(Courtesy: Fan Art Exhibit)
Tag: The Dark Knight
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An evening with the cast and crew of ‘The Dark Knight’
A boatload of people turned out last night for the Beverly Hills reception in honor of “The Dark Knight.” I hesitate to say “star-studded,” since the principle cast and crew were the most recognizable parties. But suffice it to say the premises was packed with little breathing room and plenty of adoring press.Producer Charles Roven and screenwriter Jonathan Nolan were the first to show, side-by-side and quick to engage with some of us ready to pounce. Roven, who I interviewed recently for a Variety profile on Heath Ledger (publishing this weekend), was trying to take it all in stride. The only film he’s ever produced that landed Oscar’s attention was “Twelve Monkeys” in 1995 (nominations for Best Costume Design and Brad Pitt for Best Supporting Actor). He’s welcome to the idea that “The Dark Knight” could be his first trip to the party as a nominee but he’s almost more interested in discussing what’s on the horizon, namely Tom Tykwer’s “The International,” which has been with Roven for 16 years of development and will finally find its way to screens in February.
Jonathan Nolan, meanwhile, proved to be a welcome five-minute diversion. A real guy’s guy with a swift Chicago accent, he clearly delights in a deep discussion about the Caped Crusader. His brother Christopher gave him a copy of Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” when he was 13 years old and the Bat has been with him ever since. “I’ve been into Spider-Man and Wolverine, but for me, it’s always been Batman,” he said of the character that has brought him into the limelight of sought-after screenwriters. I asked the obligatory “will there be a third one” question, and taking on the role of fan first, he offered, “I hope so. Given what happened to Heath [Ledger], it’s hard to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do another one!’ But I hope so.”
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Take that, Oscar: Grammy nominates ‘Dark Knight’ duo
The Academy’s petty disqualification of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for “The Dark Knight” from Oscar contention has already caused much gnashing of teeth on these pages, so here’s something to compound the embarrassment.It seems the Grammy voters are rather less fussy. Zimmer and Howard’s work was nominated yesterday in the category of (deep breath now) Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. (Still with me? Good.)
And hey, look who joins them on the list: none other than Jonny Greenwood for “There Will Be Blood,” who of course won last year’s Oscar because the work was simply too groundbreaking to be ignored. Oh right, except he didn’t, because he was disqualified. Sensing a pattern here?
We shouldn’t be surprised by now that a voting body unrelated to the field of film should exhibit more common sense than AMPAS’ music blue-hairs, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
Joining Greenwood, Zimmer and Howard on the list are three more 2008 contenders, Thomas Newman for “WALL-E,” Ramin Djawadi (surprise!) for “Iron Man” and John Williams (yawn) for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
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Column? We don’t need no stinking column.
Turns out I don’t have the time to dig into a full column this week like I had hoped. I’ll have to get into my thoughts on “Gran Torino” and “Seven Pounds” another time, but I do feel the need to note one thing in this week’s charts: “The Dark Knight” leaping into the Best Picture fray.
I still don’t feel completely comfortable with this. It was a coin flip on whether to take “Frost/Nixon” or “Revolutionary Road” out of the mix. Meanwhile, no one seems to be hearing passionate murmurs from the Academy on the Caped Crusader. So maybe I look like I’m pulling my punches here, but with the consistency of disappointment this year, I just feel like the door is opening for something that strays this much from AMPAS tradition to find its way in.
That said, there are things at work here that should be taken into account. Like the international stake Warner Bros. has in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” for instance, owning every territory but North America. The studio is even taking out some of the Oscar ads you’re seeing for the film. So perhaps chips are being rationed toward a film like “Button” that will need the box office boost of awards season rather than a film like “The Dark Knight,” which has made more than its fair share of dollars.
This is all fodder for another column at another time. But for now, I can’t dive in appropriately. So I’ll just leave you with the charts. This time next week I’ll have seen the full slate of contenders and the National Board of Review will have come and gone. Then it’s LAFCA, NYFCC and onward into the season. Slowly, it will unfold.
Main Category Charts
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Grassroots ‘Dark Knight’ campaign
One of the true joys for me this season has been watching Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” take on so much relevance and achieve such a higher state of purpose than a piece of entertainment. Leaving awards aside for the moment, to see this character I’ve loved for so many years finally reach a sort of pinnacle, it is both beautiful and a bit of testimony, testimony to the potential a “throw-away” genre such as this holds, potential recognized in the geek culture for decades, making its way to the surface of traditional media through dedicated and restless souls in recent times…finally.This grassroots campaign for the film gets all of that and more. The site, DarkCampaign.com, sports a sleek design that invites the casual Internet reader to dive back in and remember that this is still one of the most powerful films of the year. The site features a five-minute video (embedded below), splashing many of the critical huzzahs across the canvas of the film. These guys must have gotten hold of a guild screener or something because there are a lot of scenes utilized that you certainly never saw on a trailer.
This is all the more interesting to me right now given that as of this afternoon, I have buckled and placed “The Dark Knight” into my predicted five Best Picture nominees. With films falling out left and right, this one is still standing and still resonates. Maybe I was wrong. Oscar column still to come.
