Archive: December 2009 (21-30 of 70)

Dec 17 2009 10:55 PM ET

Catherine Hardwicke responds to reports regarding her next directing gig

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Categories: Film

Earlier this week, The LA Times reported that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke may not direct the adaptation of the best-selling novel If I Stay for Summit Entertainment, opting rather to spearhead Leonardo DiCaprio’s adaptation of Red Riding Hood for Warner Bros. (DiCaprio is producing through his Appian Way label.) However, it seems that Hardwicke is juggling these two projects in addition to Overture’s Hamlet starring Emile Hirsch, and none of them are that close to receiving the “Go” order. Hardwicke tells EW.com, “I love all three of these projects. I’ve done drawings, location scouts, trailers, budgets, etc. for each of them. I wish it was my choice!”

It seems that a lot of other factors must be addressed before Hardwicke gets behind the camera again. In the case of If I Stay, the studio says the movie is in active development but they wouldn’t share any additional details. For Red Riding Hood, a source says WB is still waiting on a new draft of a script, which won’t be delivered til mid-January to make a decision on how fast they want to proceed. And for Hamlet, the studio is also tinkering on the latest draft from Oscar-winning writer Ron Nyswaner. Adds Hardwicke, “Before Twilight was greenlit, I had four projects at four studios. I worked super-hard on all of them, but Twilight was greenlit first.” Hardwicke is also committed to Maximum Ride, an adaptation of the young adult fantasy series by James Patterson, at Sony, but that film is said to be in even earlier stages of development.

Dec 17 2009 06:30 PM ET

Box office preview: 'Avatar' poised for incredible opening weekend

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Categories: Box Office, Film, Movie Biz

This is the weekend we’ve all been waiting for. Avatar finally hits theaters and the results are sure to be spectacular. Tracking indicates the James Cameron extravaganza is playing like a sequel, rather than as a brand new piece of filmmaking based on nothing other than what rolls around inside Cameron’s brain. With early reviews overwhelmingly positive, the film’s audience is likely to be much broader than initially expected. Going up against this massive endeavor is Sony Pictures’ Did You Hear About the Morgans starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant. The cynical “counter-programming” option for women doesn’t seem to be working, as tracking suggests not even the prime demographic is interested in seeing this rom com. Read on for my predictions. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 17 2009 04:24 PM ET

Defining movies of the decade: another day, another list

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Categories: Best Movies of the Decade

This one isn’t mine — Owen and I are each posting ours next week. But I’m fascinated by this compilation of 100 important movies, as chosen by a team of obsessives at the British newspaper The Telegraph. Of note: 1) Farenheit 9/11 is No. 1 — not because the judges think it’s best, but because, well, the Brits have a fancy political theory. Avatar is No. 100 because, well, because it’s Avatar. Saw is No. 14, because “the decade of Abu Ghraib found its cinematic equivalent. Mamma Mia! is No. 18 because it’s the highest grossing British movie of all time. (Who knew?) The Passion of the Christ comes in at No. 9 for being a “phenomenal work of outsider art.”

As for Gladiator, above? The Telegraph cineastes rank it No. 53. EW ranks it No. 3. Discuss.

Image credit: Everett Collection

Dec 17 2009 09:07 AM ET

SAG Award nominations announced

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Categories: Pre-Oscar Prizes

Here are the just-announced nominees in the movie categories for the Screen Actors Guild awards. Precious, Inglourious Basterds, and Up in the Air each scored three nods.

Best Cast
 An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Nine
Precious

I’m quite surprised by the omission of Up in the Air, particularly since it had the most individual cast-member nominations of any movie. That’s the first knock the movie has taken in the awards season so far. Basterds is certainly on a roll now, with its 10 BFCA nods and now three from SAG. Meanwhile, Hurt Locker, Nine, and Precious solidify their standings as sure-thing Best Picture nominees, while An Education, which I’ve been skeptical about for a Best Picture nod (even though I love it), is showing real promise.

Best Actor
 Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

These are the Globe nominees, with Renner taking Tobey Maguire’s spot. It seems to be that these will likely be our five Oscar nominees, unless The Messenger gains enough momentum to help Ben Foster become a stronger contender. Isn’t it amazing to think that Daniel Day-Lewis probably won’t be among the Oscar nominees this year?

Best Actress
 Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Left out here: Emily Blunt for The Young Victoria, Abbie Cornish for Bright Star, Marion Cotillard for Nine, and Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones. At this point the only one of the four who seems to have a real shot with the Academy is Blunt. My hunch is that not enough SAG voters probably saw the movie. If she does make it in, she’ll bump out either Bullock or Mirren.

