In Contention

Tag: The Road

  • Visions of ‘The Road’

    Out there was the grey beach with the slow combers rolling dull and leaden and the distant sound of it. Like the desolation of some alien sea breaking on the shores of a world unheard of. Out on the tidal flats lay a tanker half careened. Beyond that the ocean vast and cold and shifting heavily like a slowly heaving vat of slag and then the grey squall line of ash.

    No adaptation this year is as dependent on matters of location and production design as John Hillcoat’s take on Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” a novel in which landscape is the narrative’s dominant antagonist. If the film can’t visually evoke McCarthy’s tangible sense of the familiar made alien through desolation, then it’s dead in the water.

    On the other hand, the sparsity of McCarthy’s prose leaves a lot of room of visual interpretation — contrary to what some have suggested, the novel is a highly cinematic work. So I’m intrigued by this gallery of conceptual “style frames” for the film, a collection of paintings, sketches and photo montages that give a vivid sense of the story world Hillcoat and his team have come up with. And on this evidence, at least, it looks to me like they’ve nailed it:

    The Road

    A couple more of my favourites after the cut. Check out the full collection here.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Handicapping 2009 a year in advance!?

    Ewan McGregor and Hilary Swank in AmeliaAhh.  The dust is settling.  And on the horizon, just visible through the mist and waiting to drive us all up the wall once again: the 2009 Oscar season.

    I’ve been writing this year-in-advance column for probably six years now, and I always look forward to gazing ahead.  No one dives in so pathetically deep this far out as yours truly, but in exchange for not having a life for the past few months, I get to unload this burden the day after our annual season’s peak and forget about little gold men entirely for a few months.

    It’s quite liberating.

    The most interesting thing about the season to come, from my vantage point, is the lack of a dreaded “frontrunner status” for any of the contenders.  Some might say Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela project (which is not called “The Human Factor,” mind you — the director says the film is currently untitled and is based on John Carlin’s book “Playing the Enemy”).

    Others might say Rob Marshall’s “Nine” (coming from a money-tight company hoping to avoid echoes of “Memoirs of a Geisha”).  But I don’t see a “Geisha” from here, or a “Charlie Wilson’s War,” expected heavies waiting to miss the mark.  The field is curiously flat, and as a result, excitingly broad.

    Let’s get to it, shall we?

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  • 10/22 Oscarweb Round-up

    Mike Leigh(Slim pickings this morning.)

    • Ricky Gervais says he would be reluctant to serve as Oscar Emcee. [BBC]

    • “The Road” makes it’s official move to 2009, as Patrick Goldstein reports. (By the way, I’ve been hearing the film is terrible.  Gulp…) [The Big Picture]

    • Peter Knegt profiles “Wendy and Lucy” star Michelle Williams. [indieWIRE]

    • James Ponsoldt chats it up with Mike Leigh. [Filmmaker Magazine]

  • The year’s evolving Oscar race reveals the weakest season in recent memory

    Frank Langella in Frost/NixonWith rumors that “The Road” may be bumped to 2009, (not Harvey Weinstein’s choice of release year) and “The Soloist” already moving on, along with the rumblings that “Frost/ Nixon” does indeed lack that edge I wrote about not so long ago, one can feel the Oscar race shifting day to day. Even “Changeling,” once thought to have a decent shot at Best Picture and Best Director nominations, is now looking like a maybe in the race, as 2008 and continues to confound audiences and critics.

    2008 has been a rather weak year at the movies with only “Stop Loss,” WALL-E,” “Iron Man” and best of all, “The Dark Knight” making much of an impact before the Toronto International Film Festival. When that 10-day event did not really produce a frontrunner as it has in years past, all eyes turned to New York and London.  Eastwood’s film received decidedly mixed reviews out of New York while “Che” continued to struggle with the length of the picture.  In London, Ron Howard’s political work, “Frost/ Nixon” has not been knocking the critics out as hoped.

    I’ve been worried about the film for some time.  But the screenplay is based on an award-winning play, Frank Langella is giving the performance that won him accolades on Broadway, but hey, in my view, Howard just isn’t the right director for this sort of film. Give it to Sidney Lumet who, in his 80s, has more edge to his work than Howard. It’s not that he is a terrible director.  On the contrary, he has made some very good films, the criminally under valued “The Missing” among them, but a picture like this needs the very things he lacks as a director.

