• John Hillcoat and Joe Penhall already looking for life after “The Road.” [Variety]
• The “Slumdog” kids set to star opposite Anthony Hopkins? [PR Inside]
• Eugene Hernandez reports from the Telluride tribute to Viggo Mortensen. [indieWIRE]
Tag: Star Trek
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9/8 Web Round-up
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The Gurus line up for another year
Over at Movie City News, David Poland has amassed the fifth annual Gurus o’ Gold prognosticating collective (including yours truly once again) and asked for a list of 15 films with the brightest pre-Toronto Best Picture profile. We also were asked to indicate dark horse underdog actors and actresses, which yielded some interesting results (though some of them shouldn’t really count as “dark horses”).The Best Picture chart includes 34 titles (the top 10 republished after the jump) and represents the wild blind stab you’d expect at this point.
I find myself surprised “Bright Star” is still being considered a formidable contender, but it’s firmly in the top 10. So is “Precious,” proving out a personal months-old intuition (though nothing’s assured at this point, of course).
“The Road,” “Amelia” and “Capitalism: A Love Story” are the bubble contenders. “District 9” and “Star Trek” also have decent showings.
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Scream Awards laud ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Up,’ ‘Let the Right One In’
I don’t follow the world of genre-specific awards ceremonies very closely, so I must admit I’d never heard of the Scream Awards before their recent slate of nominations was brought to my attention.No prizes for guessing from the name that it’s a horror-focused affair — with separate divisions for fantasy and sci-fi as well. Fan-voted and cheerfully silly, it looks at first glance to follow in the noble tradition of the MTV Movie Awards knockoff, with such prestigious categories as “Most Memorable Mutilation” and “Holy Shit! Scene of the Year.” (Meanwhile, one of the more serious categories is saddled with the moniker “Best Scream-Play.” That’s good stuff.)
But get past such tongue-in-cheek frivolities — and the predictable spate of nominations for the likes of “Twilight” and “Transformers 2” — and there are some pretty cool selections scattered here and there. It’s heartening to see such a healthy showing for “Let the Right One In” in a people’s-choice institution like this — though not as surprising as the inclusion of Norwegian Nazi-zombie-comedy (there’s a mouthful) “Dead Snow.”
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OFF THE CARPET: Take a deep breath…
The calm before the storm is beginning to subside. Can you sense it?By the end of the week, the Venice and Telluride fests will be underway. A week later, Toronto will weigh in. When the smoke settles in roughly three weeks, the season will suddenly be a lot clearer…and yet so much of it will remain a mystery as latter year hopefuls limp (or stomp) into the fray in November and December.
Yes, the season is upon us. And while studios continue to think over the true value of Oscar notices, especially in a widened playing field, business marches on as usual. Venice will tell the tale for efforts like “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” “The Informant!,” and “Capitalism: A Love Story,” while Telluride could make or break the hopes of films such as “The Road” and “Up in the Air.”
Some overlap will go down in Toronto, but the most anticipated first-look there will likely be the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man.” Meanwhile, distributors might be looking to beef up their schedules with films like “Creation” and “Leaves of Grass” looking for buyers. But for those with ponies primed and ready, these festivals are very much the starting gun for awards runs, as ever.
So before the madness ensues, we get one more stab in the dark. But given the perceived road ahead, it seems to me that films with a healthy pre-season awards profile going into the fall are in pretty good shape as it is.
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TECH SUPPORT: Best Sound Mixing — Volume I
A few weeks ago I analyzed the Best Sound Editing category, which awards the creation and integration of artificially created sound effects. Today, we look at sound mixing – the overall composition of all the elements of a movie’s soundscape into a singular soundtrack. The re-recording mixers, who do this work during post-production, are rewarded alongside the production sound mixer, who captures the sound on set.Loud films tend to be rewarded here, with blockbusters and war films, as well as films heavily reliant on music, popping up more often than not.
Speaking of which, I’ll start by discussing the only musical that will likely find some wiggle room here this year. I am speaking, of course, of Rob Marshall’s “Nine.” Marshall’s return to the musical genre strikes me as quite likely to score in this category barring the film being a catastrophe. It’s worth noting that 11-time Oscar nominee Rick Kline is on board, and he’s yet to win a statuette.
