In Contention

Tag: Avatar

  • ASC on the way

    Daniel Day-Lewis in NineAlong with the WGA, the American Society of Cinematographers will also be announcing nominees Monday.  Guesses as to which way they’ll go?

    I’d say the safest bet is Robert Richardson and his work on “Inglourious Basterds.” He often gets his due from the guild (eight nominations) even when he doesn’t from the Academy (five nominations).

    After that, it’s likely Barry Ackroyd, the most lauded of the season’s lensers in the critics awards circuit, will be chalked up for “The Hurt Locker.” But I think I have to come clean on something here.

    Due respect to Mr. Ackroyd, who is a considerable talent, his work on the film totally took me out of the narrative.  The slavish devotion to dizzying handheld work lacked the focus of the characters being depicted while attempting to somehow simulate the tension of their profession, and that, I think, was a misstep.

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  • Art Directors Guild nominees

    Johnny Depp in Public EnemiesI’ve had my eye on these because I’ve always felt that, if “Avatar” could slide in here, it might be able to get over any weird bias against the way it was designed (largely in computer, etc.). But after sitting down with Robert Stromberg yesterday, and with these nominations in mind, I feel better about its prospects for Oscar in the category now.

    I’m happy to see “The Lovely Bones” recognized, though I’m consistently baffled as to where the distinction is between “contemporary” and “period” with this film.  And can I also say, looking out over the slate of nominees, this is a damn fine year for art direction?  The 10 in period and fantasy could easily find their way to nominations.

    The obvious snub here is kind of a big one, I’d say: “Nine.” Despite the quality of the film, the below-the-line elements were exemplary.  I guess it wasn’t enough to overcome the film’s overall critical reception.  Oh, and big ups to Jess Gonchor, who I’ve said since day one was a threat for his and set decorator Nancy Haigh’s meticulous work on “A Serious Man.” Stay tuned next week for a Tech Support interview with the principals from that film

    Nominees after the jump.

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  • ‘Avatar’ on late night

    Sigourney Weaver stopped by The Ed Sullivan Theater last night to talk “Avatar” with David Letterman.  My jaw dropped when she explains that the Weta guys spend 47 hours of manpower per each 1/24th of a second in translating the data received from the motion-capture sensors.  Wow.

    Check out the clip below, and after the jump, Conan O’Brien has a bit of fun with the Na’vi language.

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  • Zoe Saldana gets her first awards recognition of the year…

    …from the NAACP (for “Avatar,” that is).  And in supporting.  But I guess that’ll do.  Check out the full list of nominees at our Circuit page.

  • Visual effects bake-off leaves seven

    AvatarAnd they are, via AMPAS press release:

    “Avatar”
    “District 9”
    “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
    “Star Trek”
    “Terminator Salvation”
    “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
    “2012”

    And the three I still expect to get in are in the mix, so, whew.  I think we all know what will eventually win here, but if there’s a surprise nomination waiting to happen, I’d say it’s “2012.”

    “On Thursday, January 21, all members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films,” the release reads.  “Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.”

    What are your visual effects predictions?

  • 1/6 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sam Mendes• Sam Mendes could clearly use a paycheck, signs up for the new Bond. [Heat Vision]

    • Navigating the season in “For Your Consideration” ads. [Vulture]

    • Rodrigo Perez points out some buried points in another outlet’s coverage, namely that Apparition is aiming for a Cannes bow for Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.” [The Playlist]

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  • POLL: Does ‘Avatar’ deserve to win Best Picture?

    Judging from our last poll, most readers seem to think James Cameron’s “Avatar” will rack up the most Oscar nominations in just under a month’s time.  But does it deserve to win the big prize, as a great many prognosticators are currently expecting?  The debate is raging elsewhere, but let us know your cut-and-dry answer in the sidebar poll and feel free to explain your position in the comments section below.

  • Two know-it-alls debate ‘Avatar’

    For your viewing pleasure (and congrats to Poland on welcoming his first child into the world over the weekend):

    (Courtesy: G4)

  • PGA announces nominees, goes sci-fi

    Sharlto Copley in District 9The most striking thing about the slate of nominees unveiled this morning by the Producers Guild of America is a heavy genre slant: all three of 2009’s acclaimed science-fiction mega-hits made the cut in the top category.

