Archive for October, 2009

Mike Nichols

Chair of the American Film Institute (AFI) Sir Howard Stringer made an announcement today that Mike Nichols will be honored with AFI’s 38th Life Achievement Award, which will be given out next summer in Los Angeles.

Nichols is one of few artists who have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. He won the Best Director Oscar (1967) for The Graduate, two Emmys for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries (2001; 2004) for Wit and Angels in America, the Grammy for the 1960 Broadway show An Evening with Nichols and May, and Tonys for Best Directing for Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, and Spamalot.

“Genius is a word oft overused in our world, but surely not in the case of Mike Nichols,” Howard Stringer, chair of the AFI board of trustees, said in announcing the honor. “His artistry has spanned the mediums of modern storytelling — movies, television and the stage — and his gifts across five decades continue to inspire artists and audiences alike.” Nichols said in response, “I’m surprised and pleased. The AFI award is truly an honor. I feel very blessed.” - Hollywood Reporter

The Life Achievement Award is the highest honor that AFI bestows.

Sources: Variety, Hollywood Reporter

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci

Comingsoon.net has published an interview they recently held with screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the writers of this year’s Star Trek reboot and Transformers: Rise of the Fallen. Kurtzman and Orci are also producers for the television show Fringe, as well as the Sandra Bullock film The Proposal.

The interview goes over what the writers’ thoughts were while writing the script for Star Trek, including what things they took into account like fan preferences, taboos, and what they consider good or bad directions for films that are the first in a series. The two writers seem to have good heads on their shoulders, as they make a lot of sense when they talk about how they go about constructing the stories for Star Trek and Transformers. Feelings about the individual films aside, their logic appears very agreeable.

The writers also touch upon their involvement with the Jon Favreau project Cowboys and Aliens and Masi Oka’s gaming-themed movie The Defenders.

It’s safe to say that the duo of Kurtzman and Orci has become one of the more sought after writing teams in Hollywood, and after reading this interview it becomes a lot clearer why.

 Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released a list of the semi-finalists eligible for nomination for the Best Documentary Oscar. The list was narrowed down from 37 to 8, and will later be further narrowed down to 3, or possibly 5. The official nominees will be released February 2nd.

The list of films currently still eligible to be nominated are:

• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, Downtown Community Television Center, Inc.
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner, Just Media
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, Community Media Productions
• Lt. Watada, Chanlim Films
• Music by Prudence, iThemba Productions
• Rabbit a la Berlin, MS Films
• Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak, Outside Productions
• Woman Rebel, Women Rebel Films

Source: Variety

Come closer to Oscar time Movie-Thoughts will have more in-depth information on the nominees for all categories.

Five more nominees, but still just one of these.

Is the Change Good or Bad?

Cliff – This past June, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencesannounced it would increase the number of nominees for Best Picture from 5 to 10, starting with the upcoming 82^nd Academy Awards taking place March 7^th. Reportedly, the reasons for the surprise change were to, among other things, increase viewership of the Academy Awards. The academy board of governors (which delegate certain awards such as the one for lifetime achievement) felt there were more than five films that deserved to be nominated for Best Picture last year, with The Dark Knight being the most popularly cited example.

It can be said that every year there are films that get “snubbed” by the academy that deserved to have been nominated for Best Picture. Last year was no different. The main reason for the change, which the academy admits is only one of many, is to attract more casual viewers. Many filmgoers have expressed either dissatisfaction or disinterest in the Oscars over the past few years because none of the movies they saw and enjoyed were nominated for any kinds of awards outside of special effects, sound, or editing -the kinds of awards that people tend to spend the time using the restroom or refreshing drinks. Last year The Dark Knight became the fourth-highest grossing film of all time worldwide (second domestically behind only Titanic). This alone should mean nothing to the academy, but the film was also one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year (ex., it earned a 94% on RottenTomatoes.com). For such a popular and well regarded movie not to get a Best Picture nomination seemed rather perplexing to many people, including yours truly. Luckily, however, Heath Ledger’s win for Best Supporting Actor helped alleviate some of this frustration. Read the rest of this entry »

Venom

Screenwriter Gary Ross, whom is currently working on the script for Spider-Man 4 (set to begin production next year) has also been hired by Columbia Pictures to write the script for and possibly direct Venom, a spinoff from the Spider-Man franchise. Ross aims to make Venom an anti-hero, defending the innocent. Topher Grace, who just signed on to Robert Rodriguez’s Predators, is not expected to reprise his role as Venom from Spider-Man 3.

