In Contention

Tag: Clint Eastwood

  • EXCLUSIVE: Eastwood’s Mandela film titled ‘Invictus’

    (from left) Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood on the set of InvictusIt’s interesting how news bites trickle down.  A passing comment from our own Chad Hartigan over at Twitter stirred the stagnant buzz nest of Clint Eastwood’s still-filming Nelson Mandela project for me, so I did a little digging.

    Anyone who follows the film awards season is well aware of the project, which will star Morgan Freeman as the esteemed former president of South Africa and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, captain of the South Africa Springboks rugby union team that won an unlikely World Cup trophy in 1995 as the nation was in the midst of post-Apartheid transition.  The story was committed to print in John Carlin’s book “Playing the Enemy” in 2008.  Eastwood mentioned at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in January that Carlin’s book covered similar territory to his as-of-then untitled film but didn’t mention whether Anthony Peckham’s screenplay was a proper adaptation of the volume.

    But back to that Twitter message.  It read, quite simply, “Eastwood’s film called Invictus.”  So I called Malpaso, Eastwood’s production company.  I asked if this was indeed the case and was told, swiftly, “that’s still all in the works.”  No confirmation was forthcoming.  Fair enough.  I got Chad on the phone and tracked down his source, which was an internal industry email that read: “Please note, Clint Eastwood’s untitled Nelson Mandela film is now titled ‘Invictus.’”  A quick email to his source at Warner Bros. and I got the confirmation.  We have a title.  But what does it mean?  Read on to find out.

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  • Sporting chance

    Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood on the set of Untitled Nelson Mandela ProjectRegular visitors to his entertaining blog will know that Nathaniel Rogers has become the latest lunatic to enter the fray of (nearly) year-in-advance Oscar predictions, and as ever, they make for great reading. He has a number of pretty interesting hunches, some of which line up with my own (sight unseen, I also think “An Education” could emerge as a biggish deal) and some in a decidedly crazysexycool vein. (Terry Gilliam a Best Director nominee? I can’t see it, but I wish I could.)

    For his top pick in the Best Picture category, however, Rogers sticks a little closer to the presumed script, guessing (like many others) that Clint Eastwood’s Mandela project is in the driver’s seat. He does, however, cannily note what too many other pundits have not — that the possibly-still-untitled film (we can only hope they find a more flavourful moniker than the bone-dry “The Human Factor”) is not strictly a Nelson Mandela biopic, but a sports drama of sorts:

    The inspirational sports film is a regular staple of the multiplex. Most of them come and go with nary an Oscar blip. It’s kind of the ugly stepchild within the family of stories Oscar really loves, the true story period piece. Every once in a while, though, this overly populated genre does attract Academy eyeballs (Chariots of Fire, Seabiscuit, Hoosiers) and if there’s any pairing that comes with automatic prestige cred and appealing “important!” political background, it’d have to be Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman mixed with Nelson Mandela and South Africa. It’s guesswork. Maybe it’ll be too light for the Academy.

    Having now read both Anthony Peckham’s script and John Carlin’s source book “Playing the Enemy,” I think Rogers might be on to something with the word “light” — though a serious-minded piece, the political content that you might expect in a film concerning arguably this era’s most revered politician is notably played down.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Handicapping 2009 a year in advance!?

    Ewan McGregor and Hilary Swank in AmeliaAhh.  The dust is settling.  And on the horizon, just visible through the mist and waiting to drive us all up the wall once again: the 2009 Oscar season.

    I’ve been writing this year-in-advance column for probably six years now, and I always look forward to gazing ahead.  No one dives in so pathetically deep this far out as yours truly, but in exchange for not having a life for the past few months, I get to unload this burden the day after our annual season’s peak and forget about little gold men entirely for a few months.

    It’s quite liberating.

    The most interesting thing about the season to come, from my vantage point, is the lack of a dreaded “frontrunner status” for any of the contenders.  Some might say Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela project (which is not called “The Human Factor,” mind you — the director says the film is currently untitled and is based on John Carlin’s book “Playing the Enemy”).

