In Contention

Tag: Jeff Bridges

  • Set your DVR

  • 12/15 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Nudie ‘TRON,’ the Scotts eye westerns, Dorff talks Coppola’s ‘Somewhere’

    • Behind the scenes of “How Do You Know.” [Making Of]

    • Anne Thompson talks to “The Company Men” director John Wells. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The western shows further signs of life under Ridley Scott and Scott Cooper’s helm. [Deadline]

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  • First Oscar presenters announced

    With the big night still over two months away, it’s rather early for us to be thinking of Oscar telecast details, but you can bet the show’s frantic producers aren’t feeling quite so calm about it all. As we speak, Rolodexes and little black books are being frantically rifled through as the list of presenters is drawn up, and today, we were given our first taste of what manner of star power will be joining hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco (still doesn’t sound right, does it?) on stage.

    No surprise that reigning Oscar champs Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges will be on hand, presumably to present the lead acting awards — the question is whether the producers will stick to the awkward “Logan’s Run”-style five-way presenting scheme they’ve used, to sharply diminishing effect, the last two years running. In the 2008 ceremony, they had the previous winners present their own category: Bridges’ likely repeat nomination this year should prevent that, though it’d be fun to watch him eulogize himself.

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  • 12/13 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: HFPA’s “unsavory business practices,” Elswit talks ‘Town,’ the Zen of ‘TRON’

    • Golden Globes PR chief slams HFPA for “unsavory business practices.” [The Wrap]

    • David Heuring chats with “The Town” cinematographer Robert Elswit. [Variety]

    • Oscar marketing smackdown: “127 Hours” and “Buried.” [The Hollywood Reporter]

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  • 12/7 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Bridges’s terms for ‘Legacy,’ Coppola on ‘Somewhere,’ Gurus take another stab

    • Jeff Bridges to “TRON Legacy” producers early on: “Tell me the things you are going to do that no one’s ever done before.” [The Wrap]

    • Sofia Coppola talks “Somewhere” across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Jesse Eisenberg on awards season, narcissism and his feelings about an Oscar nomination. [Movieline]

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  • ‘TRON Legacy’ reeks and rocks with equal measure

    Disney has probably been wise to discontinue the original “TRON” on DVD in advance of the release of “TRON Legacy,” lest people be reminded of how truly bad it was.  Beyond being conceptually ahead of its time, it never seemed to be more than a pop culture blip in cinema history, if we’re being perfectly honest.

    Bottom line: the film had unrefined if progressive narrative ideas and got points for pushing boundaries if nothing else.  Naturally, then, it developed a cult following that heaped appreciation for what wasn’t really on the screen, but rather what existed in the conceptual ether of the thing.  This puts “TRON Legacy” in decent enough position to capitalize on throwback mania.

    Here’s the thing.  The new film has plenty of issues, but I doubt I’ve had a better time in a movie theater all year.  Expectations couldn’t have been lower, which played to the film’s advantage I imagine, but I was strapped in and game from the opening text.

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  • The Coens’ no-frills ‘True Grit’ hearkens to western heyday

    I’ve seen the Coen brothers’ “True Grit” twice now, and it’s not because the film is some “Inception”-like, mind-bending narrative maze. Quite the opposite, actually. I saddled up to it a second time yesterday morning because I wasn’t quite anticipating what I got the first time around and I wanted to consider it further knowing what it was.

    You see, this isn’t really “a Coen brothers film” to me. Outside of an opening act bathed in their usual trappings, the film feels almost anonymous, lacking the fingerprint stirringly present in each and every one of their efforts. And it’s all very much by design, by the way.

    “True Grit,” in its second screen iteration, is a classic western cut from traditional cloth. With its wide vistas, simple narrative and focus on character dynamics (as well as a handful of unrefined horse-back riding effects shots), it’s fair to say it bears more of a resemblance to the work of Anthony Mann, John Ford and Budd Boetticher than it does that of the Coens. The film isn’t focused on being as tight and complete as most of their films, and indeed, inchoate was very much a goal here.

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  • CINEJABBER: Way out in the water, see it swimming

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    The photo to the right represents the early haul on screeners this year.  Usually this time of year I find myself delighting in second and sometimes third viewings of this or that, but oddly enough, I still have some catch-up to do.

