Archive for November, 2009

Sidibe as Precious

The Producer’s Guild of America announced that it is going to award this year’s Precious with the Stanley Kramer Award, which it gives out to films that illuminate “provocative social issues in an accessible and elevating fashion.” Kramer, whose films include High Noon, The Defiant Ones, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, was known for the provocative subjects of his films.

Past recipients of the award include Milk, An Inconvenient Truth, The Great Debaters, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Hotel Rwanda.

Precious, starring Gabourey Sidibe, is about a 16-year old African American girl growing up in Harlem in 1987 with an abusing mother and molesting father.

“Precious is a remarkable film that sends a powerful message of hope – brilliantly reminding us that we have the power to persevere regardless of life’s difficulties. Stanley Kramer’s legacy is ideally celebrated with the selection of this very worthy film,” said PGA Awards Co-Chairs David Friendly and Laurence Mark. – Variety

The film is expected to be a Best Picture contender at this year’s 82nd Academy Awards.

Source: Variety

Maryl Streep as Julia Child in "Julie and Julia"

An article on HollywoodReporter.com, written by Steven Zeitchik, talks about how up to this point in time in the Oscar race very few actresses have made much of an impression. Maryl Streep will likely be nominated (yet again) for her role as Julia Child in Julie and Julia, and Zeitchik claims that only two other leading actresses (Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe for An Education and Precious) have a shot at taking home the gold statuette.

One possible reason that Zeitchik postulates deals with the kinds of roles available for women in mainstream Hollywood. Independent films (such as An Education and Precious) offer many more dynamic, “serious” leading roles for women than Hollywood does (the reasons for which are up for speculation), but being in an independent flick doesn’t downgrade one’s performance in the eyes of the award voters. The Academy is not averse to giving the Best Leading Actress award to a “new face,” so-to-speak (ex. Jennifer Hudson, Marion Cotillard, etc.). Zeitchik later argues that unless you’re the likes of Angelina Jolie or Hillary Swank it’s hard for a woman to land a “serious” part in mainstream Hollywood. So shallow is the Oscar nomination pool for leading actresses, Zeitchik says, that Sandra Bullock is getting award buzz (for her role in The Blind Side).

Those who don’t think much of this year’s lack of standout performances by leading actresses chalk the issue up to the cyclical nature of each category, while some others speculate that it relates to bigger (supposed) issues like Hollywood making less award-worthy films. Zeitchik attempts to debunk such a speculation by noting that the Best Leading Actor category is overflowing with quality nomination possibilities (ex. George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, etc.).

You can read the full article here, which includes other related topics such as the possibility for three women to be nominated for Best Director, which is an unprecedented feat.

Quick Opinion: I can’t be certain that the number of quality leading roles for women in Hollywood is going down, if for no other reason than because it’s a more complex issue than one might think at first. Sure, maybe this year’s crop isn’t all that extensive, but last year saw 5 great actresses in the nomination pool, which led to hugely diverse speculation before the awards show about who was going to win. And being that Hollywood is still a big supporter of patriarchal ideology (for better or worse), there is and probably always will be plenty of quality leading roles available for men. Who’s to say, though, that there simply aren’t a lot of good scripts with great leading roles for women making the rounds around Hollywood? Script ‘X’ may have a dynamite female lead character, but if its overall story stinks then it doesn’t matter. Studios don’t typically buy works-in-progress. In any case, why would they take a chance on a lousy script just to satisfy a male/female ratio of leading roles? I’m all for equal representation of the sexes in the arts, but the film industry is a business (the biggest financial risk-takers being Hollywood studios) and if it were to adopt some brand of affirmative action to assure such equality I would speculate that the industry would suffer both financially and artistically. Simply put, you can’t tell an industry dealing in creativity what to create.

Regal Entertainment Corp., which is owned by CA (a Cayman Islands-based venture capitol fund), is seeking to own a stake in a German-based production company whose name has yet to be disclosed.

