In Contention

Tag: John Lasseter

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

    This year’s race for Best Adapted Screenplay has seemingly been the most predictable of the year. One script has dominated the precursor circuit and the name behind that script is as worthy as ever given his contributions to the medium over the years.

    I’m not particularly a fan of this slate. One script is an interesting experiment that doesn’t fully land as a piece of screenwriting, another is a near word-for-word adaptation of a novel (which is fine, but credit where it’s due) and another, frankly, made for the most overrated film of the year. But the two that seem to be duking it out for the win are worthy and deserve to be here, in my opinion, so I have little room to complain.

    The nominees are:

    “127 Hours” (Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy)
    “The Social Network” (Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin)
    “Toy Story 3” (Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich)
    “True Grit” (Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
    “Winter’s Bone” (Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini)

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  • 2/2 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Hurt Locker’ producers fire back, ‘Gasland’ smeared, Superstitious Harvey

    • “The Hurt Locker” producers finally respond to last year’s law suit, and how. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • SMEAR ALERT: The oil and gas industry has the gall to send a letter to AMPAS urging them to steer clear of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Gasland.” [New York Times]

    • Lisa Schwarzbaum shallowly attributes the dramatic success of two scenes in “The King’s Speech” to classical composers, rather than Tom Hooper’s directorial choice to use them in said scenes. [Entertainment Weekly]

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  • James Cameron tops Guardian’s “most powerful” list

    There has been some debate this morning in the British corner of the Twitterverse about the merits of The Guardian’s inaugural Film Power 100 list, which claims to represent the 100 industry figures current wielding the most power over, and influence on, UK filmgoers.

    It’s an ungainly and frequently baffling collection of names, mashing together actors, directors, moguls and journalists, but as readers pick away at the inclusion of this star over that — and non-Brits scratch their heads and wonder who the hell Claudia Winkleman is — few are arguing with the paper’s #1 choice: the long-dormant but mightily resurrected James Cameron. They explain his selection as follows:

    [H]e is almost the entire reason why [3D] is no longer viewed exclusively as a sideshow gimmick … No film-maker has taken a more passionate interest and involvement in cinema technology than this Canadian-born writer-director-producer, who pushed 3D and computer-generated character creation to a point of sophistication that would enable him to make his Pocahontas-goes-science-fiction extravaganza.

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  • I’m a big crybaby

    Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” reduced me to mush, just like it has untold numbers of critics across the nation.  I’m so excited to see that 2010 has already seen two top-notch animated features, and a few of those still to come look intriguing to say the least.  But this one took a formula, injected it with more profound meaning than its two predecessors could have dreamed of, had the balls to keep its edge when push came to shove with the story’s antagonist, and at the end of the day, put a big, bright, beautiful bow on one of the most beloved franchises in — I think we can say this now — cinema history.

    The story was cooked up by Lee Unkrich, Andrew Stanton and Pixar Don, John Lasseter, but Michael Arndt was tasked with actual scripting duties.  His work is a lean vision of purpose, four years of hard work shining through.  The voice work is every bit as effective as it ever was, but all the toys in Andy’s toy box seem to be even more distinguished in their own rights this time out.

    Of course, this makes it all the more sad that we can’t hear Jim Varney’s Slinky Dog chime in, but Blake Clark gives it a decent go.  On the whole, though, we’re looking at one of the best films of the year, easily.  And a studio that knows how to do the franchise thing well.

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  • ‘Hurt Locker,’ ‘Up,’ ‘The Cove’ win with PGA

    The Hurt LockerWow.  Summit Entertainment’s “The Hurt Locker” took down Goliath to win the PGA award tonight.  I’m at a total loss.  The film has asserted itself, rather dramatically, as a film to contend with, one that won’t be stampeded by the “Avatar” express.  And I am, quite frankly, ecstatic at the notion.

    Actor Jeff Bridges presented the award to producers Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicholas Chartier and Greg Shapiro. We wanted a horse race.  We got one.  Wow.

    Pixar’s “Up,” also nominated in the field of 10 Best Picture contenders, won the animated feature award, the highest grossing film of the category.  Louie Psihoyos’s “The Cove,” meanwhile, won the documentary prize.

    Mo’Nique presented the Stanley Kramer Award to “Precious” director Lee Daniels, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen presented the David O. Selznick Award to Pixar honcho John Lasseter and Will Smith presented the Milestone Award to Sony’s Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton.

    On to the DGAs next weekend, which will likely go in Kathryn Bigelow’s favor, too.  Watch out.

  • Academy members weigh in on The Ten

    Jane Campion at the 1993 Academy AwardsIn the four months since the Academy announced its controversial switch from five to 10 Best Picture nominees, you’ve heard a lot of griping (and occasional enthusing) from assorted critics, industry-watchers and schmoes like me.

    What we haven’t heard is too much perspective on the issues from the voters themselves. So USA Today’s Susan Wloszczyna has done some digging, only to find that several prominent Academy members are as unhappy with the idea of The Ten as many pundits are.