    I’m glad the documentary field has been narrowed down, so I can focus on a smaller group, but there are even a number of films from earlier in the year that I haven’t bothered to put in the player yet.  What is it?  Laziness?  Lack of interest?  Too busy?  I don’t know.  My mind is gone.

    It’s a weirdly sluggish year on the whole as advertising has held off until late November/early December for the most part.  This time last year we still had three films to see.  With “TRON Legacy” going before junket press in the last few days, we’re left with just one film to bow: “True Grit.” So Jeff Bridges gets to crash the Oscar party two years in a row.

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  • Damon finds inspiration in Tommy Lee Jones for ‘True Grit’

    It seems like I’m desperate for any morsel on the Coen brothers’ upcoming “True Grit.” If you haven’t guessed by now, it’s the film I’m most looking forward to this season, and every time that trailer drops before a film, I perk up immediately.  I’m in the tank and I haven’t even seen it.

    I guess everyone involved is getting their patter down, because after a quick EW video interview with child star Hailee Steinfeld yesterday, I stumbled across this interview with Matt Damon from Empire.  It’s actually just a snippet of the exchange.  There’s more in the full issue, which hits stands tomorrow (the cover featuring that first glimpse of Steve Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” that has so many all worked up).

    Damon was asked about the role of Texas Ranger LaBeouf, who looks to offer some comedic balance to the dark retribution and vengeance-seeking air of the film.  And the actor says he looked to a fellow actor for inspiration.

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  • Jeff Bridges to host SNL in December?

    So Tom O’Neil is reporting at Gold Derby that Jeff Bridges will be hosting Saturday Night Live on December 18.  I did some poking around and it looks like he was supposed to host some time next month, but I guess that’s been pushed closer to the Christmas release date of “True Grit” and, more fittingly, the day after the release of “TRON Legacy.” (Good on this guy for calling it.)

    Whatever the case, if true — AWESOME.  Obviously a hosting gig on SNL does plenty to boost the awareness of a big holiday or awards season film, but to the best of my knowledge, this would be the actor’s first time hosting solo.  He apparently co-hosted with brother Beau back in 1983.

    And really, who doesn’t want to see this?  Alright, let’s take bets.  There’s sure to be a silly “TRON” send-up.  Probably some Dude material (cast members dressed as The Dude in the stands during the monologue, perhaps).  Etc.  Anyway, can’t wait.

  • OFF THE CARPET: Leading men in the spotlight

    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.

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  • Jeff Bridges talks ‘True Grit’

    I was talking with a filmmaker/Academy member yesterday who asked me where I saw the Oscar landscape heading over the next few months. We had the usual (by this time of year, unfortunately boring) conversation with me making the usual points, before he offered, “I think it’s going to be ‘True Grit.’ It just feels that way. And I think Bridges is going to get two in a row.”

    It’s a meaningless Sunday afternoon discussion, mind you, and not indicative of anything more than one guy’s view. But here’s someone who hasn’t seen a number of the big contenders that have received plenty of press as of late, but all he could think about was the Coens’ upcoming western adaptation. If anything, it’s indicative of how much of a hold the film seems to have on the industry sight unseen, as I frequently encounter this kind of anticipatory giddiness.

    I’ve been reading Charles Portis’s novel as of late, and striking to me has been the simplicity of the dialogue and near mundane way the prose plays out (typical in most western novels, but not stylized in this way). Dare I say it reminds me very much of Cormac McCarthy and, specifically, “No Country for Old Men.” No surprise, then, that the Coens were drawn to the material, and that’s a point actor Jeff Bridges makes in a recent interview with Cowboys & Indians magazine.

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  • ‘True Grit’ teaser trailer

    Well, they held out on us for long enough, but we have finally been afforded a glimpse of the year’s last major awards hopeful. It’s short, sweet and pleasingly oblique — but you only need watch the first few seconds to know we’re in for something a bit more substantial than the creaky 1969 oater that won John Wayne his gold-watch Oscar. At this teaser stage, they’re still keeping Jeff Bridges’s expectation-laden performance under wraps, showcasing newcomer Hailee Steinfeld instead — and she evidently has a lot to chew on. Meanwhile, whatever the fate of the film, it looks like we can write DP Roger Deakins’s umpteenth nom down in ink. Click on the image to check out the trailer via Apple, or watch the embed after the jump.

