In Contention

Tag: Bill Mechanic

  • The gift, not the wrapping

    Kathryn Bigelow in The Hurt LockerLike a Tiffany engagement ring presented in a Happy Meal box, sometimes the most beautiful gifts come in really cruddy wrapping. And such was the case with last night’s Academy Awards ceremony.

    On the one hand, the show managed to delight (if not surprise) me with one of the unlikeliest sweeps in Oscar history, making history in more ways than one — and for a film that just happened to be my favorite U.S. release of the year. I can’t say that about every (or any) Oscar show I’ve watched in my lifetime. On the other hand, this remarkable turn of events was merely the silver lining to a confounding debacle of a ceremony, one of the most lazily conceived, sloppily staged and lumpenly paced efforts I’ve witnessed in two decades of Oscar-watching.

    I’d dearly love to bring a sunnier perspective on the matter than that of Kris, but just as we were in near-complete agreement on our predictions (save for, ahem, Best Animated Short), I can only echo every gripe he expressed in last night’s wrap-up. Unlike many others, I wasn’t the greatest fan of Bill Condon and Laurence Mark’s streamlined, revue-style reboot of the Oscars last year, but it had a tonal consistency and moved at a clip that last night’s show could only dream of.

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  • 2/26 Oscarweb Round-up

    Cover of Detective Comics #27• Maria Puente on the wide array of villains represented by the year’s Oscar nominations. [USA Today]

    • Bill Mechanic tells Sharon Waxman that the Oscarcast will be “emotional.” [The Wrap]

    • Not movie related, but FYI, Batman’s is still bigger. [Hero Complex]

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  • Shankman and Mechanic on teamwork

    (from left) Adam Shankman and Bill MechanicIn last Friday’s edition of Oscar Talk, Anne Thompson alluded to something of an elephant in the room regarding the upcoming Oscar ceremony: that curiously matched co-producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic are “not getting along.”

    As whispers to this effect continue to circulate around the industry, the pair have clearly aimed to dispel that notion in this interview with USA Today’s Anthony Breznican. Still, while they play up the “odd couple” angle with good humor — Shankman the highly-strung showman balancing out the more pragmatic (and aptly named) Mechanic — they don’t make you read between the lines to see the strain:

    “It’s a meritocracy,” Mechanic says. “Whoever has the best idea wins. We haven’t had a blow-up. But we’ve definitely had disagreements, and definitely gotten heated a few times. He got me going one day, probably by mistake …”

    “With an e-mail,” Shankman says. “As it always is these days.”

    “At 5:45 in the morning, and I probably didn’t read it the way he intended it,” Mechanic says. “And I got (angry) and uppity.”

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  • What might have been

    Sacha Baron CohenI agree with Anne Thompson in yesterday’s edition of Oscar Talk when she cautiously says that the hosting is one of the few things she’s not worried about in the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. Steve Martin — tried, tested and funny on two previous hosting dates — is the definition of a safe pair of hands, while the gig seems a natural fit for Alec Baldwin’s newfound national treasure status.

    At the very least, seeing how the duo dynamic works out, after many years (my entire Oscar-watching lifetime, at least) of individual hosts, will be interesting. But show producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic gave us a more intriguing what-if scenario when they revealed their far riskier initial pick for the gig:

    The always-candid Shankman revealed that when he and Mechanic first met for lunch, they immediately agreed that the person who should host the show would be none other than Sacha Baron Cohen.

    Shankman said, just as quickly as they told the Academy of their idea, “the Academy swatted it down. They thought it was too big of a wild card.”

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  • 1/18 Oscarweb Round-up

    In the Loop(Your non-Harvey-influenced round-up for the morning…)

    • Is Armando Iannucci planning to take the world of “In the Loop” to HBO? [CHUD]

    • Bill Mechanic responds to criticism over move to eliminate original song performances. [The Odds]

    • Actors on an actorless “Avatar.” [Los Angeles Times]

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  • Shocker: Best Original Song nominees will not perform

    (from left) T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham at the 2010 Golden Globe AwardsThis is a bit outrageous.  Mike Fleming is reporting at Deadline Hollywood Daily that the original song nominees will not be asked to perform the tracks on the telecast:

    Explanations include that the songs never delivered ratings, and that is what this Oscarcast is all about. That not having the big production numbers will move the show along. That it will save money for distributors, who eat most of the costs (up to 7 figures) of schlepping singers in. That unless a song by Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Sting or U2 were nominated, most of the worldwide audience is hearing the tune for the first time when it is sung. I mean, can anybody besides Tom Bernard or Michael Barker from Sony Pictures Classics hum a few bars of “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36?

    Dear Academy: I don’t think we can possibly bend over any further.

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  • In the trenches with AMPAS

    (from left) Tom Sherak and Anne HathawayI must admit that when I found out Monday night that our friend Anthony Breznican was embedded with AMPAS brass and nominations co-announcer Anne Hathaway for this USA Today feature story (and, therefore, knew the nominees at 9:00 that night), I was incredibly jealous.  But that it yielded such an insightful little piece, well, fine by me.