James Cameron’s films have excelled in the sound categories. If his “Avatar” does not have a very interesting and unique soundscape, I’ll be quite surprised. I suspect the film could be more of a showcase for sound effects than the overall mix, I nevertheless anticipate it finding a home here as well.
Pixar has done very well in this category lately, with three of its last four films scoring nominations. “Up” is likely to one-up (no pun intended) those films by also finding a home in the Best Picture category. Nevertheless, the film’s sound is not as integral to the film as many of the previous Pixar efforts. A nomination here is certainly very possible. But I’d hardly call it a sure thing. Vets Tom Myers and Michael Semanick (both from the “WALL-E” team) are on board.
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TECH SUPPORT: Best Film Editing — Volume I
Best Achievement in Film Editing. It’s a difficult phrase to define. To a large extent, excellence in film editing can be editing which blends into the film, allowing the director’s vision, screenwriter’s story and actors’ performances to shine without interference. But equally, a film that stands out as a showcase for flashy but motivated construction deserves recognition as well.What is certain, however, is that in the absence of editors, our films would all be more than three hours long, largely incoherent and/or tremendously boring.
This category has historically displayed a strong correlation to the Best Picture line-up. Last year marked a return to a typical situation – four of the five films nominated for Best Film Editing were also nominated for Best Picture, with the fifth being an action film.
From 2005 through 2007, however, things were a bit shaken up with a two-to-five ratio. At the end of the day, however, Best Picture contenders, thrillers and actions films always do quite well here.
The other genre that frequently finds a home in this category is musicals. Cutting dance numbers coherently and blending between dialogue and songs consistently clearly impresses this branch. In light of this, I’d call “Nine”’s Claire Simpson the early favorite. A past winner for “Platoon,” she returned to the game after a 19 year absence two years ago with “The Constant Gardener.” Barring the film flopping, I’d say Simpson is good to go.
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TECH SUPPORT: Best Visual Effects — Volume I
“How did they do that?” Movie-goers often ask this in response to spectacular visual effects, one of few elements of a film, apart from acting, directing or story, that a studio might choose to sell a film directly on.Not surprisingly, the Academy’s award for Best Visual Effects is definitely the most mainstream-friendly of all of all. $100 million grosses and higher are the norm.
This branch also has a somewhat unusual process for choosing the nominees. A shortlist of seven films will be announced in December or January and members of the branch will screen effects presentation reels of the films from that collective to nominate three contenders announced alongside the rest of the Oscar nominees.
Probably leading the field this year, sight unseen, is James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Cameron’s last five films have all been nominated in this category…with four of them winning! Moreover, “Avatar” seems certain to be, like most Cameron efforts, a showcase for the visual effects. Of course, the film could also be an unmitigated disaster, but barring that I would be quite surprised if it did not find itself among the nominees.
On the other hand, we have already seen several films likely to end up in the running. Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” was absolutely wretched in this viewer’s opinion. But considering its massive box office take, not to mention the nature of the effects and the success of Bay’s films in this category in the past, I feel a nomination is quite likely.
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Eric Bana’s summer versatility
One of the highlights of Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” for me was Eric Bana’s supporting performance, a perfect blend of jack-assery and sincere complexity that stood out from the otherwise troubled film (along with Adam Sandler’s rather brilliant portrayal). It wasn’t until later, though, that it hit me how diverse Bana’s output has been so far this year, with featured but strikingly varied roles in Apatow’s film, “Star Trek” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife.”I haven’t seen the latter yet, but I was pretty much on-board for Bana’s villainous turn in J.J. Abrams’s franchise reboot. The role perhaps suffered from a lack of motivation in many ways, the only botched element of the story, but that’s not Bana’s fault and he carried across a Romulan vengeance-seeker with relative ease, I thought.
Well I guess I’m not the only one impressed by Bana’s versatility this summer. Writing in the pages of the Chicago Tribune, Lisa Rosen has taken note, using the occasion to remind that “Funny People” brings Bana back to his first brush with entertainment years ago in his native Australia.
