In the blessed six months between the Venice Film Festival and the Academy Awards ceremony — the Oscar off-season, if you will — the Cannes Film Festival is the chief hub of speculation and spitballing in the prestige-film racket. As I type this, the blogosphere is already teeming with lists predicting what films will unspool on Croisette in less than two months’ time, from heavyweight Hollywood productions to keenly awaited niche items from international auteurs to far-flung obscurities vying to be the next big festival discovery.

Guessing the Cannes lineup hinges on a mixture of rational deduction — overlapping clues from international distributors, release schedules and past festival loyalties — and blind hope. Some conclusions are reasonably clear-cut: for example, we know that Pedro Almodovar, for once, won’t be headed to the Croisette with “I’m So Excited,” for the simple reason that the film will be out in France in two days’ time.

Others are more provisional: for the sake of our impatience, we hope “Twelve Years a Slave” will be there, but it could as easily be in Venice. And the Cannes selection committee can often throw our (not to mentiopn producers’) hopes off-course: “Brokeback Mountain,” “Vera Drake” and “Wuthering Heights” are examples of films that would have premiered at Cannes… had they not been been rejected by the festival. 

Today’s list, then, is not about such rationalizations: rather, this is my wishlist of the 10 titles I most hope to see when the official Cannes lineup is announced in mid-April. They range from all-but-certain inclusions shakier possibilities, but all have at least a theoretical chance of playing the Croisette — whether in Competition or elsewhere. 

I’ve left out titles that I think are frankly far-fetched: I’d be as thrilled as anyone to see Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity” as early as May, and I’ve seen it included on a number of Cannes projection lists, but everything from its release plan to Cuaron’s history with the Venice Film Festival suggests a later unveiling to me.

Still, even from the list of likelier possibilities, I still struggled to whittle it down to just 10 films: I’m a huge Kelly Reichardt fan, and have my fingers firmly crossed that her Jesse Eisenberg-Dakota Fanning starrer “Night Moves” shows up, but it didn’t quite make the list. I’m greatly looking forward to Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring,” meanwhile, but it didn’t feature either — perhaps, admittedly, because I see its Cannes debut as a fait accompli, so I’m not quite as hungry for it.

Other films I’d be very pleased to see in the lineup include Spike Jonze’s “Her,” Bong Joon-ho’s “Snowpiercer,” Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine,” Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive” and whichever of Terrence Malick’s sudden flurry of projects surfaces first. But these, ultimately, are the 10 films — many o them among my most anticipated of the year, period — that would most make my day. Or, rather, my twelve days at Cannes. Roll on spring.

Check out my picks in the gallery, and feel free to rate the choices as you go along. What are you most hoping will show up in this year’s lineup?

I still look back at Will Smith passing on Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” as a big misstep, especially at this point in his career. No real reason was given at the time and eventually Jamie Foxx took on the role (and nailed it), but in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Smith revealed that it was because the eponymous Django wasn’t central enough to the story.

“Django wasn”t the lead, so it was like, ‘I need to be the lead,'” the star said. “The other character was the lead! I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!””

It’s interesting because for a moment there, Christoph Waltz — the “other character” — was set to be campaigned for awards as a lead alongside Foxx. That would have been great news for Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson, who were brilliant in the movie and deserved more awards love than they got.

Eventually, though, Waltz’s co-lead status was perceived as strong enough to make him pop out from the rest of the cast along the circuit. And in a contentious Best Supporting Actor category that was up for grabs all the way up until the first envelope of Oscar night was opened, Waltz won the prize, his second in four years.

Smith’s is the reasoning of a movie star, obviously. “I need to kill the bad guy” couldn’t be more revealing a thing to say. It’s the kind of logic that leads to him headlining a summer M. Night Shyamalan release rather than an art film that netted two Oscars. But it’s his career, his decision, whether there are those of us who would have liked to see him take a chance on a film like “Django Unchained” or not.

The first thing to keep in mind with The Weinstein Company’s 2013 slate is a penchant for throwing a lot at the wall and waiting to see what sticks. So just because they have a boatload of possibilities this year, from “Fruitvale” to “Lowlife,” “August: Osage County” to “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” that doesn’t immediately mean we should find a place for all of them when taking a stab at guessing next year’s Oscar line-up.

That said, those films and more make for quite a formidable group…on paper, at least. And another film, Olivier Dahan’s “Grace of Monaco,” just landed a latter year release date that will put it right in the thick of the awards discussion.

Weinstein has announced that the Grace Kelly biopic, written by Arash Amel and starring Nicole Kidman as the famed actress-turned-princess, will receive a limited release on December 27. Though curiously enough, that’s not the same November corridor that has yielded big Oscar success for its last three awards heavies, “The King’s Speech,” “The Artist” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” (That spot will go to “August: Osage County.”)

Christmas did work out for a wide bow on Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” which picked up two trophies at the Academy Awards in February. But it hasn’t been a traditionally strong spot to break out Oscar players as of late. The last Best Picture winner to open in December at all was “Million Dollar Baby,” a latter year surprise that unseated fragile frontrunner “The Aviator.”

CAA shopped sizzle reel footage of “Grace of Monaco” around at the Berlinale last month. Weinstein scooped up domestic rights soon after and word of the deal “leaked” on Oscar night.

“More than 30 years after her death, Grace Kelly”s story continues to be one of insurmountable allure and we are so happy Olivier Dahan has brought it new life,” Harvey Weinstein said via press release. “As always, Nicole Kidman”s commanding performance is the perfect portrait of a woman who was not only royalty, but who also remains a legend of the silver screen and fashion icon.”