Their mission statement, in part:
Films like this only come along once in a lifetime…And yet it has an uphill battle ahead of it for Academy Awards nomination chances. But why? Well because Academy voters love tradition. All 78 years of it. Tradition says that movies based on comic book characters do not get nominated for awards. Summer Blockbusters? Not likely. Sequels? Definitely not. So what this campaign aims to do is help turn the tide on those long odds…get out there and spread the word and don’t let a chance at making history for The Dark Knight pass by.
And the video:
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With love from me to you
I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed Variety’s recent series of articles in which prominent actors champion some of their personal favourite performances of 2008, including many of the most discussed contenders of the season. It’s a simple idea, but executed with real thought and sincerity.The pieces are interesting not just because of the more empathetic perspective a fellow actor can offer on a colleague’s craft, but also because the selections and combinations are so varied and frequently unexpected.
It’s not exactly surprising that an indie queen like Catherine Keener should love Michelle Williams’ exquisite portrayal in “Wendy and Lucy,” but Andy Garcia isn’t the first person I’d think of to celebrate the work of yesterday’s interviewee, Elsa Zylberstein, in “I’ve Loved You So Long.” I particularly liked Garcia’s piece because he understands just what a collaborative effort a performance can sometimes be:
It is not about the big scenes. It’s about the whole personality and how it is orchestrated. Kristin Scott Thomas is the protagonist, but Kristin’s and Elsa’s performances are joined at the hip. On the page, Elsa’s subtext may not appear as dramatic an issue as the subtext Kristin has, but there’s a great delicacy with which Elsa invites us to understand her character’s troubles and insecurities and how they relate to Kristin’s character. It is the overall crafting of the performance that is so beautiful to watch.
In turn, Kristin Scott Thomas is profiled by Scarlett Johansson, the younger actor evidently inspired by the elder. Reversing the generation gap, Dustin Hoffman is awestruck by Melissa Leo’s fearless turn in “Frozen River.” Meanwhile, James McAvoy’s take on Anne Hathaway shows the same respect and affection for a contemporary as Blythe Danner’s valentine to Richard Jenkins.
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First set of winner predictions
Before the holiday I thought I’d make my first calls on the year’s Oscar winners. Bear in mind we don’t even have a list of nominees yet and anything can happen. I think around this time last year I was predicting “Into the Wild” for across-the-board wins and it only managed two nominations at the end of the day, so, grain of salt and all that. I just like to go on the record around this time, so here we go:Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Actor: Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino”
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Best Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Original Screenplay: “Milk”
Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Cinematography: “Defiance”
Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Music – Original Score: “Defiance”
Best Music – Original Song: “The Wrestler”
Best Sound Editing: “The Dark Knight”
Best Sound Mixing: “The Dark Knight”
Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
Best Documentary Feature: “Man on Wire”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Captain Abu Raed” -
POLL: Is Heath Ledger a lock to win Best Supporting Actor?
We really need a new poll this week. That “Wrestler” query has run its course (the majority of you thinking, no, the film won’t suplex its way into the Best Picture line-up).
This week, inspired by Guy’s post below, I figured we’d ask a question that has been on everyone’s mind for a few months now: Does Heath Ledger have the Best Supporting Actor Oscar sewn up for his performance in “The Dark Knight?”
So…let us know in the sidebar poll!
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Ledger: is it written?
When running through the list of contenders of next year’s Academy Awards, most will agree that there are no safer bets than Heath Ledger picking up a Best Supporting Actor nomination for “The Dark Knight.” He’s been locked in for the best part of the year… no argument, no dissent, no negotiations.Many people seem to believe that a win is equally inevitable. He’s certainly the one to beat, with a mighty combination of factors in his favour — the sentimental appeal of honouring a sorely-missed star (whom many feel should have won for earlier work), a universally-praised performance well on its way to iconic status, and a clear chance to acknowledge the highest-grossing film of the decade thus far. It helps that the category isn’t exactly teeming with strong contenders this year.
But is he actually unbeatable? Jeff Wells doesn’t think so:
Almost every New York journalist I’ve spoken to over the past week or so seems to believe that “Dark Knight”‘s Heath Ledger is more or less a lock to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He’s favored, of course, but my Ray Walston antennae tells me it’s no done deal. I’m not feeling a blitzkreig momentum, and I’m sensing that “Revolutionary Road”‘s Michael Shannon, who appears in only three scenes but delivers a wham-bam effect like no other supporting performance in any other film this year, may have a shot at stealing it away.
Wells isn’t the only one exercising caution. In a slightly curious (to me, at least) take on the frontrunners in the acting categories, Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone runs down the category as follows:
Heath Ledger seems to be the frontrunner but I have my doubts on a posthumous Oscar win, followed by Michael Shannon for “Revolutionary Road,” Ralph Fiennes for “The Reader” or “Duchess,” Robert Downey, Jr. for “Iron Man” (could win), John Malkovich for “Burn After Reading” or “Changeling.” James Franco or Emile Hirsch or Josh Brolin for “Milk,” can’t decide – this is the year’s most wide open category at the moment.
