Prepping for Oscar: The Hosts
February 19, 2011
Let the countdown begin…
I’ve never been shy about my love for Oscar. And ’tis the season to indulge in Oscar PDA all over the place. The gowns, the stars, the movies – the whole shebang is a glorious indulgence in self-congratulatory excess and it’s fabulous!
There are lots of cynics out there (I know – I travel in the cynic circles with great regularity) but in this one case I refuse to join them. I don’t care about the politics, campaigns for votes or any of the other tomfoolery – I just want to watch the pretty people get awards for movies I like. I like it even more when some of them are witty.
Which brings me, of course, to the hosts for this year’s ceremony. Don’t get me wrong (or think I’m being cynical – I’m being bitchy, that’s different), I think Anne Hathaway and James Franco are both fab. But I just don’t get them as Oscar hosts.
Being sort of old school I think of an Oscar host who I’ve seen be fast on his or her feet and good with a live audience. Someone, perhaps, with a background in stand-up comedy (bringing on my witty). Hathaway and Franco strike me as more scripted comedians. Hathaway and her pratfalls in The Princess Diaries. Franco and his hilarious stoner in Pineapple Express. But together? Live? It makes me nervous. Nothing sucks worse than awkward hosts.
But because I will not be the cynic, I’m going to assume that the producers of the broadcast know more than me (I know, such a big concession) and that these two actors bring more to the MC table than I know. I fully expect them to sing and dance and be witty and smart. Well, maybe not sing and dance, but witty and smart, sure! They’re both a pleasure to look at, so that’s always a plus. And a little bird told me that Robert Downey, Jr., will be presenting so everything else, for me, is really just gravy.
So here’s to kicking off my pre-Oscar wind-up. May the force be with you, Anne and James. And please, spare us anything even remotely involving either singing with Disney princesses or introducing Oprah and Uma. Trust me, it just isn’t worth the heartache.
photos by Mireille Ampilhac and John Harrison
Medieval Intrigue in The Eagle
January 27, 2011
Roman Empire Epic, anyone?
I do like a good, gory historical drama. You know, when battles were bloody and nobody had access to personal hygiene. Grubby men are fun on film, where we don’t have to smell them.
Opening February 11th is just such an epic – The Eagle starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell. Joining them in 2nd 
Century Britain is one of my faves, Donald Sutherland. Ever since Eye of the Needle, Animal House, MASH and one of my guilty pleasures – Invasion of the Body Snatchers – I’m always happy to see his name in the credits of any project. he just recently got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What the hell took so long, Hollywood? The man has been awesome for decades! That he sired Jack Bauer is just another feather in his cap.
But back to The Eagle. Sutherland plays the uncle of Channing Tatum’s Marcus, a soldier whose father disappeared with his entire 5,000 man legion in an incident that caused the Roman empire to erect Hadrian’s Wall marking the northern limit of civilization. When Marcus gets word that the emblem of his father’s legion (the titular eagle) has been spotted beyond the wall he takes his slave (Jamie Bell) and goes in search of the truth.
I’m guessing that during the course of this search, there will be men without shirts. One can only hope. This picture of Jamie Bell looks promising, but most of the stills have Channing Tatum fully clothed. I guess we’ll have to wait and see…
The movie is based on a novel by Rosemary Sutcliff and is directed by Kevin Macdonald with a screenplay by Jeremy Brock. I really liked Macdonald and Brock’s The Last King of Scotland, maybe they can draw me into this medieval world.
I have a cool “making of” featurette for you on this one. How fun is that? Enjoy!
From Oscar Host to Catwoman – Anne Hathaway
January 20, 2011
Crazy Cat Lady Hathaway? You bet!
Yesterday I caught a few minutes of The Princess Diaries on TV. It always seems to be showing somewhere and my daughter never fails to find it. And you know – it’s darn cute, mostly because Anne Hathaway is darn cute.
Meow! Anne Hathaway in 2008
Well, Anne has grown up more than just a little since then to become one of this year’s Academy Awards hosts (let’s hope she fares better than Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes) and now it’s been announced that she will be Catwoman in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises.