    Others might say Rob Marshall’s “Nine” (coming from a money-tight company hoping to avoid echoes of “Memoirs of a Geisha”).  But I don’t see a “Geisha” from here, or a “Charlie Wilson’s War,” expected heavies waiting to miss the mark.  The field is curiously flat, and as a result, excitingly broad.

    Let’s get to it, shall we?

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  • THE LISTS: Top 10 pet peeves of the 2008-2009 Oscar season

    Rachel Getting Married

    The season is winding down this week.  The slow President’s Day holiday yesterday seemed to be more of a harbinger than a lull in the excitement.  This time next week, we’ll probably be over the fallout of the circuit and on to debating the contenders we’re likely to see a year from now.

    It’s a vicious, beautiful, sad, interesting circle.

    But before the 81st Annual Academy Awards telecast puts a bow on the festivities Sunday night, it seems a decent enough time to reflect.  And not to be too negative, but this became one of the most irritating seasons I’ve ever covered, both in the lack of excitement to the dichotomy that circumstance presented for me (given that my favorite film of the year has lead the field throughout).

    With that in mind, I fully expect this piece to grate the nerves of more than a few readers.  Then again, I’m sure plenty of these views are shared by a handful as well, but whatever the case, a list of pet peeves began to stack up early on in the season.  I thought it reasonable to collect them here, so feast your eyes (or roll them), this is what got under my skin this year.

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  • It’s all about the actors

    Over at USA Today, Susan Wloszczyna has come to the conclusion that, in a fairly weak year for film with a less-than-competitive Best Picture slate to show for it, the performance categories are where it’s at this year:

    The real action this year is in the acting. Sets were chewed with delicious relish and scenes were snatched with delectable finesse, even if the films themselves have underwhelmed.

    “I look at my ballot and see all these amazing actors,” says an overwhelmed Donna Gigliotti, a producer on The Reader and a trophy winner for 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. “It’s just staggering. That role was a game changer for Anne Hathaway, nothing that anyone expected from her. And Melissa Leo in Frozen River? What is she, 48? Her nomination just made me want to stand up and cheer. Richard Jenkins is such a fabulous actor. And Taraji P. Henson is the soul of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.“

    I’m inclined to agree. Though I still think the Academy dropped the ball in some areas (Best Actress, in particular, could have been a far richer and more diverse race had the likes of Sally Hawkins and Kristin Scott Thomas been invited), it’s true that, while 2008 hasn’t been as rewarding for auteur works as some previous years, we’ve seen a lot of films either wholly constructed around their performances (“The Wrestler” being a prime example) or saved by them (for my money, Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt are the most focused elements of “Rachel Getting Married”).

    The result is, I think, that people seem a lot more invested in this year’s acting races than the ones for Picture or Director — and it’s not just because the latter two are foregone conclusions. (Let’s face it, there’s not much more suspense in some of the acting categories, and I think you know what I’m referring to.) It seems to me that the performances of 2008 have been more complete, complex and adventurous than the films — in some cases, the very films in which they appear.

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  • Taking it in his stride

    With the Best Actor race narrowing to a heated finish between Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn, it’s easy to forget that Clint Eastwood was once very much part of the conversation. Of course, any such possibilities were sunk as “Gran Torino” became the first Eastwood in six years to come up empty on nomination morning. In a substantial interview in today’s Guardian, however, Eastwood doesn’t seem particularly fazed by missing out this time:

    “I have had three films nominated out of the last five I’ve made. I just make the film the best I can. The rest is political stuff and posturing. I’m not terribly good at that. I think our message was as good as any message out there this year. There we are.”

    I imagine it’s easier to be philosophical about such things when you have four Oscars on your mantlepiece already, and the film in question is still raking in the millions. However, as I read the piece, I got the distinct impression that “Torino” is very much a film Eastwood made for himself, rather than with designs on awards and critical kudos. (As it happens, interviewer Emma Brockes is refreshingly unfawning on her subject — though she likes the film as a whole, she isn’t too awed to point out its flaws, including the star’s own occasional “snarling and overacting.”)

