In Contention

Tag: The Dark Knight

  • Nolan out for third Batman? Who could step in?

    Christopher NolanBill Ramey over at Batman on Film has posted a rather disconcerting report this morning regarding the status of Christopher Nolan’s involvement with a third film in the lucrative Batman franchise.  The info, which is hardly concrete, comes from one of the numerous Bat-related sources Ramey has acquired over 12 years of focusing his site on the development of these films.

    Ramey hedges his bets and writes what we all know, that “it is far from a given” that Nolan will return for another go.  But he offers a few bullet-pointed reasons from his source that certainly make a lot of sense.  Among them, says Ramey’s guy, “the death of Heath Ledger rocked Mr. Nolan hard,” and the project is back to square one with a virtually non-existent story due to the initial planned inclusion of the Joker in the third film.

    It has been reported that Warner Bros. has a shortlist of preferred directors to step in should Nolan decide to walk away from the director’s chair.  The studio is going forward on this whether he is or not, we can all be sure of that.  “Watchmen” director Zack Snyder was one of those names, but Snyder’s people told Ramey he has no interest in tackling the project (thank God).  But if not Nolan, then who?

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  • HBO ‘Dark Knight’ promos featuring the Pixies

    Last year’s box office hog (and Best Picture no-show) “The Dark Knight” premieres on HBO this Friday, June 13.  There is nothing particularly creative about using the Pixies’ “Where is my Mind?” on these promo commercials of course, but I love the juxtaposition anyway.

    (Courtesy: Superherpo Hype)

  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘X’ marks the spot

    X-Men Origins: WolverineAfter all the hype, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” opened with a solid $87.0 million at the box office this weekend.  Both “X2” and “X-Men: The Last Stand” started with over $100 million* but “Wolverine” does better the $72.6 million of Bryan Singer’s original from 2000. When a film is received as poorly as Brett Ratner’s third entry in the franchise was, it’s only natural for the follow-up to start a bit lower.

    Almost any franchise will prove this but the easiest example is “Batman.” Schumacher did his worst with “Batman & Robin” and unsuspecting customers shelled out $67.1 million* on opening weekend. The movie collapsed from there and it took Warner Bros. years to attempt another shot at the bat. In steps Christopher Nolan and “Batman Begins” debuted with a cautious $54.6 million. Everybody loved it, the stars aligned and “The Dark Knight” opened to $158.4 million. Obviously, there were other factors at play but look at the “Back to the Future,” “Mission: Impossible” and “The Matrix” films for further proof.

    Anyway, all that is to say that $87 million isn’t really disappointing, nor is it that spectacular. “Iron Man” debuted with $98 million on this weekend last year without any previous big screen incarnations. “Wolverine” will most likely not make it to $200 million and life goes on.

    Matthew McConaughey tried his luck at counter-programming and brought in $15.3 million for “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.” That’s the worst debut he’s had in the romantic comedy genre since “EdTV” in 1999 and only a tiny fraction better than “Made of Honor”’s debut last year versus Tony Stark. I’m willing to go out on a limb and guess that McConaughey’s salary was a bit larger than Patrick Dempsey’s so that return is just not good enough. I like to think that it didn’t do well because it looked awful but that wouldn’t explain “Wolverine”’s numbers.

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  • INTERVIEW: Michael Caine

    Michael CaineSo far 2008 hasn’t offered much for an Oscar shortlist beyond a few festival offerings that have yet to see a domestic release.  Certainly nothing in the way of powerhouse awards-caliber performances has come down the pike, leaving some to talk up smaller, menial turns amid the lull.  But one actor has certainly put forth an effort in the year’s first half that deserves the kind of recognition we cover here at In Contention.

    In John Crowley’s “Is Anybody There?,” a delicate little film focused on the unlikely friendship between an aged magician and a death-obsessed young boy, Sir Michael Caine gives perhaps his best performance since 2002’s “The Quiet American.”

