For the past three years, the wizards of Weta Digital have returned audiences to Middle Earth after first enthralling viewers with its wonders a decade ago. “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” is the last of Peter Jackson's six films in the saga, and, accordingly, the last chance to honor the series in the category of Best Visual Effects – the only category where all five films to date have picked up an Oscar nod.

Joe Letteri first arrived at Weta some 15 years ago, just as production on “The Fellowship of the Ring” was ending. His primary task was discrete enough but couldn't have been more important: creating the iconic creature Gollum. “I was interested in creature work – how do you make things come alive,” Letteri says. “At the time, there was a perception that visual effects artists primarily ‘blew stuff up,' whereas creatures were the work of puppets. 'Jurassic Park' began to change that but Gollum was a totally new idea. He was not just a creature, but a character. A lot of times it was just him on screen. That was really interesting.” Leterri has since remained, not only to become the anchor of Jackson's visual effects team but to be instrumental in event pics like “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Avatar” and the “Planet of the Apes” franchise.

Eric Saindon's journey on the Middle Earth films has been equally deep and intense. A native of Maine, he came to New Zealand on a six-month contract when “Fellowship” was filming in 1999. Fifteen years and four Kiwi children later, he's still there, though the organization has changed. “When I started, we had 35 people and for ‘Hobbit' we had about 1,400,” he says. “In size, it's drastically changed a lot but it's also gone from this very ragtag group of lone wolves putting it together at the end to being a very organized, well-oiled machine and getting lots of quality work at a good strong pace. Because of a strong pipeline, we can get these huge shows through.”

Letteri also reminisces about the early days. Some approaches to effects-creating have certainly changed. “In order to create Gollum, we wanted to approach how you would create him as a character,” he says. This required determining how to make the effects as believable as possible for each aspect of the character they were trying to create. For example, when Gollum flexed his arm, Letteri's team put inflatable bladders in his arms for his muscles, like a puppet's. But it was still the creating of an artificial character. That changed with “Avatar.” Letteri notes that “to really make it physically correct, we had to look at biology and understand how a body works wholly.”

In this sense, Letteri views himself as a scientist in many ways, with research on matters from physics (movement), biology (character creation) and meteorology (thunderstorms, anyone?) being pivotal to the work Weta pulls off. And speaking of which, advances in science are particularly obvious when looking at the changes in film technology from the early 2000s to the present.

Saindon views those changes as a positive thing. “Our pipeline is obviously a lot better – speed of computers and things like that,” he says. “But we have a huge group always pushing our pipeline and technology further into the realm of reality.” Saindon describes creation of hair as a case in point, notably that each hair can now be created using extremely realistic simulations, something that was not the case when he began working on “The Lord of the Rings.”

Letteri agrees that doing much more in the way of simulation has been the principal technological change. He explains that he has simply been able to create so much more of Middle Earth on a computer and have it look so realistic. This luxury was admittedly assisted by the fact that the world in which the characters found themselves was already implanted visually in viewers' minds. “With 'Hobbit,' we had already established that we're in this vast new world,” he says. “We wanted to expand it. If we were out shooting in the New Zealand landscape, we added something to it to make it more fantastical but that's changed to the point that in 'Battle of the Five Armies,' it's all digital. We took parts of the New Zealand landscape that we liked and put it in.”

Like all entries in Peter Jackson's Middle Earth canon, “The Battle of the Five Armies” posed new and daunting challenges. Letteri centers on particulars that his team had to create, using two examples. The first was Ravenhill. “It was a bit of a set piece that we shot with our actors but the set piece was in fact small,” he says. “We built all of Ravenhill as a digital model. Also, we had this big, broad landscape and Peter had this idea to give this heavenly, foggy, snowy look, and that wasn't in the photography. That was all something we did with massive simulation done custom for every shot that gave us the interesting, cold look to the landscape. That was new for us.”
Letteri's second example was the battle itself, which, for the actors, was shot in front of a green screen. “To create that landscape, everything you see became an entirely digital creation,” he says. “Those are all digital and then you'll cut into a close-up shot to our heroes fighting. Even the ground under their feet is all digital and just a huge amount of creative effort for us to get all the pieces, elements, interaction, simulation.”

Saindon also focuses on the battle itself: “Pete didn't even have time to sort out all the details of the Battle while filming. We finished filming and a year later, most of the battle was sorted out and we worked it all together with motion editors and animation supes.”

The saga's finale leaves bittersweetness in the minds of Weta's artists. At the same time, they are ready to move on. “It feels like it's time for it,” Saindon says. “If we went any further, we'd be dragging it out for too long. I'm a little bit sad because the longer you work on a character, the better the character becomes. Smaug was 100 times better in this movie than the last, in my opinion. It's unfortunate you get to be so good at a character and learn that side and then it leaves.”

As we leave Middle Earth, it's easy to forget that 15 years ago, Letteri and Saindon joined a small, quirky visual effects shop in New Zealand. Weta has changed the art form as skills have developed and continue to develop. And “The Battle of the Five Armies” stands as a testament to that particular growth over the last three years as well.

It seemed this year that if any artist was due for the retrospective treatment, it was “Unbroken” cinematographer Roger Deakins. While I of course did not address all of the 50-plus films he has shot throughout his illustrious career during a recent extended interview, I settled on a few in particular that I think represent a nice cross-section of his work. Each of them – “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” “Sid and Nancy,” “Barton Fink,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Kundun,” “The Man Who Wasn't There” and “The Village” – will get their own space in the next few days.

A month like this bears reminding of the fact that external political pressure on Hollywood isn't exactly a new thing. Take a case like Martin Scorsese's Dalai Lama drama “Kundun,” which became a hot button issue in 1997 with China threatening Disney's business interests in the country for moving forward with a release. One wonders if lingering dissent is what has kept the film from a high definition home video release. But underneath all of that was a work of art, of course, and the only Scorsese/Roger Deakins collaboration to date.

“I think I said to you before, that was a very specific project,” Deakins says. “I think he asked me because of my documentary experience. Because 'Kundun' was a film where we were basically working with non-actors. So I think he just wanted that somebody that could react to them and fade into the background, maybe. It was a very particular film.”

The film was shot over a 103-day period in Morocco – the most exotic location Deakins can remember tackling over his 30-year tenure – with a pick-up day at an upstate New York Buddhist temple to boot. It was originally supposed to be 75 days but things went long. It also features an interesting – not so much staple Deakins shot, but certainly an image he's come back to in a few other films: characters watching something projected. It pops up in “Barton Fink,” “The Hudsucker Proxy,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Jarhead,” for example.

