In Contention

Tag: Chiwetel Ejiofor

  • Paramount and Lionsgate do it up pre-Globes

    Tobey Maguire in BrothersThere will be a number of post-Golden Globes parties tonight — Summit, Warner Bros., Fox, Weinstein, etc. — but a pair of studios did it up Saturday night in honor of their nominees.

    First at the Chateau Marmont, Paramount toasted its stable with a star-studded, paparazzi-snapping affair.  Actually, it wasn’t the least bit comfortable.  Talk about over-invited.  In the inner sanctum, surrounded by Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Benicio Del Toro, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Mike Tyson (who wasn’t on the list, but would you turn him away?), George Clooney, Chris Pine, Tobey Maguire, etc., breathing, let alone moving more than two inches, was a chore.  Jason Reitman was on hand early on but had to take off for the LAFCA gala before long.  Luckily, he missed that fire hazard.

    I got a few seconds with Farmiga, who was excited to say hello to Scorsese again.  Anne Kendrick and her beau Edgar Wright smartly made their way to a secondary room at one point where we had a nice chat.  Wright was, of course, being hit up by “Scott Pilgrim” queries left and right.  From the youngsters, that is.  The crowd was largely, shall we say, octogenarian.  Plenty of HFPA and Academy members scattered throughout.  And Kendrick, bless her heart, didn’t even want to talk about the “O-word.”

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  • 11/16 Oscarweb Round-up

    Lauren Bacall• Catch video highlights of Saturday night’s Honorary Oscars celebration. [Oscars.org]

    • Baltimore Ravens OT Michael Oher on his life’s inspiration for Hollywood. [CNN]

    • Hoping “Avatar” is the new face of filmmaking. [Los Angeles Times]

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  • Chiwetel Ejiofor: an actor to watch

    As both Kris and I have suggested, this is likely to be the year of Robert Downey Jr. I’m pleased to see that he’s getting rave reviews for his work in “Iron Man,” and I’m glad to know that it isn’t a mess the way many comic book adaptations become (“Hulk” and “Batman & Robin,” certainly).

    But since we’re on the topic of new actors (or, in Mr. Downey’s case, veteran actors re-made) taking the scene, I wanted to draw attention to Chiwetel Ejiofor, who stars in the lead role of David Mamet’s new film “Redbelt.”

    Ejiofor easily makes my list of the finest actors working today. Recently, he starred in Alfonso Cuaron’s marvelous “Children of Men,” alongside Denzel Washington in Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster” and opposite Don Cheadle in “Talk to Me.” I thought his role in HBO’s under-appreciated drama “Tsunami: The Aftermath” was extraordinary.

    In “Redbelt,” Ejiofor plays the role of Mike Terry, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor who runs a struggling academy in Los Angeles. Michael Rechtshaffen of Hollywood Reporter describes Ejiofor as the “heart and soul of the film.” Today, Ejiofor appeared on NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross.

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