In Contention

Tag: Fantastic Mr Fox

  • Fox Searchlight looks to salvage season with potential 2009 release for ‘Crazy Heart’

    Jeff Bridges in Crazy HeartJust when you thought last year’s Best Picture victor was down for the count, Fox Searchlight goes and shakes things up in November. First, some background…

    When we kicked off our coverage of the 2009-2010 Oscar season a year in advance, one of the more anticipated titles was Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart,” based on the novel by Thomas Cobb about an alcoholic country music singer on the road to redemption. The film stars Jeff Bridges in the leading role, along with Colin Farrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall.

    In July, Searchlight picked the film up, touting Bridges’s “performance of a lifetime,” but the studio slated the release for the spring of 2010. It seemed a shame at the time given the fact that the film was shaping up to be a potential awards vehicle for Bridges at the very least, perhaps more. But with “Amelia” on the way, a (so we thought) potentially major player in the race with its typical AMPAS tropes. But that ship has sailed, leaving the studio with only the animated “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and Marc Webb’s summer entry “(500) Days of Summer” to hawk for awards consideration.

    Until now. Maybe.

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  • Animated feature looking like five all over again

    The Missing Lynx: Paws on the RunTwo weeks ago we told you about the animated feature film category’s state of flux and how a little film no one has heard of called “The Missing Lynx: Paws on the Run” could be its saving grace.

    With “Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone” and “A Town Called Panic” currently off the qualification list, and Disney trying hard to pad the field of eligible titles by submitting Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” (when Zemeckis has gone on the record as saying such a thing is a “disservice to the great animators”) and even squeezing in the formerly-straight-to-DVD “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure,” the magic number of 16 has been too close to call.

    Well, today at 5:00pm is the official deadline for submissions, and prints of qualifying titles are due by November 13.  It’s now or never, and things will start to take shape soon.  But getting back to “The Missing Lynx,” Steve Pond is reporting that the film was officially submitted and gets some great quotes form director Raul Garcia about the situation.

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  • Enter AFI

    AFI FestI haven’t had a chance to preview/write-up AFI Fest due to some a dizzying weekend and family obligations, but I should probably do that with the festivities entering a fourth day.

    “Fantastic Mr. Fox” kicked things off last week and with the festival moving from the Arclight on Sunset to the historic Chinese Theatre on Hollywood, there is, I’d wager, a glitzier vibe to things this time around.  The galas are coming fast and furious, the most recent being a big spread for “Precious” last night.

    Speaking of which, at an after party for the film at the Chateau Marmont, Oprah Winfrey was on hand to introduce singer Mary J. Blige, who performed original song contender “I Can See in Color” to a standing-room-only crowd.  It was the first time the tune had been performed publicly.

    Tonight I’ll finally cross paths with “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” one of a slew of films I hope to catch up on at the fest. The only big reveal for me will be “Everybody’s Fine,” which screens tomorrow night and could instantly put Robert De Niro in the thick of the Oscar hunt (more on that in today’s Off the Carpet column).

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  • 10/20 Oscarweb Round-up

    Francis Ford Coppola• Peter Knegt writes up a list of honest-to-God Oscar underdogs, but where’s Tom Hardy? [indieWIRE]

    • Peter Bart and Michael Fleming go back and forth on the new Oscar paradigm. [BF Deal Memo]

    • Francis Ford Coppola chimes in with cheery news: “The cinema as we know it is falling apart.” [Bloomberg]

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  • 10/19 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson in The Messenger• Perpetuating the false myth that this is a weak year for leading ladies.  Not everything should be viewed through the prism of Oscar… [Awards Campaign]

    • Following up on our Oscar Talk discussion, Anne Thompson considers the awards prospects of Oren Moverman’s “The Messenger.” [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Amidst his fully-in-the-tank review of “Where the Wild Things Are,” David Poland calls for Oscar to take note of James Gandolfini’s vocal performance. [The Hot Blog]

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Foxes, festivals and foreign contenders

    Fantastic Mr. Fox• The 53rd annual London Film Festival kicked off with Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — we reviewed it here.

    • Speaking of festivals, the AFI Fest unveiled its own complete lineup, with “Fox” and “A Single Man” as its bookends.