“It's a great shot, isn't it,” Deakins says. “And I love it in 'Citizen Kane.' 'Sunset Boulevard' was probably where it was done better than anywhere else.”

It's used to rather penetrating effect in “Kundun,” however. As the Dalai's older brother asserts that Tibet must fight, images of the battle scene from Laurence Olivier's “Henry V” flicker across his face.

“It is unlike anything else he's done,” Deakins says of Scorsese's film. “I love that film. I loved the experience. I'd be surprised if he asked me again, because he's also got a couple of regular people he works with. On the other hand maybe he will. I don't know.”

Fingers crossed.

Don't forget to read our “Unbroken”-centric interview with Deakins here.

Here's hoping all our credit cards don't get hacked. But seriously, though… Sony Pictures has, after initially cancelling all release plans, allowed theater chains willing to release “The Interview” to do so, but in advance of tomorrow's release date, the studio has made the film available via video-on-demand services like YouTube Movies, Google Play, Xbox and a dedicated website: SeeTheInterview.com. I just watched it from my couch while eating a breakfast burrito in my TMNT pajama pants. America, fuck yeah, I guess.

Anyway, as someone who deigned to put “This is the End” on my top 10 list last year, take this for what you will, but I certainly laughed my ass off. It's Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg right in their wheelhouse, over the top, outrageous, with a little something to say underneath. I also found the underriding thematic idea of journalism's descent into entertainment to be particularly compelling in light of the events of the last two weeks.

So if you're able to catch it today online or tomorrow when it hits theaters, come on back with your thoughts. Was this worth the fuss? Obviously not, but everything is relative. I'm sure it'll be cathartic in some quarters this holiday season to see a petulant dictator bite it in slow motion to the sounds of Katy Perry, though. Also: GREATEST GIF OF ALL TIME:

It seemed this year that if any artist was due for the retrospective treatment, it was “Unbroken” cinematographer Roger Deakins. While I of course did not address all of the 50-plus films he has shot throughout his illustrious career during a recent extended interview, I settled on a few in particular that I think represent a nice cross-section of his work. Each of them – “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” “Sid and Nancy,” “Barton Fink,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Kundun,” “The Man Who Wasn't There” and “The Village” – will get their own space in the next few days.

In 1985, with a wealth of documentary experience and a handful of narrative toe-dips under his belt, Roger Deakins got the call by director Alex Cox to help him envision the tumultuous relationship of Sex Pistols frontman Sid Vicious and groupie-turned-soul-mate Nancy Spungen. The resulting film, “Sid and Nancy,” was an artistic starburst, shrugging off certain biopic tropes in favor of surreal and dreamlike connective tissue for its various episodes.

One image from the film in particular stands out as perhaps one of the most iconic shots in cinema history, and certainly a major such frame from Deakins' own filmography. It's the image you certainly think of when someone brings up the film, the eponymous pair smooching in an alley as garbage rains down from above.

“A number of people have mentioned that shot over the years,” Deakins says. “It was funny because I would drive to work with Alex and Abbe Woo, who wrote the script. It's morning and we were driving and Alex said, 'I think we need something a little, you know – we want it down and dirty, but it's poetic. We want to feel how close these two characters are becoming. But it wants to be kind of surreal.' And Abbe said, 'Well, what if they're kissing in the street, in the alleyway, and there's all this trash falling down?' And then Alex said, 'Yeah, OK, but we don't want it too pretty. What if there's maybe bins and heavy things falling down as well?' So it was all a discussion in the car.

“We get to set and I said to my assistant, 'OK, we need to go high speed because otherwise this is not going to work. So we need a camera that will do 120 frames [per second],' which we didn't have with us. And then, 'We need it now,' right? So we called around all the rental houses to get this camera, and then the magazine kept jamming at 120 frames. So we shot it about six times and one time the camera ran enough film that we had the length of a shot and that's what's in the movie. Right literally before the camera jammed again. I love that shot.”

There was also the vibrant recreation of Sid Vicious' music video cover of Frank Sinatra's “My Way,” which, again, was less about direct replication than evoking the sense of the thing.

“'My Way' was great,” Deakins says, “because it doesn't really look like the actual thing that he did in Paris that time, the video he did. We did something a little bit slicker than that, you know? The stairs with the fluorescent tubes and everything. That was a lot of fun, actually.”

Those are just a couple examples from a wealth of imagery in the film that feels inspired and evocative. Sid sitting on a fogged over curb as Nancy calls home at a red phone booth behind him. His reflection in a taxi window as she looks on from inside, beckoning him to catch a cab with her to the afterlife. Moment after moment, it's a pretty bold visual experience.

“So much of that was made up as we went along,” Deakins says. “It was kind of nice like that. I wouldn't say sometimes it wasn't frustrating. It was not knowing what we were going to do on the day, and I mean I started my career doing documentaries [where that is commonplace], but it was also very exhilarating, that you were just making it up. I mean there's one shot in there where the Sex Pistols are on a boat on the Thames and there's like a party on the boat. And the police raid it because they're going crazy. The boat pulls up on the dock side and we wanted to do something that showed them walking away from this scene of mayhem, but they were kind of in their own world. So I said, 'Let's just do a handheld shot.' I walked backwards and it went on and on and on and it went all up this gangplank, and right at the end I thought, 'Oh, it's great. We got the London Town Hall, the City Hall, in the background.' So when they went out of frame we ended up looking down the river. It's just – it was a great shot. I was surprised when we shot it that it actually ended up in the film in its entirety.”

He also recalls having a great time with actor Gary Oldman, who was tackling one of his first big film parts at the time as Vicious. Strange in hindsight that the only awards recognition he received was an Evening Standard British Film Award for most promising newcomer.

“He was so into it,” Deakins says. “He had the hair implants to get the whole effect. I remember we went out one night in San Francisco rather late, got rather drunk, and he was still in character. It was really funny, wandering around. Fantastic.”

Bouncing around the Tenderloin or the Mission with Roger Deakins and Gary OIdman in character as Sid Vicious. The mind reels.

Don't forget to read our “Unbroken”-centric interview with Deakins here.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4910372903001

The long awaited big screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's “Into the Woods” finally hits theaters on Christmas Day, and judging by the reviews so far, the consensus is it ain't half bad.

