Though I find it hilarious that Dave Karger wrote “exclusive” before the headline. But anyway, it’s official now.
Tag: Philip Seymour Hoffman
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Miramax Highlights goes live
First Paramount Vantage, then Universal, and now Miramax Films. Studios are leaping into the online FYC phase of campaigns this season. MiramaxHilights.com is showcasing three modest enterprises for contention: John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” (with a new poster I haven’t seen yet) and “Fernando Mereilles’s “Blindness.”There isn’t anything available for each film yet. No screenplays or score downloads. I assume that will come in time, as will category placements. The biggest question mark for these films in that arena is whether Philip Seymour Hoffman is pushed as a lead or supporting actor in “Doubt.” My guess is still the latter.
Thanks to reader Jacob for the tip.
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9/20 Oscarweb Round-up
• Oliver Stone wanted Christian Bale to play Bush in “W?” [GQ]• Jeffrey Wells is getting more and more excited about the film, by the way. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• ‘Synecdoche’ and ‘Doubt’ star Philip Seymour Hoffman is set to make his mark on the London theater scene. [The Independent]
• Patrick Goldstein finishes up his “Express” spotlight with Gary Fielder. [The Big Picture]
• Wendy Ide spends some quality time with director Walter Salles. [The Times]
• Perilous times for superstars paves the way for newcomers and has-beens, says Peter Bart. [Peter Bart]
• And some lists, starting with Glenn Kenny’s 12 hard-to-see films you haven’t seen but should… [Some Came Running]
• …and Christopher Campbell’s top 10 movie titles of the last 10 years. [Spout Blog]
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Best Actor race looking tight as always — expect surprises
The Best Actor category tends to be one of the more crowded categories come Oscar time, and 2008 looks to be no exception. To be sure, there are a handful of frontrunners as usual, but hovering behind them are another group, more than eight who could easily sneak in and nab a nomination. Last year Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for his powerful work in “The Valley of Elah,” a richly deserved nod, but completely unexpected by the majority of prognosticators. I remember smiling when I heard his name read, but it was a huge surprise.I would expect something similar this year, as we have some of the great actors and potentially stunning performances in contention.
The obvious frontrunner at this point is Mickey Rourke, basking in the attention being given to “The Wrestler.” His performance is nothing short of miraculous, an astounding piece of acting, and it is great to see him back in the fold. But when it comes to winning the award, I have to say: not a chance. Rourke is intensely disliked in Hollywood. He’s seen as someone who basically spit on the industry to walk away and become a boxer. As a friend close to Rourke said, “A lot of people were happy when he left and don’t want this guy back.”
Frank Langella looks to be terrific in the trailers for “Frost/ Nixon.” He has always been a great actor, better known for his stage work than film, though in the last few years he has become a formidable presence on the big screen. I remember seeing him as “Dracula” both on stage and on film in the late 1970s and hoped he would go far. He did, just not in the movies, until recently.
Kris has Michael Sheen down as a lead actor possibility as well, and I agree. It’s one of those “Amadeus” situations where one performance cannot exist without the other. There is a strong chance that if the film and the actors are terrific, both of them will be nominated, though Langella certainly has the showier role of the two.
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OFF THE CARPET: Looking for quality in the festival world
This year’s Toronto International Film Festival just didn’t cut it for some people. The talk of Oscar taking a break from the annual September showcase had become tired before films even began screening, and certainly before every major news outlet had chosen the angle as the only story worth telling.For 10 days, the excitement for what was on hand seemed terribly muted. But for my part, I could not have been more enthralled.
We’ve been gifted with frontrunners in the two lead acting categories (Mickey Rourke and Kristin Scott Thomas), performances that should maintain their bee-lines for nominations at the very least, despite what the next three months have in store. A studio that looked primed for a much-deserved year off the Oscar circuit two weeks ago has emerged as a formidable contender yet again with two acquisitions that are already winning awards (Fox Searchlight).
What’s more, true independent cinema was given a stage on which to perform without being obscured by big studio product seeking a pre-Oscar campaign boost. As a result, at least two well-received sleepers have insinuated themselves into the film awards spotlight (“The Hurt Locker,” “Lovely, Still”).
