening’s seven competitive awards for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Best Ensemble Performance, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You and the new Festival Genius Audience Award, are four Tributes to film community icons.
This year’s Tribute selection represents a range of individuals – all veterans well-versed in the journey between lower-budget independent films and large-scale studio releases…
“We are moved and honored to give tribute to four cinematic film luminaries, all of whom have had their roots in independent film, and have steadfastly focused on the art of film, irrespective of the size of the budget of their work” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of the IFP. “This year’s tributes personify independent spirit and have created an astonishing breadth of work that we are proud to celebrate. James Schamus won the producing award in 1996 and Darren Aronofsky was our Breakthrough Director in 1998. We are thrilled to honor them again for their deserving careers. Robert Duvall and Hilary Swank’s work have enriched our lives; from the smallest of indies to the largest of Hollywood features, we are in awe of their talent and look forward to what lies ahead.”
[Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]
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On the sound of ‘The Social Network’
Sure to be one of the most under-appreciated aspects of “The Social Network”‘s below-the-line is the sound design. Most will likely take note during a club scene that filters dialogue between Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake without sacrificing the thumping rhythms of the setting, but there are a number of instances where I felt it was a refined piece of work from Academy Award winner Michael Semanick and company.There is also the idea that an Aaron Sorkin script involves a lot of overlapping and competing dialogue. It’s a film with a lot of information to carry across and it’s imperative that you hear everything. And that’s before we even get into how Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s ambient score is layered in throughout.
The SoundWorks Collection, as ever, is on the case here. The site’s latest profile illuminates the club scene among others and is worth a look and listen. Head on over there now and check it out or watch the embed after the jump.
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Disney previews holiday titles: ‘Secretariat,’ ‘Tangled,’ ‘TRON’
Last night on the Disney lot the studio held its annual holiday showcase, previewing material from major films set to hit theaters this fall. Outside the theater there was a massive illuminated “Secretariat” display across from a live horse prancing around in circles, which itself was just steps away from a “TRON Legacy” light cycle. If you’re gonna roll out the hype, spare no expense.First up there was a rather arbitrary teaser for the only completed film featured, “Secretariat” (which I’ve seen but can’t write about until Monday). Done and done.
Then came the “TRON Legacy” showcase, introduced by director Joseph Kosinski. We were treated to 23 minutes of the film (including much of the segment shown at Comic-Con in July). Most of the effects were in place though the sound had not yet been punched up by Skywalker.