    It is, of course, his first significant role in the seven years between the two films.  Supporting work in “Children of Men,” “The Prestige” and the Batman franchise has certainly been laudable, but in Crowley’s fourth feature the actor shows that he still has both the chops to carry a film and the courage to explore mortality in ways that unexpectedly cut close to home.  I had the chance to speak with Caine about the film last week and found a delightful legend trying his best to have a blast with the opportunities he’s given.

    “It’s an attitude you have to have towards growing old,” he says, calling from London.  “People ask, ‘How do you feel about getting older?”  Well, what is the alternative?  I think it’s great.  I’m one of those people who tries to have fun the whole time.”

    And whether it be the high-budget antics of a blockbuster like “The Dark Knight” or something as independent as Crowely’s film or Caine’s upcoming “Harry Brown,” the actor tries to approach all material with the same philosophy.

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  • The reality of the ‘Wolverine’ leak and box office

    Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: WolverineYou may have already heard about a certain workprint for Fox’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” leaking onto the Internet two weeks ago since the resulting firestorm and fallout has been covered and re-covered by bloggers, journalists and former journalists alike.  So there’s not much left to say on the issue. I do, however, want to go on record, as In Contention’s resident box office guy, as saying that this leak will have absolutely ZERO effect on the amount of money the film will pull in. Well, almost zero.

    First, let’s take a look at Fox’s logic. Potential customers see the movie on their computer before it comes out.  Customers then do not go see the movie in the theater. It does seem to make sense and this logic most likely comes from the devastating effect that illegal downloading has had on the record business.

    Now, here’s my logic. While the record business is definitely going down the tubes, the music business is doing fine. Concert business is relatively stagnant and vinyl sales are up significantly. Look at Flo Rida.  His album only sold 80,000 units its first week, which is disappointing, but his single “Right Round” has been downloaded over a million times on iTunes alone. In other words, CDs may be dying, and possibly even the album format, but the music industry will be fine.

    Look also at the top 30 Billboard debuts for artists like Animal Collective and Andrew Bird so far in 2009. Not only did both acts post career-high sales totals, but they both cater almost exclusively to the audience that is supposedly getting all their music illegally. Really, though, it’s silly to even compare the two industries, since buying a record was never a group activity or a night on the town to begin with.

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  • Troubling details of Nolan’s ‘Shadow of the Bat’ revealed

    Cover of Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1I really don’t know what to say about this.  I understand Christopher Nolan is a progressive artist, a guy who understands both the necessity of shunning convention and the idea that what one may expect isn’t always the best solution.  He’s proven it time and again with the films in his re-booted Batman franchise, starting at the top with a story that involved a villain largely unknown to the masses.  He brought in Heath Ledger in a move some thought a bit too outside-the-box, and boy were they wrong.

    But bringing Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher on as creative producing figures?  Having the gall to cast Carrey as the Riddler again (even though I’m strangely okay with sticking to the one-major-villain-per-film paradigm)?  I’d follow Nolan to the ends of the earth, but even I can’t go along with his creative reasoning here, which sounds like the whims of a mad man.  I mean, I dig the title (which a lot of us saw coming).  It’s a nice nod to an extinct series of books.  But the rest of it…I just…

    From Variety:

    Warner Brothers’ Batman franchise will take a third bow in the summer of 2012.

    “Shadow of the Bat,” the sequel to 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” will introduce quiz-master villain the Riddler to audiences for a third time after the character appeared in the 1960s television series and 1995’s “Batman Forever.”  Funny man Jim Carrey has been tapped to reprise the role in “Shadow,” while helmers Joel Schumacher and Tim Burton, the filmmakers behind the Caped Crusader’s first theatrical franchise, have been brought on as consultants to the production, which director Christopher Nolan says will be his final take on Gotham City.

    “I felt it novel to tie this third and final chapter to the character’s roots on the screen,” Nolan said.  “Tim and Joel had two completely different visions of the Batman, visions that contrast vastly with my own.  But I don’t feel that negates the possibility of a creative convergence.  Batman is more than the ideas of one person, of one team of artists.  He is the result of seven decades of pop culture influence and innovation.”

    WB is eying a May 2012 release date for the film to coincide with the 73rd anniversary of Batman’s first comic book appearance in 1939.