    So where are we in terms of the Oscar race now, if these films are indeed falling off the radar (the jury is still admittedly out on “Frost”)?  What if the remaining releases are not very good at all and the Oscar race is saddled with an array of mediocre films, which has not happened for many, many years? In fact, the last time I can think of a slew of weak films making up Oscar’s major line-up was 1968, when curiously, “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Planet of the Apes” were left off the list, shunned for their sci-fi brilliance.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Road,’ ‘Soloist’ out, ‘Frost’ stumbles, Ledger buzz

    Busy week, this. Here is how it went down:

    • In the biggest story of the week, the pool of contenders narrowed as “The Road” got bumped to 2009…

    • … followed, in quick succession, by “The Soloist.”

    • The London Film Festival kicked off with “Frost/Nixon,” which got off to a middling critical start. We were underwhelmed.

    • More London coverage here, here and here.

    • As Tech Support ran down the Visual Effects contenders, we got an angle on the tantalising FX for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

    • Heath Ledger’s buzz remains as solid as ever — word went round that a lead campaign was in the works, but they’re staying put in supporting. Good move.

    • More (and still more) foreign film contenders bring the field to a record tally of 67.

    • We responded to the bad “Changeling” buzz with a kinder view, but like everyone else, are looking ahead to “Gran Torino.”

    • And finally, we solve your sartorial dilemmas in time for Halloween.

  • Ledger to go supporting, WB says

    Heath Ledger is “100% supporting,” according to Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger.  It seems Karger did what I was too lazy to do this week: call the studio and get the goods.  I figured we’d just wait until an FYC site popped up, but for now, it seems to be settled.

    The “Dark Knight” star has been batted around as a lead actor contender by pundits, including yours truly, but even with the news that “The Soloist” and (possibly) “The Road” have vacated the 2008 season — leaving two fresh holes in the lead actor gerby — Warner Bros. is going to be campaigning Ledger as a supporting actor.

    Wise move.  And truthful to both the performance and the material.

  • 10/17 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. in The Soloist• Dave Karger responds to the “Soloist” slide. [Oscar Watch]

    • Seven favorite screen Presidents.  In total agreement on #1. [Cinematical]

    • A welcome respite from the vitriol you might have come across elsewhere, New York Magazine runs an intern’s review of the “Road” screening that happened in the Big Apple this week.  Does that qualify as “AICN-style” as well? [Vulture]

    • A brief history of the Bond villain. [The Independent]

    • “Once”: a broadway musical. [Culture Monster]

    • Spike Lee carries his loud and off-base message overseas. [The Guardian]

    • Charting the true crime history of “Changeling”‘s Collins kidnapping. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Setting out to define what “best” picture means. [Awards Daily]

    • A sweet profile of Paul Thomas Anderson approximately 10 months after it would have really done him some good. [Esquire]

    • David Hinckley recycles the same old “it’s too early” argument regarding “W.” [New York Daily News]

    • But has Hollywood gone too easy on our Commander-in-Chief? [Slate]

    • Joe Morgenstern conveys the joy of ensemble films. [Wall Street Journal]

    • Why Eddie Marsan deserves an Oscar nomination. [The Playlist]

    • Cast your revote for the Best Actress contenders of 1983 in the much bally-hooed Oscar Revote. [Pop Watch]

  • ‘The Road’ potentially bumped to 2009

    Viggo Mortensen in The RoadI had heard earlier this week that John Hillcoat’s “The Road” might be pushed to 2009, but was sworn to secrecy.  Well, Dave Karger is talking about it now, so I guess it’s fair game.

    The film isn’t finished (not that that has stopped The Weinstein Company from releasing a film in 2008), but Karger nails it: Viggo Mortensen is the real loser here.  A few weeks back, he seemed to be a formidable contender with three big films in the pipeline.  With lukewarm receptions for “Appaloosa” and “Good” dousing spirits for those poerformances, a shove to 2009 for “The Road” would likely eliminate him altogether.

    Ah, the ever-shifting nature of an Oscar season.

