Might as well — the Dow is going to shit as we speak:
Blog
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‘Revolutionary’ trailer in beautiful HD
Now we can all get a clean look at Roger Deakins’s work. Check it out at Yahoo! Movies.
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‘Frozen River’ first out of the gate with Oscar screeners
Sony Pictures Classics is the first studio to send out Academy screeners this season. “Frozen River,” which garnered considerable praise for lead actress Melissa Leo when it was released in August, landed on doorsteps over the weekend, giving the studio a head start on the race.With plenty of indie film performances in the mix for Best Actress in 2008, this move could go a long way to ensuring that voters consider Leo’s work. Additionally, Leo won the Best Actress award this weekend at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Co-stars Tsilla Chelton and Oscar Martinez also took acting honors.
Last year Fox Searchlight was the first studio to unleash screeners, albeit during the first week of September. The studio sent out copies of “The Namesake,” “Once” and “Waitress,” though only “Once” found its way to an Oscar nod (for Best Original Song). Sony Classics is taking this opportunity to distinguish Leo in the minds of voters, with Kristin Scott Thomas’s work in “I’ve Loved You So Long” still to come from the studio.
Read up on the latest “Frozen River” news here.
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New ‘Australia’ trailer
I decided to wait on posting this until it landed on YouTube or some other embeddable format.
I’ve been hearing some good things about Hugh Jackman’s performance all along, but for some reason, he’s never cracked my Best Actor chart. It’s a crowded field, but anyway, this is a great trailer. I’m a Baz supporter through and through, and I’ve been told this isn’t the straight-up epic it appears to be from the materials released so far. It isn’t Baz restraining his vision for the sake of a style of film he hasn’t tackled yet; it is very much a “Baz Luhrmann film,” so to speak, with his panache and sense of humor tossed in throughout.
Have a look:
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Stop the presses: random, anonymous people say it’s ‘Button’ vs. ‘Nixon’
In this otherwise solid piece from the New York Times’s Michael Cieply, I was taken aback by the following aside, taken anonymously from a publicist (or publicists) that obviously has a stake in this year’s Oscar race:Some publicists who specialize in Oscar campaigns are privately predicting a year-end shootout between “Button” and “Frost/Nixon,” a planned December release from Universal Pictures, directed by Ron Howard and with Michael Sheen and Frank Langella in the title roles. The films have been seen by few, but the campaign machinery is already lining up behind them.
Huh? What? Says who? Well, let it be so, as far as those associated with the true frontrunner are concerned, but this is a foundtationless aside to be just tossed out there in a major Times piece if you ask me. Three graphs later, “Quantum of Solace” is slid into a list of expected Oscar heavies like it’s one of the boys. What’s that all about?
Anyway, Cieply’s story goes on to discuss Paramount honcho Brad Grey’s Oscar successes, drops Oscar consultant Lisa Taback’s name and details the bumpy road for “Button” to the screen. Check it all out here.
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9/29 Oscarweb Round-up
• A happy ending of sorts for Matilda Rose in the wake of Heath Ledger’s death. [Agence France-Presse]• Kenneth Branagh is in talks to direct “Thor.” Weird, but badass. [Variety]
• Tom O’Neil traces Paul Newman’s frustrating quest for Oscars. [Gold Derby]
• James Rocchi talks to “Miracle at St. Anna” director Spike Lee. [Cinematical]
• The Los Angeles Times have hired an east coast outsider and called it awards coverage. Well, we wish him well. [The Envelope]
• Nikki Finke primises to report all the “juicy backstory” on the Rudin/Weinstein situation — because she’s a journalistic disgrace. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
• “Quantum of Solace” will have more product placement than any Bond film before it. [The Independent]
• Mark Olson grills Jonathan Demme on “Rachel Getting Married.” [Los Angeles Times]
• Meanwhile, Susan King takes on “Rachel” screenwriting Jenny Lumet. [Los Angeles Times]
• Chris Lee gets some quality time in with Leonardo DiCaprio re: “Body of Lies.” [Los Angeles Times]
• Michael Cera: heart throb. [Newsweek]
• Or, Michael Cera: almost famous. [New York Times]
• Greg Kinnear dishes on his roles in “Flash of Genius” and “Ghost Town.” [Associated Press]
• Bill Maher Q&A’s it up on “Religulous.” [New York Post]
• And again, with director Larry Charles in tow. [New York Times]
…okay, I gotta cut it off there. Tons of items out there today.
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Kate Winslet: the greatest actress of her generation?
At nearly 33 years old (eight days and counting) and with five Academy Award nominations under her belt, Kate Winslet may just be the greatest actress of her generation. Her work has not yet revealed any limitations. Like Meryl Streep, she offers an authenticity in her work, even the lesser films. She seems incapable of uttering a false line. She defines authenticity at every turn.Her work in “Titanic” transcended the material, a shoddy screenplay that saw her running about the doomed boat making decisions about what to do next, and I’ll be damned if Winslet did not make it work. In the hands of a lesser actress, the performance, and perhaps the role, would have come across as silly, but she made a character out of Rose we dared to care about.