    Nolan begins shooting his latest film, “Inception,” with Leonardo DiCaprio later this year for a 2010 release.

    Read the full story here.  I need to go off into a corner somewhere and think hard about this.

  • Why the public should never be allowed to vote for anything

    Guy Ritchie at the Empire AwardsExcept maybe the occasional president. And, okay, a reality-TV contest or two. But film awards — no. As spectacularly wrong as organizations like the Academy, and the odd critics’ groups, can get it sometimes, nobody can rival the collective movie-going public for sheer cluelessness when it comes to determining the best of the art form.

    Case in point: the Empire Awards, voted for by readers of the eponymous film magazine, which took place in London on Sunday. Of course, it’s a fluffy, meaningless ceremony — a good excuse for a party more than anything else — but their choices are, nonetheless, a worrying barometer of just how low independent and/or adult-oriented cinema lies on the radar of most cinemagoers.

    Exhibit A, and the real groaner of the night: the public’s choice for Best British Film. While the rest of us have been singing the praises of, say, “Hunger” or “In Bruges” (both nominated, rather miraculously in the case of the former), the Empire readership apparently lives in some parallel universe where the best that British cinema had to offer in 2008 was, er, “RocknRolla.”

    You’d hardly expect a film as challenging and specialized as “Hunger” to take a public award, but “In Bruges” occupies precisely the same genre territory as Guy Ritchie’s dismal last effort, with the crucial difference that it does so with wit, intelligence and a modicum of originality. It’s hardly news that the public doesn’t place much stock in such virtues, but it’s depressing all the same.

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  • Keeping score

    By now, “Watchmen” has been assessed and widely shat on from a large array of angles, but one voice I didn’t necessarily expect to pipe in was that of classical music critic Tom Service. Writing for the Guardian, Service praises the film’s “carefully conceived” use of existing music, particularly the heavily intertextual use of Wagner, though he complains:

    A shame, then, that they go for the easy option of Mozart’s Requiem, in a poorly edited version, near the end of Watchmen, after the pseudo-apocalypse that wipes out Manhattan. Surely a bit of 80s electro would have made the point better, and saved Mozart from becoming yet more of a morbid musical cliche?

    Against such familiar themes, however, Service is distinctly unimpressed by Tyler Bates’ original score for the film, and uses this as a springboard for a broader lament on the state of Hollywood scores in general. He claims composers have recently “trodden the path of the generic or the frankly redundant” — with Jonny Greenwood’s extraordinary work on “There Will Be Blood” the last notable exception.

    I tend to agree with him, having found 2008 a particularly weak year for film scores in general. But we part ways when Service chooses to single out for criticism one of the few scores that actually got under my skin (and onto my iTunes) last year:

    Anyone remember “The Dark Knight’s” score? Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s music, I thought, got mired in a single idea, an obsessively repeated minor third, that gloomy interval of impending doom, but could not generate any real tension or dramatic counterpoint with the onscreen action. It’s a pity, given the complexity of drama and ideas in both films (“Knight” and “Watchmen”), that the music didn’t add to the experience.

    To each their own, I guess.

  • TECH SUPPORT: Postmortem

    Tech Support at In ContentionWhat can I say? It was a big night for “Slumdog Millionaire” at the 81st Annual Academy Awards on Sunday.

    While I do like the film a great deal, I found its dominance this awards season unnecessarily monotonous.  For instance, I preferred Thomas Newman’s work in both music categories this year, but I was nonetheless very happy with A.R. Rahman’s triumphs. The music branch needs to be seriously rewired, though.  Their choices in recent years have often been bizarre and at times terrible.

    Anthony Dod Mantle’s deserved victory in the cinematography feield means that Roger Deakins is still waiting for that first statuette. (Though, might I add, as effective as the work is in “The Reader,” I would have found it slightly disappointing if Deakins had finally won this year, considering Chris Menges shot most of the movie.) I would also like to think that Wally Pfister will eventually triumph in this category, considering Pfister has received three nominations in the last four years (all on Christopher Nolan projects).