What’s not exciting?
I started out this season thinking 2008 would be a weak year for cinema, perhaps on the level of 2005’s shoddy output. The idea has been echoed in numerous corners, as well as by fellow contributors, but I feel the need to re-frame my philosophy on the situation. 2008 seems to be proving itself a much more measured year, perhaps with less “rah-rah” exhibitions of undeniable filmmaking talent than solid and penetrating works that are out there for the interested (and patient) viewer.
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‘Doubt’ trailer hits the net
Check it out in Quicktime here.
Streep looks intense, of course. She probably remains the film’s strongest shot at Oscar glory. We can’t be sure whether Viola Davis’s role was expanded enough from the brief stage presence to grab a supporting nomination, while Philip Seymour Hoffman seems a little out of place to me. But it could be a stellar performance edited awkwardly for the trailer and result in some major notices at the end of the day.
Your thoughts?
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9/9 Oscarweb Round-up
• Jeffrey Wells digs “Nothing But the Truth” (again), but wasn’t so much for the Toronto debut’s after party. [Hollywood Elsewhere]• Lou Lumenick, meanwhile, calls the film “silly” and “an endless mopefest.” [Lumenick on Film]
• Nancy Kriparos catches up with a few more flicks in Toronto, including the awards sneaker “Dean Spanley.” [Awards Daily]
• Peter Bart talks to Bill Maher about the comedians new documentary “Religulous.” [Peter Bart]
• James Rocchi is on board for “The Wrestler,” calling it a reflection of “poisonous” American entertainment culture. [Cinematical]
• Peter Sciretta also reviews the film… [/Film]
• …after fumbling to produce an incoherent initial reaction IMMEDIATELY after seeing the film. [/Film]
• Bob Tourtellotte reports a toned-down, hype-controlled festival. [Reuters]
• Stephanie Zacharek gets some face time with Ed Harris. [Salon]
• Presumably trying to beat Variety’s list of 10 to the punch, Karen Durbin picks five actors to watch (including the overreaching “Miracle at St. Anna” star Omar Benson Miller). [New York Times]
• Anne Thompson hands MTV’s credit over to /Film for yesterday’s Depp/Hoffman/Batman “news.” Nothing confirmed yet on that, of course. [Thompson on Hollywood]
• And about that…Devin Faraci is holier than thou. [CHUD]
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Uhh…did Michael Caine just confirm Depp and Hoffman for the ‘Dark Knight’ sequel?
I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make [a sequel to The Dark Knight]?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘Shit, they’ve done it again!’ [Laughs]
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Depp as the Riddler? Hoffman as the Penguin?
Yeah, consider the source: the National Enquirer. But apparently these two names are swirling around the casting debate for the sequel to the box office shattering “Dark Knight.”(Actually…there’s no source on the Depp bit.)
Thanks to reader Ronn for passing in the information. You all know my Bat allegiance, so I’ll use just about any nugget as an excuse to spout off at the mouth on this subject. Personally, I’m not big on either of these choices, though Hoffman could put a certain bent on Oswald Cobblepott that would be interesting. His name has always been in the cards, though.
The point is, these types of rumors go crazy right around this time: post release of a successful film that’s bound to have another installment on the way. Last time it was Crispin Glover and Jude Law as potential candidates for the role of the Joker (with the former actively campaigning for the part). Then Christopher Nolan surprised us all with an out-of-the-box, unanticipated name and voila: potential Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
My thoughts on casting the rest of the series are already on the record, but here’s two more names, grist for the mill, do with it what you will.
Thanks again to Ronn.
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Sean Penn defends ‘Che’
British film magazine Sight & Sound has a nice new tradition of interviewing the jury president of the most recent Cannes Film Festival, which makes for interesting reading. (Last year’s prez, Stephen Frears, presciently predicted in his interview that “No Country for Old Men” would “do really well,” despite not winning anything at the festival.)Unsurprisingly, 2008 president Sean Penn is rather more candid in his interview with Richard T. Kelly. After admitting that he had four clear favourites in the competition (two of which, “The Class” and “Che,” were unanimously awarded their respective Palme d’Or and Best Actor prizes), he then launches into an impassioned defence of Steven Soderbergh’s polarising opus, as well as an attack on the journalists who dismissed it:
Right through the festival I had no awareness of what the ‘buzz’ was, and I shut people down if they tried to talk about movies in front of me. But when I did a little bit of catch-up browsing afterward I read some of the stupidest, ugliest, most cynical responses to what had gone on, and I had the front-seat to be aware of their inconsistencies.
