In Contention

Tag: Zoe Saldana

  • OFF THE CARPET: The time is nigh

    George Clooney in Up in the AirIn so many words, this is it.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveils it’s slate of nominees bright and early tomorrow morning, and this being the first year with a 10-film Best Picture field, all eyes will be on the top category to gauge which way the wind blew on this AMPAS experiment.

    Will populist entertainment reap the benefits of an extra five slots or will independent cinema finally get its foot in the door?  That’s been the question all year long.  The answers are around the corner, and less than 24 hours out, they still feel as elusive as ever.

    I learned long ago that to forecast “surprises” is folly.  They’re called surprises for a reason.  All you can do is try to find the pulse on the season and make your judgment calls, and in most cases, that means understanding what the Academy is high on, and when.

    For instance, is “The Messenger” poised to surprise in the supporting actress and original screenplay races, as well as Best Picture?  Or did the discussion stir up a bit late (which it did), too late, perhaps, to register?  The screener showed up earlier than most.  Did members find time in that lull to pop it into the player?

    Meanwhile, how will the BAFTA contingent affect the race?  We see it every year.  Contenders left dangling on the vine get their due from a membership that has considerable AMPAS cross-over.  Just ask Alan Alda.  With that in mind, could Alec Baldwin or Alfred Molina find themselves sliding into an incredibly fluid supporting actor category?

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  • Mark Harris on Zoe Saldana and performance capture

    Zoe Saldana in AvatarPerhaps I missed it, but I’m surprised there hasn’t been more online conversation about EW writer Mark Harris’s recent critical essay on “Avatar” and performance capture technology.As one would expect from the author of “Pictures at a Revolution,” it’s a thoughtful piece, but one that should stir up considerable dissent.

    He begins by slamming James Cameron for suggesting that performance capture can be used to preserve an actor’s physical features: “Will Smith could still make an action movie when he’s 75 years old, looking like he looks now,” Cameron stated, a thought that makes me as uneasy as it does Harris.

    But the beef of Harris’s argument comes when he turns his attention to “Avatar,” and the widely praised performance of Zoe Saldana, who some (including my esteemed editor) think merits Oscar consideration.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: All Globed out

    Jeff Bridges at the 2010 Golden Globe AwardsAs it turned out, the only celebration I made it to last night was Fox’s Globes after-party at Craft in Century City.  Given that “Avatar” and “Crazy Heart” were two of three films to win more than one Globe (the other being Pixar’s “Up”), it kind of felt like the place to be.

    The early part of the evening was dominated by the “Crazy Heart” crew.  I came in with Ryan Bingham and Scott Cooper, the latter dumbfounded at how certain celebs were getting his number to send well-wishes and praise for his little film.  Bingham, meanwhile, told me he was at the bar when the Best Original Song category was announced, which explains why T Bone Burnett accepted solo.  “Sorry for partyin’,” Bingham told me.  “Story of my life.”

    Burnett, it turns out, will be producing Bingham’s next album.

    Meanwhile, you could follow the bursts of applause to locate Jeff Bridges, who took down the Best Actor in a Drama trophy when many thought George Clooney would register with the, shall we say, star-friendly HFPA.  Then again, whoever said Bridges wasn’t a star?  And judging by the standing ovation, his second of the weekend (everyone was on their feet Friday, too), you can expect his steamroll through the season to continue next weekend at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and then, ultimately: the Oscar.  Interesting to note his lawyer advised him not to take the part, I assume thinking it wasn’t high enough on a scale of exposure.

    And yet here we are.

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  • 1/14 Oscarweb Round-up

    Mark Boal• Buzz Aldrin, Willie Nelson and more comment on the accuracy of a number of the season’s contenders. [Variety]

    • Peter Jackson and Stanley Tucci talk “The Lovely Bones.” [FearNet]

    • Brooks Barnes Q&As “The Hurt Locker” writer Mark Boal. [The Carpetbagger]

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  • Zoe Saldana gets her first awards recognition of the year…

    …from the NAACP (for “Avatar,” that is).  And in supporting.  But I guess that’ll do.  Check out the full list of nominees at our Circuit page.

  • Hope for Saldana

    The closes to a breakthrough with motion capture, and/or animation being added to an actor’s performance would be Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Most of the acting Pitt did was as the half-animated Button – barely recognizable and a performance that simply couldn’t have been gotten without aided technology. That shows that the membrane has been pierced, even if Pitt was also seen a good amount of the time as himself, and himself with makeup.

    Good point.  From Sasha Stone at Awards Daily. For more on this, listen to the most recent edition of Oscar Talk.

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 16 — ‘Nine’ stumbles, so cui bono? Plus ‘Avatar’ as frontrunner and forecasting the films of 2010

    Oscar TalkWelcome to the first installment of Oscar Talk of 2010 and, indeed, of the new decade. Oscar Talk is your weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.

    It’s been two weeks since we dug into the Oscar race in this space. Here’s what’s on the docket today:

    • Rob Marshall’s “Nine” has landed in theaters and been both critically and commercially dismissed, so the question is: Is it out of the Best Picture race? Anne and I discuss potential replacements if that’s the case.

    • From the bottom of the list to the top, we talk frontrunners. Is “Avatar” the one to beat? Which films are threatening that position?