    Of course, a more cynical take would be that he isn’t bothered by his poor showing in this year’s awards race because he has an ominously baity project in the pipeline — his thus-far vaguely defined Nelson Mandela picture — that could well feed the Academy’s known penchant for ennobling true-life stories. As a South African, I must admit that the project has me nervous for all kinds of reasons, but amid the earnestness, Eastwood isn’t above poking a bit of fun at himself:

    When I ask who will play (Mandela), he looks devilish and says, “I’m going to play him. I’m going to show you my versatility.” (It will actually be Morgan Freeman. “Perfect casting for Mandela.”)

    We will no doubt be talking further about this project when Kris offers his year-in-advance speculation on the 2009 Oscars later this month, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, read the rest of the interview here.

  • SANTA BARBARA: That’s a wrap

    David Fincher at the 24th Annual Santa Barbara International Film FestivalToday is the last day of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which I have had an absolute blast covering for the past nine days.  It was a great breather after the build-up to the Oscar nominations (which exhausts us all), but I’m back in Los Angeles and ready to round out the season properly.

    I didn’t catch as many films as I’d have liked, even though Santa Barbara isn’t your typical dusk-till-dawn film-watching festival.  I didn’t even see the majority of the films that won prizes (collected for you from the press release after the jump), but most of what I’ve seen, I’ve commented on.  There were a few I never got around to discussing, however, like the Jeremy Irons-narrated “Eye of the Leopard,” which was hardly the derivative nature doc I expected.  It was, in fact, an exhilarating experience, crafted with all the knowledge of what makes fine drama.  It’s also cool to hear Scar narrating a documentary about leopards.

    Staying in the nature vein, the PBS documentary “Lobo: The Wolf That Changed America” wasn’t exactly a good film, but it really piqued my interest to read more about Ernest Thompson Seaton and the lessons he learned hunting wolves a century ago in New Mexico.

    I briefly mentioned “The Informers” last night.  It’s a mind-bender that might be terrible, but like I said, I couldn’t stop watching.  And I want to see it again.  And “$9.99” is a stunning accomplishment in stop-motion animation that I expect we’ll hear about throughout the year.

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  • SANTA BARBARA: Clint Eastwood hailed as a Modern Master

    Clint EastwoodSo Clint Eastwood arrived in town tonight without all the pizazz you might have expected, as I reported from this evening’s Arlington Theatre event.  But inside the place was bananas.  Every single seat in the theater was filled, many of the locals vocalizing their shock on the way down the aisles.  “I’ve never seen it this packed before,” many of them said as they found a place to settle in and behold the career the festival was honoring.

    Moderator Leonard Maltin seemed to bite off a little bit more than he could chew.  Seriously, an hour and a half in and we were just getting to 1971.  I figured the 1980s would be a blur and indeed they were — Who wants to remember “Heartbreak Ridge” and “Firefox?” — but I would have liked some discussion on “Bird,” maybe, or “Pale Rider.”  But Maltin warned at the top that if he didn’t get to your favorite film, please understand.  We’re talking about six decades here.

    Early in the discussion Maltin spent a lot of time picking Eastwood’s brain on his early career — a contract player at Universal, roaming around the lot soaking up what information he could, getting the gig on television’s “Rawhide” and, of course, Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns that didn’t find release in the states until rights were cleared up regarding Akira Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo.”  On the whole it was one of those kiss, kiss sessions, but the crowd was pumped.

    Every film that might be mentioned briefly in passing seemed to find this pocket of applause or that.  The “Dirty Harry” stuff was an obvious favorite (of course we were treated to the infamous “I gots ta know” sequence), but “Gran Torino” really brought the house down, especially the old guy vs. the homies scene that might have been Eastwood’s Oscar clip had the performance been nominated a week ago.

