In Contention

Tag: Dick Smith

  • James Earl Jones, Dick Smith and Oprah Winfrey to receive Academy’s Governors Awards

    Okay, so nix her as a host possibility. Oprah gets the Hersholt.

    Dick Smith is an inspired pick for an Honorary Oscar. It’s interesting that I’m watching Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes” right now, which saw makeup artist Rick Baker shafted by the Academy, just as his mentor is announced for this honor. Baker talked a bit about Smith at Comic-Con last month.

    And James Earl Jones, well. Who’s going to argue with that? Anyway, the press release, in part:

    The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted tonight to present Honorary Awards to actor James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to philanthropist Oprah Winfrey. All three awards will be presented at the Academy’s 3rd Annual Governors Awards dinner on Saturday, November 12, at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center®.

    [Photo: Columbia Pictures]

  • COMIC-CON: Rick Baker, a fan like the rest

    My first panel of this year’s convention was a delightful focus on makeup artist Rick Baker, who is coming off his seventh Oscar win for last year’s “The Wolfman.” He drew a nice crowd of die-hards at the Hilton Bayfront’s Indigo Ballroom, which let out a massive cheer when moderator Geoff Boucher of Hero Complex quipped, “Congratulations for not being at the ‘Twilight’ panel.”

    Ostensibly Baker was on hand as a bit of early buzz-stirring for Sony’s “Men in Black III,” and we got some great glimpses of the makeup work on the film. Baker said he was “so glad” to get the call from Barry Sonnenfeld, but when it came to expanding on the work he’s already done on the series, it took some thinking.

    “Everyone always says, ‘We want to see aliens like we’ve never seen before,’” he said. “But it’s a little hard now. Back when I did the ‘Star Wars’ Cantina scene, it was a lot different.”

    (more…)

  • 6/17 Web Round-up

    Clash of the Titans• “Persepolis” director Marjane Satrapi (along with fellow filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf) presents evidence that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the Iran election. [Adnkronos International]

    • Relax.  Thankfully a handful of the 80s classics aren’t being remade. [Film School Rejects]

    • For no reason whatsoever: the evolution of stop-motion animation. [Empire]

    • Four days after a similar but much deeper story in the pages of London’s The Independent, Christopher Rossen bemoans Hollywood remakes of 1970s classics. [New York Observer]

    • Special makeup effects legend Dick Smith to be feted by his peers. [Los Angeles Times]

    • 10 movies about healthcare Congress should see. (In other news, Christopher Campbell is a list machine.) [Spout Blog]