    Breznican offers a unique first-hand perspective on the Academy’s preparations for the big morning announcement, divulging intriguing little tidbits throughout (like the fact that Oscarcast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic were happy to see “The Blind Side” shortlisted, while it induced groans and eye-rolling from others in the room).  That PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants go to an “undisclosed location” to tally the votes is just hilarious.  I picture them in some underground bunker like in the denouement of “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.”

    I bet if there’s ever a nuclear holocaust the night before an Oscar announcement, the PwC guys would be survivors, like Burgess Meredith emerging from a bank vault with “all the time in the world.”  Imagine it.  Anyway, I digress…

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  • Call it, friendo

    Sophia Loren and Kate Winslet at the 81st Annual Academy Awards ceremonyYesterday, Kris pointed you to Gregory Ellwood’s report on various Oscarcast developments, most of which either elicited a “wait and see” response from me or went over my head completely.

    (As a very old man of 26, I confess to having only a hazy grasp of who Taylor Lautner actually is. But I very much enjoyed her song “You Belong With Me.”)

    Still, one of the tidbits did get a rise out of me, and a slightly concerned one at that. After initially deciding against a repeat of last year’s five-presenter format for the acting awards, producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic have had a change of heart — and have added a slight twist.

    The Best Actor and Best Actress awards will now be presented not necessarily by former winners, but by “friends” of each nominee.

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  • Almodóvar, Tarantino to present at Oscars, five-presenter system scrapped

    Pedro AlmodovarA few weeks ago, The Film Experience’s Nathaniel Rogers invited alternative presenter ideas for next year’s Academy Awards ceremony. Among the suggestions I made was a more diverse roster of recognizable filmmakers deemed worthy of presenter status, naming Pedro Almodóvar as an example.

    Once again, Oscarcast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman and I seem to be eerily in sync, as Pete Hammond has just revealed that that the great Spanish auteur and Quentin Tarantino are the first confirmed presenters for the ceremony.

    Meanwhile, last year’s five-presenter innovation for the acting categories will not be continued, a move that will probably disappoint as many people as it pleases. (I’m in the latter category.)

    Speaking to Hammond at last night’s Governors’ Awards, Mechanic instead promised presenter pairings with “real significance,” beginning with Almodóvar and Tarantino, who will hand out the Best Foreign Language Film award together.

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  • Fixing the Oscarcast … get your ideas in early

    Meryl Streep at the 81st annual Academy AwardsWith the 2009 Oscar telecast a little over four months away, it may seem a tad premature for the annual round of “how-to-save-the-show” suggestions, but it’s really the best time — now that Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic have been handed the reins, they’ll be drawing up plans immediately.

    So the LA Times’s Mary McNamara has handily weighed in with her annual list of ideas and pointers for the show’s producers, ranging from the widely agreed-upon (drop the irrelevant musical numbers) to the slightly more idiosyncratic (“Do something with vampires,” she helpfully advises).

    Given that, like McNamara, I wasn’t as big a fan of the last Oscarcast as many were, it follows that I would agree with several of her ideas. I do think film clips have a necessary place in the acting presentations — as strange as it seems to those of us more familiar with the films on an annual basis, a brief, well-chosen clip from a lesser-known title can arouse interest from less informed viewers. (More so than a smarmy verbal tribute from, say, Adrien Brody.)

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Oscar prods, Gotham nods, ‘Amelia’ clods

    Richard Gere• The Academy finally named the producers for next year’s Oscar telecast, first-timers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic.

    • All of which added weight to the speculation that Hugh Jackman might return as host.

    • The Gotham Awards provided the season with its first set of nominees, though it inspired more talk for its omissions.

    • Chief among those omissions: “Precious,” prompting talk of a backlash, despite generous media exposure positioning it as the one to beat.

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  • Shankman and Mechanic named new Oscarcast producers

    Adam Shankman on the set of HairsprayWell, we were getting a bit impatient for the names to drop, but finally they have: Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic have formally been named as the producers of the 2009 Academy Awards telecast.

    As was the case last year, Oscar bosses have handed the reins to a pair of newcomers. Shankman, a choreographer-turned-filmmaker (not to mention “So You Think You Can Dance” judge) best known for his direction of “Hairspray” and “A Walk to Remember,” and Mechanic, a producer and former Fox chief, seem to represent a pairing of showbiz glitter with old-school industry brass.

    This kind of inside-baseball stuff isn’t really my forte, but I will venture a guess that the selection of Shankman indicates a willingness to stick to the musical-inspired, let’s-put-on-show mandate that Bill Condon and Laurence Mark set last year. (In which case Hugh Jackman might return as host after all.) And if Shankman brings the same level of slickness and sincere enthusiasm to this assignment as he did to “Hairspray,” I’m not complaining.

    Press release after the cut.

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  • 9/30 Oscarweb Round-up

    George Clooney in The Men Who Stare at Goats• Roger Ebert talks “Capitalism: A Love Story” with Michael Moore. [Chicago Sun-Times]

    • Noah Forrest stands up for Megan Fox against a weird culture of hatred toward the actress. [Movie City News]

    • George Clooney vs. George Clooney at the November box office. [Vulture]

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