    Of course, that’s not all that surprising coming from the producers, whose appreciation of financial success tends to give populist contenders a leg up in their awards. (The first “Harry Potter” film was nommed back in 2001, after all.) I wouldn’t count on the trio of “Avatar,” “District 9” and “Star Trek” all making the Oscar cut, though two is a distinct possibility.

    Nobody should be surprised by this point that “Nine” was left off the list; this is merely the first concrete evidence we’ve had that awards hopes for the critically and commercially embattled film are fading fast.

    Full list of nominees, including animated and documentary categories (why just four slots for the latter?), after the cut.

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  • Quote unquote

    Tom Hanks in Forrest GumpIn one of yesterday’s comment threads, a bit of a discussion built up concerning the quotability (or otherwise) of “Avatar,” and how this factored into its potential pop-culture significance.

    It’s a subject that was also brought up a while back by Cinematical’s Erik Davis, who wondered whether the film’s oft-repeated refrain of “I see you” was a calculated attempt to enter popular conversation. I agree with him that the line seems tooled for that specific purpose, which is precisely why I have a hard time seeing it catch on in a lasting way. (That, and the fact that any sensible person know that “I see you” can only be preceded by a cry of “Peekaboo!”)

    Cinema’s most quotable quotes are rarely designed to be as such. This is also the conclusion of a handily-timed LA Times article, which details the backstory behind now-classic lines from “Cool Hand Luke,” “Forrest Gump,” “Sudden Impact” and, uh, “A League of Their Own.” (Must be an American thing.)

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  • Hope for Saldana

    The closes to a breakthrough with motion capture, and/or animation being added to an actor’s performance would be Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Most of the acting Pitt did was as the half-animated Button – barely recognizable and a performance that simply couldn’t have been gotten without aided technology. That shows that the membrane has been pierced, even if Pitt was also seen a good amount of the time as himself, and himself with makeup.

    Good point.  From Sasha Stone at Awards Daily. For more on this, listen to the most recent edition of Oscar Talk.

  • The new movie of the moment?

    Stephen Lang in AvatarParamount has shrewdly been playing up the significance of Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” with its “movie of the moment” quotes, and rightly so.  The zeitgeist elements in the film have been an inexhaustible talking point since its Telluride debut.  And to tap into those elements is to understand the kind of gravitas a Best Picture contender needs to make it into the winner’s circle.

    However, I can’t help but get the sense that “Avatar” is stealing that zeitgeist thunder somewhat and moving away of the “it’s just about the visuals” thing as of late.  There have been some comments from readers who think James Cameron’s film is an octane entertainment that couldn’t possibly generate the proper “watercooler” talk to be a mainstay in the cultural consciousness, but 17 days, a billion dollars and a number of op-eds later, it seems the cultural consciousness begs to differ.

    Beginning across the pond (and before the New Year) in the right-leaning Daily Telegraph, Nile Gardiner called the film “the most expensive piece of anti-American propaganda ever made,” while nearly a month ago in The Times, Ben Hoyle pulled some political asides out of Cameron regarding the cost of “several hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives.”

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Happy Blue Year

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

    Okay. What kind of fairy dust is James Cameron sprinkling in his films? Subliminal messages perhaps? There’s no other explanation. “Avatar” is the number one movie again this weekend, raking in $68.3 million, off 10% from last week. It becomes the first film to spend three straight weeks at the top since “Tropic Thunder” and that weekend tally is the all time record for a third weekend by a mile. “Spider-Man” previously held the title with $55.7 million.

    “Avatar” now has a running total of $352.1 million and will almost certainly pass $500 million before it exits theaters. Whether or not it can reach the $533.3 million of “The Dark Knight” is not certain, but with January’s releases looking particularly dismal, who knows? It is certain that Cameron’s film will become the second-highest grossing film of all time worldwide behind “Titanic,” and that is just ridiculous.

