In Contention

Tag: Viggo Mortensen

  • 9/27 Oscarweb Round-up

    Josh Brolin in W.• Anne Thompson reports that Paramount Vantage will officially debut the “Revolutionary Road” trailer on Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men.”  Very smart. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The toughest journalist gigs in cinema. [Time Out]

    • In the introductory post of his long in the works awards blog (welcome to the fray), Pete Hammond bangs the drums for Dustin Hoffman in “Last Chance Harvey.”  Overture will have a tough enough time with one Best Actor hopeful, though, let alone two. [Notes on a Season]

    • Tom O’Neil rounds up a bunch of thoughts from the Oscarweb regarding potential Oscar hosts. [Gold Derby]

    • Steven Zeitchick gets excited about the foreign film race. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Michael Cieply and Charles Solomon shed light on a credit dispute among the principles of Universal’s animated endeavor “The Tale of Despereaux.” [New York Times]

    • John HIscock spends some quality time with “Appaloosa” star Viggo Mortensen across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Oscar winner Helen Mirren is set to take on the role of an Israeli Nazi hunter with “Shakespeare in Love” director John Madden at the helm. [The Independent]

    • Anthony Breznican gets a first look at Oliver Stone’s “W.” [USA Today]

  • 9/19 Oscarweb Round-up

    Benicio Del Toro• Peter Sciretta wraps up the Toronto Fest, live from Fantastic Fest.  It’s that time of the year… [/Film]

    • Oscar winner Diablo Cody responds to the haters: “I like my fake name.  It’s engraved on an Oscar.  Yours isn’t.” [MySpace]

    • Mark Olsen apparently reported over a week ago that Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” will not be released by Summit Entertainment until 2009 and no one knew about it. [Los Angeles Times]

    • The news kind of sucks for Sasha Stone’s latest Oscar column thesis… [Awards Daily]

    • …while it seems a questionable move to Jeffrey Wells. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Jeffrey Anderson runs down the best of Keira Knightley’s costume epics. [Cinematical]

    • Kevin Kelly talks to “Waltz with Bashir” star/director Ari Folman. [Spout Blog]

    • Lou Lumenick wonders if Heath Ledger’s legacy can equal that of James Dean beyond the inevitable Oscar nomination and Halloween get-ups (I know that’s my costume this year…the only reason I haven’t cut my hair since May). [Lumenick on Film]

    • Karl Rozemeyer talks to “Appaloosa” star Viggo Mortensen… [Premiere]

    • …as well as “Che” star Benicio Del Toro. [Premiere]

    • Alan Moore will be “spitting venom all over” Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen.” [Hero Complex]

  • 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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  • TORONTO: ‘Good,’ ‘Me and Orson Welles,’ ‘Every Little Step,’ ‘The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,’ ‘The Hurt Locker’

    Christian McKay in Me and Orson WellesListening to the conversations of the other critics in the various theaters, it becomes very clear that this year’s fest has been something of a disappointment, the first in a long, long time.

    At least one critic pointed out to me that Oscar and TIFF divorced this year, which has been mentioned ad nauseum and is probably a pretty fair assessment of the situation. A lot of the press are heading home today and tomorrow as the festival begins that slow march toward the end, always exiting with a whimper and never a bang.

    These last couple of days I have screened some interesting films: a noble failure, a superb documentary, a fine war film that is still not the great film we need about Iraq.  I will get to them as I can, but for now, some quick catching up…

    (Reviews after the jump.)

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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?

  • TORONTO: Ed Harris on ‘Appaloosa,’ acting and film crticism

    Ed HarrisWalking into to interview with any actor/director can be a tad intimidating, even after 20 years of doing it.  They have a tendency to be…difficult.  But 30 minutes into my interview with Ed Harris, he pays me a compliment that could keep wind in my sails for the duration of the fest: “Thank you for your integrity, intelligence and dedication to your job.  This has been a pleasure.”  He smiled as we shook hands and he walked me to the door

    Harris has been an actor I have admired since first seeing him as squeaky clean John Glenn in “The Right Stuff” back in 1983, which he followed with a chilling turn as a mercenary in “Under Fire,” his bright blue eyes windows into hell’s furnace. His career has moved along an interesting trajectory, shifting between supporting roles and leads with ease, often dominating whatever film he takes on with powerhouse acting.

