• Rumors fly concerning Heath Ledger’s Joker making an appearance in “The Dark Knight Rises” via unused footage from “The Dark Knight.” (Not gonna happen.) [Stuff.co.nz]
• Does Natalie Portman’s “Black Swan” weight loss mean Oscar gold? [Movieline]
• David Poland sits down with “Get Low” screenwriters Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell. [The Hot Blog]
Well, quelle surprise. I’ve been saying for months now that Debra Granik’s solemn Ozark thriller is — even more so than the sunnier, starrier “The Kids Are All Right” — this year’s annointed indie cause in the Oscar race, and this only cements that belief. The film’s impressive showing this morning, coming on the heels of last night’s Gotham Awards triumph, has me more confident than ever that the tiny pic is set to repeat the trajectory “Precious” made last year from Sundance champ to Best Picture nominee.
A number of its companions in the Best Feature race could join in there too, as the Spirits largely favored big-name fare in the top categories: “The Kids Are All Right” took second place in the nomination count, with five, while “Black Swan” and “Rabbit Hole” (which clearly just missed the cut in the feature race) are just behind with four apiece.
(UPDATE: Yes, it’s official. Check out the full AMPAS press release after the cut.)
Nikki Finke is reporting over at Deadline that the Academy has asked actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host the 83rd annual Academy Awards, and that the pair has accepted the offer. No official word yet and Finke is tossing around “looks like” in quotes, so take it with a grain for the moment. (How does it “look like” someone has accepted something, by the way?)
If true, the duo will follow on the heels of another tandem, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, who hosted for producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman last year. Both Franco and Hathaway have films in the race this year (as Baldwin and Martin did last year with “It’s Complicated”), but in separate titles — “127 Hours” and “Love & Other Drugs.”
Franco is virtually a lock for a nomination this year. So that would be unique to say the least. Fittingly, Finke hedges her bets later in the report by noting, “That might be the main reason one or both of the stars decide to beg off.”
As we move into turkey (or tofurkey, if that happens to be your speed) week 2010, it seems proper, if a tad bit obvious, to take a moment and give thanks. So in lieu of a proper analysis of the season’s progression this week, allow me to express my boundless, breathless appreciation for the following:
The filmmakers.
I’m thankful for Mike Leigh’s consistently maturing perspective on life and how he manages to gift that to film audiences each and every time out, for Peter Weir’s tenacity in the face of an unfortunate shift in cinema investment and for Darren Aronofsky’s well-rewarded (in the form of a two-year studio deal) efforts pushing the envelope.
I’m thankful for Danny Boyle’s energetic perspective on the cinema and his obsession with filling his frame with that passion, as well as for Christopher Nolan’s determination to take studio goodwill and prove that there is an audience and payoff for pricey originality.
• Jean-Luc Godard’s Honorary Oscar revives controversy over the director’s supposed anti-Semitism. [New York Times]
• Amy Kaufman sits down with “Love & Other Drugs” director Edward Zwick. [The Envelope]
• Edward Douglas chats up “For Colored Girls” star Thandie Newton. [Coming Soon]
It all started, as so many conflicts do these days, with a tweet. After spending a morning and afternoon musing on “127 Hours,” following a breakfast-time screening on the last day of the London Film Festival, I accepted the hard fact that I simply didn’t like it very much.
I wanted to feel differently. Danny Boyle, in addition to being one of my favorite ever interviewees, is a vital filmmaker whose previous misses I’ve even found more stimulating than most directors’ hits. James Franco is shaping up to be among the most pleasingly off-kilter leading men of his generation. The tech geek in me was excited to see the long-underused Enrique Chediak working on a large canvas, alongside the justly rated Anthony Dod Mantle.
I had, I admit, harbored doubts about how Team Boyle could cinematically enliven Aron Ralston’s simple-if-grisly survival tale, one that could promise no surprises after ample media coverage as recently as 2003. Some blinder of a structural or technical choice, I assumed, was being hidden up someone’s sleeve — and when I saw only a familiar collection of hopped-up editing tricks and multimedia interpolations that designerised the protagonist’s plight without deepening it, I wasn’t afraid to say I felt a little crushed.
• This week’s Off the Carpet column took a roll call of this year’s Best Actor contenders.
• Meanwhile, we interviewed one of the strongest of those contenders, “127 Hours” star James Franco.
• With “The King’s Speech,” “Another Year” and “Made in Dagenham” all in the hunt, The Long Shot mused on Britain’s back-and-forth relationship with the Oscars.
• In case you’d forgotten what day it is, Chad got into the Halloween spirit by counting down his ten favorite alternative horror movies.
Welcome to Oscar Talk.
In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.
You can feel the season rumbling to life with Halloween just around the corner. It’s been a lively enough week as contenders began to hit the circuit and more films were unveiled for eager press. Let’s see what’s on the docket today…
• AMPAS and mtvU launch the third annual “Oscars Correspondent Contest” for college journalists. [Oscars.org]
• Across the pond, Stuart Heritage counts down the ways “Rabbit Hole” could be an Oscar bet for Nicole Kidman. [The Guardian]
• The Durst family predictably threatens to sue over “All Good Things.” [Deadline]
James Franco sits in one of the countless, nondescript rooms on the sixth floor of the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles remembering the time he first met mountain climber Aron Ralston in the same building, perhaps in a room not unlike this one.