There was heat between Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio on the screen. We believed the love, we believed the devotion, and she did this at a very young age. Earlier still she had gone toe-to-toe with Emma Thomson and Alan Rickman in “Sense & Sensibility,” earning an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress. Further back, you’ll witness chilling work in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures” and one sees a major actress developing before our very eyes.
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Joint statement from Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein
RE: “The Reader.” And on a Sunday, no less:
We are issuing this statement together to emphasize the fact that we are in complete agreement on the date we have chosen to release “The Reader.” Working together, we developed a plan to extend the post-production schedule in order to give Stephen Daldry the additional time he needs to successfully complete the film in time to release it on December 12, 2008.
I hate that they have to clean up the gossip mess that Steven Zeitchick and The Hollywood Reporter made last week, but this is also obvious crisis management. You can’t have the behind-the-scenes story on a film overshadow what’s on the screen. Additionally, a public showing of solidarity is fair enough, but getting Kate Winslet on the campaign trail for this film will be take some extra elbow grease.
Also released today, from director Stephen Daldry:
On their own, Scott and Harvey spent this weekend working together to find a way to accommodate my needs so that I may fulfill my obligation to the studio without compromising my vision for the film. I am thrilled and relieved that we have all found a way forward to work together to bring ‘The Reader’ to theaters this year.
More to come, I’m sure.
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Slumber
Nothing from me today. The most epic of football confrontations, year in and year out, happens at 1:15 p.m. PST and I have to be ready. Okay, the most epic for a Redskins fan.
Meanwhile, talk amongst yourselves. There are plenty of Newman obits out there but I find it sad to keep reading through them. It’s also interesting that Pete Hammond has finally joined the Oscar blogging rat race after trying to make a column work at a couple of outlets the last few years. We linked to his first item in yesterday’s round-up, which might or might not pan out.
Other possible talking points include the over-analysis of the debate (it was a fucking bore, let’s move on and never let Jim Lehrer near the gig again), last night’s latest Palin sketch (so should Fey just join the cast again instead of lurking in the buliding and being on the ready?), Halloween costumes (I heard the best idea the other day: nurse Joker) and the relative disappointment of most of the fall’s television series so far (The Shield, True Blood, Entourage — though The Office season opener was awesome).
Have at it.
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Foreign film watch: Spain and Mexico go period
Just recently, the strongly linked film industries of Spain and Mexico were the talk of the world cinema scene, with auteurs like Almodovar, Del Toro, Amenabar and Inarittu enjoying an unprecedentedly high profile in the US, and picking up awards left, right and centre.This past year, however, has a seen a shift back to more traditional cinematic sources, with rejuvenated European stalwarts Italy and, in particular, France churning out the critical hits and festival sensations.
The Spanish-speaking countries’ slight (and no doubt temporary) loss of momentum is arguably reflected in their recently announced submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film race: both have selected sober-sounding period dramas with relatively low international profiles.
Spain’s choice, “The Blind Sunflowers,” takes place in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and tells the story of a presumed war widow harbouring her left-wing husband in the family home. It’s a period that has proved fertile ground for great Spanish cinema, and the cast, including the wonderful Maribel Verdu and Javier Camara, is exciting, but Variety was decidedly unimpressed by the film at Toronto:
Brimming with ideas it fails to galvanize, “The Blind Sunflowers” reps an unhappy swan song for late, great screenwriter Rafael Azcona. As a portrait of the dullness of life in provincial postwar Spain, the pic is fine, but much of that dullness spills over into the treatment, which fails to do justice to Alberto Mendez’s dark novel … Top-notch cast feels wasted, with most of the content rerun from previous Civil War dramas.
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Redford on Newman
There is a point where feelings go beyond words. I have lost a real friend. My life — and this country — is better for his being in it.
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“Only murderers” and “I’m glad it’s you”
These are the clips that likely assured the late Paul Newman a place alongside the supporting crop of contenders in 2002. Stalwart, sincere, living inside the character with an eerie warmth. Despite my spoken allegiance to “Hud,” I chose to remember Newman this morning by watching “Road to Perdition” for the first time in a number of years. Criminally underrated, it is the shining beacon in Sam Mendes’s arsenal that gives me hope for “Revolutionary Road.” Moreover, it contains a Newman performance for the ages, a subtle but meaningful display from an undeniable legend:
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“Nobody gets out of life alive.”
