• The same old “keep your speech short” story we get every year. This time mentioning the backstage “thank you” cam. [Reuters]
• Pete Hammond chimes in from the ACE Eddie Awards, including some fiery comments from Mark Boal vis a vis Harvey Weinstein’s bold claims as of late. [Notes on a Season]
• Donna Freydkin catches up with Jeremy Renner. [USA Today]
The Best Film Editing category tends to be a shadow of the Best Picture category in some ways. With there being 10 Best Picture nominees this year, however, the field was bound to nail down five of the contenders. So considering the old stand-by stat (no film has won Best Picture without an editing nomination since “Ordinary People”), this is a race to keep an eye on.
In fact, it might be a bellwether for the rest of the show when the envelope is opened. Which means the competition has been boiled down to the same to films the media is keeping an eye on for Best Picture. In this instance, however, that reduction isn’t as ill-considered.
The nominees are:
“Avatar” (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)
“District 9” (Julian Clarke)
“The Hurt Locker” (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)
“Inglourious Basterds” (Sally Menke)
“Precious” (Joe Klotz)
Welcome to Oscar Talk, a weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.
I’m in Santa Barbara this week while Anne is back in Los Angeles. Here’s what’s on the docket:
• The Santa Barbara fest is in full swing, including tributes for James Cameron and Sandra Bullock, among others. We discuss.
• The Sandra Bullock thing leads to yet another Bullock vs. Streep debate. Anne is convinced the older members of the Academy will go for Streep and that the media has assumed the Oscar is Bullock’s at their own peril.
• Anne was in Santa Barbara last week and discusses the writers panel she moderated.
• Meanwhile, she was also back in LA for the USC Scripter awards, so she offers her perspective on the evening’s festivities.
• Finally, we go back and forth on a few of the debatable categories, including Best Original Screenplay, which could see Quentin Tarantino win his second Oscar. Or will it?
Have a listen below. Forgive me in advance for audio issues on my end. I’m in a hotel room without my handy external. As always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.
[display_podcast]
Actor Bill Paxton always seems to give Kevin Bacon a run for his money in the “six degrees” department. I’ve always joked that if they ever wanted to nut up and do “Aliens vs. Predator vs. Terminator,” Paxton had better be in it since he’s the common thread throughout.
That ubiquity has, of course, led him to work with a number of talented filmmakers, including the two at the center of this year’s Best Director showdown. For James Cameron Paxton has appeared in everything from “The Terminator” to “True Lies,” while he starred in Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 vampire western “Near Dark.”
The actor stopped by Jimmy Fallon last night (which I was only watching because it was background noise — I try to steer clear of frat boy hour) and Fallon asked about working with the two of them, especially Cameron. It’s not earth-shattering stuff but it makes for nice viewing on an idle Wednesday. Although it’s too bad there was no “Reach!” inquiry. Have a look after the jump.
This…is brilliant. And hilarious. I missed Vulture’s introductory installment of a new PR-joshing video series called “Wide World of Oscar” when it gauged how Gabourey Sidibe scored for her campaign on Jimmy Fallon. But I’m all caught up with the latest, a look at James Cameron’s appearance on Oprah’s couch.
“Scouring the screen to bring you the constant variety of groveling, the thrill of self-promotion and the awkwardness of the shill. The human drama of the Oscar campaign.” Funny stuff, guys. Keep ’em coming.
Earlier today Jeffrey Wells was waxing on about how Santa Barbara ought to change up the order of things, the natural flow of a given tribute. Well, tonight he got his wish.
The evening’s Modern Master tribute in honor of “Avatar” director James Cameron — the festival’s highest honor — began on the wrong foot. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to present the award to his friend and three-time collaborator, but given the obviously tight schedule of a public official, his bit was going to land during the middle of the two-hour presentation.
That information was somehow lost in translation to Cameron, who thought he was being told the actual award acceptance would happen at the beginning of the tribute, so rather than strolling over to moderator Leonard Maltin and sitting down for the usual kiss-kiss, he stopped at the podium and began speaking.
Uh-oh.
It’s been a slow ramping up for me in Santa Barbara, coverage wise. I’ve had some Wi-Fi difficulties that are being sorted and I’ve posted when I can from where I can, but a couple of notes on the last two days.
