Fox Searchlight tweeted a link to this interview earlier today. The usual talking points but with the film expanding a bit more this weekend I thought I’d pass it along:
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 18 — WGA, ACE, ASC, parties, awards shows on the way…uh, we forget anything?
Welcome to Oscar Talk, a weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.After a busy week of guild announcements and circuit parties, not to mention plenty of industry news from NBC to Disney and anything in between, Anne and I are beat. And we’re moving into a busy weekend of awards shows and gatherings as well, so there’s no rest for the wicked. That having been said, let’s dive in to today’s topics:
• The Writers Guild of America announced its slate of contenders Monday, following a rash of ineligibilities that were revealed last week. We discuss the implications, if any.
• The WGA wasn’t the only guild staking a claim this week. The American Cinema Editors and the American Society of Cinematographers also nominated. We touch on them briefly.
• We’ve been bouncing all over town this week as studios put their best foot forward on the party and event circuit. We touch on a pair of them celebrating the sound of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and the principals of Warner’s “The Blind Side.”
• The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards are tonight, followed by the Golden Globes on Sunday. Oh yeah, and some parties, too. We preview the busy weekend ahead and discuss the three-horse race for Best Picture.
You can listen to this week’s podcast below, with Patterson’s Hood’s original song “Depression Era” leading the way. It goes a bit long but we had lots to discuss. As always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.
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Bring the pretty
I never thought I’d have to mention Taylor Lautner in two separate posts in one day, but life is full of surprises that way. Still, this tidbit can’t pass without comment. In a NYT piece (spotted via Vulture) on ratings tactics for Sunday’s Golden Globes telecast, Brooks Barnes mines this foot-in-mouth groaner from aptly-named HFPA president Philip Berk:“Anybody connected with ‘Nine’ is going to be sitting ringside,” he said … Lining up younger stars has been a priority. Seated with “The Hurt Locker” contingent will be Taylor Lautner, the beefcake star of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” “He will be there to make the table look glamorous,” Mr. Berk said.
Gee, way to make the talents behind the year’s most celebrated film feel welcome. For the record, I’ve met Kathryn Bigelow in person and can assure you that she doesn’t lack for glamor. And are its male stars really so hard on the eye? Hope no one’s losing their plus-one privileges for this.
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1/15 Oscarweb Round-up
• Anne Thompson sits down with “Food, Inc.” director Robert Kenner. [Thompson on Hollywood]• Scott Foundas talks “Public Enemies” with Michael Mann six months post-release. [LA Weekly]
• Peter DeBrudge on how Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient Martin Scorsese’s career has been shaped by early relationships. [Variety]
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Call it, friendo
Yesterday, Kris pointed you to Gregory Ellwood’s report on various Oscarcast developments, most of which either elicited a “wait and see” response from me or went over my head completely.(As a very old man of 26, I confess to having only a hazy grasp of who Taylor Lautner actually is. But I very much enjoyed her song “You Belong With Me.”)
Still, one of the tidbits did get a rise out of me, and a slightly concerned one at that. After initially deciding against a repeat of last year’s five-presenter format for the acting awards, producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic have had a change of heart — and have added a slight twist.
The Best Actor and Best Actress awards will now be presented not necessarily by former winners, but by “friends” of each nominee.
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Scissor sisters
Probably the single best film poster I saw last year, Jeremy Saunders’ Australian one-sheet design for “Antichrist” (below left) garnered a fair amount of internet fame. So it’s not surprising that, for the film’s UK DVD release, designers have opted for a coarser knock-off of Saunders’ concept. It says something for a film’s cultural standing when it can be represented in this kind of symbolic shorthand.
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Gervais does Conan
I haven’t offered any comment on the Conan/Leno/NBC situation because, well, I’m not privy to the particulars. There’s always more nuance than the usual scapegoating that gets perpetuated by, say, geek media outlets who couldn’t have less of a clue. I’m a Conan fan before I’m a Leno fan (I’ll be in the audience at The Tonight Show Tuesday), but I also understand something called “business.”
Anyway, that having been said, I liked the playful joshing between Ricky Gervais and O’Brien regarding the situation throughout last night’s interview. The Globes ought to be a hoot Sunday night with Gervais as emcee. Parts 2-4 after the jump.
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TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: The crafts of ‘A Serious Man’
The Coen brothers’ latest film “A Serious Man” opens with a quote from French Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (better known as Rashi): “Accept with simplicity everything that happens to you.”It’s obviously quite applicable to the themes of fatalism and inevitability strewn throughout the film. But that word, “simple,” also comes up over and over again when discussing below-the-line elements with the directors’ collaborators.
Jess Gonchor is the newest craftsman to join the Coens’ party, having first jumped on board with 2007’s “No Country for Old Men.” When the sibling directors got a look at “Capote” two years earlier, they were quite taken by the stark, understated look of the production design and wanted to meet with Gonchor about potentially designing their Cormac McCarthy adaptation.
“I guess I just talked about it intelligently enough,” Gonchor remembers, with an air of humility. “We were on the same page never having met each other. And also, I come from making movies that are low budget if any budget. You can do anything with money.”
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BFCA/HFPA on the way
This weekend the first two major televised awards shows will hit and the race will begin to take a certain shape. Though to be quite honest, I’m beginning to get the sense that each of these major precursors will go different ways. At the end of the day, I think we could be looking at a three-horse race all the way up until the Best Film Editing award on Oscar night (which will either go to “Avatar” or “The Hurt Locker”). Then it’ll be a two-horse race between that film and “Up in the Air” right up until the final envelope is opened.This is what we wanted, though. Right?