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TECH SUPPORT: Best Sound Editing — Volume I
Zoom. Smash. Bang. Grunt. Zap. Splash. Screech.A single sound effect can capture a character, emotion or setting. And creating such sounds is no easy task, requiring creativity, ingenuity and constant communication with the other filmmakers to best capture the feel of a film.
The manifestation of these aural components — as well as their integration into the overall soundtrack of the film — is recognized by the Academy with the award for Best Sound Editing.
I suspect we’ve seen at least two – very possibly three or even four – of this category’s eventual 2009 nominees already. (At this point last year, we had seen four of five!) Blockbuster entertainment tends to rule the day. Let’s take a look.
Though I doubt it will be able to win, given the failure of its predecessor to do so, I am pretty confident that massive box office, not the complex mechanics involved, will manage to bring “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” into the final five. Michael Bay’s films do well with the sound branch.
Also from the summer, another film I strongly expect to enter the fray is “Star Trek.” Against all odds, the film managed to be a very successful reboot to this franchise and sound effects were pivotal to its success. While the series has only been embraced by the category intermittently, if there is one category where I expect this film to score, this is it. The sound effects were impressive and with a wide range.
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TECH SUPPORT: Kicking the tires on a new season
Today marks the beginning of a fourth year of Tech Support here at In Contention. Over the past four years, we’ve sought to bring the otherwise under-reported crafts categories and crafts artists the attention they seldom receive, despite their enormous contributions to the art of cinema.This year, we plan on looking at nine of the categories – Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Makeup, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects – twice thoroughly between now and the morning the nominations are announced. Best Original Song will be previewed once, when we have a better idea of eligible contenders.
I will be offering the analysis of these categories but Kris will also be joining me for the first time this year with Tech Support features and interview pieces throughout.
Last year, a contemporary film – “Slumdog Millionaire” – managed to triumph in five of the 10 categories, a truly remarkable achievement, while “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” unsurprisingly took three others. (Meanwhile, the year’s blockbuster “The Dark Knight” managed one.) It will be interesting to see whether this year will be seen as having tech sweepers like “Millionaire” and “Button” or a greater spreading of the wealth, as we saw in 2007, when eight different films shared the 10 crafts awards!
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THE LISTS: Top 10 first-half releases that deserved better
Around this time last year, we did a mid-year stocktake of sorts, wherein the site’s various contributors named the best (and worst) of what the cinematic year had presented thus far. You may have noticed that we haven’t offered up a similar piece for 2009. Time constraints may have had something to do with it, but given the slow start we had to the year, I suspect regular readers won’t have found it particularly hard to pick our favorites from the crop.As we’ve made clear on these pages, Kris and I are united in our admiration for such 2009 releases as “Public Enemies” on the large end of the scale, and “Sugar” on the much, much smaller end and, of course, “The Hurt Locker” somewhere in between. On our own individual tangents, Kris loudly declared his love for “Star Trek,” while back in May I went to bat for Olivier Assayas’s gorgeous “Summer Hours” – with the caveat that it wasn’t a 2009 release for me at all.
(Release dates play havoc with such lists – using the U.S. release calendar as my guide, I could just as well hand year-best status to something like “Hunger,” if I hadn’t already done so in 2008. Even in the list below, I’ve technically cheated three times by including films that saw the light of day in my neck of the woods last year.)
In any case, all of these are films that, wonderful as they are, either have already built devoted critical and/or public followings, or (as in the case of “Enemies”) hardly need further exposure. (Do you really need one more critic this summer to remind you about the wonders of Pixar?)
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OFF THE CARPET: The more the merrier?
The Academy dropped a bombshell announcement mid-week, leaving a mixture of cheers and jeers as well as a number of questions that will be answered slowly but surely as a new Oscar season approaches.The chief complaint from those who took umbrage with the decision to open the Best Picture category to 10 nominations is the further dilution of prestige. What is a nomination worth if it is shared with dubious contenders that wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in a traditional field of five?
