In Contention

Tag: Rob Marshall

  • On painful ‘Tides’

    Guy was balancing two options in Cannes this morning: Take in the press screening of Rob Marshall’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” or catch up on some much-needed rest. Given that I had already suffered the experience, I suggested he spare himself the 130-odd minutes of anguish and, I don’t know, lie in a park and eat a baguette or something.

    Truly, this film is the embarrassing, excruciating fourth installment of a franchise that bottomed out somewhere in the middle of the second. I wanted it to end the minute it started, and knowing there were over two hours to come, it was a trying, trying experience. The only thing that kept my attention was the placement of Penélope Cruz’s crucifix necklace.

    But no one is pretending this is anything beyond a paycheck for talent and a conservative money-grabbing maneuver on the studio’s part. I guess you can’t blame them. Opening weekend will be huge. Nevertheless, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to stand in the streets and scream, beg for consumers not to spend their money on a film so badly. Hopefully the final receipts will fall short of the marks reached by the other entries.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 16 — ‘Nine’ stumbles, so cui bono? Plus ‘Avatar’ as frontrunner and forecasting the films of 2010

    Oscar TalkWelcome to the first installment of Oscar Talk of 2010 and, indeed, of the new decade. Oscar Talk is your weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.

    It’s been two weeks since we dug into the Oscar race in this space. Here’s what’s on the docket today:

    • Rob Marshall’s “Nine” has landed in theaters and been both critically and commercially dismissed, so the question is: Is it out of the Best Picture race? Anne and I discuss potential replacements if that’s the case.

    • From the bottom of the list to the top, we talk frontrunners. Is “Avatar” the one to beat? Which films are threatening that position?

    • Speaking of which, could Zoe Saldana be in the mix for a lead actress nomination despite perceived CG bias? Anne puts forth the general narrative, but I think that’s a bit defeatist. Rules are broken every year.

    • Finally, a new year a new list of anticipations. Anne and I run through a big list of films we’re most looking forward to in 2010.

    You can listen to this week’s podcast below, with Robert Burns’s “Auld Lang Syne” leading the way. Cheesy, I know.  And as always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

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  • 12/29 Oscarweb Round-up

    Stephen Lang in Avatar• John Campea talks to “Avatar” star Stephen Lang. [AMC Entertainment]

    • Scott Feinberg spotlights 50 performances that “shoulda been contendas” in the 2009 Oscar race. [And the Winner Is…]

    • Nikki sez Warner Bros. has broken the studio’s own domestic box office record by crossing $2 billion across the States.  Wowsers. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

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  • Oh yeah, the ‘Nine’ embargo lifted…

    (from left) Daniel Day-Lewis and Nicole Kidman in NineIt’s one of those things when you show a film early and hold everyone to an embargo for a number of weeks.  I imagine there are people like me who run out of the passion and desire to write about some films, and over the last few weeks, “Nine” has been that film for me.

    I discussed the film, of course, with Anne in last week’s Oscar Talk and I think I said most of what I would write anyway.  I will say that I’m probably 99.9% in agreement with what David Poland has written, especially his thoughts on casting, Marion Cotillard’s final number being one of the few moments of actual emotion in the film, the detriment of a central character’s frivolous motives and desires, etc.

    Oscars?  I think what you see in the sidebar, for the most part.  I saw the SAG go wild for it, but I also know this is a film that could run into trouble when it comes to resonating.  So a month from now, would the applause be so grand?  I don’t know.  Marshall could run into trouble with the directors, unless they just feel like honoring him for knowing how to stage a number (keyword: stage).  Day-Lewis could miss.  Dench could slide in over Cruz, given the more interesting throughline she represents for the main character, etc.

    Below the line, of course, nods all the way across.  But it’s a real question mark about how this film will ultimately settle when the high of the music is long gone and people are left with their thoughts on what they just saw, and whether it has the substance to keep reminding them.  We’ll see.

  • Rob Marshall and ‘Pirates’ … why not?

    Rob Marshall It seems I’m one of the few people who isn’t particularly bothered by the admittedly surprising prospect of Rob Marshall directing the fourth go-round of “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

    Variety first floated the news yesterday that the Oscar-nominated choreographer-turned-filmmaker is in talks to take the reins of Disney’s megabucks franchise from Gore Verbinski, prompting a stream of “what is he thinking” remarks around the web.

    While sideswiping Marshall’s upcoming “Nine” as a “problem movie,” David Poland rather melodramatically suggests that it might be “the single worst idea in history.”

    Jeff Wells, meanwhile, foresees this damaging Marshall’s Oscar prospects for “Nine.” (Not that the stench of the “Da Vinci Code” franchise turned the Academy off Ron Howard. And I doubt Marshall will be a contender for the win anyway, but that’s another discussion.)

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  • “There was something…really dark about me.”

    Marion Cotillard in Public EnemiesWhat is beautiful/sexy anyway these days?  Is classic back in?  Does bombshell still register?  Who knows, but for me, very much so lately, actress Marion Cotillard seems to be a certain embodiment.

    A taste thing, obviously.  Subjective.  But I put her near the head of the pack in a business so hung up on boiler-plate image that it tends to miss gems like Cotillard.  Fortunately, thanks to an Oscar and prime film gigs, audiences Stateside are making her introduction.