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11/23 Oscarweb Round-up
• Variety moves deeper into the awards season features world with a Golden Globes preview. [Variety]• Within said preview, yours truly spotlights actors and actresses straddling the line between comedy and drama this season. [Variety]
• Patrick Goldstein says make the Oscar nod announcement a prime time event like the Grammys. [The Big Picture]
• The 20 greatest movie car chases. “The Dark Knight” should be higher, but it’s hard to argue with #1. [The Times]
• Andrew O’Hehir wonders what’s behind the cult of “WALL-E.” Me too, frankly. [Beyond the Multiplex]
• Peter Bart dishes on the kudos season of chaos, but if he’s finally getting to Thursday’s botched “Button” screening, surely it’s time to put that story to bed, right? [Peter Bart]
• Speaking of “Button,” Karina Longworth is down on the film. [Spout Blog]
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Narrowing it down
Over at Awards Daily, Sasha Stone has taken it upon herself to whittle down the Best Picture race to a brisk 11-title list, and it makes for sobering reading:“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Doubt”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Gran Torino”
“Milk”
“Rachel Getting Married”
“The Reader”
“Revolutionary Road”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“The Wrestler”I can’t be the only person looking down that list and gloomily wondering, “Is that it?” (I suppose some might argue for “Australia” still, but even the positive early reviews don’t give me a great feeling.) Sadly, not only is Stone probably right, but she’s still being relatively generous — I would strike “Rachel Getting Married” off the list without too much hesitation. Meanwhile, the level of hype centering on Clint Eastwood’s Best Actor campaign for “Gran Torino” has me wondering whether those who have seen it don’t deem it Best Picture material. (I remain among those unpersuaded by the film’s trailer.)
It seems to me that “Doubt”‘s chances of a Best Picture nomination depend entirely on how much award steam it gathers in the acting races, while “The Reader” remains a puzzle to me — it has the right credentials, the trailer looks solid, but why don’t I sense more excitement around it? Harvey Weinstein is still struggling to regain his golden touch at the Oscars, and it remains to be seen whether that early bout of bad press over the film’s release-date kerfuffle will linger.
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WEEKLY WRAP: Big guns unveiled, docs shortlisted, Saviano speaks
A big week, this, in which the covers were finally lifted off some heavyweight titles. Here’s what we were talking about:• And speaking of those heavyweights, Kris ran hot on “Revolutionary Road,” but cool on “Australia” …
• … while being offered a frustratingly truncated glimpse of “Benjamin Button.”
• The Academy announced their 15-strong shortlist for Best Documentary Feature, and emerged with credibility largely intact, in my opinion.
• We were fortunate enough to chat to the incredible Roberto Saviano of “Gomorrah” fame…
• … as well as the charming Rosemarie DeWitt, our pick of the “Rachel Getting Married” ensemble.
• Roger Ebert either picked the brain of an Academy insider, or made some bold predictions of his own. Interesting either way.
• This week’s Off the Carpet column played the waiting game.
• Tech Support got musical this week, with a look at the composers in the hunt for gold this year.
• We examined the horses (or lack thereof) in the Comedy/Musical races at the Golden Globes.
• This week’s edition of The Lists delved into the embarrassment of cinematic riches that was the 1970s.
• “The Wrestler” finally got a poster and an impressive trailer.
• We contemplated next year’s BAFTA awards, wondering whether homegrown winners will again dominate proceedings.
• The Best Picture debate over “The Dark Knight” continues apace.
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WB scores available at awards site
In the wake of the James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s disqualification no less. But fuck it, it’s a fantastic piece of work and you can listen to the whole damn thing at the Warner Bros. awards site, so rise up and feel the righteousness.
The ‘Gran Torino’ score has been tossed up as well, an expectedly low-key composition by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens.
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My stance: ‘The Dark Knight’ will be nominated for Best Picture
So much speculation has surrounded the possible inclusion of this tremendous film in the year’s final five. And though there are those who believe it has no chance of happening, the majority has gradually seen otherwise.Where is written that entertaining films cannot be art? Where does it say that a box office smash cannot be a genuinely great film? May I remind everyone that “The Godfather” was a major hit at the box office before it won the Oscar for Best Picture, basking in some of the finest reviews ever written. That said, success can sometimes be the enemy of both the film and the director (ask Steven Spielberg).
While no one is calling “The Dark Knight” a film on the level of “The Godfather,” it certainly has its own particular brand of appeal and excellence. Made with breathtaking confidence, technical brilliance and spectacular command of the language of the cinema, the film moves constantly, yet director Nolan never allows the spectacle to overwhelm the very intimate story he is telling here.
His actors are sublime, beginning with the extraordinary performance from Heath Ledger as the Joker, a performance that takes madness to a new level, one that is terrifying in its realism and authenticity. Yet Ledger is surrounded by a strong ensemble, Christian Bale very good as Batman/Bruce Wayne, a troubled, contradictory man at war with himself, knowing the only way he can remain a hero is to appear to be the enemy.