Yesterday I took in a late afternoon screening of Tomm Moore’s “The Secret of Kells,” the film that probably served up the biggest surprise last Tuesday when it slid into the animated feature field over the populist, branch-respected “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and the less-respected “Ponyo,” which nevertheless comes from a titan of the medium.
The film is beautiful in so many ways, offering a rich, artistic palette of shapes and color to paint a portrait of a well-circulated Irish story revolving around the non-fictional Book of Kells. The artwork ultimately mirrors, in some way, the Insular art featured in the book, and the narrative itself, abstract as it feels at times, seems to be about the persistence of art and history.
When that’s the email subject, how the hell do I NOT check it out? I give you Martini Ranch’s “Reach” from 1988:
• Scott Bowles writes up the forthcoming Leo/Marty thriller “Shutter Island.” [USA Today]
• Charting the piracy of this year’s Oscar nominees. [Waxy]
• Pete Hammond gets James Cameron to puff his chest out on “Avatar”‘s box office potential, among other notes on the town. [Notes on a Season]
With the “exes” angle seemingly set to run and run in this year’s Oscar media coverage, The Guardian at least took a slightly sideways approach in their weekly podcast by roping in a third ex — “Terminator” star and James Cameron’s fourth wife Linda Hamilton — for her thoughts on the matter. (She has a new movie to promote, so it’s not as tacky as all that.)
Regarding the Oscar race, Hamilton semi-jokingly claims to be cheering the “ex-wives’ club,” but she also offers some interesting personal perspective on the 12-year gestation of “Avatar”:
After “Titanic,” there were quite a few things he was getting ready to do: he was was going to do the “Spider-Man” franchise, he was going to do a really great script about multiple personality disorder, “Avatar” to me was, like, the third favorite. I read it and was, like, “Hmm, yeah, uh” … and that just goes to show you that I should never be directing or making movies. I wasn’t sure that it was going to have an audience … It didn’t necessarily say anything to me, but Jim obviously saw something way beyond what was on the page.
A whole 31 days ahead of the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, the race already feels like it’s winding down.
Of the precursors, only BAFTA and the lesser guilds (sorry, WGA, but you brought irrelevance upon yourself) lie in wait to distract us from a month of wafty speculation and idle editorializing. Trust me, you’re going to get very sick of the phrase “battle of the exes” before the month is out … if you aren’t already.
For me, a trip to the Berlinale next week couldn’t be better timed – a few days of seeing and discussing some new films, including several of this year’s hot Sundance titles, will be a welcome vacation from the ever-dwindling pool of names and titles we’ve been talking about since the fall.
But if you’re not one of the lucky few who can make it to a festival – or if you’re as uninspired as everyone else by the new releases of the last few weeks – fresh perspective needn’t come only from fresh films. I recently had the pleasure of rewatching “The Hurt Locker” and getting happily reacquainted with it as a movie, rather than as the industry story it has grown into over the months.
Awards season can sometimes smother the movies it celebrates, turning them into representations of competing social and artistic ideals that they were never intended to be. As the competition narrows, these definitions get progressively more binary – and the side-taking more vicious. (You only have to look at Roger Ebert’s online opposition of “Avatar” to see what the season can make us do to movies we even like.)
I don’t want to be presumptuous and say something like, “It’s time to call this thing,” but it’s difficult to argue with the two biggest guild crowns ON TOP OF the critical sentiment “The Hurt Locker” is dragging into phase two.
Kathryn Bigelow has won the DGA award for her work on the film, becoming the first woman to be awarded by the guild to date and taking one step closer to the same designation on Oscar night. (Louie Psihoyos won the documentary prize for “The Cove”). Left in the dust with its billions, it seems, is James Cameron’s “Avatar,” with nothing but a Golden Globe to its credit.
Sometimes a winner just looks like a winner. Not to take the intrigue out of it. But seriously, the money thing, it’s just not hurting “The Hurt Locker,” and perhaps the Oscars will serve a purpose in a year the Academy became craven enough to expand its field to allow for critical successes. An independent that barely brought in $12 million at the box office will get the exposure it deserves on a global stage and perhaps reach a new audience.