Of course, the fact that the film made AFI's top 10 of 2014 list, earned a Golden Globe nod for Best Film – Musical or Comedy (granted, a given) and has also earned a slew of best supporting actress nominations for Meryl Streep (not a given) should have been a big hint. Still, it's slightly surprising considering director Rob Marshall's woeful track record since his feature debut, “Chicago,” won the Best Picture Oscar almost 12 years ago. Whether it can crack this year's Best Picture race remains to be seen (it would need to be a pretty massive hit to get the Academy's attention), but it will receive a significant number of nominations on Jan. 15.

Inspired by the Grimm fairy tales most everyone in the world has been raised on, “Into the Woods” sports an all-star cast including Streep, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, Tracey Ullman, Christine Baranski, Tracey Ullman and new CBS Late Night host James Cordon. HitFix spoke to a number of those famous faces as well as Marshall and Lapine who adapted his own book of the Tony Award-winning musical. They had much to reveal. 

Here are 11 things that you might want to know about “Into the Woods” (before you see it or after).

Tracey Ullman was “lucky” to be able to sing live on set
The Emmy winner plays the mother of mischievous bean-lover Jack and a number of her scenes were shot outside a sound stage on location. That actually assisted in her wish to sing live instead of using pre-recorded vocals. She notes, “When we got to the field at six o”clock in the morning with all the mist and the cows and everything, we [had] pre-recorded my vocals, but it was too slow [for the camerawork]. So it was lucky to have that option to sing it live.” It didn't hurt that, unlike some of her co-stars, she wasn't wearing a corset either. She adds, “I was in the most comfortable costume in the world. I could just roll around in leaves and cow dung and be camera ready in a second.”

The cast rehearsed like they were doing a “road tour” of the musical
The weeks of rehearsal brought a strong sense of camaraderie to the cast according to Ullman. She says it was like “doing a road tour of 'Into the Woods'” … We got to hear each other sing and we all — just like you do when you”re rehearsing a stage musical.  And, you know, there were props and a cardboard cow. But it was great because then you got to time it out and you knew once you got to a location what you were going to do, as opposed to all getting there and wasting time rehearsing and figuring it out.”

Co-creator James Lapine called Disney about making an animated version back in the day
“Into the Woods” first hit Broadway just a few years before Walt Disney Animation began its second golden age with animated musicals such as “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.” Writer and director James Lapine says he actually called up his buddy Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was at Disney at the time, and pitched him “Woods” as an animated musical. As history notes, he wasn't interested and it was almost two decades before a live action version came to life.

“Into the Woods” has not had the shelf life of most Broadway hits
The Tony Award-winner did well when it first hit the Great White Way, but even Lapine admits it wasn't “a big massive hit.” Unlike other musicals, however, interest in new productions has grown over the years. He says, “With most shows the licensing starts out very strong and then it gets less and less and less each year as it goes by and shows kind of drift into memory. This one never did. It just always had the same steady number of productions both in stock and amateur and professional. And it”s been a real staple in the schools as well as internationally.”

Cinderella's wicked stepmother is basically Kris Jenner
Christine Baranski plays Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother, but her take on the character was slightly more modern than previous incarnations. She notes, “I conceived of the character with Rob as a mother and two daughters who just were really kind of self-involved and narcissistic and obsessed with their clothes and, 'You see our hair; it”s big hair.' And 'I have blonde hair like my daughters,' you know? 'My age, I”m, like, trying to keep up with the daughters. I”ve got the hair, I”ve got the cleavage.' I always thought if they were in this day and age they would be fashion obsessed and they”d be watching, you know, Red Carpet and they”d be [reality stars].”

Rob Marshall thinks a major thrill of “Into the Woods” is how it redefines actors you thought you knew
“I don't think people knew that Chris Pine was funny like that, or could sing,” Marshall says. “I don't think people even know the full range of what Emily Blunt can do with her incredible humor and humanity and sensibility and warmth and her singing voice as this character. Even Meryl Streep; you think you've seen her do everything and then she sings this piece with such ferocity and depth and such power. That was such a surprise. When we were rehearsing that for the first time and watching what she was doing with this witch and bringing such vulnerability to the character, I thought, 'No one has ever seen this from Meryl Streep.'”

Blunt thought of her Baker's Wife as someone who would read US Weekly
The “Edge of Tomorrow” star plays the Baker's Wife, a woman willing to do anything to break the curse preventing her from getting pregnant. In one particularly intriguing scene, Chris Pine's Prince Charming seduces her (slightly), which causes her to question her marriage. Blunt saw the Baker's Wife as a Midwestern housewife who”s never left her little town and is less altruistic than she first seems. She adds, “She”s a bit bored and miserable and George Clooney knocks on the door and goes, 'Do you want to make out?' Like it”s sort of, 'What would you do?' So that”s how I tried to think of her, a woman who reads US Weekly every week and suddenly he”s here and he fancies her, you know? It was wonderful to think of it in those terms.”

Meryl Streep thinks the most interesting character in “Into the Woods” was not her own According to Marshall, Streep thought Cinderella, played by Anna Kendrick, was the most complex character in the film. Why? “Because she's wrestling with so many thoughts and can't make a decision about her life,” Marshall says. “Everything's presented to her as her wish. Her mother says that wonderful thing in the tree. 'Are you certain what you wish is what you want?' And she thinks she does. But she gets it and it's such a moral dilemma for her throughout the whole piece — until she makes that one major decision, to say no to the prince. Then she's finally free to be herself.”

The stage director was more interested in making changes for the big screen than the film director was
Usually, it's the playwrights and songwriters fighting tooth and nail over changes in a big screen version of a musical. In this case, Lapine was ready to “make a lot of changes,” but director Rob Marshall “was very determined to be very loyal to the original material.” Who knew?

The quieter moments in “Into the Woods” were most difficult to achieve
“You have to actually earn those quiet moments,” Marshall says. “If you have too many of them, it slows to a halt. We were very careful about not having too many of those kinds of — I call them 'ballads.' You have to make sure you've earned them as you go through. The biggest difference between 'Nine,' 'Chicago' and this is that those, in a way, are theatrical musicals. They all have numbers, production numbers. These musical numbers were so integrated into the story that they just come out of scene, then right back into dialogue. That was great about doing this. It was so different than those other two.

Everyone had to audition except for you know who
According to Blunt, every member of the cast had to audition for their role except for Streep (well, maybe Depp, too). She recalls, “I was probably the most reluctant party to go in and sing and my agent told me I had to and that it would be fine. I went in and [Marshall] just said, 'Listen, sometimes music is emotionally so complex and I want actors. I want actors who can make sense of it and delve in and discover it.' And he wanted people with humor and with humanity.  And so he said, 'Stop worrying about making it sound prestigious. Just go for it.' And I did it and he gave it to me.”

