In Contention

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  • ‘Red State’ trailer

    The trailer for Kevin Smith’s latest has been bouncing around the last few days as the writer/director has been on a bit of a public (via Twitter) diatribe for the better part of the holiday.  It seems he won’t be doing any press for the film and will only exhibit it at Sundance during public screenings.  Do what you want.  I’m all for it.  And, frankly, the film looks like it could be something special.  At the very least, it’s a lesson in what a teaser ought to be.  Check it out via Smodcast by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: The design of ‘Alice in Wonderland’

    Tim Burton and Johnny Depp may well be poised to go down in film history as one of the famous actor-director duets.  Seven collaborations to date have delighted audiences for the past 20 years. They have also earned 11 Oscar nominations and four wins.  Their latest, “Alice in Wonderland,” exemplifies how far along they’ve come in the eyes of the public with its worldwide gross of more than $1 billion.

    At the same time, the film was immensely reliant — as all Burton films are — on its design elements.  Many of the artists who created those designs are now in the thick of this season’s Oscar race, and I recently had the opportunity to speak to three of them: production designer Robert Stromberg, visual Effects supervisor Ken Ralston and makeup artist Valli O’Reilly.

    Each certainly commented on being aware of the immense importance that his or her work would have to the project. That having been said, Ralston notes, “I had done it for so long that I wasn’t panicking. I thought it could be a blast. It is daunting when you read the script, because you realize the whole thing, in one way or another, is going to be visual effects. It’s a huge deal but with so many talented folks on board, you just have to trust them.”

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  • Soundtrack contest winner!

    I see my little story contest wasn’t too popular with a scant 19 entries.  I don’t blame you.  I wouldn’t want to be writing stories during the holidays either.  I swear I won’t make you work that hard again!

    Thanks to those who did participate.  At the end of the day, it was just a fun way to do away with the usual.  And my favorite of the stories was Kevin Hinman’s, which I thought smartly avoided getting too bogged down in the specifics of the three films and ultimately conveyed a swift, cogent tale that skimmed the plot lines well enough.

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  • The beauty of Pixar

  • 12/30 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Pixar postage stamps, ‘Inception’ most-Tweeted, what Hollywood can do better

    • Your favorite Pixar characters soon to grace postage stamps. [USPS]

    • “Inception” tops 2010’s list of most-tweeted movies. [The Independent]

    • Neville Page on his part in designing “TRON Legacy.” [The Wrap]

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  • 77 scores competing for Oscar, ‘Toy Story 3’ not among them

    They may have enjoyed a three-year run of nominations in the category, finally taking the gold with “Up” earlier this year, but Pixar’s hot streak in Best Original Score will not continue at the 2010 Oscars. Although Randy Newman’s “Toy Story 3” score wasn’t ruled ineligible by the Academy — unlike his work on last year’s “The Princess and the Frog,” which faced a late disqualification — Newman himself has opted not to enter it in the race.

    Pixar’s latest therefore joins a number of high-profile titles on the bench in this category, including the previously disqualified likes of “Black Swan,” “The Fighter,” “Tangled” and the Carter Burwell double-shot of “True Grit” and “The Kids Are All Right.”

    As Steve Pond points out, the official list of 77 films competing for Best Original Score makes for easily the narrowest field of the general categories. The good news, however, is that most of the names we most want to see recognized are still on it, including Daft Punk for “TRON Legacy,” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for “The Social Network,” Sylvain Chomet for “The Illusionist” and arguable frontrunner Hans Zimmer for “Inception.”

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  • FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Actress

    The fifth column in our new seasonal series — if you haven’t got the drill by now, we’re rounding up the most Oscar-worthy work from the oft-overlooked first half of the year — wraps up the performance categories with by far the most competitive race of all. Conventional wisdom has it that Best Actress is the most crowded field of this year’s awards derby, and as I looked over the January-to-June release schedule, I realized that’s just as true of the early birds.