  • OFF THE CARPET: Who we are, who we want to be

    (from left) Josh Brolin and Toby Jones in W.In the last few weeks, drama has persisted in the yet-to-be-heated Oscar season.  Producers are debating exhibitors in public and mid-summer opinions of awards-caliber product are being revisited — in some cases disavowed — as more and more viewers get their peeks.

    On the positive side, two studios have launched the screener circuit with indie films they hope can muster some remembrance, while the foreign film news bite barrage has come to a close with the qualification deadline.  But there isn’t much to go on in terms of assessing the season, not a lot in the way of tangible grist for the mill.

    Lots of smoke, very little fire.

    In part, that should explain a lack of predictions updates here at In Contention, shifting and sliding for no reason.  And indeed, this week’s update isn’t a massive overhaul — or even an overhaul — beyond putting a few things into context here, trimming the fat there.  But as I set out to update our projections this week, I became more and more aware of 2008’s striking theme of self-reflection this Oscar season.  And hey, it seemed as good an idea for a column as any.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Cinematography — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionToday we begin our in-depth looks at the individual crafts categories.  I’m a sucker for starting with my favorite: Best Cinematography.

    The art of film is reliant on the motion picture camera and those men and women who lend their talents behind the lens.  The Director of Photography is in charge of charge of capturing the director’s vision on film, not only by ensuring mood through lighting, thematic comment through juxtaposition, etc.  This work has to be done in tandem with the director, which makes it not surprising that many cinematographers and directors work together frequently.

    This category tends to award “pretty” films.  Big epics and gorgeous landscapes frequent the nominated five each year, as do war films and anything generally considered a labored task in this department.  That is not to say such efforts have a monopoly on this category –- just that they are especially apt to be nominated.

    Last year it was sad to see Roger Deakins lose for the sixth and seventh times on the same evening. I cannot deny that Robert Elswit -– a longtime favorite of mine –- was an excellent choice for “There Will Be Blood,” but the great Deakins is once again searching for his first statuette!  He will be back in contention this year, lensing Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road.” This film clearly has Oscar in its sights.  While I still remain skeptical on how it will be received overall, Deakins will almost certainly be in contention should the film deliver in the slightest.

    Deakins will also be lensing “Doubt” this year, which also has the potential to be a major awards player.  Though I’m doubtful (no pun intended) about its chances in this category.

    In what would be a historic nomination, Mandy Walker will likely be in contention for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia.”  She would be the first ever woman nominated in this category.  Yes, that’s right.  No woman has ever been nominated for Best Cinematography in 80 years of Academy history.  Lurhmann’s films are always visually spectacular and this effort in particular fits in perfectly with the sorts of epics usually nominated in this category.

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  • Finally getting excited about 2008…

    Sean Penn in MilkNot a whole lot has piqued my cinematic interest this year. “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” are the happy pre-festival-season exceptions. But even with Toronto not yielding a whole lot in terms of Oscar frontrunners, I am finding more and more to be excited about in the coming months and expect an intense race for that little golden guy. Here are the six (well, seven…you’ll see) most anticipated of the year for me, at this stage…

    “The Road” (John Hollcoat)
    Is anyone else as pumped for this as I am? After reading the book in three days, imagining Viggo Mortensen in a number of the scenes and Robert Duvall as the old man, I can’t wait. If Mortensen does justice to the character (and I think he will), he is in for an Oscar nod, the second in a row for the actor.  And the film itself could be a dark horse contender for Best Picture and Best Director. The Academy has shown some courage these last few years embracing dark subjects, and this one is certainly dark.  Though the book ends with a ray of hope for humanity. Here’s hoping they capture the intensity and raw realism of the novel.

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  • Best Actor race looking tight as always — expect surprises

    Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary RoadThe Best Actor category tends to be one of the more crowded categories come Oscar time, and 2008 looks to be no exception. To be sure, there are a handful of frontrunners as usual, but hovering behind them are another group, more than eight who could easily sneak in and nab a nomination. Last year Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for his powerful work in “The Valley of Elah,” a richly deserved nod, but completely unexpected by the majority of prognosticators.  I remember smiling when I heard his name read, but it was a huge surprise.

    I would expect something similar this year, as we have some of the great  actors and potentially stunning performances in contention.