What did you think of “Into the Woods?” Share your thoughts below.

After the New York Film Festival screening of “Inherent Vice,” there were a number of cranky complaints that the movie didn”t make any sense. It”s true, the intricacies of Paul Thomas Anderon”s hazy, stoned crime caper isn”t easy to digest, especially if they”re soaked up only once. But even the most livid NYFF attendee had to agree that relative newcomer Katherine Waterston, wooing and mellowing out  Joaquin Phoenix”s wily Larry “Doc” Sportello, was a discovery. The people wanted more (and, for a certain contingent, more of her in something they could understand). Well, get ready, NYFFers, Waterston”s just made the leap to the mainstream: She”ll star opposite Michael Fassbender in the developing Steve Jobs biopic.

After courting Natalie Portman for the role, Variety reports that producers landed on Waterston for the role of Steve Jobs” wife. She joins Fassbender and Seth Rogen, set to play Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Danny Boyle will direct from a much-discussed Aaron Sorkin screenplay (a project at the center of the Sony hack maelstrom).

Last we heard of the actual content of Sorkin”s script, the untitled biopic centers on three moments in Jobs” life. He told The Daily Beast in 2012, “This entire movie is going to be three scenes and three scenes only. That all take place in real time. There will be no time cuts and each will take place before a product launch. Backstage before a product launch. The first one being the Mac, the second one being NeXT, after he had left Apple. And the third one being the iPod.”

Before “Inherent Vice,” Waterston previously appeared in several “Boardwalk Empire” episodes, supporting roles in “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” “Night Moves,” and “Being Flynn.” Anderson”s neo-noir was a huge boost and the Jobs biopic, successful or not, should send her skyrocketing. As long as the NYFF audiences can understand it.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4910370126001

Black Film Critics Circle co-president Mike Sargent accompanied the release of his group's list of 2014 movie superlatives this year with a quote expressing praise for “an incredibly diverse and progressive year for black film.” He then went on to broadly touch on the subject matter covered across that spectrum. Nevertheless, his organization's list of winners hardly reflects that diversity, I must say.

“Selma” cleaned up, winning six awards including Best Picture. Not represented were films like “Beyond the Lights,” “Top Five,” “Dear White People,” “Get On Up” or “Jimi: All Is By My Side.” Just pointing it out.

Check out the full list of winners below. And catch the rest of the season at The Circuit.

Best Picture
“Selma”

Best Director
Ava Duvernay, “Selma”

Best Actor
David Oyelowo, “Selma”

Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

Best Actress
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “Belle”

Best Supporting Actress
Carmen Ejogo, “Selma”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Gone Girl”

Best Original Screenplay
“Selma”

Best Cinematography
“Birdman”

Best Animated Movie
“The LEGO Movie”

Best Foreign Film
“Ida”

Best Documentary
“Keep On Keepin' On”

Best Ensemble
“Selma”

It seemed this year that if any artist was due for the retrospective treatment, it was “Unbroken” cinematographer Roger Deakins. While I of course did not address all of the 50-plus films he has shot throughout his illustrious career during a recent extended interview, I settled on a few in particular that I think represent a nice cross-section of his work. Each of them – “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” “Sid and Nancy,” “Barton Fink,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Kundun,” “The Man Who Wasn't There” and “The Village” – will get their own space in the next few days.

Save for a pair necessary detours with the likes of Emmanuel Lubezki and Bruno Delbonnel, Joel and Ethan Coen have utilized Roger Deakins' skills behind the camera for every single directorial outing since 1991's “Barton Fink.” That's 11 movies, with a 12th – “Hail, Caesar!” – currently in production. For Deakins, that first collaboration nearly 25 years ago was a professional awakening.

“I think their approach to filmmaking, and my experience with them then and since, has affected the way I work and the way I see things, definitely,” Deakins says. “I think some of it is also experience. That was like the second time, third time I had worked in America. You've got to put it in context of who I was and what I had, the tools I had.”

A sui generis blend of old Hollywood style and noir elements, “Barton Fink” is a singular accomplishment. Until that time, the Coens had worked with cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who of course went on to a directorial career making movies like “Men in Black.” But there was a definite aesthetic shift with this film, stylization and formalism being dialed up a notch. And it was all so compelling as to win the coveted trifecta at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival: Best Actor (John Turturro), Best Director and the Palme d'Or

“They're notorious for storyboarding everything and being so specific about what they want,” Deakins says. “And my world was documentaries. I mean, I did sort of verité documentaries, which is just following a real situation, covering it and cutting it in my head while it was shooting, you know? And then to approach it the other way, which they do, which is to work everything out very tightly beforehand and just shoot only the things that you really want, it's a different approach. To combine those two approaches, I think that's probably what changed the way I saw things.”

Of course, Deakins had beautiful designs to capture, from Richard Hornung's costumes to Dennis Gassner's detailed sets. But the tone set forth by the filmmaker siblings on “Barton Fink” was just its own thing. It's an unsettling film to watch sometimes, often leaving you unsure of how to feel.

“Well, I think that's their brilliance, really,” Deakins says. “You find yourself laughing and then you go, 'Oh, I don't know. I really shouldn't be laughing at this. This is rather sort of sick!'”

Don't forget to read our “Unbroken”-centric interview with Deakins here.

For many Academy members, the holidays are not just about celebrating with family and friends. The Christmas through New Year's Day break has another important purpose: screener viewing. Yes, this is the time of year when the membership catches up on all the films they wanted to see in the theater and missed or have been told they really need to watch. Most members probably got through a significant portion of their screener pile over the Thanksgiving weekend, but this is the week where many of the December releases finally get their chance to prove their worthiness on the small screen.

One of our missions at In Contention is to inform cinephiles, the industry and movie fans of the achievements that have or are about to take place in the world of cinema. That happens to include the Academy members who frequent our site. And we hope they're paying attention, as there are a number of possible nominees we passionately hope stay on their radar. With the screener holiday season beginning, there is no time like the present to deliver the always necessary “don't forget these possible nominees” feature.

You can check out the 15 contenders we feel need the spotlight the most in the embedded gallery at the bottom of this post.

Do you think any of these potential nominees will actually get nominated? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

As drummer Antonio Sanchez explained to us earlier this season, he wasn”t just a composer hired to fill the silence on Alejandro González Iñárritu”s “Birdman.” He was like an additional writer, laying down early percussion tracks to inspire Iñárritu, supplying the director with music to play on set, then re-recording his original demos to fit the shot and edited footage. Sanchez”s Golden Globe-nominated original score was the beating heart of “Birdman,” but the Academy doesn”t see it that way.

