In Contention

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  • ‘Winter’s Bone’ trailer and poster

    I caught Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” just after Sundance and have little to say about it, really.  In some ways it’s distilled backwoods platitude, but no one can argue against Jennifer Lawrence’s considerable talent (a bandwagon I’ve been on since Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain”).  Still, as I Tweeted recently, I’ll be confused when those who dismissed “Precious” as cliché rally around this as profound.

    Anyway, a lovely new poster has been released.  Check it out below, along with the new trailer after the jump.

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  • Condon reaches out to ‘Twilight’ nation

    I didn’t expect back-to-back posts concerning Bill Condon today, but anyway, one of the more unexpected developments over the last few months was Condon signing on to direct “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn,” the final installment in the fan-heavy “Twilight” series.

    I thought it was totally left-field, given the direction his career has taken since the days of “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh,” but with HBO’s Hollywood blogger send-up “Tilda” going into production any day, and the Marlon Wayons-starring biopic “Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?” still on deck, it’s rather clear Condon isn’t interested in pigeonholing himself or his career.

    Thinking of it in those terms, I’m game.  Maybe it’ll be the first film from the series I actually watch.

    Meanwhile, /Film (via Thompson on Hollywood) dug up an interesting nugget in all of this, being Condon’s open letter to TwiHards (or TwiTards, depending on your opinion of the series, I suppose).  Check out what the Oscar-winner had to say after the jump.

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  • R.I.P. Lynn Redgrave

    I always thought Lynn Redgrave deserved the Oscar 12 years ago for her work in Bill Condon’s “Gods and Monsters.” Most remember her from her first nominated effort, 1966’s “Georgy Girl.” Redgrave has left this mortal coil.  I tried to find a clip of Condon’s film but this NYT Conversations snippet will do, a candid, if brief, look at the woman:

  • Back in the saddle

    I guess it’s time to get back to work.

    I don’t have a beard to my knees but I do feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle dragging himself out of a nice slumber these days.  May is here.  This Friday kicks off the summer movie season with the release of “Iron Man 2,” while Anne Thompson and I will offer up the first of a handful of off-season podcasts the same day.  Then, next week: Cannes.

    Guy will be covering all the goings on from the Croisette this year, In Contention’s first time at the fest.  And I’m proud to see our festival coverage steadily increasing.  Things get started next Wednesday, May 12, wrapping up 11 days later on the 23rd.  Monday, May 24th will bring the first detailed Off the Carpet column of the new season, fit with my first (still too early) set of official Oscar predictions.

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  • SHORT TAKE: “Iron Man 2” (**1/2)

    “Good is the enemy of Great,” wrote Jim Collins, in one of the more high-maintenance self-help plans you’re likely to encounter. As nice a thought as it is, this law appears to have no place in the world of the Hollywood franchise blockbuster, where Crap is the enemy of pretty much everything, and Good is usually one courtesy too many for time-strapped, dollar-eyed producers.

    With myriad noisy-yet-joyless “Transformers” types littering the release schedule each summer, then, the bar for commendability is set rather low: it often takes but one redeeming feature to launch such products into critics’ good books in addition to the box office charts.

    It’s in this way that Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” carved a reputation as one of 2008’s pleasant surprises: narratively choppy, technically perfunctory and indifferently performed in support, it nonetheless boasted a star turn from Robert Downey Jr so fleet-footed and gleefully off-message that it made all the surrounding elements seem wittier by sheer association.

    It should come as no surprise to students of the Hollywood mainstream that Favreau’s swiftly delivered sequel, already raking in the cash on its European release, aims no higher, and reaches no wider, than its predecessor. By and large, Favreau and his collaborators have figured that the shortcuts they got away with in the first film are still fit for purpose.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Steady Krueger

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    26 years ago, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” opened to $2.9 million on 165 screens and enjoyed healthy word of mouth to reach $55.5 million total, putting Wes Craven and New Line Cinema on the map in the process. Now New Line is owned by Warner Bros. and Wes Craven is back to milking a different old cash cow, but Freddy Krueger has made his way back to the silver screen. Jackie Earle Haley takes over for Robert Englund and audiences showed enough interest to cough up $32.2 million to check it out.

    That’s better than the $29.2 million of “Halloween,” but not quite as good as the $35.5 million of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Word of mouth is almost guaranteed to be poisonous and it may as well not exist when “Iron Man 2” opens next week so I’d consider it a success if the film can make $60 million total. That should still be profitable for Warner Bros. and ensure at least six or seven sequels.