    It is with these, perhaps overly dude-ish thoughts that I read Heather Hudson’s unique profile of the actress in London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.  Painting a portrait of depth at the very top of the piece, Hudson begins to capture a quite complicated, attractively thoughtful actress.  The writer details a “propensity for complicated emotion” and conversations concerning “intrinsic worth” that absolutely captivates.  Or maybe it’s just another crush.

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  • Year-in-advance winner predictions

    Yes, I’m insane, but before I leave off this year’s year-in-advance week, by request, I thought I’d throw up a random set of winner predictions and see if I was close to the target next February.  Last year I managed three correct guesses (four if you count Winslet for the wrong movie), two of them in the tech categories, so maybe I can at least up that tally.  I really want to predict Clint’s movie for Best Picture, but I have some weird sense of irritation at predicting an untitled movie.  Oh well, who cares?

    Best Picture: “Nine”
    Best Director: Rob Marshall, “Nine”
    Best Actor: Morgan Freeman, “Untitlted Nelson Mandela Project”
    Best Actress: Michelle Pfeiffer, “Chéri”
    Best Supporting Actor: Matt Damon, “Untitlted Nelson Mandela Project”
    Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Nine”
    Best Original Screenplay: “Up”
    Best Art Direction: “Amelia”
    Best Cinematography: “Nine”
    Best Costume Design: “Chéri”
    Best Film Editing: “Nine”
    Best Makeup: “The Wolf Man”
    Best Music (Original Score): “Broken Embraces”
    Best Music (Original Song): “Nine”
    Best Sound Editing: “Green Zone”
    Best Sound Mixing: “Nine”
    Best Visual Effects: “Avatar”
    Best Animated Feature Film: “Up”

    Those will all be wrong.  Each and every one of them.

    (And in case you missed it: OFF THE CARPET: Handicapping 2009 a year in advance!?)

  • Pedro Almodovar starts the buzz on Penelope Cruz in 2009

    Pedro Almodovar at the 75th Annual Academy AwardsWriting in the weekend’s New York Times Magazine, filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar becomes one of the first to begin spitballing the efforts of an actress we’re likely to be talking about this time next year:

    Last year she finally came into her own in America, as she had already done in the rest of the world. Penélope is one of the most versatile actresses with whom I’ve worked. And this season she has proved it, with two performances in very different keys: the hysterical, very funny painter in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and the young, neatly coiffed student in “Elegy.”

    What will 2009 bring? For starters, “Broken Embraces,” a hard-nosed drama with the feel of a thriller, and Rob Marshall’s “Nine,” a remake of Fellini’s “8½.” My film is finished, and I’ve seen images from “Nine,” and I can tell you that this year Penélope Cruz will continue to plumb depths we haven’t seen before.

    Check out the rest here.

  • And Fergie makes ‘Nine’

    Ugh, they had to ruin it, didn’t they?

    Yes, apparently the woman whose most significant artistic achievement thus far has been introducing the term “lady lumps” to the popular vocabulary is joining the most star-spangled cast in recent memory. She will play the prostitute from the Day-Lewis character’s youth, who was responsible for his sexual initiation. The mind reels. (Actually doesn’t sound like too much of a stretch for her, but we’ll still have to listen to her sing.)

    I like the sound of this project, and Rob Marshall pulled off some offbeat casting ideas in “Chicago,” so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt here. But seriously, was no other actress available?

  • Kate Hudson joins ‘Nine’

    I wrote back in May about the embarrassment of riches that is the cast of “Nine” – Rob Marshall’s upcoming filmization of the hit Broadway musical based, in turn, in Fellini’s “8½.”

    Now, as if Daniel Day-Lewis, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard weren’t enough names to fit on the marquee, word is out that room must be made for another – Kate Hudson. (I must have missed the memo when Day-Lewis was confirmed for the project, but it appears he’s definitely in.)

    You could say that she’s the least accomplished thesp on the list so far, but nevertheless, I’ve always liked Hudson, and it sure would be nice to see her in a good (or at least promising) film again. (“Almost Famous” is starting to seem awfully long ago.) The role – a Yank fashion reporter abroad – has reportedly been created especially for the film adaptation to showcase what Marshall describes as Hudson’s “revelatory skills as a singer and dancer.”

    Finally, an interesting detail that I hadn’t heard before: credit for the screenplay is shared by Michael Tolkin (already interesting enough, no?) and none other than the late Anthony Minghella. Shooting begins in the UK on October 10; sounds like The Weinstein Company have a very hot property on their hands here.

  • Day-Lewis in line for ‘Nine?’

    OK, so the dream cast potentially just got dreamier.

    Nothing has been confirmed yet, but Variety reports that none other than Daniel Day-Lewis (one almost feels that should be preceded with a Sir, no?) is in talks to play the lead in Rob Marshall’s film version of “Nine” — the Broadway show that is in turn based on Fellini’s “8½,” and is arguably one of the artiest musicals out there.

    If he boards, Day-Lewis will be joining a cast already sagging under the weight of its riches: Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman and (wow) Sophia Loren.

    It is a fascinating casting prospect for a number of reasons, and not just because we know so little of Day-Lewis’ abilities as a song-and-dance man. (And for those unfamiliar with the show, it’s a full-on, virtuoso musical role — no getting away here with shuffling and speak-crooning, a la Rex Harrison.) Of course, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that a great voice and great moves are merely two other weapons in the man’s well-stocked arsenal of actorly gifts; given how selective Day-Lewis is with his projects, I sense he wouldn’t take the part if he wasn’t sure he could pull it off.

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