    The obvious frontrunner at this point is Mickey Rourke, basking in the attention being given to “The Wrestler.”  His performance is nothing short of miraculous, an astounding piece of acting, and it is great to see him back in the fold.  But when it comes to winning the award, I have to say: not a chance. Rourke is intensely disliked in Hollywood.  He’s seen as someone who basically spit on the industry to walk away and become a boxer. As a friend close to Rourke said, “A lot of people were happy when he left and don’t want this guy back.”

    Frank Langella looks to be terrific in the trailers for “Frost/ Nixon.”  He has always been a great actor, better known for his stage work than film, though in the last few years he has become a formidable presence on the big screen. I remember seeing him as “Dracula” both on stage and on film in the late 1970s and hoped he would go far. He did, just not in the movies, until recently.

    Kris has Michael Sheen down as a lead actor possibility as well, and I agree. It’s one of those “Amadeus” situations where one performance cannot exist without the other. There is a strong chance that if the film and the actors are terrific, both of them will be nominated, though Langella certainly has the showier role of the two.

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  • Nick Cave on film, music and committees

    I can’t think offhand of an upcoming film score that I’m more eager to hear than Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ work for “The Road.” Their dark, elegiac score for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” which wove together a panoply of Americana with a smattering of modern influences, was one of the great overlooked achievements of last year.

    Of course, “The Road” reunites Cave and Ellis with director John Hillcoat, with whom they collaborated on “The Proposition” — the fascinating Outback “Western” that Cave himself also scripted. “The Proposition”‘s score was another sonically dense, richly atmospheric affair, and I expect them to repeat the feat on “The Road.”

    All of which brings me to this interesting little interview with Cave, taken while he was recording for “The Road” in London. He’s long been one of the most articulate, intelligent guys in rock music, and he offers quite generous insight here into his deliciously strange creative process. There’s also this rather matter-of-fact perspective on working for film:

    The whole film business, everything is done by committee, it would seem. So what you feel about what you’ve created is highly irrelevant in the process of making a film. You hand something in and the worth of it is judged by people you’ve never even seen, so it’s mentally frustrating in that way, but at times it’s hugely enjoyable because the kind of agony of original creation, of having to think of the actual idea and the theme and what you’re going to write about and all that kind of stuff, which is really very difficult, the toughest part of songwriting for me, is not there. You’re simply supplied everything by what’s on the screen.

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  • Strike two for Viggo?

    A few weeks ago, Viggo Mortensen was riding high going into awards season, with no fewer than three baity-looking prospects on his slate: Ed Harris’ western “Appaloosa,” Holocaust drama “Good” and the eagerly-awaited “The Road.”

    At Toronto, however, the picture has cleared, and the options have narrowed. First off the bat, “Appaloosa” was greeted with a shrug, both here and elsewhere. And now, if Variety’s damning review is anything to go by, “Good” faces an even more indifferent reception:

    This tepid adaptation has an international-pudding feel unlikely to spark much critical or aud enthusiasm … Considering its theme and setting, there’s something very wrong with a “Good” that seems merely competent, uninspired and a bit old-hat. But the milieu, characters and emotions just don’t come alive. (Director) Amorim brings little personality or passion to the material … the often impressive Mortensen can’t make Halder much more than a stereotypical academic milquetoast.

    I must say that’s pretty much what I expected. Sure, the Academy often responds well to Holocaust stories, but the director couldn’t have a lower profile, and that trailer always looked rather stodgy to me.

    So another one bites the dust, it seems. Mortensen will be disappointed — according to Anne Thompson, he had pinned his personal Oscar hopes on “Good.” Now it looks like “The Road” is the right horse after all — but we knew that all along, right?

  • Brilliant

    New York Magazine

    (Courtesy: New York Magazine)

  • PAGE TO SCREEN: “The Road” by Joe Penhall

    Page to Screen at In Contention“You think I come from another world, don’t you? Filled with all these strange things you’ve never seen…Well I do, I guess.”

    Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” debuted last year to one of the biggest literary love fests in recent memory. From Oprah to Pulitzer, the author had one hell of a year, not to mention the Golden Globe- and Oscar-winning adaptation of “No Country for Old Men.” And so, after failed attempts like “All The Pretty Horses” (still one of my picks for director’s cut I want to see the most), McCarthy’s books are hitting the film world hard. Adaptations are coming from Todd Field and Andrew Dominik, and in just a few months, “The Road” hits screens from director Joe Hillcoat (he of the fantastic “The Proposition”) and screenwriter Joe Penhall.