Others felt the change instantly relegated the medium’s most cherished prize to yet another top 10 list, hardly distinguished in the increasingly dense fray that is the film awards season.
Those who championed the bold move found comfort in the idea, however hypothetical, that the category could now find room for under-appreciated gems from the indie circuit, or better yet, avoid the unfortunate case of AMPAS members ignoring the intersection of art and commerce (i.e. the Best Picture snubs of “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E”).
The “bubble” virtually eliminated, Oscar’s sandbox just got a lot bigger, so what’s the harm in allowing as many kids to play as possible?
I tend to fall in the former category. The move is troublesome in that it has a whiff of thoughtlessness, a knee-jerk, reactionary decision and perhaps merely a chance to create a larger advertising opportunity for the organization’s telecast. And I ask this: What will Pixar’s first Best Picture nomination really mean with an asterisk next to it?
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2009’s Oscar drought…same old song and dance
Over at Variety, newly minted editor-in-chief Tim Gray writes what we’ve been mentioning around these parts for a while: the first half of the 2009 film year is decidedly bereft of anything that might be deemed “Oscar-worthy” come January 2010.Aside from “Star Trek” and “Up,” the recognized critical faves of the year thus far, the best films I have seen are Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s “Sugar,” Duncan Jones’s “Moon” and Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies,” but I expect only two of those could stir the awards pot.
Critics have also responded, intriguingly, to Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell,” but I think we all know it’s safe to strike that one from the awards roster. And Focus Features’ “Coraline” is likely to make an impact on the animated feature race, but beyond that, you’d be hard-pressed to offer much in the way of a solid list as we approach the mid-way point.
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SUNDAY CENTS: Stocked ‘Up’
In the biggest non-shock of the year, Pixar has released a unanimously acclaimed new film and it has topped the box office. What is a little surprising is that “Up” managed to make $68.2 million despite a distinct lack of anthropomorphism. While Disney suits will have to continue to sweat over how they are going to make money out of Pixar on dolls and theme park rides, they certainly don’t have to worry about making money at the box office. This is their fifth biggest debut yet and puts “Up” in a very good position to out-gross both “WALL-E” and “Ratatouille” by the end of its run (but not “Cars” — go figure). That certainly won’t hurt it when the inevitable Best Picture discussion pops up at the end of the year.Sam Raimi returned to his horror roots and debuted in third place with $16.6 million. Obviously, that’s a disappointing figure in a world where “The Haunting in Connecticut” and “The Unborn” can each hit $20 million. It may seem like the world is one big “Evil Dead” fan but the truth is that it’s a rather small pocket and they alone can’t guarantee good business. The film got better reviews than normal for the genre but alarming declines from Friday to Saturday and Saturday to Sunday seem to have pegged this one as a quick burnout. Summer continues to be the worst place to open a horror film and Universal may have been better off waiting till October.
Last week’s champ “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” took a hit from “Up” and dropped 54%. That’s not great for a family film but it should rebound in the next few weeks and slowly work towards $175 million or so. Fox can’t be too disappointed with that since they essentially remade the same film, adding the bare minimum in terms of new characters or settings. With a cast of comedy legends old and new, you shouldn’t have a trailer relying on laughs from Hank Azaria.
“Terminator Salvation” fell a harder 62% and cemented its status as a misfire. It’ll take another half-week to hit $100 million and not much more can come after that. Continuing the franchise without James Cameron or Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have eliminated most of the target audience and an unwatchable product has done the rest.