    The movie is already #94 all time domestically, and #16 of the decade. It’s the highest grossing non-sequel since “The Passion of the Christ” and should eventually be the highest grossing original property since “Titanic.” Box office figures of that nature are pure flukes and for a director to do it twice with completely different properties is jaw-dropping. James Cameron is, without a doubt, the king of the world.

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  • ‘Avatar’ vs. ‘Air’ an Oscar battle of film culture significance?

    George Clooney in Up in the AirBy now, most seem to think the eventual Best Picture race (before nominations have even been announced, mind you) will be a wicked battle between James Cameron’s “Avatar” and Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air.” The cases for the latter as frontrunner were made before the former began smashing box office records.  The cases for the former have been made in the wake of critical and commercial success.

    And each film, make no mistake, has an angle on this thing.  It’ll just come down to which angle represents what tickles the Academy’s fancy NOW, and timing could be a major factor.  But there is something else to consider.  Which angle represents the film culture Hollywood wants to put forth and claim as its own?  What statement does the group, at large, wish to make?

    That’s what Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman is getting at when he writes that this perceived two-horse race is a case of “Old School script-driven Classic Hollywood vs. New Age post-script 21st Century Entertainment.”  And he might not be far off the mark.

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  • Why I’m backing the Basterds

    Diane Kruger in Inglourious BasterdsMy wholly serious (if not stone-set) prediction earlier this week that “Inglourious Basterds” would take the Best Picture Oscar, along with three other statuettes, prompted more discussion than I thought it would. (I sure am glad this many people weren’t paying attention when I predicted a “WALL-E” win last year.)

    The pundit who got the most pleasure out of my guess was, of course, Tom O’Neil — who called it for “Basterds” back in November. Like most, I thought he was off his rocker at the time. Now, I humbly concede he might have been onto something.

    I happily submit that my idea may be wildly off-base, but it’s not underthought. To clarify that, here are 10 reasons I’m going with “Basterds” — one for each nomination I expect the film to get.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Avatar’ leads, ‘Nine’ falls, more lists

    Sam Worthington in AvatarThere was no wrap last Friday, what with Christmas capping a dead calm news week. So here are the highlights of the last fortnight:

    • Off the Carpet returned from its Christmas vacation to survey the current state of the race — advantage “Avatar.”

    • The Long Shot considered the varying fortunes of the quartet of December releases once labeled the Big Four.

    • After much deliberation, Kris laid out his ten favorite films of the decade that was.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 16 — ‘Nine’ stumbles, so cui bono? Plus ‘Avatar’ as frontrunner and forecasting the films of 2010

    Oscar TalkWelcome to the first installment of Oscar Talk of 2010 and, indeed, of the new decade. Oscar Talk is your weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.

    It’s been two weeks since we dug into the Oscar race in this space. Here’s what’s on the docket today:

    • Rob Marshall’s “Nine” has landed in theaters and been both critically and commercially dismissed, so the question is: Is it out of the Best Picture race? Anne and I discuss potential replacements if that’s the case.

    • From the bottom of the list to the top, we talk frontrunners. Is “Avatar” the one to beat? Which films are threatening that position?

    • Speaking of which, could Zoe Saldana be in the mix for a lead actress nomination despite perceived CG bias? Anne puts forth the general narrative, but I think that’s a bit defeatist. Rules are broken every year.

    • Finally, a new year a new list of anticipations. Anne and I run through a big list of films we’re most looking forward to in 2010.

    You can listen to this week’s podcast below, with Robert Burns’s “Auld Lang Syne” leading the way. Cheesy, I know.  And as always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

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    Subscribe to Oscar Talk

  • 1/1 Oscarweb Round-up

    Zoe Saldana in AvatarHappy New Year!

    • Jeffrey Wells wants a Best Actress nomination for “Avatar” star Zoe Saldana. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David Poland calls for the same, amid a number of other history-making Oscar moments that could be in the cards this season. [Movie City News]

    • Steve Pond finds a nifty way of revealing his top 10 list: via official AMPAS ballot. [The Odds]

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