    Where I admit I had embroider a little to make up five-strong fields in one or two other categories, this week’s task found me scratching my head over who to leave out. Many of the year’s most lavishly acclaimed performances jostled for position: Kim Hye-ja may have taken the Los Angeles critics’ honors, but as much as I love the demented commitment of her performance in “Mother,” I was surprised to find myself leaving her on the sidelines. Tilda Swinton is on near-peak form in “I Am Love,” and yet she too finds herself in the honorable mention category.

    I was all prepared to court controversy by citing Julianne Moore’s exemplary work in Atom Egoyan’s otherwise negligible “Chloe,” but there just wasn’t room to be that playful; in a regular year, “Father of My Children” star Chiara Caselli would easily have figured in at the halfway mark. Others might make cases for Noomi Rapace or Giovanna Mezzogiorno, and I’m still hamstrung by not having had access to “Everyone Else.” The bottom line is: there was a lot to sift through before arriving at the five names below. May future years also be this good to the ladies.

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  • INTERVIEW: ‘Shutter Island’ director Martin Scorsese

    Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” did just fine with audiences this year, bringing in nearly $300 million worldwide and ultimately proving to be the biggest box office hit of his career to date.  However, the film didn’t quite ring the bell of a number of critics who struggled to comprehend its specifically rendered formalism and opted instead to (perhaps hastily) dismiss it as a misstep in an otherwise artistically successful autumn career.

    A few weeks ago I hopped on the phone with the revered filmmaker, largely for the purposes of a two-part profile of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.  Calling from London, where he’s currently taking the 3D dive with “Hugo Cabret,” Scorsese graciously spoke for a half hour at the end of a 16-hour day of shooting.

    Much of the conversation surrounded his work with DiCaprio, but also naturally drifted into the general territory of filming the Dennis Lehane adaptation and, of course, how his famed love of cinema impacted his vision of it as a film.  So I thought it deserved a separate space.  Have a listen to our chat after the jump (and beware of SPOILERS of the film throughout).

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  • Taking questions for Oscar Talk

    After taking the holiday week off (and a good thing, too, as I was knocked on my rear by some wicked virus), Anne and I will be back on the case Friday for Oscar Talk.  Here’s the usual solicitation.  PLEASE KEEP IT TO ONE QUESTION, and as always, keep it fresh.  Anything overly chewed on will likely be avoided in favor of something new to address.

  • Franco, Portman make EW Oscar covers

    My beginnings following the Oscar season date back to an arbitrary subscription to Entertainment Weekly in the mid-1990s and the odds making fun of it all.  The Oscar issues were always a fave, so that’s why I tend to perk up a bit when they’re revealed each year.  For 2010, we get dueling covers separately featuring host (and Best Actor hopeful for “127 Hours”) James Franco and “Black Swan” star Natalie Portman.  Check it out:

  • Jamie Stuart’s ‘Idiot with a Tripod’

    Roger Ebert seems to think this short film from camera wiz Jamie Stuart (of The Mutiny Company) deserves an Oscar.  I’ll stick to simply admiring the Vertov homage of it all without having to use the “O” word to qualify it, and the memories it’ll conjure of this holiday season (as I’ve been from North Carolina through the I-77 corridor to Ohio and back this week and have seen plenty of ivory-doused scenery as of late).  Great use of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s “Painted Sun in Abstract” from “The Social Network,” by the way.

  • Phoenix strays, too

    David Fincher’s “The Social Network” may be a firm fixture in my top 10, but any critics organization that opts out of flowing through the season like sheep is alright by me.  Yesterday, the Phoenix set joined those thin ranks by going with “The King’s Speech” for it’s Best Picture victor.