    • Speaking of which, could Zoe Saldana be in the mix for a lead actress nomination despite perceived CG bias? Anne puts forth the general narrative, but I think that’s a bit defeatist. Rules are broken every year.

    • Finally, a new year a new list of anticipations. Anne and I run through a big list of films we’re most looking forward to in 2010.

    You can listen to this week’s podcast below, with Robert Burns’s “Auld Lang Syne” leading the way. Cheesy, I know.  And as always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

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    Subscribe to Oscar Talk

  • 1/1 Oscarweb Round-up

    Zoe Saldana in AvatarHappy New Year!

    • Jeffrey Wells wants a Best Actress nomination for “Avatar” star Zoe Saldana. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David Poland calls for the same, amid a number of other history-making Oscar moments that could be in the cards this season. [Movie City News]

    • Steve Pond finds a nifty way of revealing his top 10 list: via official AMPAS ballot. [The Odds]

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  • 12/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana in Avatar• Karina Longworth holds her nose and writes about Oscar, but makes a compelling case for “Avatar” as the “timeliest” film of the season. [Little Gold Men]

    • The film’s star, Zoe Saldana, on the state of women in Hollywood. [Speakeasy]

    • Charting the best music documentaries of the decade. [The Playlist]

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  • 11/24 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side• Pete Hammond, with box office ammunition in hand, keeps banging the gong for Sandra Bullock in a bad movie.  And it just might happen. [Notes on a Season]

    • Speaking of “The Blind Side,” Patrick Goldstein dedicates a great many words to the film’s director, John Lee Hancock. [The Big Picture]

    • “Nine,” the film that seduced Hollywood’s stars. [Daily Telegraph]

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  • EW’s Wonder Women panel at the Con

    I was bummed I had to miss yesterday’s Entertainment Weekly-sponsored women’s showcase here at Comic-Con, but luckily the mag has video snippets available for viewing now.  No embed feature, though, which is unfortuate, but go give them a look anyway.  Panelists included Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Elizabeth Mitchell and Eliza Dushku.

  • COMIC-CON: James Cameron unveils impressive ‘Avatar’ footage

    AvatarJames Cameron made his long-awaited trip to San Diego this afternoon for the world premiere of 25 minutes of footage from his upcoming film “Avatar,” and the reaction was as enthused as it could have been.  A scene-by-scene description is probably the best way to go about this, so first that, then quotes from the post-screening discussion.

    If you’d prefer to stay pure on this film and would rather skip the scene descriptions, go ahead and scroll down to the quotes section, indicated in bold below.  Also, for those hungry for any and all info, before I dig into the specifics of the presentation, you should really read through Cameron’s E3 address to get an idea of the film’s plot, or else you’ll be quite lost.

    Seven sequences were unveiled, beginning with a “Full Metal Jacket”-like military briefing with actor Stephan Lang front-and-center.  The scene also introduces us to the central character in the film, Jake Sully, a crippled former military officer himself with an eye toward the cosmos and the planet Pandora.

    The next scene reveals the avatars, genetic bio-suits constructed from the DNA of the Na’vi, tall, blue-skinned warrior natives of Pandora.  Floating in a tank of fluid, being prepped for integration with human consciousnesses, the imagery is quite beautiful in this scene, the avatars in a docile, tranquil state, Sully peering at them, recognizing in them the chance to walk, however virtually, once again.

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  • REVIEW: “Star Trek” (****)

    Star TrekFrom pulse-pounding beginning to edge-of-your-seat end, J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” moves at a break-neck pace that never lets up, never misses a beat and shockingly, never loses itself in its labyrinthine story.  It is a near-perfect action thrill ride that ticks off every box on the ultimate movie experience checklist and perhaps adds a few more.

    Fans of Gene Roddenberry’s series may or may not be impressed by Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman’s re-imagining of a sacred geek mythos, but they’ll do well to understand that their beloved universe is in tact.

    Despite the expectation that Gen-Y casting across the board would make for a moan-inducing CW-style prequel, the filmmakers have smartly devised a way to launch their own “B” timeline in a series that could go a million different directions from here.  That their brilliant scheme makes for a stand-alone classic with something for everyone is unexpected to say the least, and exhilarating as a result.

    Chris Pine stars as famed Federation Captain James Tiberius Kirk, though particulars of the story (which I dare not spoil here) put him on a different universal plane than William Shatner’s incarnation that has delighted audiences for decades.  A wildcat that seemingly breaks the hell-raiser mold, Kirk is born under chaotic circumstances in the film’s initial sequence.  We soon catch up to him as a youth racing through the fields of Iowa to the sounds of a then centuries-old Beastie Boys track before zipping ahead to encounter his bar-hopping mid-20s self in the form of Pine’s cock-sure stud.

    Intercut with the Kirk story is the equally brief introduction of the Vulcan Spock who, as a result of being half-Vulcan, half-human, is seen as disadvantaged by a society that demands a sense of perfection.  Zachary Quinto (television’s “Heroes”) takes the reins of the character, who enlists in the United Federation of Planets as one of the top minds in the corps before meeting Kirk and developing a relationship that will ultimately rest at the heart of the film.

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