Best Supporting Actor
 Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

That’s two snubs this week (after the Golden Globes) for An Education‘s Alfred Molina, all the more strange considering the film’s Best Cast nomination. Damon, Harrelson, Tucci, and Waltz seem unmovable right now; I’d say Plummer, who was left out of the BFCA nominations, is the only one who needs to worry about Molina. Me and Orson Welles‘ Christian McKay also looks like he’s in trouble.

Best Supporting Actress
 Penélope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
Mo’Nique, Precious

Here we have the biggest surprise of the morning, with the fabulous Diane Kruger making the cut for her career-best performance as a movie star in Inglourious Basterds. With her costar Mélanie Laurent placed in the lead category on the SAG ballots, Basterds fans were able to focus on her terrific turn. The bad news: That meant no room for A Single Man‘s Julianne Moore. I still give Moore the edge with the Academy, though.

Dec 16 2009 10:45 PM ET

The Official OscarWatch Critics Award Roundup

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Categories: Pre-Oscar Prizes

Here’s a running tally of which films and performances have won critics prizes so far. Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay continue to be very close, while the supporting categories are landslides. I’ll continue to update this as the season progresses.

Best Picture
12: The Hurt Locker (NY, LA, Boston, SF, Assoc. of Women Journalists, Austin, Vegas, Chicago, Houston, Oklahoma, National, Broadcast)
11: Up in the Air (NBR, DC, Indiana, Southeastern, Dallas, Utah, Florida, St. Louis, Kansas, Central Ohio, Vancouver)
3: Inglourious Basterds (San Diego, Toronto, Phoenix)
1: Avatar (NY Online)
1: Precious (African-American)
1: Up (Detroit)

Best Director
19: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker (NY, LA, Boston, SF, DC, NY Online, Southeastern, Assoc. of Women Journalists, Austin, Toronto, Vegas, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, Oklahoma, National, Kansas, Vancouver, Broadcast)
4: Jason Reitman, Up in the Air (Dallas, Utah, Florida, Central Ohio)
1: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds (Phoenix)
1: Clint Eastwood, Invictus (NBR)
1: Spike Jonze, Where the Wild Things Are (Indiana)
1: Lee Daniels, Precious (African-American)
1: Pete Docter, Up (Detroit)

Best Actor
13: George Clooney, Up in the Air (NY, NBR, DC, Indiana, Southeastern, Dallas, Florida, Houston, St. Louis, Phoenix, Oklahoma, Kansas, Central Ohio)
5: Colin Firth, A Single Man (SF, San Diego, Austin, Detroit, Vancouver)
4: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker (Boston, Vegas, Chicago, National)
4: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart (LA, NY Online, Assoc. of Women Journalists, Broadcast)
2: Morgan Freeman, Invictus (NBR, African-American)
1: Viggo Mortensen, The Road (Utah)
1: Ben Foster, The Messenger (Women)
1: Nicolas Cage, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Toronto)

Best Actress
12: Carey Mulligan, An Education (NBR, DC, Indiana, Assoc. of Women Journalists, Toronto, Dallas, Utah, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, Central Ohio, Vancouver)
8: Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia (NY, Boston, SF, NY Online, Southeastern, Phoenix, Oklahoma, Kansas, Broadcast)
3: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious (Vegas, Detroit, Florida)
2: Yolande Moreau, Séraphine (LA, National)
1: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side (Broadcast)
1: Abbie Cornish, Bright Star (Women)
1: Michelle Monaghan, Trucker (San Diego)
1: Mélanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds (Austin)
1: Nicole Beharie, American Violet (African-American)

Best Supporting Actor
25: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds (NY, LA, Boston, DC, NY Online, Indiana, Southeastern, Assoc. of Women Journalists, San Diego, Austin, Toronto, Dallas, Vegas, Detroit, Chicago, Florida, Houston, St. Louis, Phoenix, Oklahoma, National, Kansas, Central Ohio, Vancouver, Broadcast)
2: Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles (SF, Utah)
1: Woody Harrelson, The Messenger (NBR)
1: Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker (African-American)
1: Paul Schneider, Bright Star (National)

Best Supporting Actress
23: Mo’Nique, Precious (NY, LA, Boston, SF, DC, NY Online, Indiana, Southeastern, Assoc. of Women Journalists, African-American, Dallas, Vegas, Utah, Detroit, Chicago, Florida, St. Louis, Phoenix, Oklahoma, National, Kansas, Central Ohio, Broadcast)
4: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air (NBR, Austin, Toronto, Houston)
1: Samantha Morton, The Messenger (San Diego)
1: Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air (Vancouver)