Pete Hammond does a nice job of previewing the BFCA’s Critics’ Choice Movie Awards at The Envelope. Pete and I did a little dog and pony Q&A intro to a free showing of “Up in the Air” at the Landmark theater in West L.A. last night to a packed house. Some 60 attendees were turned away at the door. Mainly it was raising awareness, discussing the nominees, offering up who we voted for, etc.
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Iowa critics spring for ‘Up in the Air,’ ‘Crazy Heart’
Best Picture
“Up in the Air”Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”Best Actress
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”Check out the rest at The Circuit.
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1/14 Oscarweb Round-up
• 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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THE LONG SHOT: Hollywood fights back
I may be looking out at my snow-caked garden as I write this, but it was in the spirit of spring-cleaning that I revised my nomination predictions this morning, ridding myself of most of the clinging personal hopes and hunches that lingered when I last updated them a month ago.It wasn’t the most drastic of revisions (rather to my surprise, I found I’d already predicted a robust haul for “District 9” before the Guilds made it such a strong bet), but it was my most detached one to date, anticipating a race that looks set to be rather passionless on my part.
Rarely have so many of the leading players in the Best Picture race left me so cold – as “Avatar,” “Invictus,” “Precious,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Up in the Air,” “Star Trek” and even “Up” all failed to arouse any particularly warm feelings in me, I began to wonder if I should just retreat to bed until March 8.
(Unfortunately, for those of you wishing I’d do just that, a healthy precursor run for “The Hurt Locker,” one contender I love without reservation, is keeping me invested.)
Still, my individual response to the films in question isn’t the only reason I’m feeling a little distanced from this year’s competition. As it currently stands, Hollywood looks set to enjoy its most homegrown Oscar race in some time.
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Burton’s ‘Alice’ goes emo
[UPDATE: Commenter Aspect Ratio reassures the pop-phobic that only Avril Lavigne’s contribution will feature in-film (and over credits). Otherwise, it’s Danny Elfman business as usual.]
File this under film news I didn’t see coming: Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz and Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus are collaborating to write music for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” which opens Stateside in March. Wentz told MTV News:
We did a song for ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ [and we] might do a few more depending on when [Mark] goes in with Blink. [It] sounds nothing like Blink or Fall Out Boy. Mark understands songwriting on a completely different level. It’s awesome to have a chance to sit in a room with him and watch him work out a melody.
The less it sounds like either artist’s band the better, as far as I’m concerned. The “Alice in Wonderland” soundtrack will also feature new tracks from the likes of All Time Low and Avril Lavigne, as well as (slightly more my speed, this) Robert Smith and Franz Ferdinand. Cinema Blend’s Katey Rich has a full listing here.
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Blind sided by a charming pair
I haven’t been much for “The Blind Side” this year. I gave it a look pre-release and thought it was somewhat flat, expected it to be a modest hit (but was it much more than that) and maybe stir awards talk for Sandra Bullock but beyond that, I didn’t think it would move the needle much. Then the film took a life of its own, eventually crossing the $200 million domestic mark, yielding story after story focused on Bullock’s amazing year (the film is the first female-driven film to hit that box office milestone).So I thought at best last night’s little event for the film at Il Cielo in Beverly Hills would be a nice opportunity for some free drinks and a brief chat with a likely on-her-press-game Bullock and little else. But boy was I wrong. After speaking with both Bullock and star Quenton Aaron for quite a while, I think they’ve made for one of my favorite experiences of the season.
Aaron, for starters, is absolutely charming, humble, nice as he could be and just a delight to talk to. I’m not used to looking up at people, but at 6′ 8″, I’m sure Aaron is the same way. Before getting the role he was working as a security guard at Rockefeller Center in New York. The first person he told about the news, in fact, was Tina Fey, who was walking by in the hallway when he let loose a scream of joy while on his cell phone. “What is it?,” she said, startled herself. “I just got this part,” Aaron told her.
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1/13 Oscarweb Round-up
• Nathaniel Rogers wraps up his “top 100 of the decade” series with a pair of unconventional musicals taking the top two spots. [The Film Experience]• Melena Ryzik chats with “Crazy Heart” star Maggie Gyllenhaal. [The Carpetbagger]
• Why Quentin Tarantino wants to be the next Howard Hawks. [The Guardian]
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DGA doc nominees include ‘Cove,’ ‘Anvil,’ ‘Agnes’
Much like last week’s announcement in their top category, most of the usual suspects are present in the Guild’s documentary lineup.I’m particularly pleased to see French New Wave veteran Agnès Varda continue to rack up a healthy precursor tally; at this rate, she’s on course for her first Oscar nomination. (She’d be breaking an Oscar age record in the process, too.)
Of course, the DGA and the Academy don’t enjoy nearly same hand-in-hand relationship in Best Documentary as they do in Best Picture. Not since 1991 have the two agreed on a winner (Barbara Kopple’s “American Dream”), and even then, it was in separate years.
Meanwhile, a measly three of the last 17 DGA doc winners were also Oscar nominees. (It’s not much better in reverse: only seven of the last 18 Oscar winners also scored DGA nods.)
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Steve Pond on Oscar’s “broken” song category
The Best Original Song race gets an awful lot of stick for its wonky voting system and sometimes questionable musical judgment — problems that have lately converged to scupper the hopes of many well-regarded contenders, with last year’s snub of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler” raising particularly widespread ire.I’ll start, however, by saying a few words in the category’s favor. The odd egregious snub aside, the standard of competition has improved notably in recent years — some have complained that the Academy no longer recognizes familiar chart hits with the regularity that they did in the 1980s, but their musical range has expanded. The last decade has seen them embrace hip-hop, world music and folk, including several numbers that were imaginatively integrated into the cinematic fabric of certain films.
Do they still nominate the occasional stinker? Sure. But by and large, we’re in a better, more adventurous place than we were 10 years ago, when dreary MOR balladeering from the likes of Phil Collins, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston ruled the race.