    The only other new release was “Furry Vengeance,” which took fifth place and $6.5 million. It’s too depressing to even dedicate a few minutes trying thinking of a joke for this movie. I actually think “Cruel Intentions” and “Just Friends” are better than they should be so it’s a shame to see Roger Kumble fall so far. He was probably my favorite hack director, but now he’s lost me.

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  • Never knowingly undersold

    Spotted this on the homepage of online retailer Zavvi and had to share. Move over, Mr. Welles.

  • FRIDAY FORECAST: Your worst ‘Nightmare’

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    The summer movie season doesn’t officially start until next weekend, but Warner Bros. aims to get a jump on things by releasing their high profile horror remake, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” before the storm. By all accounts, it should work, as horror audiences have proven time and again that they’ll fork over their money to see any movie they previously liked redone with slightly darker lighting, slightly less imagination and infinitely more budget money.

    I once thought that this particular remake was doomed because unlike the Jason or Halloween franchises, the iconic central character was tied to one actor and fickle audiences might not respond to any recasting. Of course, this was ridiculous thinking on my part and this film will be bigger than either of those other reboots. At least on opening weekend. “Friday the 13th” made $41.4 million on its opening weekend last year, with the help of Monday being a holiday and I think we can look for something similar here. And hundreds of lazy hipsters who already own striped red sweaters have locked down their Halloween costumes.

    I think the next horror flick to get a remake should be “April Fool’s Day.” That thing scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. Or “The Peanut Butter Solution,” which isn’t a horror film but something that still haunts me to this day. His hair just grows and grows!

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  • ‘Secretariat’ trailer

    The obvious question being, can it find the same awards season rhythm as “Seabiscuit?” Diane Lane is front and center:

  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1941 and 1942

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    1941 is already famous for an Academy oversight with “Citizen Kane” losing the Best Picture race to “How Green Was My Valley.” At least Welles’s masterpiece got a handful of nominations and a screenplay win, unlike all of the films highlighted in this series. Still, to choose John Ford’s snooze-inducing drama over Welles’s magnum opus should never be lived down.

    These two ceremonies came right in the thick of World War II and “Mrs. Miniver” perfectly embodied the mood of the nation heading to war so it’s no surprise that it racked up Best Picture in 1942. Interestingly, William Wyler also directed the Best Picture winner in 1946 that perfectly embodied the mood of the nation returning from war, “The Best Years of Our Lives.”

    1941 – “Sullivan’s Travels” (Preston Sturges)

    How the Academy could not see fit to nominate Preston Sturges for his greatest work is beyond a mystery. Granted, he had just won an Oscar for writing “The Great McGinty” the year before but that didn’t stop the Academy from handing John Ford Oscars like they were going out of style. Legend also tells of directors and studio heads being unhappy with the idea of Sturges, a writer, directing his own material, but that also doesn’t explain the love for “McGinty.”

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  • Sony Classics adopts ‘The Illusionist’

    Quelle surprise. “The Illusionist,” Sylvain Chomet’s long-gestating follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “The Triplets of Belleville,” has found the US distributor we all knew it eventually would. Sony Pictures Classics today announced their acquisition of the film, which they are readying for an end-of-year release — mirroring the strategy they took with “Belleville” back in 2003.

    In doing so, Sony has all but secured its first Oscar nomination of the 2010 season. “The Illusionist” — a riff on an unproduced Jacques Tati screenplay and handily, for me, the year’s best film so far — is too ravishing an animator’s showcase not to gain serious awards notice, and a late-2010 release should keep it fresh on the radar.

    In the meantime, the film will continue to wow on the festival circuit. It has already been selected to open the Edinburgh Film Festival in June — an ideal choice, given that the film is something of a valentine to the Scottish capital. Check out my review of the film from the Berlinale here, and an early Russian trailer here.

    Full press release from Sony after the cut.

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  • Is Jim Carrey okay?

    I asked that, sincerely, via Twitter yesterday after seeing Tweet after Tweet packed with sentiments such as:

    ETERNITY IS NOT A MEASURE OF TIME!IT’S THE DEPTH OF THIS MOMENT!HEAVEN IS HERE,NOW!FIND IT!FEEL IT!BOING BOING, EVERYBODY!BOING BOING!!! ;^)

    Obviously a number of Carrey’s projects have crashed and burned as of late, most recently the indefinitely stalled release of “I Love You Phillip Morris,” but the guy also broke up with his lady, Jenny McCarthy (confession: all-time favorite Hollywood couple). On the whole, he just seems to be having some weird public breakdown.

    Well, in sizing up Carrey’s career crossroads in a recent Moviefone column, Anne Thompson pegs the star’s professional conundrum thusly…

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  • Pacino talks past roles, ‘You Don’t Know Jack,’ etc.