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  • Reasons Clint Eastwood is cool, #246

    He drives himself to his own tribute, eschews the big to do of a red carpet arrival, hops the metal barricade and slides into the fray minutes before anyone notices. Classic Eastwood.

  • After cooling off a bit…

    Michael Shannon in Revolutionary RoadYesterday the Academy displayed just what a fractured organization they are, championing a small film like “Slumdog Millionaire,” for which I applaud them, but snubbing “The Dark Knight,” one of the best reviewed films of the year and a titan at the box office. All day I was asking, ‘How?’  All day I wondered just how out of touch this organization truly is and what a major overhaul is needed.

    Call it ageism if you must, but we I think we need new blood in there.  I have been covering the Academy Awards for more than 20 years and have had my share of disappointments and shocks over that span of time. One would think I’d get used to it.

    I remember the rage when “Ghost” was nominated for Best Picture and when Roberto Begnini won Best Actor. That anger and shock was nothing like I felt yesterday morning at 8:30 Ontario time.

    I could not speak. I closed my office door and quietly raged, trying to make sense of it. Reading the other reactions helped ease the wound (I take it personally you see when my films are snubbed) and tried to see the good in the nominations this year. And as Guy astutely points out, there is some good.

    Melissa Leo in “Frozen River” made the cut, as did Richard Jenkins for “The Visitor.”  Both deserved, both terrific performances. “Wall-E” grabbed a screenplay nod, as well as sound nominations, and “Slumdog Millionaire” did very well indeed, with 10 nods. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” lead the pack with 13 and Brad Pitt finally got a nomination for Best Actor — long overdue.  Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei made the list for “The Wrestler” and all four major actors from “Doubt” are nominees.

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  • Hey, it ain’t ALL bad

    OK, looking at the bigger picture, I’m as mortified as everyone else by this morning’s Academy Award nominations. By playing it safe in numerous areas, AMPAS voters have once more failed their art form … but more surprisingly, they have failed their audience.

    Kris has already touched to some extent on the most glaring injustices of the morning, and I plan to indulge in my own share of ranting later today. But before I get into that, I’d like to channel my inner Bing Crosby and accentuate the positive. Amid the minefield of errors, there were some isolated pleasant surprises and level-headed decisions, even if many of them were on a smaller scale. And these were the best of them:

    “GRAN TORINO” STRIKES OUT: Many were speculating that the latest from the (usually) Oscar-beloved Clint Eastwood could be a spoiler in the top race, with the man himself an ominous threat to actually take the Best Actor gong. But for once, Eastwood’s stealth-release strategy didn’t pay off. Either the film gathered momentum too late, or voters saw through the film’s creaky construction and hammy lead turn. Either way, in passing over Eastwood for the wonderful Richard Jenkins, the Academy made the right call.

    ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY GETS ORIGINAL: Matching the WGA’s Original Screenplay nominees in only one instance, voters dug deep here and pulled some inspired choices out of the hat. Bypassing the familiar comforts of Woody Allen or the Coen Brothers, they recognised that “Frozen River” owed its jagged, riveting tension to more than just Melissa Leo’s stellar performance, and, most thrillingly, recognised the pitch-black wit and literary sensibility of “In Bruges.” A nod for Mike Leigh’s unconventionally constructed “Happy-Go-Lucky” was more expected, but no less gratifying.

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  • 81st annual Oscar nominations announced, ‘Button’ leads with 13, ‘Dark Knight’ snubbed in Best Pic

    Kate Winslet in The ReaderWeinstein is back.  (As are comments…sorry for the delay there.)

    The short reply is the easy reply: the Academy has embarrassed itself this day.  Seven  nominations across the tech branches and a tip of the hat for Heath Ledger will be the Oscar legacy of “The Dark Knight.” The director — shunned. The writers — shunned. The film as a Best Picture nominee, pulling this crusty membership out of irrelevance? A pipe dream.