“Che” is a great example. I pray it finds distribution in the four-hour-plus form I saw, because otherwise people will be missing out. The film-making is stellar: there are so many details in the execution of that huge story. Every sentiment about Guevara I’ve heard passionately expressed when I’ve travelled in Cuba and South America was not only dramatised, but without exposition, seamlessly, fulfilling the narrative. Then you have one of the first tour de force performances in film history that doesn’t rely on the close-up.
This is a film, I later find, that had some negative responses…I was in a jury room of nine people with more expertise in their big toenails than any of the people writing in these papers: nine out of nine wanted to go out and change the world afterwards.
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Festival-goers file out of ‘Synecdoche’
UPDATE (5:38 a.m.): Allan Hunter of Screen International has written the first full review out of the fest I’ve come across. He raves the effort as follows:Synecdoche is about one man’s lifelong struggle to understand the meaning of his existence. Unadventurous audiences may feel the film is a two hour struggle to understand the meaning of its intentions but as the story appears to move in ever decreasing circles, it remains incredibly engaging and ultimately very moving. Hoffman gives a bravura performance that provides the film with all the focus it requires, capturing everything about Caden that makes him immensely sympathetic and instantly recognizable as a symbol of everyone on planet earth who is…struggling with the challenges of being human.
EARLIER: We should be hearing word in the next few hours on Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut, “Synecdoche, New York,” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Samantha Morton — and one my most anticipated flicks of the Cannes fest this year.
Here is Jeff Wells’ one-off, on his way to the post-screening goings-on:
I’ve just emerged from the semi-nourishing, semi-tortured Fellini-esque Chinese box mindfuck-dreamscape that is Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York…and the press conference is just starting. [Ten minutes later] Kaufman has just explained the title’s pronunciation: Syn-ECK-duh-kee. At least that’s settled.
Mike Jones at Variety, meanwhile, had some fun yesterday with Croisette-goers about said pronunciation.
More to come, I’m sure.
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Best actor contenders join an eclectic list of recent winners
Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Frank Langella seem to be the names bandied about for Oscar consideration this year, which would place them in some impressive company of nominees and winners these last 20 years. Of course, that said, there have also been some bizarre choices for the Best Actor award, which has often left me shaking my head in disgust and wondering what these voters were actually seeing.Since 1988, there have been 10 winners that perhaps should not have been, the award arguably deserved by another of the nominees, or worse, an actor not nominated! Consider Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man,” a widely acclaimed performance that asked that he not connect with anyone in the film, never make eye contact, rock back and forth and speak in a nasally voice.
Stop what you are doing right now and try what he did in the film, and trust me it is very easy to do. Now do you deserve an Oscar for doing what Hoffman did in that film? The real perfortmance in “Rain Man” was that of Tom Cruise, who we watched evolve over the course of the film, and of course the best performance of that year was Gene Hackman as the tough investigator in “Mississippi Burning.” Hackman was nominated, but he stood no chance in the wake of the juggernaut of support for Hoffman, who in fact should have won years before for his miraculous work in “Tootsie!”
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Pitt finally going to get some Oscar love?
Over the course of his impressive career, Brad Pitt has not always been appreciated for the fine actor he is. This is an actor who could easily take the cheap way out and do one goofy romantic comedy or silly film after another, but who instead takes bold risks with his career, always challenging himself, and though sometimes falling flat on his face, growing as an actor.Pitt is not the first actor to grow in maturity through the years; look at John Wayne, badly under appreciated for much of his career, though his work in “The Quiet Man”, “Rio Bravo” and especially “The Searchers” was astounding. His last performance, as the gunfighter dying of cancer in “The Shootist,” richly deserved Oscar attention which sadly never came.
Actors, the great ones, live to challenge themselves, never content to continue doing what they have done before, they need change, they live for challenge.