  • 12/29 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Timberlake’s Harvard honor, ‘Kids’ and the “steak eaters,” HFPA/Clark tension

    • Golden Globes tension as Dick Clark and HFPA fued over contract. [The Wrap]

    • Justin Timberlake gets a prestigious Harvard award. [Pop Eater]

    • Anne Thompson on the obstacles her #2 film of the year, “The Kids Are All Right,” will face with the “steak eaters.” [Thompson on Hollywood]

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  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 2003 and 2004

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    2003 belonged to “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” as it won every single award it was up for, tying the all time record haul of 11 trophies. Few could argue that Peter Jackson had accomplished something unique with the execution of this trilogy, but in my humble opinion, this is the most boring and bloated Best Picture winner since “Around the World in 80 Days.”

    Throw in the fact that Tim Robbins in “Mystic River” and Renee Zellweger in “Cold Mountain” are both embarrassingly bad performances and you can start to realize why Oscar and I have agreed to go our separate ways. At least “City of God” nabbed a few nominations, causing a stir in an otherwise sterile race.

    Clint Eastwood completed his transformation back into Oscar darling in 2004 with a Best Picture triumph for “Million Dollar Baby,” which also scooped up awards for Director, Actress and Supporting Actor, dooming Martin Scorsese to another year in the loser’s bracket.

    Billy Crystal hosted in 2003, mistakenly thinking that constant jokes about New Zealand were going to be entertaining. At least we had this though.

    Chris Rock took the reigns in 2004 and may have not won over Sean Penn, but I thought his bit interviewing moviegoers at the Magic Johnson theater about Oscar contenders was amazing. Anyway, hope you all watched “Pootie Tang” this week and are ready for some new suggestions.

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  • Inevitable list of WGA ineligibilities surfaces

    Steve Pond is on the news today that a number of this year’s screenplays will be ineligible for WGA consideration (and therefore should be kept in mind when nominations are revealed next week).

    First and foremost, we all know Pixar films never fall under WGA signatory regulations, so Michael Arndt’s work on “Toy Story 3” will not be in the mix for Best Adapted Screenplay.  Nor will fellow animated contender “How to Train Your Dragon.”  Also perennially ineligible is Mike Leigh, who works outside of the guild’s procedures, so “Another Year” won’t be showing up in the original field.

    Joining Arndt on the adapted sidelines will be “Winter’s Bone,” while “Blue Valentine” and potential winner “The King’s Speech” won’t be eligible for original consideration.

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  • 12/28 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Duke or Dude?, Jonsi’s music video, Karger sticks with his ‘King’s Speech’ guns

    • The Duke or The Dude?  Which Rooster has more true grit? [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Russ Fischer has the music video for Jonsi’s “Sticks & Stones” from “How to Train Your Dragon.” [/Film]

    • Brendon Connelly runs down all of the “Toy Story 3” ads so far featuring the “Not since…” campaign. [Bleeding Cool]

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  • What came after “the year of the woman?”

    This time last year, we were still in the thick of a long-running “year of the woman” narrative, as female filmmakers enjoyed critical, festival and box-office success, plus an unprecedentedly high profile in the awards season –culminating in that history-making Best Director win for Kathryn Bigelow (as well as a Best Picture nod for Lone Scherfig’s “An Education”).

    Once the dust had settled on Bigelow’s Oscar, however, the narrative tailed off a bit; with that particular blip on their conscience eased, the industry at large could go back to business as usual. Right?

    Well, perhaps not. Although there’s been no major name like Bigelow for the media to make into a wider cause or mascot, when put under the microscope, 2010 has proved a quietly successful year for female filmmakers after all. Although none have managed the box-office presence that Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers had in 2009, women in the indie sector have taken the baton from Bigelow and kept running.

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  • Portman and child

    Put it down to the post-Christmas news lull, but the Oscarweb is rather excited about this morning’s unexpected revelation that surefire nominee (and arguable Best Actress favorite) Natalie Portman is engaged and expecting her first child with French ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied. (Could you ask for a much more appropriate surname for a hoofer?)

    My thoughts on the matter don’t extend much further than, “Well, that’s great news for her,” and perhaps, “How unreasonably pretty is that baby going to be?”. But already some are speculating as to what this news means — if anything at all — for her Oscar chances.

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