In Contention

Tag: Frank Marshall

  • What will win the PGA?

    Tonight, we will receive our biggest precursor pointer to date, as the Producers Guild of America becomes the first of the guilds to make its final pronouncement.

    In case you’ve forgotten, the five films vying for the PGA’s top honour are “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “Slumdog Millionaire” — and the one nominee to fall foul of Oscar voters, “The Dark Knight.”

    “Slumdog Millionaire” appears to be the safest bet, even if its producer, relative newcomer Christian Colson, is less of an industry insider than his fellow nominees. (After all, the field includes such popular figures as Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, and previous winners Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks.)

    But with “Slumdog” hurtling towards all-but-inevitable victory on Oscar night, not having missed a single stop on the awards trail so far, that shouldn’t matter. It’s by far the most well-liked film in contention, as well as being a profitable indie with a scrappy-fighter backstory. I doubt the PGA will resist.

    Back when the nominees were announced at the start of the month — doesn’t that seem a long time ago? — Kris suggested that “The Dark Knight” was the “likely winner.” It made perfect sense at the time: these are producers, after all, so they value financial prowess as much as artistic achievement. (Previous PGA nominees include “Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”)

    (more…)

  • PGA noms coming next week

    Producers Guild of AmericaThe Producers Guild of America announces its nominees Monday.  Then the DGA wraps up the big three (after PGA and SAG) on Thursday.  I expect “The Dark Knight” is a no-brainer nominee here and the likely winner.  After that, I’d say “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Slumdog Millionaire” are likely, especially in the case of the former, what with producing powerhouses Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall (the former popping up here last year for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” in something of a surprise).

    After that it gets a bit tricky.  I’d be tempted to think “WALL-E” will turn up here like “The Incredibles” in 2004.  Box office + critical acclaim + major awards consideration, all that.  But with the animated category being instituted a few years back, that scenario becomes less likely.

    There isn’t much that screams PGA about “Doubt” or, to a lesser extent, “Revolutionary Road.”  But Scott Rudin did well enough with two films last year.  “Milk” and “Frost/Nixon” might be a decent bets, but surely something will pop up in the way of the unexpected.  I just can’t put my finger on what that will be.  Since the group began a nominations format, the eventual five Best Picture nominees have never been assembled in the PGA collective, and that includes 2002 and 2003, the two years that netted six nominees.

    “Iron Man” popping up wouldn’t be a shock.  “The Wrestler” could be a nice indie call, but I think it’s doubtful.  Ah screw it, I’m going to go with the following, including a “Milk” snub that is most likely a mistake:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Ceán Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall)
    “The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas)
    “Frost/Nixon” (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard)
    “Revolutionary Road” (Bobby Cohen, John Hart, Sam Mendes, Scott Rudin)
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Christian Colson, Paul Ritchie)

    What are your predictions?

  • In the round

    I don’t know why exactly, but the “roundtable” format of interviews that crops up a lot during awards season often strikes me as rather less fascinating than it’s meant to be. Unless the panel is very smartly chosen, I find the discussion tends to veer towards back-patting and faintly smug in-jokery, rather than stimulating argument between widely differing creative forces.

    Maybe I’m just blasé. But on reading the Hollywood Reporter’s two recent “Oscar Roundtables” with six screenwriters and six producers that THR thinks are likely to figure in the Oscar race, I couldn’t help being disappointed that, despite the level of talent involved, they didn’t have that many interesting things to say between them. (I’d go so far as to say that the best soundbite is quoted from the not-present Charlie Kaufman.)

    The selected writers are Jenny Lumet (“Rachel Getting Married”), Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”), Thomas McCarthy (“The Visitor”), John Patrick Shanley (“Doubt”), Andrew Stanton (“WALL-E”) and J. Michael Straczynski (“Changeling”). I have a hard time imagining the latter two will score writing nominations, but the race is young, I suppose.

    Writers can be pretty insufferable when talking about their “process” — I know, I am one. So there’s the usual semi-serious comparing of hours spent at the computer, feverish notebook scribbling and messy first drafts, but there isn’t much discussion of the specific screenplays and films at hand. McCarthy seems to be the most reticent of the group, only entering the discussion halfway through. A shame, really, as I’d venture that he’s possibly the best writer of the lot.

    (more…)

  • SHORT TAKE: “Chicken Little” (***)

    Walt Disney Pictures' Chicken LittleDisney’s first fully computer generated in-house animated feature opens next Friday, and in a Fall season that seemingly brings with it a new disappointment each and every week, I have to consider this little gem a breath of fresh air.

    I won’t dip into hyperbole here. “Chicken Little” is what it is: a swift animated venture aimed at kids with brief attention spans, fit with enough mature giggles thrown into the mix to keep the parents engaged. Though at its heart the film is quite “grown up,” dealing with parental issues of believing in one’s child that make it more pertinent for a family movie-going experience than most animated features.  The film is still a frothy delight that at the very least reaches the bar for which it aims. That’s saying a lot this year.

    Taking the well-known fable of “Chicken Little” and her claims that “the sky was falling” after being conked on the head by an acorn, the screenplay –- from writers Steve Bencich, Ron Friedman and Ron Anderson –- expands on the myth.  It weaves a rather comprehensive moral into the mix that goes far beyond the mere warning against exaggeration and ill-informed conclusions the 300-year-old tale proposes.

    This was an enjoyable experience on many levels –- even in a crowded Westwood theater surrounded by talkative and fidgety youngsters. The voice talent is of considerably high quality, most especially Zach Braff, who pumps a lot of emotion into the title role (the gender of the character was changed to male early in the process), and Gary Marshall as Buck Cluck, Chicken Little’s struggling father who wishes he had the answers his dearly departed wife had in the realm of guidance.

    That’s right, the film even deals with single parenting -– right under your nose.

    I’d prefer not to write too much because analysis of something like this isn’t valuable. You’ll take from it what you will and the themes are easy enough to pick up on without a critic or columnist hammering them home for you. But while it may not be as inspired or as inventive as “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride,” “Chicken Little” is a very charming addition to the pantheon of 2005 animated film product.

    (I should add that I was not, nor was the crowd, able to experience the “digital 3-D” technology utilized by the film at this screening, but I’m intrigued nonetheless and may just have to give it a shot once the film opens.)