Tim Roth also stars, as Monaco’s Prince Rainier III, but I imagine plenty of the campaign focus will be on Kidman. Can Harvey nail down a third Best Actress win in as many years? Between Kidman in this and Meryl Streep in “August: Osage County,” odds certainly couldn’t be more favorable.

I know there are a number of you out there who feel that Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis’ brave, unruly stab at “Cloud Atlas” never get the recognition it deserved this past awards season. If it’s any consolation, however, the Germans have shown it some respect. The German-American co-production leads the nominees for this year’s German Academy Awards with nine nods, including Best Film — though the bulk of them, understandably enough, come in the craft categories.

While it should clean up in those races — much like Hollywood outlier “Anonymous” last year — it’d be surprising if the divisive fantasy takes the top award. That seems likelier to go to “Oh Boy,” a sprightly, sensitive black-and-white dramedy chronicling a day in the life of a self-doubting hipster that has been a sleeper hit in its home country.

I saw Jan Ole Gerster’s debut feature last summer at the Karlovy Vary fest and was impressed, noting allusions to Woody Allen and Richard Linklater in “a smart, slippy character study that sends the rarely romanticized city of Berlin one of its most gilded visual valentines since ‘Wings of Desire.'” Do not be at all surprised if Germany submits “Oh Boy” later this year as their Best Foreign Language Film Oscar hopeful. (It was released there in November, so will be eligible.)

Speaking of the foreign-language Oscar, if you’re wondering why 2012 submission “Barbara” isn’t here, that’s because it won the top prize last year. One Oscar entry that is present, however, is Cate Shortland’s brilliant WWII drama “Lore,” an Australian-German co-production submitted by the former country last year — you may recall it making my Top 10 list.

Full list of nominees below: 

Best Film
“Cloud Atlas”
“Hannah Arendt”
“Lore”
“Oh Boy”
“Sources of Life”
“The Wall”

Best Director
Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, “Cloud Atlas” 
Margarethe von Trotta, “Hannah Arendt”
Jan Ole Gerster, “Oh Boy”

Best Actor
Edin Hasanovic, “Shifting the Blame”
Tom Schilling, “Oh Boy”
Sabin Tambrea, “Ludwig II”

Best Actress
Martina Gedeck, “The Wall”
Birgit Minichmayr, “Mercy”
Barbara Sukowa, “Hannah Arendt”

Best Supporting Actor
Michael Gwisdek, “Oh Boy”
Robert Gwisdek, “The Weekend”
Ernst Stotzner, “Home for the Weekend”

Best Supporting Actress
Margarita Broich, “Sources of Life”
Friederike Kempter, “Oh Boy”
Christine Schorn, “Das Leben ist nichts für Feiglinge”

Best Screenplay
“Hannah Arendt”
“Oh Boy”
“Shifting the Blame”

Best Documentary
“The Flat”
“Forget Me Not”
“More Than Honey”

Best Cinematography
“Cloud Atlas”
“Lore”
“Mercy”

Best Editing
“Cloud Atlas”
“More Than Honey”
“Oh Boy”

Best Production Design
“The Adventures of Huck Finn”
“Cloud Atlas”
“Measuring the World”

Best Costume Design
“Cloud Atlas”
“Hannah Arendt”
“Lore”
“Measuring the World”

Best Makeup
“Cloud Atlas”
“Hannah Arendt”
“Sources of Life”

Best Music
“Cloud Atlas”
“Lore”
“Oh Boy”

Best Sound
“Cloud Atlas”
“Forgotten”
“Mercy”
“The Wall”

Best Children’s Film
“Kaddisch für einen Freund”
“Victor and the Secret of Crocodile Mansion”

There was a time, not too long ago, when the Oscars would have taken place on this past weekend. With the season having been mercifully shortened, however, it’s left to Britain’s Empire Awards, as voted by readers of the eponymous movie magazine, to put a bow on things — and with Jameson as their chief sponsor, they make more of a party of it than most.

As you’d expect with a public-voted awards ceremony, it was the biggest hit in UK box office history that emerged victorious, as “Skyfall” took the Best Film prize, as well as Best Director for Sam Mendes. Mendes, who recently ruled himself out of directing the next James Bond entry, was also, perhaps somewhat superfluously, rewarded with an honorary Empire Inspiration Award, which he accepted by paying tribute to his own filmmaking inspirations, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Ingmar Bergman and Martin Scorsese.

Still, not everyone at the ceremony was lavishing Mendes with praise. Helen Mirren, who was there to accept another career achievement honor, the Empire Legend Award, offered some pointed remarks in her speech about Mendes’s all-male list of heroes:

“I don”t want to unduly pick on Sam Mendes, but when he spoke about his inspirations earlier this evening, I”m afraid not a single one of the people he mentioned was a woman … Hopefully in five or ten years, when Sam”s successor is collecting their Inspiration Award, the list will be slightly more balanced in terms of its sexual make-up. In the meantime, this one is for the girls.”

Some might say that’s a bit rich coming from an actress who has made only one film with a female director — Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest” — in 15 years, but the sentiment seems to have been appreciated. The Empire Awards themselves have a tendency to celebrate male-driven blockbusters, so she chose a canny place to make this statement. 

