In Contention

Tag: Sharlto Copley

  • Calling the longshots

    Sharlto Copley in District 9So this Steve Pond piece, titled “How Oscar Could Surprise — and Scare — Us,” is what we like to call hedging our bets.  It’s a chance to address some bubble matters so that we have something to point to and say, “Look, I toldja!”

    (Is that officially trademarked by Nikki Finke yet?)

    Anyway, I do like the guessing game fun, and Pond touches on a couple of things that I would likely mention if I were to do a similar piece.  One we can all understand is his #10, the potential snub of “Invictus” in the Best Picture category.  It has kind of been in the water for a few weeks now that the film just isn’t as strong as it could be, likely lacking passionate top tier votes.  It is, frankly, in the #10 spot on my list of final predictions.

    I do like Pond’s mention of Sharlto Copley as a potential Best Actor spoiler, but failing to even make the longlist with BAFTA (a group that wasn’t shy on the “District 9” love) makes the actor (who gave the year’s best lead actor performance in my book) the darkest of dark horses.

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  • Best in show: the year in superlatives

    Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock HolmesWrapping up my perspective on the year today, a personal list of superlatives, Oscar categories and other silly nonsense.

    Swing back around on Monday for the ultimate wrap-up, my list of the best films of the decade.

    Best Picture
    “A Serious Man” (Focus Features)

    Best Director
    Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, “A Serious Man”

    Best Actor
    Sharlto Copley, “District 9”

    Best Actress
    Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

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  • 12/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim at the 80th annual Academy Awards• Dear cry-baby Hollywood conservatives: Al Gore doesn’t even have that Oscar you want back. Talk to Davis Guggenheim. [Top of the Ticket]

    • Editor Sally Menke on how she and Quentin Tarantino “clicked.” [The Guardian]

    • Anne Thompson has 20 questions for “District 9” star Sharlto Copley. [Thompson on Hollywood]

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Looking at the leading gentlemen

    Colin Firth in A Single ManWe’ve taken concentrated looks at the lead actress and supporting actress categories in recent weeks.  Now let’s turn our attention over to the fellas.

    Behind the Best Picture race, of course, the lead actor competition is perhaps the most hotly anticipated award of a given Oscar telecast.  Movie stars are born, Hollywood staples are rewarded and careers leap to the next level.  It makes for an intriguing annual state of the union as it pertains the the film industry’s talent roster.

    This year, one of Hollywood’s brightest stars finds himself right at the front of the conversation.  George Clooney is likely to end up with his third acting Oscar nomination, for Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” and he’ll owe much of that to Reitman’s powerful work on the page.

    Clooney doesn’t give his best performance to date in the film.  But the material is so cleverly built around his persona that one can’t blame the actor for saddling up to a role that fits like a glove.  And there is something to be said for the bravery of taking one’s image on like that.

    Colin Firth, meanwhile, has caused a critical stir with his leading performance in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man.” He has already won the Venice Film Festival’s acting honor and has been tapped for another at February’s Santa Barbara Film Festival.  He is pitch-perfect in the film, giving a refined performance of nuance and gesture.

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  • 8/31 Web Round-up

    Ang Lee• With “Luke and Brie are on a First Date” finding its way to an Amazon release, our own Chad Hartigan gets his film re-reviewed. [Spout Blog]

    • Stephen Zeitchik wants to know why Ang Lee can’t catch a break. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Gregory Ellwood sees (er, hears) awards prospects in Alexandre Desplat’s “Coco Before Chanel” score. [Awards Campaign]

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  • Blomkamp on a budget

    (from left) Neill Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley on the set of District 9Speaking of “District 9,” which doesn’t look to go away any time soon, Chris Lee at Hero Complex has just posted a great interview with director Neill Blomkamp, coming at things from the angle of the film’s low price tag of $30 million.  It dovetails nicely with this Film Junk piece, titled “What Hollywood Can Learn From ‘Disctrict 9,’” which makes it a point of mentioning, in case you weren’t aware, that blockbuster budgets are bloated.

    Getting back to Lee’s piece, he goes through a pretty decent laundry list of reasons the budget came in so low on the film, from the ease of implementing CGI with the film’s cinema verite approach, to eschewing a high-salary star in favor of newcomer Sharlto Copley, to hiring locals as extras in order to boost the local economy.  “These were seriously impoverished people,” Blomkamp tells Lee. “Destitute people. The township alone had 70,000 people. But if you hire different groups each day, you get that money into the community.”

