James L. Brooks says he “has a tough time” with titles and that they “make [him] nuts.” So following the switcheroo of “Betty Anne Waters” to “Conviction,” today it looks like Brooks’s “How Do You Know” will now be known as “Everything You’ve Got.” The film stars Paul Rudd and Reese Witherspoon and may or may not be an awards caliber thing, depending on the “Spanglish”-ness of the finished product.
Capiche?
Uncle.
I told myself I wasn’t going to write this column this year, let alone make predictions, but some of you were just too cute in your emails and Twitter DMs asking for something akin to my annual year-in-advance take on the race, so I struck a balance: a column and contenders list, but no charts and no predictions. Fair enough?
The 2010 Oscar season looks, from afar, to be a muted affair. Most of the films that look like competitors on paper have a distinctly “small” vibe. Of course, no one knows when a film like “The Blind Side” will decide to come along and sweep the heartland and the Academy at large off its feet. Maybe Tony Goldwyn’s “Betty Anne Waters” will play that role this year. Maybe not.
There are a considerable amount of actors and actresses with multiple performances on the way, more than usual, I’d say. And most encouraging, the original screenplay field seems to be much more robust than the adaptations.
Last year the big dogs looked to be “Amelia,” “Invictus” and “Nine,” and we all know how that turned out. In fact, it happens with some frequency. So why bother getting too deep into all of this now? And to say nothing of the fact that, perhaps mercifully, nothing on the horizon appears to have that level of awards-baiting appeal. No major filmmakers looking to cozy up to Oscar. No big stars that seem overdue and are going for it with an obvious role. None of that, really.