    Chris Dickens winning Best Film Editing was probably the easiest call of all the tech categories. Though I would say Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter, Elliot Graham and especially Lee Smith have built up good will with their fellow editors, while Mike Hill and Daniel P. Hanley must be considered in contention whenever they make a prestigious film with Ron Howard.

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  • Congrats to our pool winners!

    First, thanks to all involved for participating in our Oscar pool.  The big winners were Mikey Filmmaker and Justin Wolfhope who nailed 22 of 24 categories for a score of 88 points (out of 100).  I weighted the scoring system based on the predictability of the categories.  Mikey and Justin both missed the same two categories: Best Sound Mixing and Best Documentary Short.  They went for “The Dark Knight” on the former and “The Conscience of Nhem En” on the latter.

    Yours truly came in second with 21 of 24 categories for a score of 83.  I went with my heart on Mickey Rourke and my heart failed me.  Let that be a lesson to us all.

    Mikey and Justin, if you’re reading, send me an email when you can.  I think I’ll offer up a prize for such fantastic Oscar prognosticating prowess.

  • ‘Slumdog’ takes 8 trophies as Oscar keeps it under 190 minutes

    Danny Boyle at the 81st annual Academy AwardsIn the final analysis, there isn’t much to say other than: What a captivating way to put a bow on the worst and, ultimately, most boring Oscar season of all time.  The 81st annual Academy Awards swiftly went down earlier this evening with few surprise winners and a classy new sheen.  It was captivating and, at times, inspiring.  Here are my thoughts on Hollywood’s biggest night:

    The winners
    I did extremely well with my predictions this year, nailing 21 of the 24 categories and making good with gambles in the foreign language film and short film categories.  I stuck with my heart on Mickey Rourke despite the smart money being on Sean Penn, but regardless of the strong desire to see the former holding an Oscar in his hands and delivering one more barn-burning speech, it is, of course, impossible to argue with Sean Penn’s expert work in “Milk.”  His heartfelt acceptance was a highlight and it all felt somehow more complete than it did five years ago.

    That “Departures” win took the wind out of the sails of one of the year’s most ingenious productions and yes, this is a committee that still needs a major overhaul.  I don’t think I could possibly say it enough.  That should take nothing away from Japan’s victory, mind you, because their submission is a delightful film that won’t deserve most of the ill will coming its way from those who haven’t even seen it.  But “Bashir” seems to have wrongfully faced an uphill battle from the start.

    The sound categories (hotly debated all week) proved once again that the Academy doesn’t understand the impact of mixers and editors on animated films.  “Slumdog Millionaire” took the mixing award (I’m kicking myself for changing that), while “The Dark Knight” took the sound editing trophy.

    Regarding those shorts, by the way, Pixar remains winless in the animated field since 2001’s “For the Birds” (the gorgeous “La Maison en Petits Cubes” rightly won tonight), while “Toyland,” with its ambitious structure (for a short) and obviously baity subject matter reigned supreme in live action.

    The only award I missed kind of irritated me, I have to admit: Best Documentary Short.  “Smile Pinki” took down what I thought to be the best of the field (and being the most cinematic, the most likely winner), Steve Okazaki’s “The Conscience of Nhem En.”  But there was a concerted publicity effort behind the former that maybe I should have paid more attention to.

    (More, plus a full list of tonight’s Oscar winners, after the jump.)

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  • Two more industry awards: MPSE and VES

    We should link to these for closure, so “The Dark Knight,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “WALL-E” won big at the Motion Picture Sound Editors awards, while “Button” took four trophies from the Visual Effects Society.  “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E” also won a few each.  Thanks to Awards Daily on both of those.

