• Pete Hammond digs into the truth about “Amelia” and potential new found hope in a recent re-edit. [Notes on a Season]
• The Rome film fest gets with it, structures a “women in contemporary cinema” theme around this year’s festivities. [The Independent]
• Variety’s Peter Debruge has a bit of mash-up fun with the “Antichrist” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” trailers. [YouTube]
The number one movie at the box office this weekend was Universal’s “Couples Retreat” with $35.3 million. That’s the ninth-biggest October debut in history and the biggest total ever tallied on this particular weekend of the year, but it’s not the biggest success story of the weekend. Not by a mile.
No other films were released wide to compete against Vince Vaughn and company, so the (last) resort comedy was able to stretch its legs and monopolize the date crowd despite poor reviews. Mainly, people showed up to see if the filmmakers actually had the gall to cast Jon Favreau as the irresistible ladies man. Now that’s comedy.
“Zombieland” dropped a very good 39% due to the lack of new competition and has shot up close to $50 million total already. Second weekend holds were pretty good all around with the “Toy Story” double feature dipping 39% as well and “Whip It!” falling 40%. Only “The Invention of Lying” seems to have missed out on the good word of mouth and falls 52%.
But let’s talk about “Paranormal Activity.” The film opened two weeks ago with midnight showings only at 12 theaters in college towns. It averaged $6,489 at each of them, which was pretty impressive. Last week it expanded to 33 screens and a couple of Friday and Saturday evening shows, which turned into a $16,129 per theater average for the weekend. Again, impressive, and proof that Paramount’s unusual distribution approach (which at first appeared like just dumping unwanted product with a contractually obligated release) may actually be working.
The best read of the day is Scott Timberg’s substantial LA Times profile of “Where the Wild Things Are” author Maurice Sendak, which traces the vast influence he and the book exerted on children’s literature — as well as a certain young Spike Jonze.
As someone who was heavily raised on Sendak’s work — “Wild Things” apart, I could recite his entire “Nutshell Library” back-to-front in my kindergarten days — I’m glad to see the 81 year-old author foregrounded amid the swell of hype for Jonze’s film. Obviously, Timberg devotes much attention to the boundary-breaking darkness and psychological grounding of Sendak’s work; more surprising, however, is this interpretation of the book’s cinematic properties:
In “Wild Things,” a single sentence can take pages to unfold, its meaning changing slightly with each image. And this book with numerous wordless pages ends with a half-sentence and no accompanying image. Sendak works similarly to the directors of the French New Wave, who used jump cuts and other techniques to dislocate their editing.
• As “Up” gears up for release in the UK, it is revealed the film was inspired by British photographer Adrian Warren. [Daily Telegraph]
• Tyler Perry gets personal regarding “Precious.” [TylerPerry.com]
• Enter for a chance to win Max’s wolf costume from “Where the Wild Things Are.” [Warner Bros.]
• Maurice Sendak’s one nit-pick with the adaptation of his “Where the Wild Things Are.” I agree with him. [io9]
• Capturing the miniature worlds of the film. [Los Angeles Times]
• Adding a new dimension to Woody and Buzz Lightyear. [New York Times]
Almost three months ago, I described how our cinematographers bring movies to life, by lensing the director’s vision, the actors’ performances, the production designer’s and the writer’s mood, just to begin. In the absence of these talented individuals, there would truly be no cinema.
Like most people, this is my favorite of the Oscar crafts categories. I was very happy when Anthony Dod Mantle triumphed last year, even though he was barely on my radar post-TIFF, where “Slumdog Millionaire” premiered. So what has emerged since our last assessment?
From the Toronto and Venice Film Festivals, not a whole lot seems to have changed in the category. While “Precious” and “Up in the Air” seem to have been the biggest gainers, they still don’t seem to be obvious candidates here. Then again, you have to keep an eye on Best Picture contenders, so I’d still consider DPs Andrew Dunn and Eric Steelberg for their work.
Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” also performed quite well at Venice. Many have praised the look of the film, so it would be foolish to rule out Eduard Rau. On the other hand, Javier Aguiressarobe’s lensing of “The Road” did not receive the praise I suspected it might, with most acclaim going to Viggo Mortensen’s performance. Even so, I’ll keep my eye on this title until it is released in theaters.