    • This week’s edition of The Long Shot considered the extensive possibilities for black, gay and female filmmakers in this year’s awards race.

    • With actors like Meryl Streep and Christopher Plummer straddling lead and supporting territory this year, we addressed the awards category shuffling that may lie ahead.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 6 — Foreign, animated, ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox,’ Plummer and more

    Oscar TalkWelcome to the sixth installment of Oscar Talk, a weekly awards-centric kudocast featuring yours truly and Anne Thompson of indieWIRE’s Thompson on Hollywood.

    As we move further into the season, there is finally substantial grist for the mill.  Here’s what we’re discussing today:

    • With 65 countries locked in for consideration in this year’s Best Foreign Language Film category, Anne and I offer up rough expectations for the eventual nominees and spotlight a handful of pics we hope to catch very soon.

    • As the animated feature film category seems ebb and flow with contenders the last few weeks, we talk about how the category might shake down and discuss Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” playing the London Film Festival and set for an AFI Fest bow next month.

    • “Where the Wild Things Are” opens today, so Anne and I (of like minds on the film) offer our thoughts.

    • Making good on last week’s tease, we discuss Oren Moverman’s “The Messenger,” starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton.

    • And finally, we get into a late-comer to this year’s Oscar landscape, Christopher Plummer, suddenly looking at a campaign in the supporting actor category for “The Last Station” and the lead actor category for “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” plus a debate on his classification in the former.

    We ran a little long today (and got into some fights along the way), but have a listen to this week’s podcast below.  And, as always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

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    Subscribe to Oscar Talk

  • 10/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    Antichrist• Pete Hammond digs into the truth about “Amelia” and potential new found hope in a recent re-edit. [Notes on a Season]

    • The Rome film fest gets with it, structures a “women in contemporary cinema” theme around this year’s festivities. [The Independent]

    • Variety’s Peter Debruge has a bit of mash-up fun with the “Antichrist” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” trailers. [YouTube]

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  • REVIEW: “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (***)

    Fantastic Mr. FoxLondon Film Festival

    Rather like two well-matched friends that one sets up on a failed blind date, Roald Dahl and Hollywood really ought to have got along better over the years. Taken at face value, Dahl’s rightly beloved children’s books should be a cinch to film: the concepts are high, the imagery vivid, the storytelling swift and snappy.

    Yet for all these virtues, and for no lack of trying on Hollywood’s part, a stone-cold classic filmization of one of his novels still awaits us. Some stand by Mel Stuart’s irony-deficient “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”; others will put in a word for Henry Selick’s vividly textured but emotionally inert take on “James and the Giant Peach.” No filmmaker has exhibited more understanding of Dahl’s cruel streak than Nicolas Roeg, but his largely dazzling “The Witches” still loses its nerve in the final reel with a facile ending.

    Though the men share a broad eccentricity, Wes Anderson’s fey, faintly solipsistic creative touch once more seems a less-than-perfect match for the nastier, more arch sensibility of Dahl – and there are a few glib missteps in his otherwise appealingly ragged riff on “Fantastic Mr. Fox” that show up the disconnect.

    But Anderson has at least been savvy in picking one of Dahl’s youngest-skewing, most sweet-natured narratives for his first ever adaptation. The brevity and elemental simplicity of the book’s survival-themed tale provides a lot more room for Anderson’s trademark affectations and diversions – be it the familiar 1970s-style duds or a jangly nonsense ditty from Jarvis Cocker – than Dahl’s later, darker work would.

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  • 10/14 Oscarweb Round-up

    The Hangover• Dave Karger, in a slow news week, digs up the old “‘Hangover’ for Best Pic” notion.  No. [Oscar Watch]

    • Jeff Wells face-to-face with “Fantastic Mr. Fox” director Wes Anderson. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Susan King talks to editing legend Anne V. Coates, whose career was showcased at the Academy last night. [Los Angeles Times]

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  • Counting down to the London fest

    Fantastic Mr. Fox(Apologies for the “Fantastic Mr. Fox” review that appeared prematurely here as a result of embargo confusion. It will be reposted later today.)

    There may have been silence on my end these past few days, but I assure you it hasn’t been for lack of activity. The days leading up to the London Film Festival — which officially kicks off tonight with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — have been crammed with press screenings and assorted admin duties.