    Oddly enough, he did not receive his first Oscar nomination until 1995 when he gave a sterling performance as Gene Kranz in “Apollo 13,” followed by another brilliant turn in “The Truman Show” as a God-like TV producer. He nurtured his dream project, “Pollock,” through its funding, before taking up the reins as director and grabbing another Oscar nod in front of the camera. And in 2002 he was nominated for a fourth time for his AIDS-afflicted writer in “The Hours,” a critically acclaimed ensemble piece from director Stephen Daldry.

    It is doubtful that “Appaloosa” will see any Oscar attention.  Though it is beautifully shot and the art direction is sublime, the film was something of a letdown, despite strong work from Harris and co-stars Viggo Mortensen and Jeremy Irons.

    “I gave the book to Viggo here at this festival in 2005,” Harris said, “when we were here for ‘A History of Violence.’ There was no one else I really wanted to do the film with, and I certainly never considered anyone else. I just thought he and I would make a strong partnership on screen. We don’t hang out, I mean we’re friends, but we don’t see much of each other. He agreed to do it, and Viggo’s the sort of guy where his word is his bond, so that gave me the start to keep moving on the film. It didn’t really occur to me that the film was a western, what struck me was the relationship between these two men in 1882, that’s what really grabbed me about the film. That it happened to be a western was incidental.”

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  • REVIEW: “Appaloosa” (**1/2)

    New Line Cinema\'s AppaloosaI don’t think it’s much of a secret around these parts that I really wanted to be on board for “Appaloosa.” I’m in love with the new resurgence of the western genre, even if I get irritated when people refer to “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” as evidence of it.

    This, of course, redirects credit due to a modern lineage that began with Kevin Costner’s back-to-basics “Open Range,” exploded with creativity with David Milch’s “Deadwood” and settled into a hell of a groove last year with James Mangold’s “3:10 to Yuma” and Andrew Dominik’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert ford.”

    But lulls and misfires are to be expected of a genre finding its footing in a brave new Hollywood seemingly willing to finance such efforts, and it pains me to say “Appaloosa” is an example.

    Lifted from the pages of a Robert Parker novel painstakingly simple in its narrative approach, Ed Harris’s adaptation suffers in its admittedly commendable insistence to be faithful to the source. The result is a stilted narrative with vague characterizations and otherwise awkward interaction.

    Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen star as Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch respectively, gun-hands that move from town to town restoring order for a fee, establishing the law and governance of the country’s last frontier. Fifteen years together can breed a relationship of intuition. Virgil and Everett sense each other’s disposition, depend on each other like extensions of themselves. The interplay was fascinating in novel form and is almost there on the screen.

    When the duo arrive in Appaloosa, the city has been forced to its knees by a quick-draw rancher, Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) and his band of misfits. By-laws are posted, Cole is given command of the town’s law and order and the wheels are set in motion for plenty of steely-eyed encounters and enough shoot-outs (and near shoot-outs) to satisfy the appetite.

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  • 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.

  • Robert Parker’s ‘Appaloosa’

    Appaloosa by Robert ParkerBefore I head out today on a whirlwind of pre-Toronto screenings that will take me away from the work at hand, I wanted to follow up last week’s brief comments on Robert Parker’s novel “Appaloosa,” which is being adapted for the screen by director Ed Harris this year (and will play at the festival next week).

    I’ll reiterate here that the most interesting dynamic of the entire narrative is the relationship between Virgil Cole  and Everett Hitch.  Two gun hands that swagger from town to town to clean up messes, make up “laws” that must be followed and represent order for a small time before moving on, they’ve got a 15-year partnership that goes to the bone marrow.  The Hitch character relays the story in the first person, which makes the wordless conversations between the two men, the subtle nuances of knowledge, the all around ability to intuit each other’s disposition — especially where Hitch is concerned — all the more intriguing.