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  • COMIC-CON: ‘TRON Legacy’ invades Hall H for a third-straight year

    “It proves to me some things, good things, take a really long time to happen,” “TRON” creator Steve Lisberger said to a packed Hall H, looking strikingly like Bad Blake next to a clean-shaven Jeff Bridges.

    And that was the vibe you got from the euphoric crowd this afternoon as Disney revealed eight minutes of footage from the new film “TRON Legacy.” A new trailer was also shown, which was simultaneously “unlocked” by internet users online.

    Actors Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Bridges, Michael Sheen (in his first Comic-Con appearance), Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund joined Kosinski, Bailey and Lisberger on stage with moderator Patton Oswalt for a discussion on technology utilized by the project, re-visiting the material 27 years later and the underlying themes of the film.

    “We need modern myths,” Bridges said. “And one of the themes in our movie is the dark side of technology. We’re developing it so fast we haven’t developed any ethics.”

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  • Interviews with the winners

    Geoffrey Fletcher at the 82nd annual Academy AwardsBefore we close the book on 2009, here’s one last rundown of our interviews with this year’s Oscar recipients.  It was lovely to meet with them all as this was truly, for the most part, a season of camaraderie.

    “The Cove”
    Louie Psihoyos (Best Documentary Feature)

    “Crazy Heart”
    Jeff Bridges (Best Actor)
    Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett (Best Original Song)

    “The Hurt Locker”
    Mark Boal (Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay)
    Chris Innis and Bob Murawski (Best Film Editing)
    Paul Ottosson (Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing)

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  • 3/8 Oscarweb Round-up (Oscar hangover edition)

    Kathryn Bigelow at the 82nd annual Academy Awards• Melissa Silverstein with a personal reflection on those four words: “the time has come.” [Women & Hollywood]

    • Anne Thompson gets a nice soundbite from “Logorama” director Nicolas Schmerkin backstage: “It took longer than ‘Avatar.’  It took more directors than ‘Avatar.’” [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Paola Singer sits down with Best Foreign Language Film winner Juan Jose Campanella. [Speakeasy]

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  • Why ‘Lebowski’ will win Bridges the Oscar

    Jeff Bridges in The Big LebowskiSpot quiz: how many award mentions did Jeff Bridges receive for his inspired comic turn in “The Big Lebowski” 11 years ago?

    If you guessed anything other than a single Satellite Award nod for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical, you’d be wrong. (That’s right, even the Golden Globes preferred Robin Williams in “Patch Adams” to The Dude.) Today, however, it ranks as possibly the most beloved creation in a beloved actor’s career, the character’s nickname having become Bridges’ own in a few short years.

    In a nice EW piece, Owen Gleiberman explains why that performance was never going to catch the Academy’s eye — yet at the same time, is partly responsible for his all-but-inevitable win for “Crazy Heart” tonight. Likening the scenario to disguised career-achievement Oscars for Al Pacino or Kate Winslet (or, more contentiously, Sandra Bullock), Gleiberman nonetheless thinks it’s this one 1998 performance that seals the deal for him.

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  • Guy’s final Oscar predictions

    Christoph Waltz in Inglourious BasterdsAnd so it comes to this: more months than I care to count of watching, thinking, sweating, fretting, writing, deleting and occasionally not caring boil down to single predictions in 24 categories. There’s a lot to get through here, and I’m not going to delay things with an introduction.

    Well, except for this one caveat — apology, even — of sorts. As you wade through my list, you may notice that my predictions look quite similar to those of one Mr. Kris Tapley. Remarkably similar, in fact. Unhealthily similar, even.

    What can I say? Short categories aside (which were subject to further research), the following predictions haven’t wavered in my mind since nomination day, over a month ago — and I see no compelling reason to go out on a limb this year. Sometimes great minds think alike. Frequently wrong, but alike nonetheless.

    With that, my predictions, preferences and rationales continue, category by category, after the cut.

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