There certainly aren’t a lot of women in the film that fell just behind “Skyfall” as the night’s most celebrated. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” took the Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film award, but more surprising was Martin Freeman’s Best Actor win — in a field that included Daniel Day-Lewis, no less. Jennifer Lawrence, meanwhile, scooped another win for Best Actress — but for “The Hunger Games,” not “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Full list of winners below: 

Best Film: “Skyfall”

Best Director: Sam Mendes, “Skyfall”

Best Actor: Martin Freeman, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games”

Best British Film: “Sightseers”

Best Male Newcomer: Tom Holland, “The Impossible”

Best Female Newcomer: Samantha Barks, “Les Misérables” 

Art of 3D Award: “Dredd 3D”

Best Comedy: “Ted”

Best Thriller: “Headhunters”

Best Horror Film: “The Woman in Black”

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film: “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”

Empire Legend Award: Helen Mirren

Empire Inspiration Award: Sam Mendes

Empire Hero Award: Daniel Radcliffe

Outstanding Contribution Award: Danny Boyle

I’m not seeing “Olympus Has Fallen” until its UK press screening next week, but any blockbuster headlined by Angela Bassett and Melissa Leo as a butt-kicking action duo out to save America from all attackers has my immediate attention. What’s that, you say? It’s actually Gerard Butler in the lead? Well, darn. Anyway, Antoine Fuqua’s latest has received predictably chilly reviews in most quarters, though I see it has its share of intelligent (though perhaps ironic) defenders in the Twitterverse.

Meanwhile, if you don’t fancy seeing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue under siege this weekend, you’ll have another opportunity this summer in the markedly similar-looking “White House Down.” Still, if any of you have ventured out for this round of jingoistic explosions, give us your thoughts in the comments — and feel free to vote in the poll below.

I’ve kept narrowly missing “The Croods” — the latest family adventure from DreamWorks Animation had its world premiere at the Berlinale the morning after I left, while we also never quite managed to meet up at the Miami fest. The design of the whole project, I have to say, has never really drawn me in, and the reviews don’t have me rushing to the multiplex. (I’m also a little wary of the studio’s output right now, having recently caught up with “Rise of the Guardians” on a flight, and… yikes. Good job, Academy.) 

Still, Drew found the film reasonably fetching in his B+ review, and the early box office figures suggest plenty of viewers are being diverted by the prehistoric romp this weekend. Are you among them? Give us your thoughts in the comments, and feel free to vote in the poll below.

When translating a hit stage production to the screen, it seems only right to retain at least some of the talent that made it a success in the first place – and not merely as a good-luck token. That”s a logic that frequently escapes Hollywood, as any number of Broadway ensembles replaced wholesale by bigger names can tell you.

When it came to Tony Briggs”s popular 2005 production “The Sapphires,” however, two cast members remained on board when the Australian musical comedy was translated to the big screen, though neither one in quite the same capacity. But while actress Deborah Mailman simply switched to a different role, Wayne Blair”s reassignment was rather more dramatic: he was selected to direct the film as his debut feature. In contrast to yesterday”s interviewee Chris O”Dowd, who read the script and hopped on board one month before shooting, Blair and Mailman each brought seven years of physical and emotional investment to this heartwarming, fact-based story of a female Aborginal soul quartet chasing the big time against the turmoil of the Vietnam war.

Speaking on the phone from New York, Blair explains that his involvement was the result of being “in the right place at the right time.” “I”m good friends with Tony, the writer,” he adds. “The play had been a sellout and he”d received a number of offers to make it into a film, so when he asked if I”d like to direct, I jumped at it. But I didn”t know when it was going to happen: that was around 2008 or 2009, so it was a bit of snowball effect. We get some money together at Cannes in 2010, and two years later, there we were on the red carpet at the premiere.”

Though he faced all the daunting challenges of any debut feature, Blair believes his background as an actor in the stage show gave him something of an advantage. “Having been in the belly of the beast, and knowing the heart and soul of the project, I guess that did give me a different perspective,” he says. “The screenplay is somewhat different from the stage show, so I knew the essence of the story and how it had grown. So it was a matter of conveying that essence to people who hadn”t been a part of it. And I like to think that going into directing from an acting background gives you a good sense of communication. It”s a bit of a process when you”re dealing with five lead actors every day, all of whom are coming to the story from different places.”

He had an ally, however, in his stage co-star Mailman, who took on the role of The Sapphires” oldest and most fiercely protective member, Gail. The character actress, far more genial and soft-spoken than her feisty character, is also glad of her history with the material: “It was great coming to the film having been in the show – we had a real understanding of what this story, and these roles, demanded. But it”s shifted and expanded so much since those early 2005 performances, so it”s been a real privilege to see the full circle of this story. The journey”s been pretty amazing.”

Aside from practical alterations, including a rejigging of the show”s song list and switching the nationality of the male lead to suit O”Dowd – the character of Dave, the band”s zany but dedicated manager, went through English and Australian incarnations on the page before the Irishman landed the part – Blair explains that the most significant change made from the show was the deepening of the story”s social context. A subplot connecting the girls” family history to the Stolen Generation of indigenous Australians alludes to many years of ingrained racial prejudice in the country, making the achievements of The Sapphires” real-life inspiration all the more remarkable.

“Tony and Keith [Thompson, the film”s co-writer] decided they wanted to address the issue of the Stolen Generation directly in the film, so it definitely has a more political edge than the stage play,” Blair says. “It”s been interesting bringing the film to American audiences: they”ve taken an immediate interest in that angle, noting the correlation between the events in Australia and the civil rights movement. So it”s been great to see people connect to the story that way. More so than in any other country we”ve been to.”

For Mailman, of course, the chief challenge of the screen adaptation was adjusting to a new character: on stage, she”d played stroppy, fame-obsessed younger sister Cynthia, a very different creation from the more pragmatic, mature Gail. “It actually gave me a fresh perspective on all the characters,” she explains.

“Gail anchors the reality of these young girls” world. Because you have these three girls who all want very different things for themselves – Cynthia wants to be famous, Julie just wants to perform, Kay wants to belong – while Gail”s main concern is keeping them together as a family. When I was playing Cynthia I was a fair bit younger myself, but now I”m the mother of two boys, so I connected to Gail”s mama-bear quality.”

