In Contention

Tag: Roadside Attractions

  • Roadside/Liddell pick up ‘Albert Nobbs’ for Fall release

    It figures the day after I offer up my first set of Oscar predictions, a film I have an eye on as a potential awards vehicle finds distribution.

    Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment have picked up Rodrigo García’s “Albert Nobbs” for a fall release, and with it, you can bet a campaign for actress Glenn Close will be wind in the sails. On paper, the role seems to be the sort that could get Close that elusive first statue (much to the chagrin of Meryl Streep fans the world over, I imagine), but let’s see if the film has the goods, first.

    It’s interesting to note that Close originally portrayed the character — a woman who poses as a male butler in a Dublin hotel in the 1860s — 30 years ago on Broadway in a stage adaptation of George Moore’s short story “The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs.” She won an Obie for her performance and this is a film project she’s been developing for a decade. She even co-wrote the screenplay and served as producer. Maybe an Oscar is next.

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  • Bardem on his role in González Iñárritu’s “masterpiece”

    Following Mexico’s submission of “Biutiful” to the Academy yesterday, I wrote that I’m sceptical about the film’s chances of nabbing a Best Foreign Language Film nod — but if Roadside Attractions really put some welly into their campaign, a Best Actor nomination for Javier Bardem is looking quite conceivable.

    As a contender, the performance comes with some obvious handicaps. The actors’ branch can be resistant to foreign-language work at the best of times — not least in the Best Actor category, where no non-English performance has been nominated since Roberto Benigni’s 1998 win — and the grim, oblique film won’t be to the taste of many voters.

    (It’s interesting that Roadside face a similar challenge, minus the language barrier, to secure a nod for their Best Actress hopeful Jennifer Lawrence. They certainly haven’t picked the cuddliest of ponies.)

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  • TIFF: Lionsgate picks up ‘Rabbit Hole’ for 2010 Oscar season

    Man, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions are getting ON IT this year.  First Roadside rolled out the early buzz on “Winter’s Bone,” then it picked up Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful.” Soon after, Lionsgate announced a fall release for Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” and grabbed Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” through Roadside for a 2011 release.

    Well, now it looks like Lionsgate is wrapping up its acquisition of John Cameron Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole,” which drew praise for Nicole Kidman (a potential nominee now), Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest (welcome to the supporting actress line-up) at the fest.

    Talk about having a full plate all of a sudden.  Deadline’s Mike Fleming reports that “the plan is to jump right into this year’s Oscar race by releasing  the picture  before year’s end. They will take advantage of a career performance by Nicole Kidman as a mother who loses her child.”  So add one more to “the year of the woman.”

    What more is there to add to that?  Congrats on a healthy slate of contenders and let the games begin.

    [Photo: Buzznet]

  • TIFF: Lionsgate/Roadside grabs ‘Conspirator,’ Hawkins belle of the ball, Black’s melodramatic upbringing

    It seems Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” has become the first significant sell of Toronto (a few things have been picked up here and there already).  Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions (which is really stepping it up this year) have nailed down the domestic rights, but go ahead and strike the film from your longlists.  It won’t be released until the spring, Deadline’s Mike Fleming reports.

    Meanwhile, Patrick Goldstein sat down with Sally Hawkins, who has three films at the festival in “Never Let Me Go,” “Submarine” and “Made in Dagenham.” Andrea Riseborough is in two of those films (as well as “Brighton Rock”) and has been getting similar notices, but it’s Hawkins who could really make a dent on the season.

    In his piece, Goldstein offers that for him, “what makes [‘Made in Dagenham’] work so well is that it doesn’t treat its story as a weighty political screed.”

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  • ‘Biutiful’ goes to Roadside, ‘Good Things’ to Magnolia

    This announcement has been imminent for a couple of weeks now, but I guess the i’s (and lowercase j’s) and t’s are finally crossed and dotted.

    Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful” will be distributed by Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainmnet.  Roadside also has indie “Winter’s Bone” in the mix this year and got its awards season feet wet for the first time last year with “The Cove.” There will, I imagine, be a considerable push for Javier Bardem in the lead actor race.

    The film was generally well received, but while there were rabid advocates, there were also a fair share of detractors, making for a tale of two movies.  Our own Guy Lodge called it “an effortfully solemn amalgamation of personal crises and social concerns” that “paints from too limited an emotional palette for its high-stakes story of parental duty, in the face of hovering mortality, to hit home the way it should.”

    The film will play the fall festival circuit.  I’ll have a look then.

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