    And I saw it coming. I saw this sense of rigid stupidity and ignorance coming, but I just…I didn’t have the heart to predict against the grain. I bought into the hype. I thought the Academy could be a fresh organization. Clearly, it cannot. And it proves as much year after year after year.

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was the lead nomination hog with 13 mentions. Likely Best Picture winner “Slumdog Millionaire” was not far behind with 10, two of those nominations coming in the Best Original Song category.

    Yes, the music branch proved to be a bunch of bumbling fools yet again, ignoring a solid track from a gifted rocker just like they did last year. You read it right: the Boss got the shaft.

    “Milk” matched “The Dark Knight”‘s number of eight and, of course, found its way to Best Picture contention. But it also popped up surprisingly in the costume design field. Meanwhile, some singular thinking were to be had — like “Frozen River” and “In Bruges” finding recognition for their respective original screenplays (though at the unfortunate expense of Woody Allen).  Or Michael Shannon, the lone acting nominee for “Revolutionary Road,” and a hell of a deserving bid.  Hearing his name brought the broadest smile to my face.

    And in an act of defiance against a supporting category campaign, the Academy recognized Kate Winslet as a lead in “The Reader,” which cock-blocked her performance in “Road.”

    This all brings us to the elephant in the room: “The Reader” was the film to steal the Bat’s thunder, not “Gran Torino” like I expected, not “WALL-E” as others had hoped. And I think we all knew it was coming once Stephen Daldry’s name was called.  A pornographic account of a sympathetic Nazi, rushed through post-production and ultimately a sloppy piece of drama, rightly abandoned by its initial producer at a crucial time on the basis of principle on one hand, politics on the other — this is one of the Academy’s five Best Pictures of the year.

    These people should have their cards taken away. This member-for-life shit has to go because you end up with crotchety fools that have no idea what good cinema is, let alone a care about how their organization’s choices will be looked upon in the future. Years from now, “The Reader” will be a blip on the map of film obscurity. “The Dark Knight” will live on in infamy as one of the year’s titans, both a popular blockbuster and a critically acclaimed work of art.

    What an absolute tragedy.

    (More, plus the nods, after the jump.)

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Enough foreplay

    WALL-EWhat else is there to say?  Tomorrow we’ll have a new president and the last eight years will, hopefully, start to fade away.  In four days we’ll have a fresh slate of Oscar nominees and the last four months of awards speculation will suddenly be a distant memory.  The big wheel keeps on turning.

    I don’t know what else can be added to the conversation at this point that hasn’t been mulled over a million times already.  I do know, as my final set of Oscar predictions will reflect, that this years seems to be given to the safe bet more than any other in recent memory.  But I also know the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a difficult group of people to corner.  There are always surprises.

    As I look over the landscape of the 2008-2009 season, I find myself seeking out those blind-side possibilities.  No one saw “City of God” coming four times over in 2003.  Hardly anyone expected Tommy Lee Jones to snatch a nomination last year after failing to pop up throughout the precursor season.  And certainly, no one banked on a “Dreamgirls” snub in 2006.

    But these things happen.  I’ll lay out a set of my own left-field possibilities on Wednesday, since this year’s inauguration proceedings have kept the weekly Oscar column somewhat removed from the actual announcement (generally I write this the day before), but today I thought I’d end phase one with a few question marks I feel it necessary to punctuate.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Globe surprises, best shots, BAFTA nods

    Sorry the Weekly Wrap feature has been M.I.A. these past few weeks — between the holidays and various disasters, they got a bit forgotten. Anyway, it’s back this week, and what a busy week it was:

    • In a new annual institution at IC, Kris reviewed the top 10 shots of the year here … and here.

    • The Golden Globes threw up several surprises, but the biggest one was what a deeply satisfying evening it was.

    • Following that ceremony, this week’s Off the Carpet column wondered whether the Oscars can measure up.

    • While the Globes gained credibility, BAFTA threw theirs to the wind with a curious slate of nominations … though “Slumdog Millionaire” once more sits pretty.