  • 2/22 Oscarweb Round-up (OSCAR DAY EDITION)

    Graham King at the 79th annual Academy Awards• David Carr tugs the heart strings with a nice write-up on “Smile Pinki” subject Pinki Kumari Sonkar. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Tom O’Neil warns of the kiss of death that the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor has become. [Gold Derby]

    • Another tired Oscar bitch-slap piece from traditional media. [New York Times]

    • Gideon Levy tears “Waltz with Bashir” a new one. [Haaretz]

    • Kate Winslet and the “Fakebooking” craze. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Elizabeth Snead catches up with Aaron Eckhart at the Indie Spirits to get his thoughts on a potential Oscar win for “Dark Knight” co-star Heath Ledger. [The Dish Rag]

    • Speaking of the Spirits, Roger Ebert responds to the swift show, goes out of his way to praise Rourke’s “show-stopping” speech. [Chicago Sun-Times]

    • Producer Graham King re-visits his Oscar win for “The Departed” two years ago. [The Independent]

    • Anne Hathaway shows a little humility.  Probably a good thing after that cringe-worthy BFCA acceptance speech. [USA Today]

  • You were right, I was wrong: Guy’s final predictions

    (Expanded thoughts and reasonings on yesterday’s list of predictions.)

    It’s years like 2008 when I throw my hands up and admit (albeit with great reluctance) that my family and friends have been right for the last two decades. Carla, Tom, Kim, Auntie Mavis: I give up. I am insane to care as much as I do about the Oscars. They are stupid. They don’t matter, and I really should find something more important and rewarding to care about, like, oh, needlepoint classes or professional darts championships.

    But who am I kidding? I will always care about the Oscars, even in years like this when the race is so dry, and its significance so questionable, that I take great care in not caring. In a year when so few of my personal favourites have cracked the contenders list, it has at least been interesting to sit back and watch the furore unfold over the Academy voters’ spectacularly self-sabotaging antics this year.

    I’ve been wrong about a lot of things this year (Kris scoffed at my naive suggestion back in July that “Happy-Go-Lucky” could be a Best Picture nominee, and he was right to), and right about … well … “Milk’s” nomination for Best Costume Design. (Hey, let me salvage some glory from this year’s meagre spoils.) I don’t expect to be a hell of a lot more successful with the following predictions, but you never know. It’s still been a lot of fun riding out the season with you this year – here’s to a better slate of contenders (and a lot less grousing from me) in 12 months’ time.

    BEST PICTURE
    Apart from the fact that it is the most imaginative and entertaining of this year’s feeble clutch of nominees, the reason “Slumdog Millionaire” has a stranglehold on this category is because it’s the only one of the five that has any discernible relationship to contemporary cinema. The other four all feel to varying degrees like the finely-tooled Best Picture winners of decades past, but the younger, more curious Academy members have been moving away from such self-consciously packaged ‘prestige product’ in the past few years – even if they need a lot of pointing towards what to reward in its stead.

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  • Want to win cinematography? An art direction nod helps.

    Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonI’m surprised I completely forgot about this little, some might say meaningless statistic, but with all the predictions for “Slumdog Millionaire” taking the cinematography win at tomorrow night’s Oscar ceremony, the Oscarweb seems to be in the same boat.

    You have to go back to 1999 and “American Beauty” to find a film that won the Oscar for Best Cinematography but was not even nominated in the art direction field.  Before that, 1995 and “Braveheart,” 1992 and “A River Runs Through It” and 1991 and “JFK.”

    “Mississippi Burning” (1988) and “The Killing Fields” (1984) were the only examples from the 1980s and then you see some more frequency in the new American cinema hey-day of the 1970s.  But if you stretch the timeline back to 1979, you only find six films in 20 years that managed to win the lensing trophy despite coming up short of a nod with the designers.

    The only films nominated in both categories this year are “Changeling,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Dark Knight.”  Most might use that as the ultimate excuse to throw their money behind “The Dark Knight,” which was revolutionary behind the camera with it’s implementation of IMAX technology and because, dang it, it looks amazing.  And God knows my fingers are crossed for Wally Pfister, but I think all of this might make a better case for Claudio Miranda and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

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  • Congrats to the Bat on a billion bucks

    Too bad it took a re-expansion to get there, though.  But woo-hoo!

  • Contributors’ picks

    OscarsWell, this is it.  The big show is Sunday night and we’re pretty much out of things to discuss at this stage, no?  But I’ve gone ahead and wrangled up all of our contributors’ predictions in each category.  Trust who you must, but really, pray for a surprise.  Right?