    The biggest expense of the production came with the rental of military equipment, Lee says, all of which was borrowed from the United Nations.  I really like the closing quote Lee picks from LA Weekly critic Scott Foundas: “I can’t wait to see what Blomkamp does next and I very much hope he gets even less money to do it.”

  • ‘District 9’ receives most Academy applause in years

    Sharlto Copley in District 9The unexpected fiscal and critical success of “District 9” has stirred the proper awards talk in the right circles.  The film looks to be pretty stiff competition in the nomination races for sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects, perhaps even film editing.  But given the mood of a recent Academy screening here in Los Angeles, as conveyed by Variety’s Peter Bart, one might want to consider the film’s reach elsewhere.

    Applause is a difficult thing to understand in circumstances like this.  Generally, a big ovation at the end of, say, a well-attended press or industry screening, can be chalked up to ever-manipulative publicists doing their part to raise the roof.  But at a screening such as the one this weekend at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, a screening meant specifically for Academy members, the claps take on a different meaning.  I have a friend, AMPAS member, who always says you can place a smart bet on a film’s Oscar chances across the board based on the way applause ebbs and flows during the closing credits.

    If that’s the case, Sony might have stumbled onto a real live Oscar horse for the season.  Because the response was uncharacteristically enthusiastic for the sci-fi summer closer.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Festivals beckon, ‘District 9’ opens

    Sharlto Copley in District 9• The New York Film Festival unveiled a decidedly foreign lineup, with Alain Resnais and Pedro Almodovar at either end.

    • Speaking of festivals, the long-awaited “The Road” was among the titles added to the Toronto slate this week.

    • With everyone excited about “District 9” this week, we took time to chat to the film’s breakout star Sharlto Copley.

    • Best Film Editing was the subject of this week’s installment of Tech Support.

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  • INTERVIEW: ‘District 9’ star Sharlto Copley

    Sharlto CopleyWhen actor Sharlto Copley first pops up on screen in Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9,” it isn’t a grand movie moment in the style of John Wayne’s arrival (albeit out of focus) in John Ford’s “Stagecoach” by any means.  In fact, viewers might instinctively expect Copley’s character, Wikus Van De Merwe, to be a supporting player, what with his unassuming demeanor and character actor appearance.

    By the end of the film, however, audiences will have witnessed one of the most controlled, authentic portrayals of the year.  And this humble viewer’s prediction is that, down the line, the upcoming weekend’s wide release will ultimately be seen as the coming out party for an exciting new acting talent.

    At the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills recently, Copley winds down at the end of a lengthy press day for the film.  Fielding wall-to-wall questions from broadcast and print media can leave a person numb to the talking points, but as he hungrily chomps down on an apple, he still maintains focus on what it is about the project that interested him from the outset.

    “I guess I was always interested in films that either had a comedic edge or a depth to them, an intelligent aspect,” he says, staring off toward the downtown Los Angeles skyline as he searches for the words.  “As much as it could be exciting or whatever, that was always important to me.  And I think what Neill’s done with this film is combine those things really well.  You’ve got satire, you’ve got drama, so it’s a pretty unique situation.”

    Indeed, “District 9” is seen in some quarters as indicative of a human interest science-fiction story in a genre that has increasingly lost its grounded footing.  It makes for a nice sister film to Duncan Jones’s “Moon” in that way, sci-fi that interests itself with tangible emotional beats more so than the high concept science of it all.

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  • Neill Blomkamp on the necessity of setting ‘District 9’ in Joburg

    Neill Blomkamp on the set of District 9I’ll be posting my interview with “District 9” star Sharlto Copley later today or tomorrow, but in the meantime, I thought I’d pass along this Andrew O’Hehir interview with the film’s newbie director, Neill Blomkamp, over at Salon.

    The piece is wide-ranging, moving from Blomkamp’s background in digital effects and advertising to Copely’s performance to racial issues raised in varrying ways by the picture.  Indeed, one of the more obvious aspects of the film that taps into a grounded sense of human condition, and therefore helps the film to succeed as high science-fiction art among genre entries that largely miss such necessary nuance, is the parallel drawn between the ghettoized alien race of “prawns” and South Africa’s Apartheid system (the film is set in South Africa).

    O’Hehir’s query turned into a nice springboard for Blomkamp to again discuss how important it was to set the film in Johannesburg, a perspective I haven’t properly conveyed in this space, despite the Comic-Con coverage.

