Have we featured this yet? My mind is Jello. Great looks at some of the sets put together for what will surely be a design spectacle:
Blog
-
‘Betty’ now ‘Conviction,’ TWC nabs ‘Miral’
Apologies for the two week dry spell. I thought I’d be able to update along the way as I trekked out to Ohio to play meet the parents (which, thankfully, couldn’t have gone better), but alas, quick stops in hotels and 10 hour driving days made that much more difficult than I thought it would.Anyway, I’m back in pocket now with a (relatively) cleared out schedule for the rest of the summer. Nothing much is happening on the western front besides the Seattle film fest. Chad is out of town for the moment and couldn’t put up the box office columns, but it appears “Shrek Forever After” took the top spot for a third-straight week. I don’t imagine anyone has much to say about that, in any case.
Two nuggets dropped today, however. The first involves Julian Schnabel’s “Miral,” which is a heavily anticipated, potential Oscar title for many readers and could be a play for “The Visitor” breakout Hiam Abbas. The Weinstein Company has acquired domestic distribution rights, adding to a stable that already includes Sundance titles “Blue Valentine” and “The Company Men,” as well as “The King’s Speech” and UK hit “Nowhere Boy,” among others. It’ll be interesting to see how that very Sony Classics-esque slate is handled during the season.
-
BAFTA win for Rebecca Hall
I wouldn’t ordinarily mention the BAFTA Television Awards — generally treated as the ugly sister of February’s film awards ceremony — which were dished out in London tonight, but one win in particular strikes me as worth noting.You know by now that I’m a great admirer of Julian Jarrold’s “Red Riding: 1974,” which was released theatrically in the U.S. a few months back, and of Rebecca Hall’s remarkable performance in it. Hall just won a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress BAFTA, and since it’s almost certainly the only awards hardware she’ll end up taking for her work, I thought it worth celebrating. (The whole series, incidentally, did less well than one might have expected, taking only two other craft trophies for cinematography and costume design.)
Other film-related wins include Samantha Morton’s strong directorial debut “The Unloved” — also treated as a theatrical feature outside the UK — for Best Single Drama, and a triple trophy haul for “The Thick of It,” the sitcom that mothered 2009 Oscar nominee “In the Loop.” Huzzahs all round. Full list of winners here, if you’re interested.
-
Howard’s ‘Airbender’ score hits iTunes
When I took my initial stab at the 2010 Oscar forecast a few weeks back, I went out on a limb in a few places for M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender,” which I’ve frequently said could be a disaster or something really special. One of those limbs was Best Original Score, as James Newton Howard could potentially land his sixth nomination in the category.Howard has lately become a perennial favorite with the Oscars. His most recent nominations came for “Defiance” (a film that didn’t do well in other categories) and “Michael Clayton” (for a score few could remember when his name popped up on nomination morning). And let’s not forget his saving grace work in “The Village,” which was also recognized.
His score for “The Last Airbender” has already been released via iTunes for a $9.99 download, and it’s packed with all of Howard’s usual percussive intensity and has just the right touch of epic strokes to perhaps be recognized come year’s end. Additionally, a rave review of the work has already popped up online.
-
Nolan breathes something about ‘Dark Knight’ sequel
It’s not much, nor would it be. Nolan offers his stand-by “I work on one film at a time” line, but the meat of what he says in a forthcoming Empire magazine interview:“[The third film will be] the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story.”
And:
“No, [the Joker will not return or be recast]. I just don’t feel comfortable about it.”
That ought to get a few foaming-at-the-mouth fans through the next month or so. In the same interview Nolan goes on to talk about adopting Superman to a “modern context” and his position that cross-over mentality goes against the grain of what Superman and Batman are all about. Coming Soon has tons of quotes from the article, which isn’t online right now.
-
UK poster and trailer for ‘White Material’
Yes, I’m still pimping this. The runaway best film of 2010 (or 2009, depending on when you saw it) finally drops in the UK on July 2 — I’m already itching for another look. The trailer, after the cut, is much the same as the French one I featured in March, with the addition of subtitles and a choice Brit critic’s quote. (The quality is iffy, I’m afraid, but it’s the only link I could find.)
American readers, IFC is looking after you, but no release date is scheduled yet.
-
PAGE TO SCREEN: “Brighton Rock” by Graham Greene
Welcome to 2010’s first installment of Page to Screen, our summer series in which I spotlight the source material behind some of the year’s most notable forthcoming adaptations.After a spectacularly prescient 2009 season – in which I blew my load over “Chéri,” largely dismissed the awards potential of “Up in the Air” and didn’t even notice “A Single Man” hovering in the wings – I’m all set to further prove the vast creative chasm that can lie between paper and celluloid, amplified by the fact that this year presently looks shorter on prestige literary adaptations than most.
When in doubt, however, it is best to begin with a classic – and if there are many 2010 titles adapted from classier sources than Graham Greene’s 1938 novel “Brighton Rock,” I am not yet aware of them.
