In Contention

Tag: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treade

  • Visual effects race whittled down to 15

    This is the first year the race for Best Visual Effects will feature five nominees.  So take a third of these lucky semi-finalists and there we are.  The five I think most are expecting to show up are still in the mix.

    The most surprising omission for me is “Black Swan,” which used digital wizardry to very startling effect, especially in the film’s final act.  I also expected “The Tempest” to show up, but I guess it just leaves too bad a taste in people’s mouths.

    I’m happy to see “Shutter Island” get singled out.  If we start seeing the guilds respond to the work in this film (and indeed, we might), I think it would be fair to start taking it’s Best Picture chances seriously.  It’s holding up for more than you might expect.  And “Hereafter” shows up on this list, too.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it slid in for its opening sequence (which is rather respected in the VFX community).

    Full list after the jump.  The category’s Contenders page has also been updated with a proposed ranking.

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  • Listen to Carrie Underwood’s ‘There’s a Place for Us’ from ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’

    We’re trickling closer to Thursday’s Tech Support column on the original song race with what’s available to us.  Today it’s a tune I didn’t even know was in the race until a PR blast hit the ole inbox this afternoon.

    It looks like country star Carrie Underwood is the race with “There’s a Place for Us” from “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” putting her in the “Oscar contender” club with fellow American Idol alums Jennifer Hudson (“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”) and Adam Lambert (“Time for Miracles” from “2012”).

    I haven’t seen the film yet.  In fact, I never did get around to the second installment of the franchise after being a pretty big fan of the first one.  But I’m told the song is used over the closing credits rather than in the context of the film itself.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Visual Effects — Volume II

    I find it somewhat appropriate to be ending my in-depth looks at the crafts categories with a discussion of Best Visual Effects. This is, after all, a category which awards the sort of behind-the-scenes crafts work that is often prominently displayed in advertisements and talked about with reverence after the film ends.

    When looking at the category’s history, it is not surprising that major blockbusters have fared the best here, with big budgets and even big revenues usually being a prerequisite to be considered for a nomination. Visual effects that “stick out” are usually rewarded, even if the film is not particularly loved. Of course, being in a beloved film helps, especially in the race for the win.

    Prior to this year, there had been only three nominees in this category. Now, there will be five. This means we won’t get the “clues” that come when a list of seven bake-off finalists was announced in previous years. That said, I feel we’ve got a lot of clues about what the final five will be already.

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  • ‘Narnia’ franchise finds new life at Fox

    Cover of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn TreaderI am actually a big fan of the “Chronicles of Narnia” franchise that Disney and Walden Media have been responsible for over the past few years.  So when the news came a few weeks ago that the brand had effectively been rubbed out because of a dispute between the two companies, I was a little bummed.

    Patrick Goldstein did a nice job at the time of summing the fallout up:

    According to multiple sources, the once-close relationship between Disney and Walden began to unravel when, after the first “Narnia” film cleaned up at the box office, Anschutz essentially put a gun to Disney’s head and demanded that the studio renegotiate its deal with Walden. Anschutz insisted that Disney either gave back a sizable chunk of the studio’s lucrative distribution fee or Anschutz would distribute the “Narnia” series on his own. Believing the franchise was too good to give up, Disney reluctantly changed the terms of its Walden deal, but the renegotiation poisoned relations between the two behemoths. When the second film faltered, there was so little good will left over that Disney had far less qualms about cutting its ties with the franchise.

    Well news came earlier this week (I somehow missed it) that 20th Century Fox has taken up the reigns of distributor for the franchise, breathing wind into the sails of the third installment: “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

    Here’s a bit from Michael Fleming and Tatiana Siegel’s Variety story:

    Fox, which was entitled to first crack at “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” after Disney dropped out because of the shared Fox Walden marketing and distribution label, has made a commitment to develop the project. The two sides are still working out budget and script issues, but the hope is to shoot the film at the end of summer for a holiday 2010 release through the Fox Walden label.

    This graph also caught my eye:

    After budget and script concerns are settled, Fox and Walden are expected to greenlight the film. The intention is to move the production away from Mexico, where, ironically, it was going to be shot at the Fox-owned Baja facility called Rosarito used for “Titanic” and “Master and Commander.” “Dawn Treader” will instead likely shoot in Australia because of concerns for the drug violence and kidnappings that are taking place near Baja.

    Interesting. Anyway, here’s to the continued creative success of the franchise (and a better choice for release date next time around).