• Devin Faraci goes on the road with Chris Morris and his film, “Four Lions.” [Badass Digest]
• Brian Truitt talks “Back to the Future” with Lea Thompson, 25 years later. I always forget it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. (AWESOME.) [USA Today]
• Bruce Springsteen talks the making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” at the London premiere of “The Promise.” [The Guardian]
Mike Leigh has long bemoaned the fact that he gets more respect from American awards bodies than those in his homeland. He received further proof of that this morning, as his broadly acclaimed new feature, “Another Year,” was snubbed in the top category at the British Independent Film Awards in favor of, among others, Matthew Vaughan’s dismal po-mo superhero movie “Kick-Ass.”
The BIFAs are, of course, to the BAFTAs what the Indie Spirits are to the Oscars. They can always be relied upon to make some interesting calls, but while some of this year’s surprises are laudable, others are just perverse.
Leigh receives some compensation in the shape of a Best Director nod, plus a trio of acting bids (which interestingly place Ruth Sheen in lead and the much-fancied Lesley Manville in support). But Leigh’s omission from the Best Screenplay category — when the pleasant but join-the-dots writing of “Made in Dagenham” makes the cut — is, if anything, even more of a jawdropper than the Best Film miss. The BIFAs were similarly cool on “Happy-Go-Lucky” two years ago, somewhat anticipating the film’s BAFTA whiteout — here’s hoping we’re not setting ourselves up for a repeat.
(More thoughts, and the full list of nominations, after the jump.)
Halloween is upon us: cue hastily cobbled-together costumes and drunkenly ironic apple-bobbing at friends’ parties, the frenzied whoops of sugar-saturated children and an online avalanche of “best horror films ever” lists. It’s a beautiful time of year. We’ve already contributed our share to said avalanche, so allow me simply to highlight my viewing for the evening (courtesy of the BFI’s handsome recent reissue): Jack Clayton’s “The Innocents.”
• This week’s Off the Carpet column took a roll call of this year’s Best Actor contenders.
• Meanwhile, we interviewed one of the strongest of those contenders, “127 Hours” star James Franco.
• With “The King’s Speech,” “Another Year” and “Made in Dagenham” all in the hunt, The Long Shot mused on Britain’s back-and-forth relationship with the Oscars.
• In case you’d forgotten what day it is, Chad got into the Halloween spirit by counting down his ten favorite alternative horror movies.
I was at dinner tonight when I saw the news of George Hickenlooper’s untimely passing via Twitter, and my jaw dropped. “Natural causes” at 47 is just difficult to process.
He was in Denver campaigning for his brother, John, the city’s mayor and candidate for Governor. He was just in Austin promoting his latest film, “Casino Jack.” He was in good spirits and ready to push through the circuit and now, he’s gone. What can you say? (Moisés Chiullan remembers his friend here.)
I met Hickenlooper once, when a mutual director friend invited us to an early private screening of a film. And I’ve followed his always thoughtful discussions on this or that blog. He was a good guy and he’ll be missed. I’ll be popping in my recently purchased “Apocalypse Now” Blu-ray as soon as I get back to Los Angeles to give “Hearts of Darkness” (which I haven’t seen since film school) another look. Seems right.
[Photo: IMDb]
Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.
I’m in Detroit for the game tomorrow, so movies are somewhat out of sight, out of mind. Somewhat.
As I drive around town, I’m reminded of some singular opportunities here for the film industry. I don’t really know the particulars of filming in Detroit or if Hollywood really bothers. There’s a lot of Pittsburgh filming going on these days and I imagine you get the same feel from a town like that, but kind of like Kansas City, there are unique areas here that would be unexpected gold mines for location shoots.
It’s a sad sight, though, to say the least. Not that that’s news. I came through four years ago, didn’t spend much time here, and got the heck out as soon as possible because “depressing” doesn’t begin to say it. But I have a soft spot for the town. My fiancee is from here (grew up between 7 Mile and 8 Mile — I wonder if she ever ran into Marshall Mathers on these mean streets).
We waited all year for a US distributor to bite on William Monahan’s “London Boulevard,” but it never happened. FormDistrict was formed by the film’s producer, Graham King, last month and will be handling a release Stateside next year. Today a UK trailer hit as the film is opening there next month. It looks like a fun romp and boy does Ray Winstone seem like the perfect guy to rip through Monahan’s dialogue. Check out an embed after the jump.
Welcome to Oscar Talk.
In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.
You can feel the season rumbling to life with Halloween just around the corner. It’s been a lively enough week as contenders began to hit the circuit and more films were unveiled for eager press. Let’s see what’s on the docket today…
• Across the pond, Deborah Orr on a 15 rating due to harmless swearing weighing down an uplifting film like “Made in Dagenham.” [The Guardian]
• A feature biopic is in the works about “The Cove” activist Ric O’Barry. [Deadline]
• The deadline for animated feature submission nears. [Oscars.org]
I stumbled upon this days-old THR story via Anne Thompson, and while I’m glad to see it hasn’t caught on in the blogosphere, I feel compelled to point out just what bullshit it is. (My bad: Kris alluded to the news before THR did.) It would appear that Sylvain Chomet’s probable animated Oscar contender “The Illusionist” is being hassled by parties attached to the 2006 Ed Norton-starring magician drama of the same title, who curiously feel that some kind of trademark is being violated:
Illusionist Distribution, LLC, claims to be the rights-holder of that [2006] film, and is upset that Sony intends to release its Illusionist, with a “strikingly similar” storyline about a touring master illusionist who falls in love.