    Consider a scene that depicts Cole flying off the rails and beating a giant bar patron to a pulp, furious at some outside irritant more than the patron’s loud antics.  Only Hitch can pull him off the man, and he does so with a calm, inevitable touch, lifting Cole off the ground and pulling him back until Cole tells him, twice, and equally calm: “You can let me go.”  It’s an awesome dynamic these two have.

    Cole and Hitch will be played by Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen respectively in the upcoming film, and I really hope they can pull off this chemistry (I’ll know soon).  The narrative itself might be a touch trite and Renee Zellweger’s Allie character is certainly it’s most irritating aspect, but the peculiarities of character that Parker writes into the two leads more than make up for that.

    So if you’re a fan of the genre, I’d recommend it.  Don’t expect a miracle of substance, but you’ll get some nice grit and hard-nosed simplicity to sink your teeth into.

  • That’s one hell of a still…

    Viggo Mortensen in Good

  • Touchdown in Houston

    No this ain’t football talk. Apologies on the content drought from my end. Travelling, family, friends, bridezillas and all the drama they entail.

    I notice tonight that Anne Thompson has beaten me to the Viggo Mortensen story I was looking forward to cranking out tomorrow. Oh well, it’s worth it just that SOMEONE is writing it. “Good” presenting itself in the festival landscape makes Mortensen a prime commodity if “The Road” and “Appaloosa” didn’t already sell you.

    Speaking of which, Robert Parker’s novel is making for a nice and breezy (if somewhat cliched) in-flight read. I’ve pushed through well over 100 pages since Raleigh.

    What’s most striking is the relationship between Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, the nuances, the wordless conversations, the ease of the chemistry. If Mortensen and Ed Harris can carry that much across on screen we’ll all be in for a treat.

    But more on that when I finish the book.

    Back in L.A. midnight-ish. Things should be back to normal next week. Thanks to John and Guy for keeping things moving around here.

  • ‘Appaloosa’ gets a poster…and a hell of a tagline, too!

    The trailer debuted earlier this week, and now we get a spiffy new one-sheet:

    New Line Cinema's Appaloosa

    I like it.  It’s simple, not TOO cliche, has a sense of danger to it.  But I ADORE the tag line.  “Feelings get you killed.”  How cold-blooded badass is that?!

    Check out the “Appaloosa” buzz page here.

  • ‘Appaloosa’ trailer

    This looks awesome.  Old fashioned, unassuming, shades of the simplicity Kevin Costner brought back to the genre with “Open Range” five years ago.  And I just realized Groundswell and Michael London are behind this.  Very nice.  Anyone with the balls to pump money into westerns at this stage and continue to breathe life into their potential is A-okay with me.

    The film makes its world debut at Toronto in a month.  Can’t wait to hear the reaction.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg3TaAPELkQ

  • TIFF keeps ’em coming

    Viggo Mortensen in AppaloosaMore announcements out of the press office from Toronto today.

    Great to hear that the first of the potential Oscar films is coming, Ed Harris’s “Appaloosa,” with Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger and Harris starring. Harris’s last directorial effort “Pollock” opened here and went all the way to Oscar night, winning Best Supporting Actress for Marcia Gay Harden.

    Jonathan Demme returns with “Rachel Getting Married” featuring Anne Hathaway as a crisis-prone sister returning home for her sister’s wedding bringing her acid tongue with her to unleash hell.

    From England comes “The Other Man” from director Richard Eyre.  Liam Neeson stars as a husband who discovers his wife (played by Laura Linney) has been receiving emails and messages from another man, portrayed by Antonio Banderas. Enraged and deeply hurt that she would violate the trust he thought they had, he seeks out an encounter with the man.

    The titles have started emerging and we’re look forward to more in the coming weeks. Festival fever is starting!

  • ‘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.

  • The western keeps on truckin’

    It’s no real secret that yours truly is in the tank for the western genre.  Being brought up on the films of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood tends to make an impact in a young man’s life.  I watch Charles Bronson square off with Henry Fonda on a daily basis.  I’m knee-deep in research on the genre for a grad school thesis.