Mailman didn”t walk into her role, either – auditions were extensive, as Blair and his team toured the country to find a quartet with just the right chemistry, eventually filling it out with golden-voiced Australian Idol runner-up Jessica Mauboy and new faces Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens. “All the girls did five or six auditions,” the director recalls. “We wanted to unearth new talent, just as the four girls were discovered back in 1968, just by taking a chance. So that process was great in finding out just who these characters were: with that amount of auditions, the girls got to grips with their characters so much more.”

Mailman agrees that the audition period was crucial: “When we eventually got to the pre-production process, when is the director allowed that space for us to really bond together and be sisters? Thanks to the auditions, the relationship you see in the film is very much the relationship you”d have seen on set: we are family.” Blair chips in: “Yeah, we”re getting a bit like the Brady Bunch – we just had our New York premiere last night and all danced together. We”re just wondering when this ride will stop.”

The ride”s taken them pretty far already: in addition to the film”s domestic box-office triumph and sweep of the Australian Academy Awards, Blair was named one of Variety”s 10 International Directors to Watch last year. It”s an unparalleled success for an Australian production from an indigenous filmmaker, and with a substantially indigenous cast. Blair hopes it doesn”t remain so: “There”ve been about six or seven stories written and directed by indigenous filmmakers in the last hundred years, so it”s still a slow process,” he admits.

“Still, several of those have travelled the world – especially at Cannes, which has been something of a second home for indigenous cinema. So if we keep getting chances like these, great things will happen. This is a foot in the door.”

“The Sapphires” opens in US theaters today.

It seems further, as we’re still shaking off the fatigue of the 2012 awards season, but the Cannes Film Festival is less than two months away. Slowly, this year’s edition of the world’s most prestigious film fest is starting to take shape: we have Steven Spielberg installed as the Competition jury president, and we know that Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” will kick off proceedings on the Croisette — though not before it opens Stateside.

The full festival lineup usual only drops around mid-April: look out for my Top 10 gallery on Monday of the film’s we’re most eagerly hoping will be there. In the meantime, however, the festival unveiled this year’s official festival poster — and it’s the most gorgeous one in many a year.

The 2010 poster, featuring Juliette Binoche, raised some grumbles when Binoche went on to win Best Actress at the very same fest — not that the actress’s superb performance in “Certfied Copy” needed any such circumstantial assistance to win over Tim Burton’s jury. Coincidentally or otherwise, however, Cannes has chosen vintage stars as their poster mascots ever since. A young Faye Dunaway graced the 2011 design, while last year, Marilyn Monroe was shown blowing out the candles on the festival’s 65th birthday cake.

They’re continuing that tradition with this year’s poster, which is based on a 50 year-old shot of the late, great Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward in an intimate pose. The original still, from Melville Shavelson’s largely forgotten 1963 romance “A New Kind of Love,” has been remastered and incorporated into a sleek 21st-century design. I want one.

Woodward and Newman, who won Oscars in 1958 and 1987 respectively, both have a history with Cannes. Newman, who passed away five years ago, won Best Actor at the festival in 1958 for “The Long Hot Summer,” and two of his directorial efforts competed for the Palme d’Or: “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” (love that title) in 1972, and “The Glass Menagerie” in 1987. Meanwhile, Woodward, who recently celebrated her 83rd birthday, won Best Actress for the former film.  

Check out the poster below, with an accompanying animated video underneath. What do you think?

I can think of no more perfect visual metaphor for Chris O’Dowd’s booming career these days than his own appearance at last year’s Cannes Film Festival: walking the red carpet for the midnight premiere of Australian musical comedy “The Sapphires,” the 6’3” Irish comedian looked every inch the Hollywood star in a sleekly tailored tux, his unruly mop even combed tidily into place, conforming to the code of an A-list world in which, only a few years ago, he would have been a distinct outsider. Well, almost conforming. Keen-eyed sartorialists would have spotted a flash of yellow just above his polished dress shoes: a dashing pair of bumblebee-striped socks.

O’Dowd’s funky choice of hosiery seems indicative of a career in which his unlikely ascent to the top has come very much on his own terms. From modest beginnings in Irish television to his breakout role in popular UK sitcom “The I.T. Crowd” to his star-making big-screen turn as Kristen Wiig’s love interest in “Bridesmaids” and beyond, the personable, handsome-but-not-Hollywood-handsome actor has attained crossover success with compromising his image, his persona or even his endearing Irish brogue.

Since “Bridesmaids,” his US profile has steadily risen, with supporting roles last year in “This is 40” and “Friends With Kids,” as well as a multi-episode run in red-hot HBO comedy “Girls.” This year, meanwhile, is building on that still further: in May, we’ll see him as the lead in another buzzy HBO show, Christopher Guest’s mock-doc “Family Tree,” while his appearance in superhero sequel “Thor: The Dark World” has only just been announced.

Tomorrow, meanwhile, US viewers will get to see his first big-screen lead role in the aforementioned “The Sapphires,” the loosely fact-based story of a female Aboriginal soul quartet who found fleeting stardom entertaining Vietnam troops in the 1960s. Despite the title, it’s O’Dowd, playing their passionate but alcoholic manager Dave, who’s the star of the show: it’s a forceful comic turn that gives this sweet, sometimes over-sweet, crowdpleaser its true, well, soul. An awards campaign – remember this is a Weinstein Company property – would not be out of order for a performance that reveals his gifts in a project we wouldn’t necessarily expect him to headline.