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5/28 Web Round-up
• Kim Voynar goes deep on a male-dominated film world. [Movie City News]• Brooks Barnes on an anti-smoking Hollywood effort. “Thank God we invented the…whatever device.” [The Carpetbagger]
• Nine straight critical and financial successes. How does Pixar do it? [CNN]
• Gina McIntyre talks to horror helmer Sam Raimi. [Los Angeles Times]
• Ditto Scott Bowles, with some “Spider-Man 4” talk. [USA Today]
• Ronald Bergan: Why the second coming of 3D is overrated (thank you!). [The Guardian]
• An open letter to J.J. Abrams concerning the “Star Trek” sequel. [Newsarama]
• These guys are list machines lately: 10 movie houses you’d love to live in. [Premiere]
• 10 TV stars who should be in more movies. [Cinematical]
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5/19 Web Round-up
• Anthony Breznicaan reports on the big “Christmas Carol” to do at Cannes. [USA Today]• John Hiscock talks to Ron Howard about getting around the Vatican’s disapproval of “Angels & Demons” while filming on location. [Daily Telegraph]
• David Cox, meanwhile, believes the film will indeed hurt the Catholic Church with its depiction of an organization out of touch with modernity. [The Guardian]
• And Noah Forrest just wants to know what happened to the Tom Hanks he knew and loved. [Movie City News]
• Richard Woodward reports on the Jacques Tati retrospective going down at the Cinemathèque Française in Paris [Wall Street Journal]
• A bit out of the blue, a list of the 10 best suspense films of all time. [The Independent]
• Erica Abeel talks to Steven Soderbergh about his latest, “The Girlfriend Experience.” [indieWIRE]
• Nikki Finke reports that yet another actor you could care less about has been cast in Marvel’s “Thor.” [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
• Well that’s thinking outside the media coverage box for you: a look at…ahem…the “slash” fan fiction of the “Star Trek” dedicated. [Newsweek]
• Sam Raimi wants to go back in time and do everything on the “Spider-Man” franchise differently. You and me both, Sam. [Hero Complex]
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SUNDAY CENTS: Holy hit
God is so 2006. “Angels & Demons” was the number one movie at the box office this weekend but the $48 million it raked in is barely more than half of the $84.5 million registered by “The Da Vinci Code” in its opening frame. What happened? Three things.First, the free publicity generated by the media and the “controversy” surrounding the first film’s opening was nowhere to be found this time. Second, the source material was much less popular. And third, the first film was generally considered pretty dull by critics and audiences. Add all that up and you have a lackluster debut when compared to the original, but on its own terms, you gotta be pretty happy with close to $50 million for an adult-leaning summer thriller. Especially when the film racked up $100 million in overseas territories this weekend as well.
“Star Trek” showed “Wolverine” and Mr. Hanks what happens when audiences love your product by dropping a solid 43% for a $43 million weekend. It even out-grossed “Angels & Demons” on Saturday and Sunday, so expect the weekday grosses to be neck and neck. It will pass “Wolverine”’s gross on Monday or Tuesday. J.J. Abrams clearly got it right with moviegoers and this one could see as much as $250 million before it’s done. Don’t think that doesn’t affect the Oscars because it does, and nominations in the sound and visual effects categories, and perhaps other technical fields, are a safer bet than they were a few weeks ago.
Since “Wolverine” is pretty much already a box office non-factor, there’s not much else to report in the top 10, except that “Monsters vs. Aliens” dropped only 8% due to the fact that families have no other options out there. Expect that to bode well for “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” as parents clearly want something to take their kids to and Ben Stiller is ready to deliver.
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5/18 Web Round-up
• “Star Trek” looks to be a hit off-world. [The Carpetbagger]• It looks like Kenneth Branagh and Marvel have found their Thor: Chris Hemsworth from “Star Trek.” [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
• Jeff Sneider takes a long, hard look at the MTV Movie Awards. [Examiner.com]
• Tom O’Neil poses the obvious question: Will “Angels & Demons” bring another Razzie bid for director Ron Howard? [Gold Derby]
• Speaking of which, someone finally calls out the two worst writers in the business as responsible for the clunky film. [Peter Bart]
• Dan Jolin wonders if the latest 3D craze is a bunch of hogwash. [Empire]
• Laughing stock Roger Friedman gets a new gig as “senior correspondent.” [Hollywood Reporter]
“Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” premieres in D.C. [Washington Post]
• On the stamina of fan-movie filmmakers. [The Independent]
• Sad to see a once-great magazine reduced to nothing but constant top 10 lists, but here’s another one: top 10 “safe for work” movie strip scenes. Oy. [Premiere]
• Tom Shone talks to Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, writer/directors of the brilliant “Sugar.” [The Guardian]