Related: Disney, who now owns the rights to Spider-Man and the rest of the Marvel universe, reportedly plans to make another Ghost Rider film, as well as Silver Surfer (a spinoff from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer).

Writer Jamie Vanderbilt is currently working for Columbia to write the 5th and 6th Spider-Man movies. Director Sam Raimi is so far not attached to them.

Sources: Variety, Hollywood Reporter

Isla Fisher

Universal Pictures has reserved the rights of two scripts that will star actress Isla Fisher, and hopefully increase her icon status.

One of the scripts, Life Coach, is about a young woman who tries to get her life back on track by hiring a life coach but ends up hiring someone completely unqualified. Liz Cackowski and Maggie Carey are currently writing the script. Fisher is set to produce as well.

Fisher is also set to star in an untitled romantic comedy based on a French script titled Un Jour mes princes viendront (One Day My Princes Will Come). No details on the plot were released. Audrey Wells (Under the Tuscan Sun) is penning the script.

Source: Variety

Adrien Brody

Adrien Brody has been signed on to star in Robert Rodriguez’ reinventing of Predator. Set to be directed by Nimrod Antal and produced by 20th Century Fox, Brody joins a cast that includes Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, UFC fighter Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, and Louiz Ozawa.

Brody’s role is supposed to be very similar to that of Schwarzenegger’s in the original film, which is why some have expressed shock at the casting.

Topher Grace is currently in negotiations to join Brody as a member of the cast.

Sources: Variety, Hollywood Reporter

Paramount Pictures has signed a first-look producing deal with Platinum Dunes, the genre division run by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form.

Because Bay has proven commercially successful with Paramount with his last two Transformers films, the studio is now trusting him and his Dunes team to make low budget horror movies.

The Paramount relationship gets under way with The Butcherhouse Chronicles, a thriller that is being scripted by Stephen Susco (The Grudge) and is being likened to The Breakfast Club in a haunted house. The producers have also come aboard the Paramount project Property of the State, a Howard Franklin-scripted thriller about a young white-collar criminal whose attempt to straighten out his life is imperiled by an obsessive and menacing parole officer.

The latest Platinum Dunes film will be the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. They’ve also done The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The Amityville Horror (2005), and Friday the 13th (2009), all of which earned many times their budget.

Source: Variety

Producer Rob Tapert (Ghost House Pictures) recently made a comment to ShockTillYouDrop.com regarding an in-the-works movie titled Burst.

One project we were curious about in particular was Burst, written by Gary Dauberman. Set during a vicious winter storm, the story focuses on disparate group of folks holed up in a lodge. Soon some of them literally begin to burst in a messy explosion.

This comes as a surprise to me in one way, but in another not at all. I was actually privy to the script of Burst several months ago when I interned at Little Magic Films in Manhattan, New York.  The chances of the script I read being the same exact one that Ghost House Pictures will be using are slim, however with bloody horror films like this there typically isn’t much tweaking done between the conceptualization stage and final draft.

Due to copyright issues and other legal red tape I’m not allowed to give away any specific details of the plot, however for my internship I was required to give my two cents in a couple short paragraphs, and so for those of you interested in getting a small idea of what Burst will be like, here was my short take on the script. Read the rest of this entry »

76 year old Roman Polanski

The Swiss Justice Ministry rejected an appeal by the Roman Polanski to be immediately released from prison. The reason for the rejection is because the Ministry still views Polanski as a severe flight risk. For this same reason, the option for bail is also being withheld.

Reportedly, Polanski’s extradition will be very tough to fight. However, no formal extradition request has been made from Washington.

For more, read the full article on Variety’s website.