“It was a bit of a surprise to me too!” he exclaims over the phone from New York – “The city of apples,” he quips dryly – where he’s publicizing the film. “It was just one of those things: the week after ‘Bridesmaids’ came out, I was sent a few scripts and, to be honest, a lot of them were just typical rom-com fare, without the style or quality of a ‘Bridesmaids.’ So I made the decision to go off and do something quite different, maybe get out the country for a bit. And just then I read ‘The Sapphires’ and it jumped out at me – I felt I hadn’t seen that world before, and I love that era of music. And the script was funny, which is rarer than you might imagine.”

Funny as the script was, it still required some tailoring for its quirky leading man: the character as written was Australian, for starters. Luckily, director Wayne Blair and writer Tony Briggs – who penned the stage production on which the film is based – were flexible. “We did make a few changes, to make Dave a bit rougher around the edges: we made him Irish, we gave him a bit of a drinking problem” – he offers an apologetic pause at the cultural stereotyping – “so we gave him something to fight against. I like the ambition of Dave, the way he believes that he can change the world even when he’s staring defeat in the face and living in his car. I relate to that.”

A comic writer in his own right, O’Dowd was also given the freedom to create some of his own riffs for the character, both in advance and on the set: a key early speech, in which Dave explains the emotional link between soul and country music, was written by O’Dowd in the week of shooting. “I wrote a few bits and pieces that I thought would connect things up a bit in the character, and that worked well,” he explains. “And I was lucky enough to be able to improvise in other areas, which is how I like working.”

O’Dowd was pleased to find not only his director up for his irregular approach, but his leading lady too: Australian character actress Deborah Mailman, who plays the flinty mama bear of the girl group, and enjoys a tangy romantic chemistry with O’Dowd. “We just got on so well from the off,” he says fondly. “I’ve been a big fan of her work, which was one of the things that drew me to the film: she’s such a present actress. And because I do improvise a lot, it’s great to work with someone who’s capable of going with you on stuff – even in the middle of quite a dark scene, I’ll suggest that we start dancing, and she’s so responsive and quick off the mark. That was joyful.”

The musical element of “The Sapphires” was another appealing challenge to O’Dowd, who reveals a lusty, appealingly imperfect singing voice in the film. “I don’t think anybody feels as strongly about soul music as Dave does, but I do love it,” he says. “You know as you go through different stages of your life, you listen to varying kinds of music. And as it happens, when the movie came along, I was going through a big Sam Cooke phase – listening especially to his more gospel-y stuff. His album ‘My Gospel Roots’ is one of my favorite albums of all time. And anyone who was 14 or 15 in Ireland when ‘The Commitments’ came out, as I was, will forever be a soul fan.

“And the singing was fun. Soul music is great because it’s not necessarily about being the most melodic singer in the world – this isn’t Michael Bolton territory. Sing with your heart and it doesn’t really matter.” So he sold it on sheer force of personality? “Yep,” he says modestly. “That’s what I’m building a whole career on!”

He’s only half-joking. O’Dowd knows he doesn’t look or sound much like a leading man in the classical sense, but he sees that as an asset in the industry these days. He’s not wrong: just ask the many women (and men) who swooned to his klutzy, down-to-earth charms as a lovelorn police officer in “Bridesmaids.”

“I try not to think that I’m playing a romantic lead,” he says of his roles in that and “The Sapphires.” “That’s the curse. When you watch those kind of movies, you can tell when an actor is thinking, ‘Oh, here comes the close-up, I’m going to do my sexy face.’ And we’re past all that: women don’t even like that kind of glossed-over bullshit anymore. The shows and films that are popular now are much more honest stuff: look at ‘Girls.’ There’s a kind of brutality, a bit more truth, in the way we enjoy things now. You can be a chubby, dishevelled leading man these days. If you want a Ken doll, go to a fucking toy shop.”

O’Dowd claims not to have expected, or even planned for, his newfound US success: the luck of the Irish, he says, is very much on his side. He laughs: “I promise you I’m as shocked as anyone at the way things are going for me right now, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.”

Which is not to say he found himself across the pond entirely by accident: when the actor felt he’d hit something of a ceiling in the UK, and with “The I.T. Crowd” – which also launched the career of actor-filmmaker Richard Ayoade – he decided to give the land of opportunity a whirl. “There was a tipping point, sure,” he says. “The British film industry is hard, and for whatever reason, when you succeed in TV comedy in the UK, it doesn’t necessarily translate to film projects the way it does here in the US. It’s almost like they’re two completely different identities, and the TV comedy stuff isn’t appreciated by people who make arty period movies, which are abundant in Britain.

“So I felt I needed to move out to keep things moving forward. I could have done another sitcom at home, but what would be the point? I love the one that we did. So it got to a point where I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll go give it a try over there,’ but I didn’t realize it would work out so well. I was just hoping for it to get a bit better. And then it got a lot better.”

O’Dowd fully subscribes to the popular maxim that we’re in a golden age for television right now, which is why he has no intention of leaving the small screen behind, even as his film career takes flight. On top of “Girls” and “Family Tree,” he’s the creator and co-writer of oddball Irish sitcom “Moone Boy,” in which he plays the imaginary friend of its misfit pre-teen protagonist. (Imagine Hobbes in human form, and you’re halfway there.) it’s found a cult following in his homeland and in the UK, and he’s in the middle of writing the second series, which shoots in the summer. He’ll also take his first stab at directing a few episodes, and says he intends to spends more time behind the camera as his career moves forward.

“It’s true to some extent in Britain, but in America in particular, the movement between TV and film is just so much more fluid now,” he says excitedly. “I think 10 years ago or so, when more big-name Hollywood actors started making TV shows, it made a big difference. You know, when the Alec Baldwins and Martin Sheens of the world moved over, it showed audiences and the industry that you can come and go.”

