I’ve slowly begun to perk up at Chris Morris’s “Four Lions,” which has been playing the festival circuit all year and is heading for a November 5 release. I need to track down some screenings, but it’s worth noting that the film, a farce about British jihadists, was written in part by Jesse Armstrong, one of the co-nominees of last year’s “In the Loop.” And judging by the new poster, I’m guessing the film is funny. Check out the full image after the jump.
In most cases, the adapted screenplay category of a given Oscar race is packed with Best Picture nominees or contenders. This year, however, there was a nice balance of adapted and original screenplays in the Best Picture category, and in fact, of the “top five” films that trickled down throughout the season, three were original and two were adapted, a rarity.
Regarding the adaptations, things seemed to firm up for a while, but with the various WGA ineligibilities, one couldn’t shake the feeling that a surprise was in the works. At the end of the day, Scott Cooper’s run on “Crazy Heart” came to an unfortunate end, while a fan-fave British comedy found support.
The nominees are:
“District 9” (Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell)
“An Education” (Nick Hornby)
“In the Loop” (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche)
“Precious” (Geoffrey Fletcher)
“Up in the Air” (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)