    In the realm of “ballsy” calls, I guess you can look no further than Guy’s prediction that “The Class” will upset “Waltz with Bashir” in the foreign language film category, which I discussed at length earlier this morning.  He’s also stuck his neck out for a “Slumdog Millionaire” sweep, much like Nathaniel Rogers did a week ago. I really wanted to go there. I really, really did, but the sound categories.  The friggin’ sound categories.

    As we’ve mentioned, people tend to forget that the Academy at large doesn’t exactly know from good sound mixing and sound editing, so “WALL-E” is perhaps a bit vulnerable in those fields, while “The Dark Knight” might be too safe a choice. I’ve talked to a number of people who seem to think “Slumdog” will be checked off down the line, though, so perhaps Guy and Nat are onto something there.

    Me, I don’t have too many surprise predictions, as I’m sure you’ve already read.  I’m sticking with “Man on Wire” in the doc feature category, despite my spit-balling otherwise.  And even though I have a strong sense that “Departures” is waiting to surprise “Waltz,” I don’t feel like sticking my neck out.  (UPDATE: Spoke too soon.)

    I am, however, going with my gut on Mickey Rourke in the much-anticipated lead actor race, and it looks like I’m joined by Guy, Brian and Blake on that here.

    John seems to be expecting a big night for “The Dark Knight,” predicting wins in both sound categories as well as Best Film Editing, which would be the same hat trick “The Bourne Ultimatum” pulled off last year.  But he’s also banking on a win in the cinematography category, which would certainly make this writer a happy camper.

    Blake is banking on the Bat’s victory in the art direction and makeup fields, where the rest of us expect “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” to prevail, while Brian is predicting a clean sweep for “WALL-E,” including the original screenplay category, which looks to be another one of the night’s most exciting races.  He’s joined by Guy on that, while John, Blake, Gerard and I are taking the safe route and placing our chips on Dustin Lance Black’s work on “Milk.”

    Despite those minority calls, we all seem to be in agreement on Best Picture (“Slumdog”), Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Actress (Kate Winslet), Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Supporting Actress (Penelope Cruz), Best Adapted Screenplay (“Slumdog”), Best Visual Effects (“Button”) and Best Animated Feature Film (“WALL-E”).  Everything else represents something of a menagerie.

    Take a look at our individual picks after the jump.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Taking a final stab

    OscarsWell, this is what it all boils down to.  I almost DON’T want to go on the record, but I kind of have to, right?

    Anyway, this is the first year I’ve actually seen every single nominated frame of film before the big night so these will either be the most educated guesses I’ve ever given or the most unfortunately influenced, one can’t be too sure.  Sometimes it’s better to predict in a void, other times not.  I did pretty good last year (after a wicked slump for a few years), largely because I succumbed to inevitability more than I have in the past, but I don’t want to be all douchey and put forth my record.  We all have ups and downs.  I’m not personally convinced of probably half of these predictions, so you certainly shouldn’t be either.

    One thing that catches my eye as I go through my “will wins,” “could wins” and “should wins” is that in many cases, I’m predicting the contender that I also feel delivers the best work in the category.  But really, only in one arena could that stink of hopeful expectation (Best Actor).  The rest is just reflective of how this weak, thin season trickled down.  I almost always have a different preference than what actually wins, so I wouldn’t call me the wishful thinking sort when it comes to hammering these out.

    Anyway, you’ll find category-by-category analysis throughout, but I have to say, those sound categories are fuckers this year.  Pardon the vulgarity.  It seems there are limitless possibilities.  I’m of the mind that one film takes both, so take your pick: “Dark Knight,” “Slumdog” or “WALL-E.”  I think the Academy at large doesn’t understand the subtlety of “WALL-E” (much like “No Country for Old Men” last year) and giving “Slumdog” a clean sweep seems to be too much.  But I’ll get into those categories, and more, after the jump.

    There is a slight possibility I’ll stick my head back in here to adjust this prediction or that before Sunday.  If I do, I’ll be sure to draw your attention to it in this space.  Check back later today with a look at all out contributors’ predictions.  For now, here are mine…

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