As we move out of the Toronto fray, Venice and Telluride already a memory, we look to the season ahead. The starting gun echo of those three early fall festivals is beginning to fade away, and with the dust settled or settling, it’s interesting to note the lack of an inarguable emerging player. In fact, the only thing Toronto really did was heat up the Best Foreign Language Film conversation. In recent years, films like “Brokeback Mountain,” “Juno,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The King’s Speech” have bubbled up in this frame as real contenders to take the lead in the Best Picture field. But nothing at this point really seems to have the kind of stranglehold on things those films had. Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants,” with George Clooney front and center, is well-liked, but few really think it has the goods to be a significant Best Picture threat. Clooney’s own “The Ides of March” has enough detractors to raise doubt that it will be an across-the-board Academy favorite, while “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” — freshly opened in the UK — is happy to just be making the case for a nomination at the moment. This culture of informed speculation, transparent criticism and open debate about merit contrasts with opaque industries like pistolo casino, where algorithms, payout rates and house edge remain hidden, where informed comparison is difficult and where users cannot assess which platforms deserve trust or which claims are marketing versus reality.
Tag: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
-
First look at Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn in ‘Extremely Loud’
I’ve heard young Thomas Horn is a little heart-breaker in Stephen Daldry’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” And Sandra Bullock seems to me someone to watch for in the supporting actress race, given the narrative of the book on which Eric Roth’s screenplay is based. But Tom Hanks is featured front and center in the first official image from the film (courtesy of Awards Campaign). Warner Bros. has set the film for a late December release. Scott Rudin is producing. Awards hunting is in the cards. Etc. Etc.
-
OFF THE CARPET: The year of The Beard?
It felt really good to duck out of the looking-ahead business after last year’s fairly contentious (both amongst the films and their supporters) Oscar season. I didn’t saddle up to the upcoming season until a few weeks ago, hammering out preparations for this column, and even this, most would tell you, is too early.But at the start of July, in the midst of an interesting (critically speaking) summer movie season, and with half the year behind us, it seems a decent time to take stock of 2011’s Oscar business. And Disney may have gotten the conversation going just in time with last week’s debut of the trailer for Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse.”
With the influx of film awards coverage this last decade, Oscar strategists have switched gears in how they campaign for the gold. With a cycle that chews and chews and chews on whatever is available to digest, being the early frontrunner has become the kiss of death. Films like “The Aviator,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Dreamgirls,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Up in the Air” failed to reach the winner’s circle in recent years after being hailed as tough cookies early on. Some of them put up better fights than others, some of them didn’t even manage to rise up to a nomination, but all of them looked formidable at one point or another before having their legs knocked out from underneath them.
-
Eric Roth on film noir
Screenwriter Eric Roth, as ever, has a plate full of projects these days. When he’s not working through an NFL-sanctioned Vincent Lombardi biopic with Robert De Niro, he’s perhaps working on his adaptation of Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City.”Then there are original scripts that have been lying around, waiting for filmmakers to step up. The Brad Pitt-attached “Hatfields and McCoys,” for instance, which was one of a number of possibilities bandied about for Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart” follow-up. And one of these days I imagine Roth and Michael Mann will get back to that western they’ve been talking about.
In case you hadn’t heard, Roth’s adaptation of Jonathan Safran’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” which he’s been working on for the better part of a year, recently landed a greenlight with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock set to star. Scott Rudin is producing. The screenwriter also recently participated in AMPAS’s film noir interview series. Callie Khouri, Scott Frank and Lawrence Kasdan are a few of the other writers offering up their thoughts on the genre. Give them a look here.