It wasn’t even a year ago — January, to be exact, right around the time of the Golden Globes. Director Danny Boyle had recently offered the actor the role of Ralston in “127 Hours,” a film that would depict the harrowing six days the outdoorsman spent with his hand wedged between a boulder and a canyon wall. It was an ordeal that ended with Ralston cutting off his own arm, just below the elbow, in order to survive. And the film would — naturally, given the material and the filmmaker involved — be anything but conventional.
But Boyle was adamant that the performance not be an “outside-in approach,” as Franco puts it. It couldn’t be slavish mimicry of personality or behavior. But there was this abstract idea of confronting one’s potential demise that remained somewhat elusive for Franco, yet something he nevertheless wanted to reflect in authentic terms. Little did he know he’d find the answer during that first meeting with Ralston, Boyle, writer Simon Beaufoy, producer Christian Colson and production designer Suttirat Larlarb.
If you read around sites like The Hot Blog or Hollywood Elsewhere, you’re sure to have read some colorful commentary from “LexG.” And if you follow him on Twitter or catch his YouTube videos, you likely know it spills over. Some hate him. I love the guy.
So naturally, “Oscar Chat” caught my eye. I trust even the offended will at least get a chuckle or two. I laughed my ass off:
About a year ago I took to examining the 2009 Best Actor race. The frontrunners for five slots seemed to be, in order, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jeremy Renner, Morgan Freeman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Viggo Mortensen and Robert De Niro.
A day later press members received their first invites to “Crazy Heart” screenings and were notified that the film would be released in 2009. Jeff Bridges hit the ground running and never let off the gas until he was past the finish line.
A year earlier we were looking at a pair of politico-biopic portrayals, either one of which would make a handsome winner: Frank Langella and Sean Penn. But we were fairly sure the latter would be on his way to the podium one more time.
But soon after, Mickey Rourke’s festival buzz caught serious fire and forged an atmosphere of doubt. The season’s narrative seemed to be changing, and yet the early buzz carried through and brought Penn his Oscar.
So that’s two drastically different directions – in as many years – that a lead actor race can take. Given the mid-October fulcrum shared here, let’s consider our perspective on the Best Actor category right now.
I sat down earlier this afternoon with “127 Hours” star James Franco, director Danny Boyle and writer Simon Beaufoy. I’ll have proper written pieces up surrounding each in the coming days but there was something I wanted to share now.
Firstly, it’s always a joy to talk cinema with Boyle. He’s a truly excitable character who projects a brand of passion impossible to counterfeit and is just a good guy on top of it. (Check out my interview with the director from the 2008-2010 season — “8 things I’ve learned from my career in features” — here.)
Anyway, he got fired up when we began discussing the hallucination sequences of the film, how to convey something that’s intrinsically so personal in a creative but organic way. Off he went on a tangent, soon joined by Beaufoy, that I found inspiring as a fan and as a writer. Maybe you will, too. Have a listen after the jump.
• Lesley Manville talks “Another Year” across the pond. [The Guardian]
• Terry Gross talks with “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unrich and writer Michael Arndt on Fresh Air. [NPR]
• Watch in night vision as a Los Angeles audience reacts to a screening of “Paranormal Activity 2.” [HitFix]
Odd, I was just having a Twitter discussion about who might receive this honor from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and my honest guess was James Franco. Lo and behold, he’s been tapped for the honor.
The press release, in part:
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is proud to present James Franco with the Outstanding Performance of the Year Award on Saturday, January 29, 2011. He will be honored for his compelling performance in Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours at the 26th edition of the Fest which runs January 27-February 6, 2011…
“A truly exceptional actor who embraces the character and lives the story to tell it,” comments [festival executive director Roger] Durling, “James Franco eases onto the screen, seducing the audience no matter if he is the hero, the villain or the victim.”…
Franco will join an illustrious group of previous Outstanding Performance Award recipients, including Colin Firth (2010), Penelope Cruz (2009), Angelina Jolie (2008), Helen Mirren (2007), Heath Ledger (2006), Kate Winslet (2005) and Charlize Theron (2004).
More SBIFF awards announcements as they come.
• Jeffrey Wells reports from a MOMA Q&A with “127 Hours” star James Franco. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• Amy Kaufman talks with “Conviction” star Hilary Swank. [Los Angeles Times]
• Add Polaroid photography to Julian Schnabel’s list of artistic pursuits. [The Guardian]
Interesting. For some reason I wasn’t anticipating another trailer for Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours,” but I suppose that teaser we got a few months back was bound to be updated with something more robust. The new trailer landed today via Apple and is, I’d say, well structured, framed by one of the film’s more abstract moments with Best Actor contender James Franco. Check it out by clicking the image below or watch the embed after the jump.
• James Franco, also starring in “Howl” this year, selects his favorite poems. [Vulture]
• In remembering film editor Sally Menke, Lawrence Bender discusses the “Hi, Sally” Tarantino tradition. [Arts Beat]
• Anne Thompson talks, well, a whole bunch of stuff with a busy Guillermo Del Toro. [Thompson on Hollywood]