“Owning a European company ‘allows direct access to multiple public funds,’ Cohen said. ‘Independent films in America are courting European companies for co-production and, primarily, financing. So why not invest directly in an anchor in Europe by having a stake in those same companies that provide financing and co-production services?’ Cohen said a stake in a German distribution company would allow Regal to fire up theatrical distribution there. Also, the company and Zip Films [a Spanish production company which Regal now owns 75% of shares] would look to co-produce movies, playing off substantial public funds available in Spain and Germany for quality films.” – Variety

Also, the company is looking to open 150 new screens in Spain.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: Regal’s actions seems to be a sign of the economic times. With independent films looking more and more to foreign production companies for financing, it shows that finding financing for independent films has become as difficult as ever – perhaps more difficult than ever. And Regal’s exhibition expansion in Spain indicates that other exhibition companies like Regal are relying more than usual on foreign ticket sales. Places such as Europe have been vital for Hollywood, as domestic ticket sales have gone down significantly since the beginning of the recession (with only a handful of exceptions such as Star Trek). Foreign revenue usually always overshadows domestic sales, but it seems more than ever the popularity of Hollywood outside the states needs to remain high. So far so good (case in point: Roland Emmerich’s 2012 made only $65 million domestically its opening weekend but made $225 million worldwide).

Short Take: Incredible to look at but sells itself a little short

Director: Roland Emmerich (Independence Day)

Screenwriters: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser (10,000 B.C.)

Cast: John Cusack (1408), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men), Amanda Peet (Whole 9 Yards), Thandie Newton (Crash), Oliver Platt (The Ice Harvest)

Length: 2h 38m

Synopsis: In 2009 geologists discover that abnormally large solar flares from the sun have begun to heat the earth’s core to higher temperatures than it’s meant to withstand. They calculate that in a few years the earth’s core will reach such high temperatures that the crust will become unstable and completely reorganize itself, resulting in mammoth earthquakes and tsunamis. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21^st, 2012. As it turns out, they weren’t far off.

Read the rest of this entry »

Even flops like "Street Fighter" gave us greatness like Van Damme fighting Raul Julia

IGN.com has released a guide of theirs that details a long list of nearly 50 “in development” projects that hope to become film adaptations of various videogames. Some projects have been sitting on the back-burner for years, others lay dormant and then spring to life every so often with new rumors, and some seem to have a legitimate shot at going into production fairly soon. Of the list of games hoping to become movies, some of the more popular name brands listed are World of Warcraft, Metal Gear Solid, Call of Duty, Bioshock, Devil May Cry, Fallout, Gears of War, God of War, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Splinter Cell, Tekken, and more.

Videogame adaptations have endured some success but also a lot of failure. For every Resident Evil and Silent Hill there’s a Doom and a Hitman, not to mention House of the Dead, Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros., Mortal Combat, Tomb Raider, etc., etc., etc. The general lack of success of these adaptations has and might continue to scare away studios from financing certain very promising projects, however some mega-popular franchises like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and World of Warcraft might be too tempting to pass up.

What are the games that you want to see turned into a movie? Are there any that aren’t in any kind of development that you’d like to see get some attention? Tell us by posting your thoughts below.

Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of "Prince of Persia"

ComingSoon.net is starting a string of articles divulging the information they learned on their trip to the shooting set of the upcoming film adaptation of the Prince of Persia videogame. The site visited England’s famous Pinewood Studios, and got a chance to do and see a number of really exciting things.

This initial article doesn’t give away too much off the bat, but does detail the basics such as the loose storyline (that is not exactly the same as the videogame’s). They were also able to get in touch with the leading actor of the film, Jake Gyllenhaal, and get an interview. They also interviewed the film’s leading lady, Gemma Arterton, who plays Princess Tamina.

If this first article is any indication of what’s to come, it will very much be worth it to those who are interested to know more about Prince of Persia to follow ComingSoon.net’s updates about their visit to the film’s set.

Source: ComingSoon.net

Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese

It was announced today that director Martin Scorsese will be the recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for his outstanding contributions to the field of entertainment at the 67th annual Golden Globes on January 17th. He joins a list of fellow recipients that includes the likes of fellow director Steven Spielberg, Warren Beaty, and Anthony Hopkins.

Source: Variety

In Other News…

Vice chairman of Lionsgate Michael Burns has officially announced plans to make a Saw 7, which will reportedly be shot in 3-D. The news comes shortly after Saw VI concluded a relatively unsuccessful box-office run (making less than $23 million), even though it landed Lionsgate in the black.