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  • ‘District 9’ on the way

    Sharlto Copley on the cover of Entertainment WeeklyNeill Blomkamp’s “District 9” is primed to explode on the cinema landscape next week.  At least I hope it is.  I’m never good at reading the populist pulse, especially as it pertains to predicting box office and things like that, but on a $30 million budget, and being an exceptional piece of work that should become a word-of-mouth success on home video if not theatrically, I can’t imagine the film won’t pull a profit.

    Entertainment Weekly’s cover story this month features actor Sharlto Copley, praised on high in this space during last month’s San Diego Comic-Con International, with the fetching headline: “Why ‘District 9’ will blow you away.”  That’s a good start.  I know plenty of people who ask me daily, “What’s the deal with ‘District 9?’”  Breeding intense curiosity is always a win.

    Scott Bowles sat down with the film’s producer, Peter Jackson (who made his first ever trip to Comic-Con to promote the film), in San Diego and got some great stuff, particularly Jackson’s revelation that working on the film reminded him of his guerrilla filmmaking roots.

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  • Sharlto at the Four Seasons

    A double feature this morning and afternoon will keep me away from the computer for a spell, but stay tuned for an interview with Sharlto Copley either later today or tomorrow.  I got a few minutes with the “District 9” star yesterday and am anxious to dig into the quotes.  Sharp guy, caught in the whirlwind of offers and well-wishers, but grounded.  And a hell of a talent.  More later.

    Sharlto Copley

  • COMIC-CON: Peter Jackson receives standing ovation at first ever Con appearance

    Peter Jackson at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con InternationalPeter Jackson made his long-awaited first trip to Comic-Con yesterday in support of Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9,” which screened to a select audience Thursday. He received the expected standing ovation by the many Ringers and Bad-Tasters in attendance.

    “This is a moment to remember for the rest of my life,” he said after snapping a few photos of the audience like a geek in heaven.

    Jackson was joined by Blomkamp and actor Sharlto Copley on stage for a discussion of the thoughtful sci-fi film. An extended trailer (that, to my mind, gave away too much of the plot’s particulars) cranked the crowd’s anticipation for the film up to 11, but I personally wish the moderator had drawn out some more insightful commentary from Copley, whom I praised to the ends of the earth after seeing his riveting performance Thursday.

    Jackson talked about the project’s genesis, being born from the ashes of his failed “Halo” project. The seeds of “District 9” can be found in Blomkamp’s short film “Alive in Joburg,” which crossed Jackson’s path when he was seeking out a helmer for “Halo.”

    “The idea was that we would produce ‘Halo,’ but from the very beginning we wanted to find a new director, someone who was fresh, original, who would bring a new spin to the film,” Jackson said. “Neill had done a couple of short movies and we were really impressed. And then ‘Halo’ died due to studio politics. We got kind of disillusioned with what happened and we thought, ‘Why don’t we try to take control of the situation,’ so we suggested the idea of working on an original idea. Keep the budget low and put this energy into a different project. So it worked out for the best.”

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  • COMIC-CON: Peter Jackson and Neil Blomkamp unveil ‘District 9’ to eager first audience

    Sharlto Copley in District 9Last night Peter Jackson showed up at the Horton Plaza United Artists theater a few blocks north of the convention center with protege Neill Blomkamp and actor Sharlto Copley in tow.  The occasion: the first ever screening of Blomkamp’s “District 9,” a sci-fi installment that finds itself in the midst of a heavy “what the heck is it?” campaign right now that hopes to drum up anticipation for the August 14 release (and will no doubt see a spike in that once the web press finds time to sit at their laptops and hammer out reactions).

    I didn’t really know what to expect.  I haven’t follwed the viral on this to the letter like so many and I really just thought it would be a nifty diversion during the Con if nothing else.  But it was so much more.  The film, which I won’t even discuss plot-wise, isn’t a watershed moment for sci-fi cinema by any means, so don’t let me over state.

    What it is, however, is a dedicated, small piece of character-driven genre, much like Duncan Jones’s “Moon” in that way, that was smartly nurtured by Jackson.  It also has plenty of seat-leaping action moments to go around, but at it’s heart, it is a near one-man show from actor Sharlto Copley, a fresh young talent who, quite frankly, stunned the hell out of me with his control of a character that is quite complicated in some ways.

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