    Two-time nominee Willem Dafoe complains that the change “lowers the bar” and “dilutes the exclusivity” of the award, claiming that some years might not have enough deserving contenders to make up a satisfactory list of nominees. Michael Sheen concurs, saying simply, “The more films you have, the less special it becomes.”

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Oscar prods, Gotham nods, ‘Amelia’ clods

    Richard Gere• The Academy finally named the producers for next year’s Oscar telecast, first-timers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic.

    • All of which added weight to the speculation that Hugh Jackman might return as host.

    • The Gotham Awards provided the season with its first set of nominees, though it inspired more talk for its omissions.

    • Chief among those omissions: “Precious,” prompting talk of a backlash, despite generous media exposure positioning it as the one to beat.

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  • John Lasseter to receive Selznick Award from PGA

    John LasseterThis is turning into quite the year for John Lasseter. A little over a month ago, he and his fellow Pixar directors were honored with the career-achievement Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Now comes the news that Lasseter has been named the 2010 recipent of the Producers Guild of America’s highest career honor, the David O. Selznick Achievement Award.

    Lasseter is the first animation producer to receive the award, which was last handed earlier this year to Michael Douglas. Previous recipients include Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, Roger Corman, Clint Eastwood, Jerry Bruckheimer, Dino De Laurentiis, Robert Evans, Billy Wilder … the list is long and intimidating. The award will be presented at the PGA Awards ceremony on January 24.

    Congratulations, then, to Lasseter — it’s a splendid feather in his cap, and a further omen that this might be the year that Pixar finally cracks the awards-season big league. Industry goodwill for the studio really couldn’t be any higher at the moment.

    Press release soundbites after the cut.

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  • 10/8 Oscarweb Round-up

    Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man• Jamie Foxx wants “Ray” director Taylor Hackford to tackle the actor’s planned Mike Tyson biopic. [MTV Movies Blog]

    • Jeffrey M. Anderson talks to “A Serious Man” star Michael Stuhlbarg. [Green Cine Daily]

    • Patrick Goldstein wants to know why Michael Moore got dolled up for Sean Hannity. [The Big Picture]

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  • Congratulations, Pixar

    I just realized I probably should have posted something about Pixar (and directors John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich) receiving the Golden Lion for career achievement in Venice yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, not having been present for the occasion, I can’t offer much beyond that fact.

    George Lucas presenting John Lasseter with the Golden Lion

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  • Lasseter on reviving 2-D animation and Pixar’s “failures”

    The Princess and the FrogJohn Lasseter certainly gives good interview. We linked back in June to a candid and very thorough piece in which the Pixar maven talked through his up-and-down (and up again) history with Disney. Now Variety carries a worthwhile profile of the man, in anticipation of the lifetime-achievement Golden Lion he is due to receive at the Venice Film Festival next week.

    In it, he reveals the supposed secret behind Pixar’s unbroken run of hits (not to mention their enviable critical track record) to be a collaborative “creative brain trust,” whereby an in-progress project is screened every three months, then critiqued and workshopped by Lasseter and the studio’s leading creatives.

    It’s a process designed to nip potential story problems in the bud, while Lasseter and his collaborators would have you believe that such problems emerge more often than not:

    “We fail a lot,” admits “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich. “We just don’t fail by the time the movie comes out. John would be the first to tell you that every movie we’ve made has been at one point the biggest piece of garbage we’ve ever worked on.”

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  • Tom Sherak tapped as new AMPAS president, Hanks first vice

    Tom SherakWith Sid Ganis on his way out as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the search for a replacement has come to an end.  Tom Sherak, a representative of AMPAS’s Executives Branch, has parlayed his seven-year stint on the Board of Governors and a one-year go at treasurer into the new head of the organization.

    “Sherak, a marketing, distribution and production executive with more than four decades in the motion picture industry, is currently a consultant for Marvel Studios,” the press release reads.

    Nikki Finke is rather beside herself at the news, chastising Sherak as a “major advocate” for what she calls “he worst idea ever in the modern history of the Oscars: the recent decision to have 10 feature films vying in the Best Picture category.”  She also uses the fact that Sherak was “responsible for lobbying the board to choose Jerry Lewis to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the last Oscars” as a mark against him.  You’ll recall there was something of a controversy around that particular award last year.

    Elsewhere, Tom Hanks left his post as a Actors Branch Governor to take on elected duties as first vice-president, while Producers Branch Governor Kathleen Kennedy and Writers Branch Governor Phil Robinson were elected vice-presidents.  Feature Animation Branch governor John Lasseter was elected secretary.

    Full press release after the jump.

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  • Venice finalizes jury, readies lineup

    Ang LeeThe competition lineup for the 66th Venice Film Festival is due later today, but ahead of that major announcement, other bits and bobs relating to to yesterday’s fest have been trickling through recently.

    Yesterday organisers announced the complete (and pleasantly eccentric) jury lineup. It’s been known for some time that it will be headed by Ang Lee — who has a good rapport with Venice, after all, having won the Golden Lion twice in the last four years.