    From 60 minutes, last weekend. Somehow part 2 of this thing has been obliterated from cyberspace, but I guess there’s some good stuff in here (though youc an view the interview in its entirety at CBS):

  • SUNDAY CENTS: For real this time, ‘Dragon’ ‘Back-Up’ to #1

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    No photo finishes and no Monday recounts needed. “How to Train Your Dragon” has definitely topped the chart this weekend, four weeks after debuting there. The last time a film leapt back up to number one after a three week hiatus was “The Passion of the Christ,” which had the help of Easter weekend to do it. It is, quite simply, a feat that isn’t possible in today’s box office climate and Paramount should be congratulated for their efforts. The film dropped a tiny 24% to $15.0 million and is well on course to pass the $200 million mark that “Monsters vs. Aliens” couldn’t hit last year. It’s also the lowest gross for a number one film since September.

    Jennifer Lopez proved she still has some of the goods by lifting “The Back-Up Plan” to second place and $12.3 million. That’s already more than “Extraordinary Measures” made total and gives CBS Films reason to keep their doors open for a few more months. I have no idea why this film did this well except that there hasn’t been an old fashioned romantic comedy since “Valentine’s Day.” I’m still also not sure why there are even hijinks or complications in this plot. The guy falls in love with her… but she’s pregnant! So?

    “The Losers” became a self-fulfilling prophecy for Warner Bros., entering the chart at number four with $9.6 million. To give you some perspective, some terrible movie called “The Marine” starring a wrestler opened to $8.3 million a few years ago. That’s the calibre of performance we’re talking about. The studio might have had better luck naming the film what it actually is, “The Cocky Douchebags.”

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  • Center of the universe

    I wasn’t able to participate in Robert Welkos’s Hollywood News piece on the drama of bloggerdom (which was already covered to some extent by LA Magazine three years ago). Travel and a period of self-imposed distance from this circus kept me off the phone, but even if I had answered a few questions, I don’t really know what I could have added in the way of fresh perspective at this point.

    However, one thing caught my eye that is laughable on its face:

    “Mo’Nique was addressing me in her Oscar acceptance speech,” [Gold Derby’s Tom] O’Neil told HollywoodNews. “I had been very critical of her not campaigning when she should have.” O’Neil said after the speech, he received “200 e-mails” congratulating him.

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  • FRIDAY FORECAST: A bunch of ‘Losers’

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Jennifer Lopez hasn’t been on screen since “El Cantante” in 2007 and hasn’t toplined a romantic comedy since “Monster-in-Law” in 2005. That’s a long, five year gap and it’s no surprise that J. Lo is returning to the only genre that has brought her success to make a comeback. Unless you count “Anaconda,” which I don’t, because obviously, the real star of that movie was Owen Wilson.

    But now she’s back with “The Back Up Plan,” a hilarious comedy about first dates and due dates. And kooky lesbians having natural birth parties and playing bongos. Lopez will get no help courting audiences from her male co-star, who is completely unknown to anyone who isn’t an enormous fan of “Whiteout” or “The Invisible.”

    She is getting a lot of help from CBS Films, who are promoting the living piss out of the movie, despite seeing no return for similar efforts with “Extraordinary Measures.” The trailers are weak, the premise is ridiculous and the leading actress is on the decline. So why do I get a horrible feeling that this will actually do alright? The market is a wasteland at the moment and romantic comedies are nowhere to be found so I think this one may walk away with $11 million or so.

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  • Cannes finalizes Competition lineup, jury

    Those who were hoping that the promised additions to the Cannes Competition selection announced last week would bring some added name appeal to a lineup shorter than usual on star auteurs — particularly in the English-language realm — will be disappointed by today’s announcement. Cease your prayers for “The Tree of Life” to show up … they haven’t been answered.

    Boosting the number of Competition titles to 18 are “Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project,” from Hungarian director Kornél Mondruczó (who also made the lineup two years ago with “Delta”) and Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Chongqing Blues.”

    The latter has been promoted from its initial placing in the Un Certain Regard lineup — which suggests to me that selectors are running thin on options as certain hoped-for candidates have failed to pan out. As it stands, it’s one of the more sober (not to mention shorter) Competition lists in recent memory.

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  • Got a chuckle out of me

    Cover of Avatar Blu-ray

    There’s zero extras! There’s so few extras that you put it in, you push play, and the movie starts. There are no trailers, there’s no bullshit at the beginning that you have to endlessly go through. I have a deal with the studio and it goes like this: Any movie I make that makes over a billion dollars goes out without a bunch of crap trailers for your other movies.

    James Cameron, discussing the DVD/Blu-ray release of “Avatar” (which drops tomorrow).

    Check out the rest at Entertainment Weekly.