“An Entertainment” is the rather perverse subtitle Greene attached to his novel on its initial publication, thus distinguishing it from what he regarded as more serious literary output; he could be as snootily blasé about his own oeuvre as a studio-dabbling auteur. Certainly, the descriptor isn’t unmerited: “Brighton Rock” is a tight, terse little underworld thriller, easily devoured in a single day of reading, with a blatant view, even then, toward the mainstream movie-house.
-
MONDAY CENTS: Uh-oh
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.The number one movie over the long Memorial Day weekend is “Shrek Forever After” with $55.7 million. That’s the lowest amount for a chart-topping film over Memorial Day since “Casper” in 1995. While Paramount will be delighted to hold on to the top spot and claim a morale boosting 39% dip for the jolly green giant, it won’t mask the fact that this weekend was kind of a disaster for studios and theater owners.
Dropping 39% over the three days and only 21% is a sorely needed win for “Shrek Forever After.” That gives it much better legs than the last installment and saves it from recording an embarrassing total. When it’s all said and done, it will still be the lowest grossing film in the franchise, but it will handily pass “How to Train Your Dragon” at least.
The runner-up spot is a toss up. “Sex and the City 2” claimed it on the three day weekend, but estimates have “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” overtaking it for the four day. But let’s start with the lovely ladies. Carrie Bradshaw and company started on Thursday with $14.3 million, as previously reported. For a Thursday, that was fine as long as the Friday saw a significant uptick. But it didn’t.
-
Del Toro hobbles ‘Hobbit’
You’ve probably heard the news by now, but in case you haven’t, here’s a précis via Variety:Guillermo Del Toro has dropped out directing “The Hobbit” movies due to the ongoing delays in getting the films greenlit. Del Toro made the surprise announcement Sunday on The One Ring web site, adding that he will continue to co-write the screenplays based on J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.”
“It’s not greenlit,” he told reporters. “That’s categorical. We’ve been caught in a very tangled negotiation. There cannot be any start dates until the MGM situation gets resolved. They do hold a considerable portion of the rights.”
I appear to be the only — well, maybe not the only — person on the internet not crushed by this news, so feel free to vent and speculate in the comments. Who would you like to see take up the reins? I hear rumors it’s a close-run thing between Béla Tarr and Brett Ratner.
-
Jennifer Lawrence would like to remind you she’s hot
Assuming (and I am assuming) that the film remains in the conversation, Kris and I will be at loggerheads all season over “Winter’s Bone” — I am a fan, he is emphatically not. What we do agree on, however, is that the film’s 19-year-old star, Jennifer Lawrence, is the real deal.Actually, we agreed on this point a year ago, when Lawrence emerged as the standout of a strong ensemble in Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain.” The film went largely unseen, but those who did get round to it were consequently less surprised than everyone else by the actress’s remarkable, film-carrying turn in this year’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize champ.
Back in February, in a published conversation with The Film Experience’s Nathaniel Rogers, I unwisely put my neck on the block by predicting a 2010 Best Actress Oscar nomination for Lawrence — and while the market for female Oscar contenders in bleak indies is already getting crowded, what with Lesley Manville and Michelle Williams in the mix, I’m sticking by that still-premature call. As I wrote to Nathaniel then: “[I]t’s such a mammoth performance, plus she’s young and hot.”
-
R.I.P. Dennis Hopper
“What are they gonna say about him? Are they gonna say he was a kind man? He was wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom?”
It’s up to those of us left to have that say, I suppose. He’ll live forever. Ride easy.
-
On the move
Sorry for the post-Cannes drought on my end. I’m en route from Chicago to Nowheresville, Ohio after a rockin’ Route 66 road trip and will be playing meet the parents this weekend. Understandably, I’m out of pocket. So use this space to talk about, I don’t know, “Shrek?” “Prince of Persia?” All I know is I tried to watch “Alice in Wonderland” at the hotel last night and still can’t get the taste out of my mouth…
-
FRIDAY FORECAST: Disrespect the Middle East edition
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.There’s a mild controversy every time a “Sex and the City” movie comes out where it is mercilessly trashed for existing by male critics who, the accusation goes, often let comparable trash starring men get off easy. Well, you all know that I can not be labeled one who lets any trash off easy so I have free reign to say that anyone who looks up to the women in this movie is probably a terrible person and I weep for humanity that this will be another big hit for Warner Bros.
“Sex and the City 2” has already opened and earned $14.2 million yesterday. Is that good? Yes. Is it great? No. The first film made $29.6 million on its opening day, albeit being a regular Friday and then dropped drastically to record a weekend tally of $63.2 million. As far as opening days being front-loaded in a weekend, “Sex and the City” is one of the top 15 worst offenders ever and sequels tend to be even worse. But since it’s just a Thursday, no need to panic yet.
I suspect the film will pick up slightly to around $18 million on Friday and then record around $45 million for the weekend, before adding another cool $8 or $9 million on Monday. All told that will be close to $70 million in five days and set the film up for a profitable run. For some reason, the original was enormous overseas and that should again be the case. But seriously ladies, have some self respect and put your considerable weight (bad choice of word?) as a consumer behind something that doesn’t make you look like a worthless idiot.