Best Original Screenplay
9: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds (SF, DC, NY Online, San Diego, Austin, Toronto, Kansas, Central Ohio, Broadcast)
6: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of Summer (Southeastern, Assoc. of Women Journalists, Vegas, Florida, St. Louis, Oklahoma)
3: Joel & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man (NBR, Boston, National)
1: Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker (Chicago)
1: Pete Docter & Bob Peterson, Up (Phoenix)
1: Ron Clements, Ron Edwards, John Musker, The Princess and the Frog (African-American)

Best Adapted Screenplay
17: Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air (LA, NBR, DC, Indiana, Southeastern, Assoc. of Women Journalists, Austin, Toronto, Dallas, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Oklahoma, Kansas, Central Ohio, Vancouver, Broadcast)
 3: Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, Fantastic Mr. Fox (SF, San Diego, Utah)
1: Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious (African-American)
1: Armando Ianucci et al, In the Loop (NY)

Dec 16 2009 05:04 PM ET

Sigourney Weaver talks 'Avatar'

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Categories: Film, Movie Biz, Sci-Fi

With just days to go before the long-awaited release of director James Cameron’s sci-fi magnum opus, Avatar, actress Sigourney Weaver, who plays a botanist who is an ally of the alien Na’vi tribe, talks about reuniting with her Aliens director.

EW: James Cameron told me he initially didn’t want to cast you in Avatar because he was concerned people would think of Ripley in Aliens.
SIGOURNEY WEAVER: He never told me that. [laughs] I got a call from Jim in about September of 2006 and he said, “I’ve been working on this for quite a while and I’d really love for you to read it.” I said, “I’d love to read it. Are you kidding?” It was a hard script to read because it’s so detailed — everything you see onscreen is actually in the script. I thought, “This is glorious but I don’t see how you could ever actually do this.” It’s like something from your dreams. This movie is a Jim Cameron cornucopia: He created the cameras, he created the world, he created the creatures, he created the costumes, he created the Na’vi language. If you talk about playing God, he’s done it — except it took him 14 years instead of 7 days.

There’s so much CGI in this movie, you spent almost the entire shoot acting in an empty room and having to imagine it was an alien world. What was that like?
There were no sets, no costumes — you were just there in the world you were putting together. We were just playing: “This is a log.” “This is a giant leaf.” “You can drink from this plant.” “This is a giant six-legged creature.” It was a lot of fun. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 16 2009 02:13 PM ET

'Avatar' pre-sales heat up: Early data showing date-night appeal

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Categories: Box Office, Film, Movie Biz

Fueled by a Golden Globe nomination for best drama, near-universal critical praise, and positive buzz, Avatar is picking up steam in advance of its Dec. 18 opening. Hundreds of theaters have scheduled midnight screenings for Thursday night, and more than 400 weekend shows have already sold out. Though that doesn’t approach the breathless anticipation that swept The Twilight Sage: New Moon to a record opening, healthy online pre-sales bode well for director James Cameron’s pricy 3D sci-fi epic.

At MovieTickets.com, Avatar ticket orders have accelerated in recent days, and “people are definitely looking to see it in 3D,” says CEO Joel Cohen. Approximately 90 percent of MovieTickets’ pre-sale tix have been purchased for 3D and IMAX showings.”This could really be a pivotal movie for the entire industry,” says Cohen. “This is the first real big blockbuster movie than many people can see in 3D. [The technology] wasn’t an afterthought.”

Fandango.com is witnessing a similar surge, driven by male buyers making approximately 70 percent of the pre-sale orders. But a Fandango survey of 2,493 Avatar ticketholders indicates that the film’s love story could broaden its appeal: Two times as many men intend to bring a female companion to the movie compared to those who are planning to see the film with three or more male friends.  ”This seems to imply that it could be a date-movie — and not just for the Watchmen crowd,” says Fandango rep Harry Medved. “I also think part of the anticipation is due to the fact that Cameron is presenting an original piece of storytelling that’s not based on a TV show, book or previous movie. Moviegoers are hungry for fresh fare — just look at District 9 and The Hangover.”

Meanwhile an AMC Entertainment spokesman tells EW: “Right now, Avatar is selling well, and is on about the same pace as we saw with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. New Moon and Harry Potter were selling approx. five times higher than Avatar is currently, but in comparing it to Transformers, that film also made $400M. As far as 2D/3D comparison, we’ve seen approx. 75-80 percent of our sales on the 3D IMAX side so far, indicating guests are definitely looking forward to experiencing this state-of-the-art film in the largest, realistic format possible. Certainly as the film draws near, we expect advance sales to increase, culminating in day-of sales for our opening midnight showings.”

Photo Credit: Fox

Dec 16 2009 12:04 AM ET

'Precious' and its box-office crash: Is it failing to cross over?