Having established himself as a comic force to be reckoned with in both media, does he have much interest in pursuing more dramatic projects? It’s a route he’s taken before – among his early roles is a brief turn in Mike Leigh’s “Vera Drake” – and intends to take again, though he confesses to being “not that bothered” about it.

“I don’t know why there is this fascination with comedians ‘going serious,’” he continues. “I believe there’s drama in the comedy that we do. And a lot of range, too: there’s a world of difference between a punchline or gag-based show like ‘The I.T. Crowd’ or more honest, character-related stuff like ‘Girls.’ And then ‘Family Tree’ is a whole different thing again. So there’s already a lot of movement in the genre. You don’t have to abandon it for something where you get to cry a lot.

“I wonder whether great dramatic actors are often asked when they’re going to do a comedy – not as often, I suspect, and that’s a bit of a shame. I know from experience that comedy is a lot harder. I’ll do a drama if something good comes up, but not for the sake of doing one, you know?”

Spoken like a star with his feet on the ground. In bumblebee socks.

UPDATE: As you may have heard by now, Jude Law — himself a recent addition to the cast — has now followed Ramsay to the exit, having signed on to work with her and not another director. After Michael Fassbender, he’s the second major star to abandon the project in the last week. “Jane” may have a gun, but she can’t catch a break.

PREVIOUSLY: Okay, so “Jane” is no longer a calamity. One day after gifted Scottish director Lynne Ramsay shockingly pulled out of Natalie Portman-starring Western “Jane Got a Gun” on the very first day of shooting, her replacement has already been drafted: Gavin O’Connor, the sturdy multi-hyphenate whose films include “Tumbleweeds,” “Pride and Glory” and, most recently, “Warrior.” With O’Connor on board, shooting will get under way tomorrow. No time to waste.

It’s a smart choice, in my opinion. O’Connor is a solid, sensible craftsman who began in the independent realm and has since brought that sensibility to more mainstream projects. His 1999 breakthrough feature “Tumbleweeds,” a mother-daughter dramedy which earned British actress Janet McTeer an Oscar nomination, remains an underseen gem, and while his studio-backed follow-ups “Miracle” and “Pride and Glory” lacked that film’s spark and character, they were respectable, well-acted efforts.

It all came together two years ago on “Warrior,” a muscular, moving sports drama with brilliant work from Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton (plus an Oscar-nominated Nick Nolte) that didn’t deserve its grim commercial fate. Financial disappointment notwithstanding, it was the kind of critically acclaimed, audience-friendly project that should have edged him up the pecking order for A-list projects: here’s the first of them, though there are several others in the pipeline.

Granted, O’Connor isn’t as singular or as sensuous a stylist as Ramsay — though that, if anything, is an advantage when boarding a project that has until only a few days ago been another director’s vision. Better still, he’s a notably efficient filmmaker, and they’ll certainly be glad of that, given the stressful start to the shoot. It’ll be interesting to see O’Connor return to a female-led project so many years after “Tumbleweeds,” especially given that his last few projects have been so testosterone-charged — as such, directing Portman in a traditionally male-dominated genre plays to his strengths in multiple ways.

It’s as happy an outcome as we could have hoped for to a potentially disastrous situation — kudos to Scott Steindorff and his fellow producers (including Portman herself) for keeping it together.

I remain bitterly disappointed over Ramsay, whom I think is one of the most exciting filmmakers at work today, and for whom “Jane” represented a major opportunity. Hopefully, we’ll hear her side of the story in due course. More hopefully still, this unfortunate situation won’t ensure the wait for her next feature is as long (or longer) than the painful nine years that separated “Morvern Callar” and “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” Perhaps she didn’t have the temperament for this kind of production, though this story has prompted rather too much wild projection in the blogosphere for my liking.

Anyway, roll on “Jane” — a project about which we remain hugely excited, and not just because it’s written by former In Contention contributor Brian Duffield. If you missed the story yesterday, Kris has all the details.

We don’t normally cover small-screen fare here at In Contention, but when the show in question is the creation of Christopher Guest, exceptions should be made. Guest, whose irreverent brand of mock-doc comedy includes such films as “This is Spinal Tap” and “Best in Show,” is by no means a newcomer to TV — among many other achievements, he was on the “Saturday Night Live” team way back when, and recently directed a failed pilot for a US spin on Britain’s cult political satire “The Thick of It.”

The British connection — Guest holds a British peerage, after all — continues in his latest project, “Family Tree,” a mockumentary sitcom played in Guest’s customary semi-improvised fashion. Irish comedian Chris O’Dowd headlines as a regular bloke from across the pond who, after losing both his job and his girlfriend, determines to find himself by tracing his family in the US. Guest evidently has the current vogue for genealogy (as evident in such popular shows as “Who Do You Think You Are?”) in his satirical sights.

O’Dowd, of course, is swiftly making a name for himsel in film and television following his breakout performance in “Bridesmaids” two years ago: his TV roster also includes “Girls” and his own UK sitcom “Moone Boy,” and his delightful lead turn in Australian musical comedy “The Sapphires” finally hits US screens on Friday. Look out for my interview with him later this week.

“Family Tree” premieres on HBO in May (and on BBC Two in the UK). Check out the teaser trailer below. Will you be watching?

Chalk this up as some instantly legendary Hollywood news. Lynne Ramsay has no-showed Natalie Portman western “Jane Got a Gun” on day one of shooting out in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As Mike Fleming writes in his exclusive report, directors leaving production is hardly unheard of, but not showing up on the very first day is a bit, uh, unique.