Earlier today, reports came through that Sanchez and Iñárritu lost their bid with the Academy”s music branch to have “Birdman” compete in the Best Original Score category. After the initial move to disqualify the improvised, drum-centric score on grounds that it didn”t fill enough of the film”s runtime, protest from Team “Birdman” resulted in a consistent decision. Why? 

We jumped on the phone with Sanchez to hear his thoughts and break down the situation. The Academy is known for their dark and mysterious rules, but in this case, it stands out as a move against originality. Here”s what Sanchez had to say…

HitFix: What have you attempted to do to push back against the original disqualification?

Antonio Sanchez: At first it seemed to be a simple error of tabulation from the cue sheets that Fox provided to the Academy. It showed that there seemed to be more classical music than original music. That was the first red flag for them. That”s why it was disqualified originally. Then there was a recount and they found a few mistakes in the accounting for time of original music versus licensed music. One of the rules is if it”s more than 50% licensed music, it”s disqualified. After they reviewed the cue sheets, it turned out I was well ahead of the classical music. We thought we were on really solid ground. 

Then we wrote letters. Alejandro and myself explained in detail what we did, what the process was like. Alejandro said how important the score was for the film, not just because of the final result but because I was involved with it before the film started, so he could rehearse with the actors. Directors will use temp music to get an idea of the music flow and, in this case, I did the temps with the demos. So I was involved basically with the before, during and after of the whole process. That”s why this feels so weird.

What was the final breakdown of original score to licensed music?

I”m over half an hour and the classical music is about 17 minutes. 

What was the final decision? What”s the disconnect between the Academy”s music branch and your explanation?

The effectiveness is “diluted” by the amount of classical music. Yet I haven”t heard anyone who has gone to see “Birdman” and is raving about the classical music. In the letter Alejandro wrote, he explains that the classical is incidental. It”s part of the play and it”s playing in Riggan”s head. Also, any classical music would have done. It could have been anything. The choice didn”t matter. What mattered was what we did with the drums.

Another thing they said was the biggest dramatic moments of the film were underscored by classical music. I disagree, because the most memorable moments are scored by drums.

Right, when he”s racing backstage or out in Times Square, it”s all drums. So the disqualification comes down to a subjective opinion?

We”re still not satisfied with the explanation. If it was really clean cut, I”d understand. And the score has been gaining a lot of steam. To not be able to even participate, to not be on the list, that”s what”s so disappointing. If I”m on the list and I don”t get nominated, so be it. To not be able to participate with this thing we put our hearts into… it”s disappointing.

Were you laying down your drum tracks with an awareness of what classical music would eventually go into the film?

Not at all.

Was there ever a point where you were going to write music for those classical moments?

A lot of the sourced music is what”s being used in the play. It”s not part of the score. That”s what Alejandro”s been saying over and over again. It”s like if a guy got into a car and heard “Born to Be Wild.” It”s not part of the score.

Could it be a problem with its improvisational nature?

It could be. That”s not what they said. That”s not the official version. But drummers, we”ve always had that stigma, that it”s not a musical instrument because it doesn”t have harmony and melody you can play. I obviously beg to differ.

Is there a feeling that it undermines an awards campaign?

I think it undermines the credibility of the score. It”s effective and groundbreaking! It”s daring. And, look, I”m a total outsider. When I got approached by Alejandro and what an amazing thing this became, that was the cake. Everything else with awards, that”s icing. I”m honored and thankful, but I would have felt the same way if it was disqualified for any award.

For a closer look at the making of the “Birdman” score, check out our lengthier interview with Sanchez.

The Vancouver critics have just joined the party, always offering an interesting assortment of nominations given their practice of splitting off a whole separate section for Canadian films. “Birdman” led the way in the international list, while Xavier Dolan's “Mommy” led the way in the Canadian section (which will probably be cold comfort after his film was unceremoniously snubbed by the Academy's foreign film committee).

Check out the full list of nominees below. Winners will be announced on Jan. 5. And, you know: The Circuit.

INTERNATIONAL

Best Film
“Birdman”
“Boyhood”
“Whiplash”

Best Director
Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman”
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
Jake Gyllenhaal, “Nightcrawler”
Michael Keaton, “Birdman”

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard, “The Immigrant”
Tilda Swinton, “Only Lovers Left Alive”
Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”

Best Supporting Actor
Edward Norton, “Birdman”
Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Jessica Chastain, “A Most Violent Year”
Laura Dern, “Wild”

Best Screenplay
Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris & Armando Bo, “Birdman”
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Force Majeure”
“Ida”
“We Are the Best!”

Best Documentary
“CITIZENFOUR”
“The Overnighters”
“Virunga”

CANADIAN

Best Canadian Film
“Enemy”
“Mommy”
“Tu dors Nicole”

Best Director of a Canadian Film
Xavier Dolan, “Mommy”
Stéphane Lafleur, “Tu dors Nicole”
Denis Villeneuve, “Enemy”

Best Actor in a Canadian Film
Jake Gyllenhaal, “Enemy”
Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, “The Husband”
Antoine-Olivier Pilon, “Mommy”

Best Actress in a Canadian Film
Julianne Côté, “Tu dors Nicole”
Anne Dorval, “Mommy”
Dagny Backer Johnsen, “Violent”

Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Film
Bruce Greenwood, “Elephant Song”
Marc-André Grondin, “Tu dors Nicole”
Callum Keith Rennie, “Sitting on the Edge of Marlene”

Best Supporting Actress in a Canadian Film
Sarah Allen, “The Husband”
Suzanne Clément, “Mommy”
Sarah Gadon, “Enemy”

Best Screenplay for a Canadian Film
Xavier Dolan, “Mommy”
Andrew Huculiak, Josh Huculiak, Cayne McKenzie & Joseph Schweers, “Violent”
Elan Mastai, “The F Word”

Best Canadian Documentary
“Everything Will Be”
“Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story”
“The Price We Pay”

Best First Film by a Canadian Director
“Sitting on the Edge of Marlene”
“The Valley Below”
“Violent”

Best British Columbia Film
“Everything Will Be”
“Preggoland”
“Violent”

The Southeastern Film Critics Association have added to the year-end discussion, becoming the second group to hand top honors to Wes Anderson's “Grand Budapest Hotel.” The film won the Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Ensemble prizes. Ava DuVernay's “Selma,” meanwhile, won the Gene Wyatt Award, given to a film that best evokes the spirit of the South (while a personal favorite, “Cold in July,” came in second place there).