I’m a younger man. The first time I felt a considerable blow when a star met his end was in April of 1994. Three and a half years later, it happened again. So I started to get used to it. As you get older, heroes fade, legends die and it all becomes a part of the bitter reality that this, too, shall pass.In my years as a film enthusiast, I’ve been blindsided here, felt the long wait of death’s touch there. You get to a point where you understand a person’s passing as cause to celebrate what they afforded in better days. But the further one marches into life, the more the hits seem to keep coming, to steal an over-utilized sentiment. Less becomes more as doors begin to close at a rapid pace on the elements you cherished from afar.
This year has been a considerably heartbreaking one. No one could have seen the deaths of Heath Ledger and Anthony Minghella coming, even if we were all patiently dreading the exit of Sydney Pollack. But a deficiency of expectation is never the cold bucket of water to the face that it might be and preparation can’t mask the deflation one feels when curtains such as these drop. In either case, the ultimate sadness is a lingering sort of ache.
And so it is that actor, director, producer, writer and entrepreneur Paul Newman has left us.
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Lensers set to honor Jack Green’s lifetime achievement
This report from Variety kind of got lost in the shuffle this week, but it seems the great Jack Green will be feted by the American Society of Cinematographers this year. Here’s the story:Jack Green will receive the 2009 American Society of Cinematographers Lifetime Achievement award at the 23rd ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards on Feb. 15.
The awards will be held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel and past recipients of the award have included Conrad Hall and Gordon Willis.
In his time as a cinematographer, Green has compiled more than 40 credits and of those credits, has worked on eleven pics with Clint Eastwood as director.
Very cool. Green (typically credited Jack N. Green) has done a lot of work with Clint Eastwood, most notably the jazzy cool hues of “Bird” and the gritty sprawl of “Unforgiven.” But they first began their collaboration way back in 1978 when Green was a camera operator on “Every Which Way But Loose.”
I’ve always felt Eastwood had a great eye for good cinematographers. His current collaborator is Tom Stern, criminally underrated and consistently ignored by the Academy for solid work year in and year out. But it’s good to see that Green, who only has one Oscar nomination (and no wins) to his credit, is getting a boost from his peers.
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9/27 Oscarweb Round-up
• Anne Thompson reports that Paramount Vantage will officially debut the “Revolutionary Road” trailer on Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men.” Very smart. [Thompson on Hollywood]• The toughest journalist gigs in cinema. [Time Out]
• In the introductory post of his long in the works awards blog (welcome to the fray), Pete Hammond bangs the drums for Dustin Hoffman in “Last Chance Harvey.” Overture will have a tough enough time with one Best Actor hopeful, though, let alone two. [Notes on a Season]
• Tom O’Neil rounds up a bunch of thoughts from the Oscarweb regarding potential Oscar hosts. [Gold Derby]
• Steven Zeitchick gets excited about the foreign film race. [Risky Biz Blog]
• Michael Cieply and Charles Solomon shed light on a credit dispute among the principles of Universal’s animated endeavor “The Tale of Despereaux.” [New York Times]
• John HIscock spends some quality time with “Appaloosa” star Viggo Mortensen across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]
• Oscar winner Helen Mirren is set to take on the role of an Israeli Nazi hunter with “Shakespeare in Love” director John Madden at the helm. [The Independent]
• Anthony Breznican gets a first look at Oliver Stone’s “W.” [USA Today]
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Enough with the graphical commentary!
You know, I’ve been looking for a reason to dump CNN lately from my regular cable news viewing. I blame the election coverage, obviously, for finally bringing me to a point where Wolf Blitzer’s drawn-out delivery damn near gives me a headache, or the amount of talking heads in one segment or the next seems to never be enough for show producers. But tonight’s debate sealed the deal.
When I’m watching two guys duking it out over policy in an election year, I really don’t give a fuck how the pundits are scoring the proceedings moment-by-moment. And as a news-delivery organization, CNN should understand the line this crosses, where viewers constantly feel like they should be darting their eyes back and forth to take an arbitrary score, rather than making up their own minds based on the discussion.
If you don’t have an HDTV, you didn’t have to put up with this. But here’s a sample of what I’m talking about:
The little audience reaction meter that CNN loves so much is also a heinous distraction, never indicative of anything and simply a graphical manipulation that amounts to nothing. It really got to me tonight. Factoids are one thing, but this is intrusive, and reprehensible.
Eventually I had to switch over to CBS, which had a much cleaner display (and no, Obama isn’t blowing Joim Lehrer a kiss):
The fanciest the network got, beyond the classy chyron, was that old standby, split-screen:
I respect that CNN is pushing the reach of broadcast media with these bells and whistles. The “Go Live” feature on DISH Network, for instance, is a nice step toward integrating broadcast and online media. And they are at the forefront of a lot of the progress the medium has made in recent years. But someone with a journalistic mind has to step in from time to time and raise these questions. If not, they’ll simply be at the forefront of broadcast’s inevitable march toward an entertainment commodity first.