    I dig it, okay?

    The resurgence of saddles and spurs on the big screen has been moving steadily through the industry.  I don’t think anyone expects a return to the 1950s, with pistol-toting heroes plastered on every television screen and nearly every silver screen across America, but I see these efforts taking on more introspective subject matter, perhaps giving way soon enough to the neo-western.  And it is, after all, time.

    Today I see that screen tests may have been revealed of Thomas Jane in the upcoming DC Comics adaptation “Jonah Hex”  The film is set to be directed by the team behind “Crank,” Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.  This might be real, might not, since the duo is filming “Crank 2” in Los Angeles at the moment.  But I can’t say I’m loving it…seems quite amateurish.  Regardless, “Hex” is a hell of a property with some storylines that just sing, and seeing it on the big screen will do this western fanatic a lot of good.

    Meanwhile, of course, Ed Harris is set to release “Appaloosa” later this year, formerly under the New Line Cinema banner and now, presumably, as another in a long tradition of genre entries from Warner Bros. Pictures.  Harris stars along with Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger.

    These efforts are coming on the heels of a tweak in the genre as of late, with the more abstract works of Cormac McCarthy making their way to the screen (“No Country for Old Men,” “The Road” and, soon, “Blood Meridian”) and David Milch showing in the sadly cancelled HBO series “Deadwood” that the genre could be taken to levels almost Shakespearean.  Meanwhile, a revamp of “The Lone Ranger” is looking like a go, with the team behind the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films hoping to bring an element of sensationalism into the mix.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: 2008, a year in advance

    Another year, another set of wins…and another look ahead at what’s in store NEXT year.

    It’s never too late to take a long gander at what we might see dominating the film awards landscape in 365 days, and with that in mind, I’ve been doing my usual mulling over the possibilities for a few weeks to put together the sadly thorough examination of the 2008-09 award season that follows. Let’s get into it. There are some major considerations to take into account. right off the top.

    Like Leonardo DiCaprio, for instance, who is set to be the entertainer of the year. With performances in “Body of Lies” (Ridley Scott) and “Revolutionary Road” (Sam Mendes), DiCaprio is working with a duo of awards-proven talent this year. Perhaps that will work against him, much like it did in 2006, and no major Oscar success will come knocking. But we’ll wait until we see the performances. Each of them could be enticing.

    This year’s Best Picture Oscar victor Scott Rudin is back again, by the way, with “Revolutionary Road,” recently inherited by Paramount Vantage and probably one of the true “frontrunners” this far out that we could put our finger on. The only other film in Vantage’s arsenal is Edward Zwick’s “Defiance,” which could simply be a commercial success, but might find its way to multiple nods like “The Last Samurai” and “Blood Diamond” in recent years.

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  • INTERVIEW: Viggo Mortensen

    “I think Americans are good people, but I don’t think they’re better or worse than anybody else in the world. I am particularly proud of the fact that, in spite of the pathetic performance of our government in relation to what happened, how it could have been prepared for and reaction after the fact to the hurricane, and now there’s another one today, and tomorrow coming in hard – it didn’t matter what the government did or didn’t do or how they wanted to hide or make excuses. People took care of business, and continue to. I think people are essentially resilient and people surprise us – the good they can do, the compassion they can display. Humans are unique in that sense compared to other animals, just like in this story. They can reason and say ‘no, that’s not the right way. It may be difficult, but I want to struggle against being that way.’ They can also reach out to help people that they don’t even know for no particular reason other than it’s the right thing to do. And you can see that happening right now. That always give you hope for the future.”

    -Viggo Mortensen, Beverly Hills, Septmber 22, 2005

    Actor Viggo Mortensen has an eclectic sense of artistry.

    He is keen on storytelling, not only through his work as a thespian, but also through his efforts in literature and even photography. Maria Bello describes him as being a man whom you cannot separate from his art, and speaking directly with the actor, one detects an unabashed sense of cultural acuity – an attunement with the world of self-expression.

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