Check out the full list of winners below and remember to follow along at The Circuit.

Best Picture
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Best Director
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood” (Runner-up: Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”)

Best Actor
Michael Keaton, “Birdman” (Runner-up: Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”)

Best Actress
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice” (Runner-up: Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”)

Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash” (Runner-up: Edward Norton, “Birdman”)

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood” (Runner-up: Tilda Swinton, “Snowpiercer”)

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Gone Girl” (Runner-up: “Wild”)

Best Original Screenplay
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” (Runner-up: “Birdman”)

Best Animated Film
“The LEGO Movie” (Runner-up: “Big Hero 6”)

Best Foreign Language Film
“Force Majeure” (Runner-up: “Ida”)

Best Documentary
“Life Itself” (Runner-up: “CITIZENFOUR”)

Best Ensemble
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Gene Wyatt Award
For a film that best evokes the spirit of the South
“Selma” (Runner-up: “Cold in July”)

Top 10
“Birdman”
“Boyhood”
“Foxcatcher”
“Gone Girl”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“The Imitation Game”
“Nightcrawler”
“Snowpiercer”
“The Theory of Everything”
“Whiplash”

The Women Film Critics Circle announced its winners for the year last week and we're just now getting to them. And even though “The Homesman” led the way with nominations, it was “Still Alice” that was the big winner, taking every prize for which it was nominated.

However, there are some oddities. Films that weren't even nominated for categories like Best and Worst Female Images in Movies ended up winning those prizes. The stated reasoning behind an award for Seth Rogen and James Franco is sort of bizarre and tough to follow. Suddenly Oprah Winfrey in “Selma” qualifies as an action star. One previous winner was announced during the nominations stage and then when winners were revealed, suddenly found herself tied for the honor. Etc.

Anyway, follow along with the winners below if you can. Nominations are here. And the rest of the season's offerings are at The Circuit.

Best Movie About Women
“Still Alice”

Best Movie by a Woman
“Selma”

Best Woman Storyteller (Screenwriting Award)
Rebecca Lenkiewicz, “Ida”

Best Actress
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”

Best Actor
Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory Of Everything”

Best Young Actress
Mira Grosin, “We Are The Best!”

Best Comedic Actress
Jenny Slate, “Obvious Child”

Best Foreign Film By or About Women
“Two Days, one Night”

Best Female Images in Movies
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1”

Worst Female Images in Movies
“Horrible Bosses 2”

Best Male Images in Movies
“Love Is Strange”

Worst Male Images in Movies
“Dumb And Dumber To”

Best Theatrically Unreleased Movie About Women
“Girlhood”

Women's Work (Best Ensemble)
“The Homesman”

Best Animated Female
Winnie (“The Boxtrolls”)

Best Family Film
“Big Hero 6”

SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

Courage in Filmmaking
“CITIZENFOUR”

Adrienne Shelly Award
For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women
“Frontera”
“Private Violence”

Josephine Baker Award
For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
“Anita: Speaking Truth To Power”

Karen Morley Award
For best exemplifying a woman's place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
“Belle”

Courage in Acting
Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”

The Invisible Woman Award
Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored
Felicity Jones, “The Theory Of Everything”

Best Documentary By or About Women
“CITIZENFOUR”

Mommie Dearest Worst Screen Mom of the Year Award
(TIE) Charlotte Gainsbourg and Uma Thurman, “Nymphomaniac”

Best Screen Couple
“The Skeleton Twins”

A Woman's Right to Male Roles in Movies
Jessica Chastain, “Interstellar”

Best Female Action Star
Oprah Winfrey, “Selma”

Acting and Activism Award
Rosario Dawson

Lifetime Achievement Award
Oprah Winfrey

JUST KIDDING AWARDS

Best Female Images
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Wasn't this barb sort of covered with the film's nomination in the category?)
“Nymphomaniac”

Forty-Plus Female Empowerment Award
For the producers who give women over 40 meaningful roles (other than as maniacs and witches) in movies on a regular basis, in an industry where 40 is the new 95.

Merry Macho Award
Seth Rogen and James Franco
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Try to follow along here…)
For advancing the cause of world peace with their presidential assassination comedy, “The Interview.” And who knows, while possibly mulling the “Interview II” sequel comedy, the assassination of US President Obama. And for further extending Hollywood as a wing of the US military and CIA, following leaked email revelations that the US State Department advocated Sony to use the film to help bring down the DPRK government.

Best Line in a Movie
“Stop whining. Woman up!” (“Big Hero 6”)

Brad Pitt uses his power for good. The A-lister could easily hang his hat on a cavalcade of franchise films and call it a day. Instead, he throws himself on the occasional blockbuster sword (see: Troy” or “World War Z”) for the cred to make movies that strive for something beyond pure entertainment. His Plan B Entertainment, run by Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner, has produced a number of highly acclaimed films over the years, including “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “The Tree of Life,” “Moneyball,” the Best Picture-winning “12 Years a Slave,” HBO's “The Normal Heart” and next year's “True Story.” This December will see the release of Plan B's “Selma,” which prompted the PGA to pay its respects to Pitt”s company in the form of the organization”s Visionary Award.

The Producers Guild Visionary Award recognizes “television, film or new media producers for their unique or uplifting contributions to our culture through inspiring storytelling or performance.” In a statement, Producers Guild Awards Co-Chairs Todd Black (“The Equalizer”) and Ryan Murphy (who may have somewhat of a conflict of interest here, having directed “Normal Heart”) explained why the accolade is a fit for Pitt”s production company. “For over a decade, Plan B Entertainment has inspired creativity and innovation in the entertainment industry. With critical and popular successes in both film and TV, Plan B continually breaks new artistic ground and stimulates necessary dialogue about our history and culture.  We look forward to being further enthralled and engaged by their work in the years to come, and are delighted to honor them with this year”s Visionary Award.”

Previous Visionary Awards honorees include producer and founder of Illumination Entertainment Chis Meledandri, “for his prolific work in animation;” producer, entrepreneur and humanitarian Russell Simmons, “for his dedication to philanthropy and work as a film and television producer;”  producer Laura Ziskin, “for her commitment to storytelling and her efforts organizing the 2008 and 2009 Stand Up To Cancer campaign and television specials;” Jeff Skoll, for “his work with Participant Media in creating films that inspire social action;” and Joel Gallen, who produced the post-9/11 telethon “America: A Tribute to Heroes.” If you”re making a visible impact, the PGA hands you the Visionary Award.