Apparently everyone – cast, crew, etc. – is still down there and the producers are scrambling to get another director on board ASAP. I’m bummed out, though, because Ramsay seemed like a great fit for this material. The script was written by Brian Duffield (who, full disclosure, formerly contributed to In Contention) and it’s a stripped down example in the genre, but special given the strength of its female protagonist. That’s why I always thought Ramsay was quite the get.

Not only that but, as you’ve heard from me before, I’m desperate to see the western succeed again. Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” breathed some more life into it last year, after the Coen brothers did the same with “True Grit” in 2010. And I’m scared to death of “The Lone Ranger,” expensive as hell right around the corner and threatening to stall the genre if it bombs as a result of that price tag.

Who knows what’s really going on here. Ramsay can be quite the firecracker. Did she just oversleep? (Kidding.) Calling all of this “an irresponsible act by one person,” producer Scott Steindorff tells Fleming, “I have millions of dollars invested, we”re ready to shoot, we have a great script, crew and cast. I”m shocked and so disappointed someone would do this to 150 crew members who devoted so much time, energy, commitment and loyalty to a project, and then have the director not show up. It is insane somebody would do this to other people. I feel more for the crew and their families, but we are keeping the show going on, directors are flying in, and a replacement is imminent.”

Of course, that’s one side of the story, expertly handed to Deadline for the purposes of publicizing it. But it’s a big moment. And it could be a bad one for Ramsay if it gets her blacklisted in any way as a result. Of course, she’s always marched to the beat of her own drummer. Nevertheless, I imagine more about this story will out some day, perhaps sooner than later.

Portman is set to star alongside Jude Law and Joel Edgerton in the film, if and when it gets back up and running.

Okay, it’s insane enough to be thinking of this year’s potential Oscar contenders, but here’s one gourmet prospect to chalk up for next year. Though still in pre-production, Mike Leigh’s long-fostered passion project, a currently untitled biopic of eminent British painter J.M.W. Turner, has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. (If my headline had you thinking he’d remade “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” I’ll presume you’re unfamiliar with Leigh’s work.)  

It will be Leigh’s second straight film to be distributed by Sony’s distinguished arthouse arm, which also guided his acclaimed character drama “Another Year” in 2010 — though that one they only picked up after its well-received Cannes premiere. It was evidently a happy match: Sony steered “Another Year” to a Best Original Screenplay nomination for the veteran writer-director (his fifth in that category, and his seventh overall), and are sure to have lofty ambitions for this prestige project.

The Turner film, which enters production in the spring, will be Leigh’s first non-fiction project since 1999’s Gilbert & Sullivan biopic “Topsy-Turvy,” also an historical study of leading figures in the British arts — and also the only Leigh films ever to take home an Oscar. (Two, in fact: for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup, while Leigh scored his second writing nod.)

Timothy Spall, a former Leigh regular who hasn’t worked with the director since 2002’s “All or Nothing,” will take the role of Turner; the supporting cast hasn’t been revealed yet, though we can surely expect Leigh’s usual assortment of fine British character actors. Georgina Lowe, a co-producer on several Leigh features who took the reins on “Another Year” following the passing of the esteemed Simon Channing Williams, is once more doing the honors.

Leigh’s longstanding cinematographer Dick Pope (a 2006 Oscar nominee for a non-Leigh assignment, “The Illusionist”) is on board; costumes for the 19th-century period piece will be designed by Jacqueline Durran, another of the director’s regular collaborators, who recently won her first Oscar for her spectacular work on “Anna Karenina.”

It is not yet known which period of Turner’s life the film will focus on, though the casting off Spall suggests the focus will be on his later life, which is rich in dramatic potential: the celebrated artist grew increasingly isolated and prone to depression following the death of his father, whom he regarded as his closest friend. Leigh explains his fascination with the man as follows:

“Turner as a character is compelling. I want to explore the man, his working life, his relationships and how he lived. But what fascinates me most is the drama that lies in the tension between this driven eccentric and the epic, timeless world he evoked in his masterpieces. I also see rich tragic-comic potential in his often turbulent relationship with the English Art Establishment, especially in his later years, when his increasingly radical work was misunderstood and derided.”

The crotchety Brit, who recently turned 70, has never wholly struck out with a film, and given his level of personal investment in this strong material — he’s been speaking of his desire to make the film for many years now — critics will be expecting pretty major Leigh from this one. A major 2014 festival premiere — Cannes or Venice, at both of which he’s previously taken the top prize — is on the cards. Whether it’s the film that can change his eternal bridesmaid status with the Academy is another question, but it’s certainly about time.

By his admittedly scarce standards, Terrence Malick is a positive ball of energy these days. I admit I’ve lost track of his three projects currently in various stages of production — a sentence that would once have been only slightly less absurd than calling the sky green — but his US devotees still have “To the Wonder” to look forward to next month. (Unusually, it opened in the UK a month ago.) The director has fewer critics on his side than usual with this one, but I was a fan at Venice, and remain one.

If you’re in the group left disappointed or even dismayed by “Wonder,” however, you may have more time for Malick’s latest gig: a guest curator at the Philbrook Museum of Art in his current home state of Oklahoma.

Malick has selected four films to screen in July as part of the Tulsa museum’s Films on the Lawn series. There’s nothing in the press release to suggest his involvement goes any further — it’s hard to imagine the reclusive director making extensive public presentations, after all — but the refreshingly non-obvious quartet of films couldn’t have been chosen by anyone else.

In the order they’ll be screened (on consecutive Fridays), they are: John Huston’s “Beat the Devil” (1953), Preston Sturges’s “The Lady Eve” (1941), Ben Stiller’s “Zoolander” (2001) and Malick’s own “Badlands” (1973), the 40th anniversary of which will be marked by the screening.