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Categories: Golden Globe Awards, Lee Daniels, Oscars, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Close to a year ago, on a cold gray snowy evening, I walked out of the world’s very first showing of Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (it was then called Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire) during my very first day at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Like so many others who have now seen this film, I was moved, devastated, uplifted, blown away; as I walked over to a shuttle bus stop, my mind was still reeling from the movie. Yet I think that if someone, right then and there, had told me that the picture I’d just seen would be talked about less than a year later as a hot contender for the Academy Awards, I might have looked at that person as if they’d lost their mind. Over the years, I have loved and championed too many Sundance films only to see them get released into the real world and go nowhere, and Precious, with its uncompromising drama of abuse and despair, certainly didn’t look or feel like an Oscar movie.

Yet as everyone knows by now, Precious is the powerfully bleak inner-city drama that may just end up getting to go to the ball. In a turn of events that surprised and thrilled me the moment it happened, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry signed on to be two of the film’s executive producers, taking this honest and artful little movie under their wing. The result of their devotion, along with a brilliant campaign by the film’s distributor, Lionsgate, has been that Precious, in six carefully planned weeks of release, has grossed $38 million — three times as much as The Hurt Locker, and even more than the crowd-pleasing romantic hit (500) Days of Summer. Even as it got beyond a handful of theaters, its per-screen averages were off the charts. Just today, the film was nominated for several Golden Globe awards, including Best Picture (Drama), Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. By any standard, Precious is a triumph of American independent cinema, an example of what can happen when talented people devote themselves to making something happen.

Yet the fairy tale, I’m afraid, has now run into something of a road block. Every successful movie, in its own way, waxes and then wanes with audiences, but over the last few weeks something startling has happened to Precious: After burning up the box office, it quite suddenly went cold. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 15 2009 04:56 PM ET

Sony Pictures and producer Scott Rudin in talks to make Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series

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Categories: Books, Film

It was only a matter of time before Hollywood scooped up the rights to Stieg Larsson’s best-selling trio of crime thrillers, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire; and the yet-to-be-released The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. Sony and producer Scott Rudin announced today that they are in final discussions to option the series that has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon. (Anne Thompson first broke the news here.)

The studio and its producer intend to produce all three films and will make them with the Swedish production company Yellow Bird Films. (The Swedish company has already produced and released a film based on the first book, titled in most of Europe Men Who Hate Women, which was a box-office hit to the tune of $100 million. That foreign-language version will be released by Music Box here in the U.S. in March.) The novels center on Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist, and Lisbeth Salander, a bi-sexual, emotionally disturbed computer hacker with a photographic memory, who have come together through unlikely circumstances to investigate various crimes. Larsson, a Swedish journalist and political activist not unlike his protagonist Blomkvist, died before any of his books were published and his estate has been embroiled in its own legal battles between Larsson’s long-term girlfriend and his family members. You can find a detailed account of the family drama in an LA Times article here.

It will be interesting to see who they cast as Salandar, a choice role for many up-and-coming actresses. Both Kristen Stewart and Ellen Page could do great things with the part. Who do you think should play this fascinating character?

Dec 15 2009 12:10 PM ET

Golden Globe nominee Jeff Bridges: What can't he do?

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Categories: Best Actor Oscar

I had the strange experience of meeting Jeff Bridges for the first time in front of millions of people on the Today show couch this morning. Afterwards I had a few minutes to chat with the Crazy Heart star (and Globe nominee for Best Actor).

EW It’s a little gutsy to show up on the Today show on a nominations morning, since it can be awkward if your name doesn’t get called. Did you have to be talked into it?

Jeff Bridges Whatever they wanted me to do, this is a movie that I want to support. I love the way it came out and want to turn people on to it. A small movie like this can’t afford commercials so any chance I get to promote it, I’m really up for it.

EW Your performance is something of a last-minute addition to the awards race since Fox Searchlight decided late in the game to release the film this year as opposed to next spring. Did you care when it came out?

Bridges I think it’s really wise of them to release it when they are. We made it quite a while ago and I was kind of chomping at the bit for this thing to come out.

EW Can you be objective about your career and say whether you think this performance is the best or one of the best you’ve given?

Bridges I don’t know about objectivity. Subjectively, I really love this movie. It’s the kind of movie that I really enjoy. The director [Scott Cooper] is kind of staying ahead of the audience, so it’s not turning out how you think it’s going to turn out.

EW You act, you sing, and you take great photographs. Can you make us all feel better and name some things that you’re really bad at?

Bridges Let me see. God. I tend not to do things that I’m real bad at. That’s something right there. I’m bad at doing things I’m bad at.

EW Like, are you a bad skier or something like that?

Bridges I’m a fair skier.

EW Basketball?

Bridges I’m okay, pretty good. My brother Beau played with UCLA.

EW Juggling?

Bridges I can juggle.

EW I give up.

Photo credit: Lorey Sebastian

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