I imagine “Bob” is getting fired for this. Or maybe it’s just a joke?:
Tag: J. Michael Straczynski
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WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Button,’ ‘Reader’ screen… uncertainty reigns
• After a false start, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was finally unveiled, to considerable applause… but is it too chilly?• Maybe. In his gutsy early predictions, Kris names “Slumdog Millionaire” the one to beat.
• InContention readers, however, are less sure.
• In a week of revelations, “The Reader” also screened — but the response on these pages was ambivalent.
• Not everyone agrees, however. Which has us asking where this leaves Kate Winslet’s Oscar chances.
• Amid the confusion, this week’s Off the Carpet column drew the conclusion that 2008 simply isn’t a vintage year.
• Onto surer things, we wondered whether Heath Ledger is the inevitable winner of this year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Your answer? A resounding yes.
• Mapping out some alternative possibilities in the Best Documentary Feature race.
• An interview with with “Changeling” scribe J. Michael Straczynski.
• Just in case you hadn’t heard the name “Benjamin Button” enough this week, we were treated to the film’s score.
• On the other side of the pond, meanwhile, “Mamma Mia!” continues to break records. Does BAFTA beckon?
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11/26 Oscarweb Round-up
• Jeff Wells is beside himself because Oscar prognosticators understand “Che” has a snowball’s chance in hell at a best Picture nomination. [Hollywood Elsewhere]• Noah Forrest podcasts “Changeling” screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski. [Movie City News]
• Anne Thompson gets the “Australia” goods from Hugh Jackman. [Thompson on Hollywood]
• Tom O’Neil, meanwhile, wonders if pundits are underestimating the film…nah. [Gold Derby]
• The economy takes a bite out of one of the season’s biggest Oscar bashes. [Vanity Fair]
• Pete Hammond is a party pooper, makes sure we all understand a SAG strike could put a damper on the season. [Notes on a Season]
• Nathaniel Rogers talks to “Rachel Getting Married” gals Rosemarie DeWitt and Jenny Lumet. [The Film Experience]
• Peter Bart joins my Brandon Walters bandwagon, says director Baz Luhrmann has created a star. [Peter Bart]
• Kevin Kelly talks to “WALL-E” and “Star Wars” sound whiz Ben Burtt. [Spout Blog]
• Patrick Goldstein digs into the emotional chill factor of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” [The Big Picture]
• A Harvey Milk Cliff’s Notes for your “Milk” screening preparations. [USA Today]
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INTERVIEW: ‘Changeling’ screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski
“In the feature film world, we television writers barely exist,” explains J. Michael Straczynski screenwriter of Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling,” starring Angelina Jolie. “So for this to all happen so fast is really a fairy tale year for me. I am elated with how this has all gone down and changed the course of my life.”Straczynski was making a fine living on the small screen, writing episodes of “Murder She Wrote” and “Jake and the Fatman” before moving on to Showtime’s series “Jeremiah” and “Babylon 5,” two of his most well-known credits. He had worked as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times and upon discovering the story of Christine Collins, he put it on the back burner for a few years until he found the time to do it right.
He describes his research and fact-finding like “putting a jigsaw puzzle together” for the simple reason that facts and articles had been lost, and they simply did not have the technology then to store everything he required. Taking a year off writing television, he researched the Collins case and put a script together, which his agent sent off to Imagine Entertainment and Ron Howard. The script was bought as is and Howard wanted to direct the film, but when his schedule became impossible, “Frost/ Nixon” looming on the horizon, he sent the screenplay to Clint Eastwood. The grizzled vet read the work on a plane back to the States and committed to direct after the first reading.
Yes. This was a FIRST DRAFT that went before the cameras within a year of being sold, something rather unheard of in Hollywood unless you’re Woody Allen.
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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.
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10/24 Oscarweb Round-up
• Dave Karger ponders a double nomination for Kate Winslet. [Oscar Watch]• Six of us all agree that “Slumdog Millionaire” is in this hunt to stay. [Gold Derby]
• David Poland waxes on about the year’s film product amid the political season. And somehow he thinks Clint Eastwood’s front-and-center, in-nearly-every-scene role in “Gran Torino” is “more interesting as a supporting actor.” [Movie City News]
• Andrew Gnere talks to “Changeling” scribe J. Michael Straczynski. [Moviemaker Magazine]
• 15 possible Oscar hosts. [The Movie Blog]
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‘Gomorrah’ and ‘Changeling’: two that work
It’s been a while since I’ve committed to a long-form review, and for that, I have to apologize. Short Takes here and there don’t exactly cut it, but we’ve certainly stayed afloat in this light with Guy’s wonderful work across the pond. I don’t get a chance to sit down and hammer out some thoughts very often, and I’m hoping that will change in the coming weeks.Two films that jumped out this week, however, demanded some attention. The first is Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah,” which I saw recently in preparation for the AFI Fest. The film was well-received at Cannes and has become Italy’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race.
I have to say, I’m in agreement with Guy’s assessment for the most part. Garrone’s patch-work narrative might seem trite and even trendy at first mention, but the menagerie works because it isn’t pretentious. There is no sense of contrivance or expressed intent to make these five separate narratives comment toward one another or intersect in a nifty manner.
The assemblage is borderline slap-dash and is more impactful as a result. In a sense, Garrone has cooked up five tense, detailed short films and simply sifted them together. All roads lead to nowhere, and a list of sobering Camorra facts at the end of the film really sticks with the viewer — especially that last doosey.
(More on “Gomorrah,” plus thoughts on “Changeling” after the jump.)
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Best Original Screenplay: beyond the obvious
Everyone has a favourite Oscar category, and Best Original Screenplay is mine. It’s partly because I’m a screenwriter myself, so I feel a little more invested in the outcome. My evaluation of the category often comes down to the question: “Which screenplay do I most wish I’d written first?”More importantly, however, it’s the category where the Academy takes its greatest artistic risks. With the Best Picture category generally weighted towards adaptations, they often use Best Original Screenplay as a way to acknowledge the edgier, more adventurous work that voters can see the greatness of, but don’t yet have the guts to honour with their biggest prize. Hell, once in a blue moon they even give it to (gasp) a foreign-language film.
It’s this convenient ghettoising mentality that ensures the likes of “Citizen Kane,” “The Red Balloon,” “Chinatown,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Talk to Her” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” don’t go empty-handed. Sure, it sucks that they couldn’t win more. And, being the Academy, they make more than their share of screw-ups. (Let’s try and forget that, in 1960, “Pillow Talk” beat — wait for it — “Wild Strawberries,” “North by Northwest” and “The 400 Blows,” shall we?) But they occasionally hit on an otherwise-snubbed masterpiece, and for that we should be grateful.
This year’s Best Picture slate appears to be heavy on prestige adaptations, allowing for a more idiosyncratic ragbag of contenders on the Original Screenplay front, mixing familiar Academy-anointed favourites with some exciting new voices.
There is, of course, a chance this could be a year when the paths of the Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay races converge, principally in the shape of “Milk” scribe Dustin Lance Black. Already high hopes for “Milk” were amplified by an excellent trailer, and a number of Oscar clairvoyants are labelling it the front-runner in the top race. If this turns out to be the case, Black will likely benefit.