-
INTERVIEW: ‘Father of My Children’ director Mia Hansen-Løve
As film critics continue to pick over the spoils of Cannes 2010, for regular cinemagoers, it can take an awfully long time for the movies in question to trickle down to them.Case in point: Mia Hansen-Løve’s remarkable sophomore feature “Father of My Children,” which impressed critics and won a special jury prize in the Un Certain Regard strand a year ago, but is only now wending its way to U.S. theaters. It opened last week in Los Angeles; tomorrow, New Yorkers get to lay eyes on it.
They’ll find it worth the wait. “Father of My Children,” which I reviewed out of the London Film Festival last October, is a marvelously mutable, personal study of family and film, beginning as a story about one thing and ending as quite another. Reviews and marketing materials may make it difficult to remain innocent of a key mid-film development — not a “twist” by any means, but a turn that entirely shifts and deepens the focus of the narrative — that floored me on my first encounter with the film. (I’ve done my best to keep it wrapped, but will insert a spoiler alert anyway.)
This much I can tell you: the film is inspired by, and ultimately something of a tribute to, the late Humbert Balsan, a prolific French film producer and renowned champion of the arthouse. Before his premature death in 2005, he shepherded works by the likes of Lars von Trier, Claire Denis, James Ivory and Béla Tarr, but also acted as mentor to rising talents — the young Hansen-Løve, then an aspiring filmmaker and sometime Cahiers du Cinéma critic, among them.
-
LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1949 and 1950
Catch up with the idea behind this series here.“All the King’s Men” won the Best Picture prize in 1949, appropriately closing the book on the decade of socially conscious dramas hogging all of the attention. Somewhere, an eight year old Mike Medavoy sat in a dark theater watching and said, “I’m gonna grow up and produce a lifeless remake of this film. That’s what I’ll do.”
The 1950’s were kicked off with “All About Eve” earning a record breaking 14 nominations and narrowly pipping “Sunset Boulevard” to the top prize. Again, the selection was appropriate as the two show business stories represented the new decade that would be considered a new “Golden Age of Hollywood”. As per usual, the Academy couldn’t fit all of the masterpieces into one show so the following missed the cut but are worthy of your time.
1949 – “Jour de Fête” (Jacques Tati)
Jacques Tati’s first feature came four years before his international breakthrough, “Mr. Hulot’s Holiday,” and doesn’t feature that titular character that would become his trademark, but it does feature all of the great things you would expect from a Tati comedy. Chiefly, that entails a lovable protagonist bumbling through his day to day life oblivious to the changing world around him and the effects his interactions have on it.
-
CANNES: Starfish and coffee
“Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye,” you might have thought (or even sang, in gravelly Leonard Cohen tones) after my rushed response to yesterday’s Cannes winners. But having recharged overnight with a hearty curry and a good 13 hours’ sleep, it’s time to properly put a bow on Cannes 2010.Perhaps it was quite a Tim Burton-flavored festival after all. Jury presidents at Cannes often seem at pains to choose the last film anyone would associate with their own work — which is partly why I picked the sober ecclesiastical drama “Of Gods and Men” for the Palme — but Burton and his cohorts swung in a quirkier direction. “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” which I flippantly likened to a parallel-universe take on Burton’s own “Big Fish,” becomes the first fantasy film (of a type) to take gold at Cannes since “Miracle in Milan” almost 60 years ago. (More surprisingly, it’s also first Asian winner since 1997.)
I wish I could personally groove to the film the way almost everyone else does (my C+ grade sticks out like a sore thumb on indieWIRE’s critic score roundup) but objectively speaking, it’s the best choice Team Burton could have made for the Palme: the undisputed critical favorite of the festival, a wholly unique, challenging piece from a distinctive major auteur, and a film that can truly benefit from the award in securing international distribution that could prove elusive otherwise. Plus, it won me £50 on a Palme bet I made weeks before the fest started. I’m liking the film more already.
-
OFF THE CARPET: Taking the temperature
Now that we’re on the other side of Cannes, I felt it was a good time to put a finger to the wind, stare into the tea leaves, shake the magic 8-ball and basically just take stock of where we’re at roughly three months away from the start of the 2010-2011 film awards season.The festival, covered diligently by Guy Lodge around these parts (we thank him), brought little to write home about where Oscar potential is concerned. The truth is, it rarely does. But as the year takes shape, things start to linger. A film like “Inglourious Basterds” can transform muted if appreciative response on the Croisette into a foaming-at-the-mouth bid for a surprise upset in just a few months’ time.
The big narrative stand-outs for most were Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful” and Mike Leigh’s “Another Year.” Perhaps the latter has an easier Oscar path ahead, given that it was more unanimously accepted and could ultimately be a soft lob for Academy types. Sony Pictures Classics swooped in and nailed down domestic distribution, so I think we’re looking at a bona fide Best Picture nominee to go along with likely bids for Best Actress (Lesley Manville) and the usual expected tip of the hat from Leigh’s fellow screenwriters. Maybe even a Best Director nod, too. And yet the film didn’t win a single festival prize. See how this works?