    • But for omitting “Gomorrah” from their 9-film shortlist, AMPAS’ foreign-language committee earns this week’s biggest dunce cap.

    • The American Cinema Editors revealed their nominees. Everyone yawned in unison.

    • Meanwhile, the costume designers completed this year’s guild citations.

    • Taking a breather from the precursor beat, we got chatting to the delightful Amy Adams.

    • The Sundance Festival started this week … but is anyone watching?

    • In other film festival news, Berlin has announced some intriguing premieres.

    • Finally, with whispers circulating that “Gran Torino” could spoil in the Best Picture race, how much of a Best Actor threat is Clint Eastwood?

  • 1/16 Oscarweb Round-up

    Roddy Piper in They Live• A brilliant roundtable: wrestlers discussing “The Wrestler.”  It’s just nice that Luger has his faculties about him now. [Fox Searchlight]

    • While we’re on the subject, the top 10 wrestlers in movies.  I’m big on #10 and #3.  Not so much on #1. [The Times]

    • Making the SAG award statuette. [The Envelope]

    • Kate Dailey reports from a SoHo Q&A with “Gran Torino” director and star Clint Eastwood. [Vulture]

    • A nice Leonardo DiCaprio appreciation. [The Guardian]

    • Feel-good films for a global recession. [The Independent]

    • Patrick Goldstein picks up on TV producer Chuck Lorre’s recent post-“Big Bang Theory” vanity card, bemoaning the negativity of this year’s Oscar contenders. [The Big Picture]

  • After finishing off the Joker, Batman may have to fend off a Nazi and a biggot on the way to Oscar

    Kate Winslet in The ReaderA week ago with the announcement of the Directors Guild Awards (DGA), it seemed Christopher Nolan and “The Dark Knight” were headed for Oscar night, with nominations for Best Picture and Best Director highly likely. But like a full balloon with a slow leak, the air is slowly hissing out as “Gran Torino” and “The Reader” seem to be gaining momentum.

    I loved “The Dark Knight.” It was, for me, the best film of the year and highly deserving of top tier nominations. Regardless of its comic roots, Nolan’s accomplishment in giving the film a heart and soul on a grand scale is even greater, and I hope the Academy sees it that way.

    “Gran Torino” has gained enormous momentum since being released wide, racking up more than $30 million at the domestic box office.  Audiences are coming in droves to see Clint back on screen.  He surrounded himself with largely or complete unknowns, amplifying is screen presence.  Very shrewd.  Audiences are going to see him, possibly for the last time, as he portrays the sort of character they love to see.

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  • 1/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    Will Smith• Kim Voynar responds to the foreign shortlist. [Movie City News]

    • Pete Hammond wonders if “The Dark Knight” in dicey waters with the “Reader” surge coming on strong. [Notes on a Season]

    • Tom O’Neil thinks keeping the Oscar presenters a secret until the big night is a mistake.  Eh, I dig it. [Gold Derby]

    • Paula Schwartz catches up with Clint Eastwood at the National Board of Review awards. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Nirpal Dahliwal on why “Slumdog Millionaire” could have only been made by a westerner. [The Guardian]

    • The Press Association gets some Obama inauguration comments from Will Smith at the “Seven Pounds” red carpet across the pond. [The Independent]

    • The only nomination “The Dark Knight” will share with “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” all year long: the Publicist Awards. [Variety]

  • 1/14 Oscarweb Round-up

    Gomorrah• Stop the presses, Tom O’Neil meets the Carpetbagger at the Globes. [Gold Derby]

    • Scott Foundas on the “Gomorrah” foreign committee snub. [LA Weekly]

    • David Poland talks to Mike Leigh and Sally Hawkins. [The Hot Blog]

    • David Carr is stoked about the “new kind of prom queen” Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” represents. [The Carpetbagger]

    • It’s likely to become a tired (if true) trend: David Gritten calls the film “the first film of the Obama era.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • Patrick Goldstein considers “Gran Torino” reason enough to warrant a Clint Eastwood class on acting career management. [The Big Picture]