    And rest assured, fans — from the looks of this script, you have very little to worry about.

    A quick catch-up for those who don’t know what “The Road” is about: It’s a post-apocalyptic world. Character names are omitted, leaving mere pronouns as items of identification. A man (to be played by Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) make their way toward the coast, hoping to find warmer weather in the desolate despair that surrounds them. The script is as sparse as the book; I honestly couldn’t tell you if there was a single scene added.

    Much has been made about the enlarged role of the man’s wife (Charlize Theron), but that really only adds up to a good cameo for Theron, each scene meatier than the last. Theses were the few sequences that seemed new to me, flashbacks of events before whatever terrible event took place, quite subtle and unassuming. No dialogue, no big moments, just a couple in love going through their routine lives, enjoying each other.

    These sequences, told from The Man’s perspective, add to the heroism of the character. However, the argument could be made that The Wife still comes across as difficult to like and even easier to hate, for reasons that would be spoilerific if you’ve not read the book. I’m sure Theron will bring her A-Game to the role (in a weak year, it’s a definite contender for a supporting actress nomination, based solely on the fact that every scene she has is a perfect contender for an Oscar clip), but I wished I could sympathize with her just a little on the page.

    Along the road our duo meets a variety of folks, including more good cameo time for Robert DuVall and Guy Pearce toward the film’s conclusion. While their parts are fine and good, I can’t help wondering if their casting will be more distracting than helpful (neither character has more than five-to-10 pages).

    The bigger encounters The Man and The Boy face are much more horrifying and emotionally wrenching, chief among them being an ungodly terrifying scene in which the two stumble upon a group of cannibals and the dying humans they eat alive in their basement. I was sweating just reading these pages (as I was in the book), and it has the potential to be one of the most nerve wracking sequences in film history. It’s moments like this that make me wonder about the film’s Oscar prospects. These scenes are pitch black and hopeless, and much more in the horror vein than any Oscar-bound movie that I can remember, including “The Silence of the Lambs.”

    The movie’s secret weapon, and the root of whatever failure and sucess it might face, is the casting of The Man and The Boy. I’ve never seen Kodi Smit-McPhee in anything, but needless to say if he pulls off the role, it’s impossible to imagine him not garnering an Academy Award nomination. It’s the type of role that is the only legitimate threat to Heath Ledger in my opinion.

    Whereas Ledger’s performance is one of showmanship and iconography, Smit-McPhee has the opportunity to pull heart strings and in a non-cloying or baity way to boot. Just like people were reduced to puddles reading the book, I imagine the film could play out in the same fashion, and that really rests squarely on this young man’s shoulders.

    Luckily for Smit-McPhee, one of our greatest actors shares every scene with him. Viggo Mortensen is perfectly cast. Was anyone even surprised when he was announced as The Man? It’s a challenging role for any actor, but one can’t help but see it as something as a culmination of the excellent work he’s been doing since appearing in that little fantasy film a few years ago.

    There’s real pain and bravery to The Man, a character whose sole existence is to take his son closer to a better life one step at a time. It’s a beautifully written role (again, like always, we have McCarthy to thank for that) and it’s hard seeing Mortensen not receive his second nomination in two years. It’s the type of role AMPAS dies to award, a family hero, deglamed, beloved actor, etc., and Mortensen has been quietly building up his reputation year after year. With three films this year to support his campaign, I’d have to say you’d be pretty ignorant to vote against his odds at this point.

    A potential downfall of “The Road” could simply be that it lacks the beautiful wordplay of McCarthy. Some of the great lines, “If he was not the word of God, then God had never spoke” or “There is no God and we are his prophets” are not present, and I’m sure that’s bound to disappoint the loyalists. Personally, I didn’t mind it so much. “The Road” is an incredibly faithful adaptation that is more than just a cut-and-paste rehash of the book. Joe Penhall has clearly taken the time and care to craft the story into as livid an adaptation as possible.

    As a big fan of the novel, I guess I can say that my fears have been laid to rest. While the success of the film on the screen lies in the work of the actors, at least we can rest assured that they’ll be working from a damn fine piece of writing.