Of the three non-Malick titles, only “The Lady Eve” is something of a canon choice, and even then, Sturges’s still-sparkling romantic farce isn’t necessarily the first title you’d expect Malick to pick. (I myself considered it heavily when drawing up my own all-time top 10 for Sight & Sound last year.)

Still, despite none of his films even fleetingly resembling a comedy, Malick evidently holds the genre in very high regard: the inclusion of Stiller’s loopy fashion-world satire “Zoolander” may shock some, but he’s spoken before of his love for the film, which he allegedly rewatches on a regular basis. (Again, Malick and I are simpatico on this: I included “Zoolander” in my top 50 of the decade list a few years back.)

“Beat the Devil,” yet another comedy pick, is perhaps the biggest curveball on the roster. Co-written by Truman Capota, Huston’s dryly ironic tale of gold-digging (or rather uranium-digging) fortune hunters headed for Africa was widely by critics (as well as its own star, Humphrey Bogart) upon its release, but continues to build a cult following. This won’t hurt it any.

Meanwhilee, it’d be interesting to know if Malick chose “Badlands” purely because of the anniversary connection, or if he actually favored his lean, mean debut over his other, more expansive films. I guess we shouldn’t expect much in the way of explanations, though. Museum director Rand Suffolk offered his own brief statement: “This collaboration lends a personal touch to our popular series. And what films are more personal than those of Terrence Malick?”

Will any of you be in Tulsa to check out Malick’s selections on the big screen? What do you make of his choices? And which Malick would you choose to show in a museum? Tell us in the comments.

I’ve offered up my defense of Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers,” a hypnotic depiction of the disenchantment of youth and a state-of-mind film that gets more right than it doesn’t. Pity, though, that there are those seemingly willing to make an opinion without diving into the film. But I guess from the outside, I can understand why this one smells a certain way to a certain type.

“It’s a rather potent study of ‘spring break’ as a state of mind, the desperate race for greener pastures that grows like a fungus in small town America,” I wrote of the film on Thursday before planting a flag for James Franco’s awards hopes. But whether this one finds that kind of rhythm at the end of the year or not (likely not), I’m happy with considering it one of the year’s best films so far. But I want to know what everyone else thinks, because I anticipate even more varied reactions as it makes its way to the public. So when and if you get the chance to see the film this weekend or when it expands wider next week, give us your thoughts in the comments section, and feel free to vote in the poll below.

Despite the lows of late, I’m a big Jim Carrey fan. So I’ll probably go see “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” at some point this week, even if the reviews are pretty dreadful. “The good things in the film are more frustrating because the film never finds a way to tie it all together, thematically or tonally, ” HitFix’s Drew McWeeny wrote in his review. “That would have been a magic trick worth applauding if they had.”

I imagine a fair amount of the readership is going to give it a whirl this weekend, so as always, we have a space for you to tell us what you thought. Is it a nice dose of comedy abracadabra or a total con? Rifle off your take in the comments section, and feel free to vote in our poll below.

When veteran producer Richard D. Zanuck passed away last year at the age of 77, Hollywood lost a long-serving mover and shaker. In a career spanning over half a decade, he headed 20th Century-Fox in the 1960s (greenlighting “The Sound of Music,” among others), shepherded Steven Spielberg’s first features to the screen (including “Jaws,” for which Zanuck received his first Oscar nod), won the Oscar for “Driving Miss Daisy,” produced the Academy Awards himself and collaborated with directors including Tim Burton, Ron Howard, Clint Eastwood, Sidney Lumet and William Friedkin. 

Meanwhile, as the son of legendary producer Darryl F. Zanuck — who produced over 200 features in his time, including such classics as “All About Eve” and “The Grapes of Wrath” — Zanuck was a rare working link to authentic Old Hollywood royalty. No surprise, then, that TCM should choose to celebrate his life and career in a new original documentary.

“Don’t Say No Until I Finish Talking: The Story of Richard D. Zanuck” will premiere next month at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, before having its TV premiere on the channel on May 8. The director, Laurent Bouzereau, is well-versed in making-of documentaries, and has done many a behind-the-scenes feature on Steven Spielberg’s work; Spielberg himself, meanwhile, acts as an executive producer.

Spielberg, of course, also features on the documentary’s all-star list of talking heads, which includes directors Howard, Eastwood, Burton and Friedkin, fellow producers like Sherry Lansing and Tom Rothman, and A-list stars ranging from Johnny Depp to Michelle Pfeiffer. That’s in addition, of course, to extensive interview footage with Zanuck himself. Remembrances of his father — who hired Zanuck for the Fox position at a young age, only to fire him after a series of late-60s musical flops — will be on the agenda. 

Says Bouzereau: “Dick Zanuck humanized what it is to be a producer. When he passed away, it was not a page of Hollywood history that was turned, it was an entire volume that was closed.”  

The film’s TV premiere on TCM, meanwhile, will be followed by airings of three of Zanuck’s most significant films. “Cocoon” and “Driving Miss Daisy” don’t exactly need the extra exposure, but it’s nice to see Zanuck’s first film as a producer, the 1959 thriller “Compulsion,” in the mix: a taut, thinly disguised adaptation of the infamous Leopold-Loeb murder case that arguably holds up better than Hitchcock’s earlier, comparable “Rope,” it’s worth seeing for a number of reasons — not least the performances of Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillmann and Orson Welles, who jointly won Best Actor at Cannes. Cosier mainstream fare would dominate Zanuck’s producing output, so it’s nice to see TCM reflecting the range of his work and influence.