A contender whose vehicle has shifted since I last covered this category in July is Robert Richardson. While Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” has been delayed until next year, Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” on the other hand, has made a considerable splash. Richardson had many chances to show the scope of his talent on this project. I wouldn’t rule him out.
• “Up in the Air” gets a December release date to avoid Clooney vs. Clooney at the November box office. [Variety]
• Karen O channels Daniel Johnston for “Wild Things” soundtrack. [The Playlist]
• Steve Pond on the forthcoming Oscar short deadline. [The Wrap]
The roll-call of hipster names affiliated with Spike Jonze’s take on “Where the Wild Things Are” is beginning to border on the obnoxious. (I say that with nothing but love and anticipation.) But if Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O was going to be involved, it only makes sense that she should bring her stylist to the party.
Christian Joy, the outré fashion designer best known for her eccentric, home-made creations for O’s live shows, has teamed with Urban Outfitters to design a set of five “Wild Things”-inspired costumes. The outfits lend Maurice Sendak’s visions a bit of rock-star sparkle, though I can’t be the only one who thinks they recall Sally Hawkins’s “Happy Go Lucky” wardrobe more than anything else.
Either way, your Halloween problems are solved. More after the jump.
• We wrapped up Toronto as Lee Daniels’s “Precious” took the festival’s audience award, putting it on a solid track for Oscar.
• We got a look at the first trailer for “Harry Brown,” which may or may not be an awards film for actor Michael Caine. John, you’ll recall, isn’t feeling it.
• We saw ‘Meatball’ dominance at the box office in this weekend’s Sunday Cents column.
• This week’s Off the Carpet column kicked off our weekly Oscar coverage with a call for perspective on the perceived Best Picture frontrunners, while a new weekly column from across the pond — The Long Shot — introduces a different perspective mid-week.
The “Where the Wild Things Are” marketers continue to demonstrate their chronic inability to put a foot wrong. Cinematical has unveiled another superb poster, this time for the IMAX release, and a further four character banners.
It looks like the LA Times is boning up on its coverage of the craft fields this Oscar season, as a pair of pieces landed over the weekend spotlighting below-the-line players on a pair of the year’s awards hopefuls.
The first, a look at the fashion sense of Amelia Earhart as conveyed in the costumes of Mira Nair’s “Amelia,” includes perspective from Nair on costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone’s work and the legendary pilot’s uniform innovations:
She created whatever suited her…And sold it as well. But more than anything, it came from comfort into style versus style for its own sake. She had this thing about scarves and color — rather than complete color, dashes of color. When she got the president’s medal, she wore a teal velvet skirt and ivory satin blouse with real orchids on the lapel.
The next piece is a look at the unlikely assumption of creature design duties for artist Sonny Gerasimowicz in Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are.”
• Steve Pond talks to AMPAS executive director Bruce Davis about the Oscars’ “crisis point.” [The Odds]
• Redefining the cinema alien with “District 9.” [Daily Telegraph]
• Spike Jonze and his latest gets close to 7,500 words in the Grey Lady. [New York Times]
No fanfare. A legitimate installment of The Lists on another topic will drop from Chad later today, but here’s what has me stoked:
1. “Up in the Air” (Paramount Pictures)
2. “Avatar” (20th Century Fox)
3. “The Tree of Life” (Apparition)
4. “Where the Wild Things Are” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
5. “A Christmas Carol” (Walt Disney Pictures)
6. “Invictus” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
7. “Capitalism: A Love Story” (Overture Films)
8. “2012” (Sony Pictures) –> guilty
9. “Precious” (Lionsgate)
10. “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (Sony Pictures Classics)
You?
Boy, the “Where the Wild Things Are” items are coming fast and furious this morning. I didn’t plan it this way, I swear.
Anyway, generally around late August I begin to start compiling a list of the original song contenders. It’s generally the last category that begins to fall into place after all, so it’s folly to speculate from too far out (which is why you’re greeted with the “coming soon” note in the sidebar for seven months out of the year).
A potential nominee could be in our midst with Karen O’s “All is Love” from “Where the Wild Things Are,” which you can listen to over at MySpace. Any fan of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is bound to enjoy this bouncing little ditty.
Meanwhile, Queen guitarist Brian May was apparently “blown away” by Adam Lambert’s original song for Roland Emmerich’s “2012.” I’m sure that combination is nails on a chalkboard for more than a few people.
