I’m not saying it — Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones is. In a brief but gutsy blog post, Jones adds an alternative (but still admiring) view to the past week’s pile of love letters to “Toy Story 3,” focusing less on their storytelling and more on their value as fine art pieces. In so doing, […]
Pixar animators = Renaissance masters?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:55 am · June 24th, 2010
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Interviews with the nominees
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:14 am · March 5th, 2010
As we head into the big weekend of this year’s hotly anticipated Academy Awards telecast, I thought I’d toss this list up once more, broken down by film. We’ve added to it a bit since the nominees were announced. And if you’d like to re-live the season so far, you can see how things have […]
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INTERVIEW: Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:22 pm · February 16th, 2010
Intrepid publicists worked diligently last month to float the idea that Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” due to it’s healthy critics awards take, was in a position to upset the presumed frontrunner in the animated feature category: “Up.” Of course, at the time, no one in the media helping that story along bothered to point […]
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An evening at the CCMAs
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:46 am · January 16th, 2010
Alright, now that the booze and the hangover have worn off, let’s talk last night’s Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. It was a decently produced evening, the venue having shifted from the Santa Monica Civic Center to the Hollywood Palladium, right in the middle of Tinseltown. The scheme of having 10 tables rounding the stage representing […]
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12/28 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:47 am · December 28th, 2009
• Pete Hammond can’t let go of this notion that “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” is a Best Picture contender. A bunch of number 10 slots aren’t going to cut it, Pete. [Notes on a Season] • Adam B. Vary notes the curious absence of Gene Hackman from the silver screen since the 2004 bomb […]
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OFF THE CARPET: Field of adaptations
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:34 am · November 23rd, 2009
As always, the year’s adapted screenplay race is much more competitive than the original screenplay race. But what’s intriguing to note is that of the anticipated “big four” still to be widely screened, three of them are right in the thick of this discussion. In the case of “Nine,” there is a chance for Anthony […]
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Henry Selick to be honored by CAS
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 3:02 pm · November 9th, 2009
Two months ago Randy Thom was announced as this year’s Cinema Audio Society Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Now comes word that Henry Selick will receive the guild’s Filmmaker Award. Recent recipients have included Paul Mazursky, Bill Condon and Gil Cates. The press release, in part: Multi-faceted stop-motion filmmaker Henry Selick will receive the CAS Filmmaker […]
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Sneek peek at the ‘Coraline’ DVD
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:18 am · July 15th, 2009
Neil Miller over at Film School Rejects has an exclusive clip from one of the special features on the forthcoming “Coraline” Blu-ray/DVD. “This little sequence is called ‘Wrapping Up Coraline,’” Miller writes, “and it focuses on director Henry Selick talking about the final stages of work that went into creating this wonderful little film. He […]
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The Academy opens the doors to 134 new members
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:56 am · June 30th, 2009
The headline says it all. After bringing in 105 new members last year, the Academy has just announced a new list of 134 names to join their ranks. Actors include Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Jeffrey Wright (woo-hoo!), James McAvoy, Casey Affleck (who should have been brought in after his 2007 nomination), James Franco, Michael Cera […]
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‘Coraline’ trailer debuts
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:24 am · November 20th, 2008
And very lovely it looks, too. You’d expect a marriage between Henry Selick, Neil Gaiman and Focus Features to be on the classy side of the spectrum, and so it appears to be here. February still seems to me like a curious month to open this kind of product, but I’m guessing if the film […]
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Revealing ‘Coraline’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:29 pm · October 24th, 2008
Focus Features unveiled 30 minutes of Henry Selick’s “Coraline” today in Beverly Hills in two separate press events, and the material was as stunning as you would expect. Based on Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel of the same name, “Coraline” is Selick’s first fully stop-motion feature effort since “The Nightmare before Christmas” 14 years ago. All […]
‘Coraline’ featurette
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:30 pm · August 21st, 2008
Still waiting to find out whether this one will be finished for an Oscar qualifying run in December. I must say, I didn’t realize Neil Gaiman sent Henry Selick a manuscript 18 months before the book was published. Looks like he wanted this to be on the screen early on and had his ideas from […]
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Another animated title off the list…
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:39 am · June 19th, 2008
In response to Brian’s item this week about Focus Features’ animated film slate, I’ve received notification from the studio that “Coraline,” the Neil Gaiman adaptation from Henry Selick (which looks extraordinary, I might add) is set for a February 2009 release. Obviously, this takes it off the line-up for Oscar contention this year, so update […]
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Focus gets animated
Posted by Brian Kinsley · 11:03 pm · June 17th, 2008
I caught an uber-early screening of Focus Feature’s “9” tonight, one of two animated films they have coming out in 2008 – the other being Henry Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline.” While it would be a disservice to comment much on the film (at least 10% of it was still storyboards — in fact, […]
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Strike ‘9’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:24 pm · June 4th, 2008
I just caught wind that Focus Features’ animated endeavor “9” from writer/director Shane Acker (and based on his Academy Award-nominated short film) has been slated for 2009, removing it from the already thin slate of contenders in the animated feature category. Apparently, this has always been the case, so I’ve either been out to lunch, […]
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