Illusionist Distribution has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against SPC and Pathe on grounds of trademark infringement and unfair competition, asking a judge to enjoin the November release of The Illusionist. The company is also seeking disgorgement of all profits plus compensatory damages.
“The British are coming!” crowed screenwriter Colin Welland from the Oscar stage in 1982, hoisting aloft his just-awarded awarded statuette for “Chariots of Fire” – and anticipating one of the bigger upsets in the history of the Best Picture race, as the modest British sports drama upended Warren Beatty’s grand political epic “Reds.”
His rallying cry was both premature and behind the beat. Welland may or may not have been aware that the Brits had crashed this particular party several decades previously. In 1948, Laurence Olivier’s “Hamlet” became the first non-US production to land the Academy’s top prize, while the 1960s were something of a golden period for England at the Oscars: while films like “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Tom Jones” and “Oliver!” emerged triumphant, so many Brits vacuumed up the acting prizes that Hollywood industry gossips – the bloggers of yore – began to complain. “It’s not fair,” whined Hedda Hopper. “The weather’s so foul on that tight little isle of theirs, that to get in out of the rain, they gather in halls and practise ‘Hamlet’ on each other.”
But Welland’s promise of a similar period of ubiquitous Brititude was kept only in fits and starts: Richard Attenborough, Ben Kingsley and “Gandhi” may have ruled the roost the following year, but it would be a whole quarter-century before another predominantly UK production (and coincidentally, also one with an Indian bent) took the top prize. In the early 1990s, Limey actors enjoyed a four-year run of wins in the lead acting races – from Daniel Day-Lewis through to Emma Thompson – only for their luck to dry up until Helen Mirren initiated another mini-streak 14 years later. “The British are coming… for occasional visits,” might have been a more accurate boast, if not quite as rousing.
I keep forgetting to post this on Wednesdays. Sorry about that. We’re recording in a matter of hours so if you have any questions you’d like us to address, fire them off here. PLEASE STICK TO ONE QUESTION. We do this every week, after all.
Back in early September DreamWorks sent out a mailer that was, in my book, the first “For Your Consideration” stab of the season, offering up “How to Train Your Dragon” as a contender in pretty much every category. But the mailer wasn’t an advertisement place at any outlet, so the first “official” FYC ad of the season goes to Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland.”
Dave Karger alerts us to the ad, which is part of the recently revealed full-steam-ahead push for the film across all the categories. A billion dollars gets you a lot of love come awards season.
Being first at anything puts you in a good position when it comes to an Oscar race. Currently, as Karger reminds, voters have screeners of “Animal Kingdom,” “City Island,” “Mother and Child” and “Solitary Man” (though you can add “Please Give,” “Winter’s Bone” and “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” to that list, too). Now when they open their trusty trades, they’ll see Helena Bonham Carter’s exaggerated features staring right back at them. Check out the full FYC ad after the jump.
I’ve written plenty about “The Way Back,” Peter Weir’s first film in seven years, here, here and here. And I talked to Weir at length about the project here. So I’m tapped out for now, though I’m eager to hear what others will have to say. The UK trailer dropped a few weeks back giving an overall sense of the scope of the endeavor (I’m told a domestic trailer is on the way), and today, we’ve been given an exclusive first look at the official poster for the film. Have a look at the full image after the jump.
So important but so hard to notice. That’s how I would describe the work of our best film editors – those cutting artists who blend and juxtapose frames together to make films coherent, establish a flow and also set the mood in a manner that suits the screenwriter’s words and the director’s vision.
The Academy Award for Best Film Editing is, more than any other category, very much tied to the Best Picture race. Despite a blip from 2005-2007, this category always has at least three – usually four, sometimes all five – of its nominees also nominated in the big category. Now that there are 10 nominees, however, one cannot help but wonder if we are ever going to again see a nominee here also not cited in Best Picture.
Apart from Best Picture contention, being a war film, action film or musical never hurts here. I must say, however, that since I last previewed this category in August, I continue to believe that the three titles I had leading the way then are still out in front.
Randy Newman has been a fixture of the Pixar brand since day one. He composed the score for 1995’s “Toy Story” and supplied the original songs, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” becoming the theme of the franchise. After receiving 15 nominations without a win, he finally took home his Oscar in 2002 for the original song “If I Didn’t Have You” from “Monsters, Inc.”
This year, Newman is back in the thick of the discussion as he has offered up a new original tune for “Toy Story 3,” namely, “We Belong Together.” The song plays over the closing credits (though I could have sworn I remembered it in the context of the narrative), so that could make it tough. But I have a hunch it’ll be fine.
The song is standard Newman/Pixar fare. There’s certainly no reinvention of the wheel going on here and the song is incredibly simplistic (as it would be in a film largely aimed at children). But I don’t imagine all of that will really count against the track. If nominated, it will be Newman’s 20th invitation to the dance.
I never really noticed how beautiful the trailer for last year’s “The Messenger” was until I saw it last night promoting the film’s HBO premiere. It might be one of my favorite trailers of the last few years. Plenty owed to Mr. Nelson, of course.
• AMPAS and mtvU launch the third annual “Oscars Correspondent Contest” for college journalists. [Oscars.org]
• Across the pond, Stuart Heritage counts down the ways “Rabbit Hole” could be an Oscar bet for Nicole Kidman. [The Guardian]
• The Durst family predictably threatens to sue over “All Good Things.” [Deadline]