    Yesterday, meanwhile, was given over to the film’s extraordinarily elaborate, and most enjoyable, press junket, staged across a range of picturesque locations in Roald Dahl’s home village of Great Missenden, an hour’s train ride from London. (More on that later.) Fox has spared no effort or expense in the launch for this unusual film, which culminates tonight with the LFF Opening Gala party at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea.

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  • 10/13 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jarvis Cocker• Could Jarvis Cocker step into the original song race with “Fantastic Mr. Fox AKA Petey’s Song” from Wes Anderson’s latest? [The Guardian]

    • Scott Feinberg talks to “A Single Man” star Julianne Moore. [And the Winner Is…]

    • What are the real lessons of Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown.” [Beyond the Multiplex]

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  • 10/12 Oscarweb Round-up

    The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant• Gregory Ellwood mulls over the pros and cons of this year’s Best Actor hopefuls. [Awards Campaign]

    • Andrew O’Hehir on the British indie film explosion. [Beyond the Multiplex]

    • A.J. Schnack does a nice job of wrangling up info on the shortlisted short docs. [All These Wonderful Things]

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  • Sendak on ‘Wild Things’

    Maurice SendakThe best read of the day is Scott Timberg’s substantial LA Times profile of “Where the Wild Things Are” author Maurice Sendak, which traces the vast influence he and the book exerted on children’s literature — as well as a certain young Spike Jonze.

    As someone who was heavily raised on Sendak’s work — “Wild Things” apart, I could recite his entire “Nutshell Library” back-to-front in my kindergarten days — I’m glad to see the 81 year-old author foregrounded amid the swell of hype for Jonze’s film. Obviously, Timberg devotes much attention to the boundary-breaking darkness and psychological grounding of Sendak’s work; more surprising, however, is this interpretation of the book’s cinematic properties:

    In “Wild Things,” a single sentence can take pages to unfold, its meaning changing slightly with each image. And this book with numerous wordless pages ends with a half-sentence and no accompanying image. Sendak works similarly to the directors of the French New Wave, who used jump cuts and other techniques to dislocate their editing.

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  • We can officially add ‘A Christmas Carol’ to the animated list

    Gary Oldman in A Christmas CarolYesterday we covered the animated feature film race and the potential for the category to have five nominees this year, largely dependent on Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” being submitted as animation (a decision completely in his hands).  As it turns out, the film will indeed be submitted for consideration.

    That, along with “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure” brings the tally up to 16 titles.  Some are expressing doubts that “Tinker Bell” can qualify, but I’m told the film “looks great, is made professionally, and will receive a theatrical run in LA, so those are the criteria.”  Still, being right on the edge, this thing could go either way.

    I’m still waiting on confirmation that the French film “A Town Called Panic” had a qualifying run or will have one (mass confusion), and ditto Summit’s “Astro Boy,” but that would be 17 and the absolute ceiling (by my calculation) on the number of submitted titles.

    Assuming five nominees, here’s what I’m thinking…

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  • 10/5 Oscarweb Round-up

    Wes Anderson• Lee Daniels and his cast and crew had a blast making “Precious,” despite the gut-wrenching display on screen. [Movieline]

    • Hugo Rifkind sits down with Wes Anderson to talk “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which is set to open the London Film Festival. [The Times]

    • Dennis Lim talks to Nicolas Winding Refn about his film “Bronson,” one of the year’s best. [New York Times]

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  • New ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ trailer

  • WEEKLY WRAP: Festival pick-ups, the season’s fetes and the PGA’s 10

    Robert Duvall in Get Low• We wrapped up Toronto as Lee Daniels’s “Precious” took the festival’s audience award, putting it on a solid track for Oscar.

    • We got a look at the first trailer for “Harry Brown,” which may or may not be an awards film for actor Michael Caine.  John, you’ll recall, isn’t feeling it.

    • We saw ‘Meatball’ dominance at the box office in this weekend’s Sunday Cents column.

    • This week’s Off the Carpet column kicked off our weekly Oscar coverage with a call for perspective on the perceived Best Picture frontrunners, while a new weekly column from across the pond — The Long Shot — introduces a different perspective mid-week.

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