The irony is unbelievable. On to phase two.
(Photo of Bigelow holding nomination plaque, not winner’s plaque.)
I have none, really. If I’m pressed for a prediction, I think James Cameron is going to pull off what will be perceived as an upset for reasons mentioned in today’s Oscar Talk and a number of weeks back when I said J.J. Abrams was a threat for a nod (and I’ve come to find out he was actually pretty close).
The answer is in the populist leanings of the guild, a vast, diluted membership that is TV-heavy, rules against sending screeners (which is a definite thorn for Kathryn Bigelow, whose film pulled down minuscule box office), etc.
So the race will be back and forth one more weekend and the real victor of the week might well be the film that ends up with the most Oscar nominations Tuesday morning. The epic of David and Goliath will turn one more page at that time as we make our way through February and, ultimately, Oscar’s stage, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be asked to anoint a representative from the class of 2009 to represent the best in filmed art and entertainment.
But will it be art, or will it be entertainment? The saga continues…
Nearing the end of January on an awards season run for a film that bowed at Cannes is an odd time to be crossing paths with a filmmaker to talk about the goods, but that’s where I found myself with Quentin Tarantino this year.
Making the publicity rounds in the wake of the DVD and Blu-ray release of his film “Inglourious Basterds” and, of course, keeping exposure high with Oscar nominations eminent, Tarantino is nevertheless as indefatigable as ever. Last week he popped up on one of Conan O’Brien’s final episodes of “The Tonight Show,” which the filmmaker says was an honor. “I’ve always had a fun time doing his show,” he says.
He was coming off a weekend that yielded Critics’ Choice Movie Awards recognition for his film’s ensemble, supporting actor Christoph Waltz and a screenplay honor for the writer/director himself at the time, but in the week since, Waltz and the ensemble were again rewarded, this time by the Screen Actors Guild.
The film awards circuit is a much different beast than it was 15 years ago when Tarantino exploded onto the scene with “Pulp Fiction,” even if his long time confidant Harvey Weinstein is still at the campaign’s helm. So it’s a little difficult not to press him for how those differences strike him, now that he’s back in the season’s good graces.
Interestingly enough, he’s reminded of a similarity first.
As it turned out, the only celebration I made it to last night was Fox’s Globes after-party at Craft in Century City. Given that “Avatar” and “Crazy Heart” were two of three films to win more than one Globe (the other being Pixar’s “Up”), it kind of felt like the place to be.
The early part of the evening was dominated by the “Crazy Heart” crew. I came in with Ryan Bingham and Scott Cooper, the latter dumbfounded at how certain celebs were getting his number to send well-wishes and praise for his little film. Bingham, meanwhile, told me he was at the bar when the Best Original Song category was announced, which explains why T Bone Burnett accepted solo. “Sorry for partyin’,” Bingham told me. “Story of my life.”
Burnett, it turns out, will be producing Bingham’s next album.
Meanwhile, you could follow the bursts of applause to locate Jeff Bridges, who took down the Best Actor in a Drama trophy when many thought George Clooney would register with the, shall we say, star-friendly HFPA. Then again, whoever said Bridges wasn’t a star? And judging by the standing ovation, his second of the weekend (everyone was on their feet Friday, too), you can expect his steamroll through the season to continue next weekend at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and then, ultimately: the Oscar. Interesting to note his lawyer advised him not to take the part, I assume thinking it wasn’t high enough on a scale of exposure.
And yet here we are.
• John Horn talks “Avatar” box office with James Cameron and his Best Director competitors. [24 Frames]
• Dave Karger offers up his perspective on how last night’s Golden Globe awards will affect the Oscar race. [Oscar Watch]
• Sharon Waxman hits the after-party circuit and discovers the late night talk show drama dominating the conversation. [The Wrap]
• Buzz Aldrin, Willie Nelson and more comment on the accuracy of a number of the season’s contenders. [Variety]
• Peter Jackson and Stanley Tucci talk “The Lovely Bones.” [FearNet]
• Brooks Barnes Q&As “The Hurt Locker” writer Mark Boal. [The Carpetbagger]