Currently on the Plan B future slate: Angelina Jolie's “By the Sea,” the long-gestating “Lost City of Z,”  and “Americanah,” an immigration drama pairing “12 Years” costar Lupita Nyong'o and “Selma” star David Oyelowo. Let the Plan B reign continue.

Earlier this month, the PGA announced its nominees for Documentary and Television categories. The 2015 Producers Guild Award winners will be presented on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015.

It seemed this year that if any artist was due for the retrospective treatment, it was “Unbroken” cinematographer Roger Deakins. While I of course did not address all of the 50-plus films he has shot throughout his illustrious career during a recent extended interview, I settled on a few in particular that I think represent a nice cross-section of his work. Each of them – “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” “Sid and Nancy,” “Barton Fink,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Kundun,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “The Man Who Wasn't There” and “The Village” – will get their own space in the next few days.

Say what you will about director M. Night Shyamalan, but he has put together some impressive crews for his many singular cinematic works. His only collaboration with Roger Deakins to date, and a film for which the cinematographer probably should have earned one of his 11 Oscar nominations, was 2004's “The Village.”

It was a unique professional experience for Deakins. Though he had become accustomed to storyboarding through his collaborations with the Coen brothers, he had never dealt with the level of precision he encountered with Shyamalan.

“I sat with him a long time doing the boards with him,” Deakins recalls. “I think it's a little obsessive because, you know, working with Joel and Ethan, they do storyboards and sometimes I'm involved more than others. But it can change on the day. I remember on 'The Man Who Wasn't There,' things changed. You know, five cuts became one long shot. Things change as you go. More and more they use storyboards as a sort of template, not as a sort of bible. Whereas M. Night on 'The Village,' that was it. That was the shot. If the actor wanted to change it, 'No, that's the shot.' I can understand it, and I didn't find it frustrating at all, actually. But I do find it a little bit restrictive.”

But that was part of the director's genius in some ways, Deakins says, because of the manner in which every image was designed to lead to the next. “I think it probably worked better on 'The Sixth Sense' than it did on 'The Village,' though,” he says. “I think 'The Village' needed a little bit more sense of reality. It was a little too stylized and a little bit too mannered. And I don't think the audience could quite connect with it as a real thing, as a real situation, because of that. I think that's why the film fell down a little bit. Because I think the story, in essence, was fantastic. I think it was a great idea.”

Indeed, the late-film twist – an element of storytelling Shyamalan had by that point become known for – sounds interesting on paper. It was sort of a “Twilight Zone” episode extended to feature length. But everything that built to that moment (a moment that left many critics groaning) made for an interesting exercise in aesthetic atmosphere nevertheless, Deakins' haunting imagery playing off interesting palette choices, meticulous production design and with a piercing accompanying score.

“That was partly M. Night, because he had very definite ideas about the color of the cloth, the yellow and the 'red danger' and all that,” Deakins says. “That was very much built into the whole story.”

Shyamalan has reached out to Deakins a number of times since to collaborate on this or that project, but their schedules have never really aligned. But to hear it from Deakins, it was a pleasurable experience, so perhaps some day.

“I really enjoyed it,” he says. “We had a good time. I spent quite a lot of time with him at his house in Pennsylvania doing the storyboards. He has a very nice, tight-knit crew and he's very loyal to a lot of the people he's worked with for a long time. It was like a big family, actually. It was really nice.”

Don't forget to read our “Unbroken”-centric interview with Deakins here.

HOLLYWOOD – We've already caught up with Jack O'Connell once this year, but it's perfectly fitting to revisit the well here. He is, after all, having a truly breakout moment, one that actually seems more stretched across three years than bunched up into 2014.

For instance, though he popped up in “300: Rise of an Empire” back in the spring, “Starred Up” was his major coming out in US theaters this year. But that film debuted at the Telluride Film Festival in 2013 and he was breaking into the awards race for his work therein last season. “'71,” meanwhile, debuted at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and has hit theaters overseas already, but it's being held for a stateside release in February.

“Unbroken,” though, will be the film that introduces him to the masses. We're seeing a star being born and, for his part, the tough-willed O'Connell is taking it in stride. We sat down recently to specifically discuss Angelina Jolie's latest film, basking in the Hollywood sun on a hotel terrace because, well, he just doesn't get to see enough of that back home in England. Check out the back and forth below.

“Unbroken” opens on Christmas Day.

***

HitFix: So taking on a role of this magnitude in a project this kind of grueling and sizable must have been daunting at the outset. Was there any trepidation on your part?

Jack O'Connell: Yeah, there's always an element. But it's just a case of how much you decide to listen to it. There was a lot I could draw upon positively. Once the role was mine, after 10 years of forging this career path, naive or not, I felt ready. I knew it was going to hurt. I knew I had to put aside my priorities in terms of comfort and I guess social life. But it's a worthwhile sacrifice. You're not going to make an impression or tribute the man as you're supposed to with a painless shooting experience. All of that seemed to equate and seemed worthwhile. Yeah, there is a doubt, but that can also motivate you. I felt in this case that it did.

You got to meet Louis Zamperini a few times. Was there anything elemental about the man that you kept hanging onto as something you wanted to really carry through in the performance?

Yeah, just that he has a quality where he was very reluctant to ever describe himself as anything extraordinary. He would always just consider himself one of many, and I think that's a testament to his era. I can remember my dad having that sort of thinking. And whether there is such a thing as selflessness or not, he surely came close. That came through in Laura [Hillenbrand's] writing, but I wanted to meet him and be able to put it down to the era. And having met him, I felt like I was able to.

When and where did you first meet him?

It was at his house, I think maybe four weeks prior to shooting. But that was like a set-up, where they set up like a studio in his front room. And I just felt intrusive, you know? I was so conscious already about coming across the wrong way, and that wasn't made any easier for me, the cameras, the lights and the small crew. It wasn't as relaxed and I didn't get as much out of it in terms of what I needed. So I insisted on a second meeting.

Why was there a crew? They were already documenting something?

They wanted it for the DVD extras. So they sold out on me. But that's why I insisted the second meeting needed to happen, and it did and we had time to just hang, me and him. We went through his old scrapbooks; you know, he's a big collector. He showed me his Nazi flag that he picked up from Berlin. So one of these things, just to be able to spend time in his presence and relax and enjoy the silences and not have an agenda. That was going to inform me a whole lot more than investigating or interviewing the man.

The story as presented is obviously a grueling one, so I imagine, as you've intimated, it was physically and psychologically difficult. Does any scene or moment stand out as particularly tough to work through in that regard?