“As long as we make money on it we’ll keep doing this,” Burns said, pointing out that such franchises tend to have a long shelf life across different platforms. “Dirty Dancing,” he pointed out, still sells 2,000 DVDs a day for the company, and that’s after 20 years. – The Hollywood Reporter

[The rest of this full article also details Lionsgate's plans to push other brands under its control, such as the critically acclaimed Precious and various Tyler Perry projects.]

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Pixar's "Up" is this year's front runner for Best Animated Picture

This year, because the number of films submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reached at least 16, there will potentially be 5 final nominees for Best Animated Picture for the 82nd Academy Awards. The academy has not yet viewed all 20, and so nothing is set in stone, but the odds that five or more films will be disqualified (lowering the number of nominees down to 3) are thought to be minimal.

The 20 submitted features are:

• “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”
• “Astro Boy”
• “Battle for Terra”
• “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
• “Coraline”
• “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
• “The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer”
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
• “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”
• “Mary and Max”
• “The Missing Lynx”
• “Monsters vs. Aliens”
• “9”
• “Planet 51”
• “Ponyo”
• “The Princess and the Frog”
• “The Secret of Kells”
• “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure”
• “A Town Called Panic”
• “Up”

Two records have been made, with 6 submissions being made in 3-D and 4 films being shot in stop-motion.

The last day for a film to be submitted for nomination is next Monday, which also means that all films in the list above have until then to have their L.A. qualifying run.

All Academy Awards nominations will be released Feb. 2nd, with the awards show on March 7th.

Source: Variety

Suddenly Dickens' timeless tale is too scary? Humbug.

After reading numerous reviews of Robert Zemeckis’ newly released A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey, it appears that there are two main congruences among the majority of critics who disliked the film: 1) the film lacks the warmth and emotional weight of the book and other adaptations; 2) certain parts are too scary for children. The lacking of an emotional connection (which no critic I have yet read has successfully explained and/or articulated) is certainly a valid critique if one were to grade the film based purely on a personalized evaluative judgment, but the argument that the film is too scary for kids intrigues me.

Exactly what makes a movie “too” scary for kids? And for that matter, who said the movie was made just for kids? Pixar’s Up, which was released earlier this year to wide critical acclaim and is a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination, opened with a montage that explicated how Mr. Fredrickson and his wife were unable to conceive a child of their own, and how later Mr. Fredrickson eventually became a widower. Those old enough to understand what was being explained got teary-eyed, while little kids just sat there confused. This is certainly not “kiddy” material, and yet it’s at the beginning of a children’s movie. Critics praised this. The consensus is that one reason Pixar is such a fantastic filmmaking company is because their films can be thoroughly enjoyed by audiences of all ages. The point becomes – if Pixar can be heralded for not being afraid to appeal to audience demographics aside from just children, then why criticize Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol for attempting to do the same thing? Read the rest of this entry »

Director/Producer/Writer Peter Jackson

The Hollywood Reporter has given out its own Producers of the Year Award to Peter Jackson, his lifelong partner Fran Walsh, and Carolynne Cunningham, for their work on District 9, which released earlier this year.

The Hollywood Reporter’s website includes an extended article detailing the story behind Jackson and his team’s efforts to first produce a film adaptation of the Halo videogame, and how that project turned into the independently financed District 9. The main reason why the Halo project was canned was because Jackson insisted that it be directed by first-time feature film director Neill Blomkamp, which then financiers Universal and 20th Century Fox were not comfortable with. The article then goes on to talk about Jackson’s involvements as director and producer for The Lovely Bones, set to release January 15.

In Other News…

Today NBC Universal inched closer towards being sold by General Electric (which holds an 80% stake in the company) to Comcast. The two came to an agreement on NBC Universal’s worth, which they estimate to be at around $30 billion. Under the deal that is being proposed, Comcast would buy a 51% share of GE’s stake.

However, Vivendi (who owns the remaining 20%) has the option of vetoing the deal if it wishes too. Also, the FCC withholds the right to undercut the deal under anti-trust grounds if it so chooses, so nothing appears set in stone.

Source: Variety