  • New images from ‘The Road’

    (from left) Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Scott-McPhee in The RoadOur friends at Cinematical point us this morning to six new images from John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” debuting over at USA Today with a nice accompanying story from Scott Bowles.

    I didn’t realize Hillcoat was filming this in Pittsburgh, probably one of my favorite sleepy cities in the entire country.  Bowles quotes the director as follows:

    It’s a beautiful place in fall with the colors changing…But in winter, it can be very bleak. There are city blocks that are abandoned. The woods can be brutal. We didn’t want to go the CGI world.  We wanted the heightened reality in the book.

    Very cool.  Star Viggo Mortensen is also quoted.  You can read the rest here.

    I’m currently thumbing my way through Cormac McCarthy’s book.  I’ve told a few friends who loved that it hasn’t exactly blown my skirt up yet, though more often than not the answer is, “Finish it and we’ll talk.”  Fair enough.  I do love the atmosphere McCarthy creates, more so than any of his other works.

    Dimension Films will be releasing “The Road” on November 11.  The film will have its North American debut at the Toronto Film Festival on Steptember 11.

  • ‘The Road’ on page and screen

    (from left) Kodi Scott-McPhee and Viggo Mortensen in The RoadThis weekend I opened Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel “The Road.” For whatever reason –- fright perhaps -– I’d hadn’t read it before now despite accolades from critics and friends.

    In June, Guy Lodge wrote a thoughtful entry about Dennis Lehane and how his books have easily transitioned to the screen. He likened him to Jane Austen. Mr. Lodge accurately noted that “it seems the studios are snapping up his titles faster than he can write them.”

    And for good reason. “Mystic River” and “Gone Baby Gone” were exceptional (and successful) adaptations. “Shutter Island,” which will open in 2009 as “Ashcliff,” attracted the eye of Martin Scorsese along with an exceptional cast featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Max Von Sydow, Jackie Earle Haley and Patricia Clarkson, to name a few. But I wonder if similar consideration might be given to Mr. McCarthy.

    John Hillcoat’s adaptation of “The Road” will hit theaters this November — just after thanksgiving. Unlike “No Country for Old Men,” the Coen brothers’ Academy Award-winning adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, this film enters the market with far less fanfare. To date, it hasn’t screened for audiences or critics. It didn’t show at Cannes or Tribeca and, as of this writing, hasn’t been announced as part of the Toronto International Film Festival line-up.

    The film stars Viggo Mortensen, fresh off an Oscar nomination for “Eastern Promises,” David Cronenberg’s moody and dark film about the Russian mafia in London. Mortensen seems to have this genre down. While he was thrilling in Cronenberg’s haunting drama “A History of Violence,” the actor arguably made his name as Aragorn in those miserable elf movies from Peter Jackson. Five pages into the novel, his casting made perfect sense.

    In 2005, Hillcoat directed “The Proposition,” a brilliant western starring Guy Pearce and Ray Winstone. I found it to be one of the year’s best.

    “The Road” also stars Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Robert Duvall as well as Mr. Pearce and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee, an 11-year-old boy who might just steal the film. Charles McGrath, writing in The New York Times earlier this year, noted that screenwriter Joe Penhall is “for the most part extremely faithful” to the story.

    The Oscar season is crowded with adaptations of books and plays. “Revolutionary Road,” “The Reader,” “Doubt,” “Frost/Nixon,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “House of Lies,” “Defiance” and “Miracle at St. Anna” are just a few. But if there’s such a thing as McCarthy fatigue, audiences may have it this year. Where “No Country for Old Men was violent and scary to a disturbing degree, “The Road” is – -210 pages in -– chilling and lonely. They are both beautiful works of literature, but how much stomach will the Academy have for another bleak story, particularly one set in a post-apocalyptic world?

    The critical success of “No Country for Old Men” may also work against Mr. Hillcoat. The Coens set the bar high — much higher than Billy Bob Thornton and Ted Talley when they adapted “All the Pretty Horses” in 2000. But I’m hoping that isn’t the case.

    Then again, if “The Road” isn’t enough to satisfy McCarthy fans and film lovers alike, in 2009 Ridley Scott will direct “Blood Meridian,” an adaptation of another one of his novels, with a script penned by William Monahan.