Well the plank [that I hold over my shoulders at the end] made me faint twice. I passed out twice beneath it, so I reckon by rights that wins. But I've always struggled with that question. I mean I'm only using science as my reference point there, having fainted. The whole thing kind of merges into one mountainous effort. And even in hindsight now, I struggle to separate days apart from each other. And I sure as hell know that when I was feeling my weakest, the idea of portraying Olympic Louie seemed so far-fetched. Perhaps that was the most difficult.

Yeah, because I guess you hadn't even gotten to that yet. That was saved for the end of production.

Yeah, and I had the benefits of adrenaline weekly, which served me well, but I needed something for the Olympic track as well and I wasn't sure where I was going to source it from. And then I ended up getting glass in my foot over Christmas. It was my own doing. I dropped a glass of water I was handing to my mom and it dropped and smashed and I bled like I never have before.

Wow.

Yeah. So the time I should have been on a treadmill working toward something, I had my foot elevated. I couldn't foresee that, so I couldn't put it in my schedule at all as you start to put up with the reality. And I was panicking a little, wondering how the fuck I was going to get from my horizontal, recovering position to a feasible Olympian.

How did Angelina help you through the trials and tribulations of the project?

I don't know if it was knowingly but I felt like I had her on my side very early. And she did so much for me, in terms of my personal life during the preparation period. She hired a helicopter for me so I could go see a friend who was passing away at the time. She arranged that. And then there was the meeting, the dinner that she arranged for some of my select few closest people. She arranged that. She considered it important to meet my people before we went on this mission. So that meant by the time I was on the set, I felt, already, personally invested, and that supported me throughout.

Yeah, how did the project even come to you, speaking of all of that. What was the audition situation? Just a typical deal?

Self-taping at first, because she put out, like, a general email to all the agents. That's what I pay my agents for, so if something like that comes around, I at least hear about it. That meant I had to put myself on tape, so I went and consulted with my old drama teacher. He set up an audition and with a good camera and someone to read the lines opposite, so it wasn't just a rushed, time-savvy effort. It was something that we were going to send and hopefully be proud of. She responded to that. And then she set up a meeting for myself and her. There was no dialogue for it. No lines attached. Just meet Angelina and talk about Louie. So I was introduced to his legacy then, and then she set up the screen test, which she needed to go back to the Universal people with and convince them that I was their man, which is easier said for a relative unknown.

You keep in touch with the old drama teacher, eh?

Yeah, even still. I'm very grateful for that man, actually. We talk and I'll be back there one of these days.

And I wanted to talk about Miyavi a bit. I attended one of those early screenings with a Q&A and you guys have great off-screen chemistry. I'm just putting it out there but you guys should do a buddy cop movie together or something.

[Laughs.] That would be fucking hilarious. The thing is we've got it easy going into them Q&As because they've just seen his character torment my character for the best part of an hour. So I can see people responding initially to the fact that we get along with each other. I've got a tremendous amount of respect for the bloke. I admire him as a pal, as a father to his kids. He seems like a devoted husband. Those are really respectable traits in my book.

Have you had a chance to see him perform live?

I have, actually. Well we got together. We formed a band. After the prison camp sequence we had the chance to put a band together, because the producer's a drummer and I play guitar, too. So he did the first half and we came in for the second half. We had a full set. We sang all the obvious ones, like “Angie” by the Stones and “Louie Louie” and “Bird is the Word,” that went down well. “Folsom Prison Blues” as well.

[Laughs.] So what's coming up for you?

“Money Monster,” with Jodie Foster directing. It's a nice role. I'm expecting some time in New York to witness and try and craft something. Because he's lifelike. As much as we're inventing the character, I still consider him as real as Louie, to a degree. So just busy with that at the moment.

Nice. Another female director. That's great.

I can't resist!

Awesome. Well good luck with the release. Great catching up.

Nice talking, bud. Good stuff.

Over the past few weeks we've celebrated the best movies of 2014 and now, inevitably, it's time to celebrate the worst. The HitFix staff has chosen 25 films that disappointed, frustrated and often found us wanting to run from the theater screaming in disbelief. And while many of the selections are from the Hollywood studio factory, a surprising number are not.

The 25 on our list include two Toronto world premieres, a film in competition (!) at Cannes, two Sundance selections, a Meryl Streep flick and an epic from arguably one of the greatest directors of all-time. Notable misfires that didn't make it included “That Awkward Moment,” “Need for Speed,” “The November Man,” “Annie,” “Gimme Shelter,” “God's Pocket,” “The Signal” and “Non-Stop,” among others.

Has that piqued your interest? Check out which movies made the top 25 in the embedded gallery below. Then vote for the films you think were the worst five of the year in the poll.

Sam Taylor-Johnson”s “Fifty Shades of Grey” will arrive to theaters in February 2015 with a handicap. Even if it”s artfully crafted, sensual and romantic, and joins “Basic Instinct,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “Body Double,” “Little Children,” “9 1/2 Weeks” in the pantheon of Hollywood kink, it”ll still carry a burden: E.L. James” e-book source material. “Fifty Shades” that swept a nation and embarrassed the lit-savvy.  The book has an audience, selling over 100 million copies since its 2011 release. But it”s also the butt of many a joke; When rumors leaked that Emma Watson was up for the film adaptation”s lead role, Anastasia Steele, she tweeted “'Who here actually thinks I would do 50 Shades of Grey as a movie? Like really. For real. In real life.'” Salman Rushdie thought “Fifty Shades” made “'Twilight' look like 'War and Peace.'”

Half-baked material can be mined for transcendent film experiences, so no one should count Taylor-Johnson”s film out just yet. The Berlinale isn”t. Announced through press release, the Berlin International Film Festival announced that “Fifty Shades” would celebrate its international premiere at the fest”s 65th incarnation. Debuting on Feb. 11, 2015, two days before its American release, the film will play one time and one time only. 

Adapted from James” novel by “Saving Mr. Banks” writer Kelly Marcel, “Fifty Shades of Grey” stars Jamie Dornan (“Marie Antoinette,” Netflix”s “The Fall”) and Dakota Johnson (“The Social Network,” Fox”s “Ben and Kate”) as Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, who take a workplace relationship to the next level with sexy gazing and BDSM toys. The film marks Taylor-Johnso”s follow-up to her 2010, BAFA-nominated film “Nowhere Boy.” Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti alongside James.

'Fifty Shades' joins new films from Terrence Malick and “Weekend” director Andrew Haigh in the announced Berlinale line-up. Darren Aronofsky will dominate over the competition films as Jury President.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” slips in to U.S. theaters on Feb. 13, 2015.