    Now we know that he’ll be joined by U.S. director Joe Dante (“Gremlins”), French actress Sandrine Bonnaire (herself a previous Venice prize winner for “La Ceremonie”) and firebrand Italian auteur Liliana Cavani (“The Night Porter”). Rounding out the group are two less internationally familiar names: Indian multi-hyphenate Anurag Kashyap and Italian musician-filmmaker Luciano Ligabue.

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  • Disney sends all-star auteur team to Comic-Con

    Tim BurtonWell, this is impressive. Hayao Miyazaki, John Lasseter, Tim Burton and Robert Zemeckis have all lined up to help represent Walt Disney Studios at Comic-Con in San Diego later this month, in the interests of showcasing a range of new and/or revived Disney features at the geek mecca. This is the first Comic-Con for all four filmmakers, so it’s quite a coup for Disney to assemble them in one place.

    Burton and Zemeckis will be joining a panel on 3D filmmaking (the first time Comic-Con has broached the subject), which will include discussion, not to mention exclusive footage, of their respective upcoming 3D features “A Christmas Carol” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

    Meanwhile, Miyazaki and Lasseter are set to participate in an animation panel (which also includes such veterans of  hand-drawn Disney animation as “The Little Mermaid” duo Ron Clements and John Musker), in which a range of upcoming animated titles — including “Toy Story 3,” “The Princess and the Frog” and “Ponyo” — will all be previewed.

    Both sound likely to be hot tickets. Kris, of course, will be on site in San Diego and covering the whole shebang for your reading pleasure. Lucky man. (Full press release after the cut.)

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  • Lasseter on his Disney ups and downs

    John LasseterTotal Film has done a notably thorough interview with John Lasseter, which takes the form of a chronological tour through the animation maven and “Toy Story” director’s career. It’s a fascinating read, particularly if you, like me, are not entirely au fait with the early history of Pixar and computer animation. I hadn’t realized how the dots all joined between Lasseter and such diverse figures as Steve Jobs, Tim Burton, George Lucas and Chris Wedge. Small world, and all that.

    The overarching narrative that emerges from the interview is Lasseter’s complicated history with Disney Animation Studios. He may run the place now, but getting fired by them decades ago has clearly left its mark. He’s too genial a guy to remain bitter, but he’s still frank about how unpleasant his early Disney days were:

    When I got there I found it was led by people who felt threatened by young talent. I kept suggesting stuff but I remember being told by one of them, ‘Look we don’t want to hear your ideas, just do what you’re told. There are plenty of guys who’d be happy to take your place.’

    In two sentences some guy made me not care about the studio; he made me not care about the project I was working on. And I thought to myself, ‘One day if ever I’m in charge I’m never going to say to a young person what that guy just said to me’. But it didn’t stop me, I just kept trying to push and make things better.

    When we showed the test and gave a pitch (for “The Brave Little Toaster”), the head of the film studio just said, ‘The only reason to produce this by computer is if it makes it cheaper and faster.’And he walked out. Within five minutes I get a call: ‘Your project is incomplete and your employment with the Disney Animation Studios is now terminated.’

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  • The ‘Up’ crew Tweets from The Croisette

    Guy is handling all of the Cannes updating splendidly, so I’ll just impede on his turf this once.  I don’t know if readers have kept up with or even been privy to the consistent Twitter updates coming from “Up” co-director Pete Docter in Cannes, but it’s a nice way to feel like you’re right there with the crew.  Things are kind of slow right now — lots of talk about interviews and the like.  But the photos from the big opening night after party were ace.

    Here’s a shot of the full spread — credited to Getty Images — with two more (one of the tents made up like the home of the film’s main character and a cool/bizarre candid of Pixar honcho John Lasseter) after the jump.  As always, you can keep up with In Contention and my general day-to-day silliness here.

    Up party at the 62nd International Cannes Film Festival

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  • 11/22 Oscarweb Round-up

    Tilda Swinton• Jeffrey Wells hangs with the “Revolutionary Road” crew in the Big Apple. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Ditto Glenn Kenny, who moderated the post-screening Q&A. [Some Came Running]

    • David Poland waxes on about how much he thinks “Revolutionary Road” fails, and judging by his charts, clearly hasn’t seen “Australia” yet. [Movie City News]

    • Steve Gaydos reports on a Rod Lurie event at UCLA for “Nothing But the Truth.” [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Peter Sciretta talks to Pixar honcho John Lasseter. [/Film]

    • Pete Hammond thinks there’s a hex on Paramount screenings because of a couple of snafus of late, reports from a “Doubt” reception. [Notes on a Season]

    • Which songs will get the ole’ Oscar shove for “High School Musical 3?” [Gold Derby]

    • Simon Hattenstone meets with the “contradictory” Tilda Swinton. [The Guardian]

    • Eugene Hernandez and Peter Knegt debate the documentary shortlist. [indieWIRE]