Anyone who has ever seen a movie knew from the first five minutes of The Dark Knightthat there would be another sequel. Fortunately for all of us, Christopher Nolan is willing to make it. The Dark Knight Rises is set to hit theaters in 2012 and reportedly Hathaway had quite a bit of competition on her hands when it came to landing the plum role of Selena Kyle, aka Catwoman.
Whether Keira Knightly, Naomi Watts and Natalie Portman were all in the running, I’ll never know. But with the phenomenal success of the first two installments of Nolan’s Batmanreboot and the return of the entire main cast, it was a given that the role of Catwoman was going to be a prize.
Growing up in Hollywood is usually painful, but Anne Hathaway is soundly trouncing any notion that it can’t also be fabulous and glamorous. She’s come a long way since The Princess Diaries, but damn if she isn’t still darn cute and wrapping Hollywood around her little finger. She’s sure to be the most gorgeous Crazy Cat Lady ever. You go, girl!
photo by Christopherpeterson
Three Hot Women…
January 1, 2011
…lead a fiery Oscar race
I admit that I don’t pay undue attention to award speculations. There are so many permutations of movie and TV awards that, honestly, I have a hard time caring about most of them. With one exception – the Oscars. I actively try to see movies and performances with big Oscar buzz. The closest and most interesting category this year looks to be for Best Actress in a Leading Role. I’ve now seen three of the roles with the most pre-show buzz and, well, it’s gonna be a damn good showdown.
So let’s take a look at these three hot women.
Annette Bening
Thrice nominated, no wins, Annette Bening gives a voice to the insecurities of middle-aged parents in The Kids Are All Right. Her character bears the weight of most of the drama in this dramedy, playing the uptight older parent opposite the far more laid back Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. Straightforward married gay sex scenes add some novelty to a role that sits inside an otherwise average movie.
Bening might be hard to beat because of her three previous nominations for far stronger material. As we all know, it’s not always an actor’s true best performance that wins the award – it’s sometimes one of those “okay performance but she really should have an Oscar” sort of things. Bening is a stable married woman - an oddity in Hollywood – and has more than paid her dues in previous strong performances.
My biggest problem with a Bening win for this performance is that the movie itself isn’t particularly strong and the cast is really an ensemble, with a nomination perhaps coming for co-star Julianne Moore as well. When it’s hard to determine who exactly is the lead, it’s not a good omen for a win.
Bening isn’t my choice – I don’t think the part is big enough or the movie strong enough. In a weaker year, maybe, but not this one. She has plenty of time to play big, splashy dramatic roles and win an Oscar she actually deserves. One for this role would smack of a sympathy Oscar for past perceived slights.
Lawrence is a real newcomer, with only 4 previous big screen roles. Despite her relative lack of experience she carries the entirety of Winter’s Bone on her young shoulders. The movie itself is strong, and the studio is supposedly campaigning hard. I think she’ll get the nomination.
I don’t think she’ll get the win. She’s too young, to inexperienced and the movie didn’t land with enough of a splash to really put her on the radar. The competition is too fierce for a newcomer to walk away with the win. The film, despite its considerable strengths, is also a little slow and very sparse. It has loads of indie appeal, but I don’t think it’s enough to pull out an Oscar win.
Natalie Portman
She been nominated for an Oscar and three Razzies. She’s both beloved and loathed for her Star Wars prequel roles and roundly praised for her other big screen work. But until her starring role in Black Swan, she was more of a cute kid than a powerhouse actress.
Granted, Portman has received critical acclaim for her work since her first feature (The Professional) filmed when she was 11. Closer, V for Vendetta, Garden State and Cold Mountain are but a few of the movies in which she has quietly built up a sterling reputation for quality performances.
This year, she got her chance to shine like never before in Black Swan – much like the character she plays. Working against her for the Oscar is the fact that she often plays to her physicality in roles that call for youth and the appearance of fragility and she does the same here. Working for her is the fact that she carries an entire very large movie, never faltering and never being upstaged by her co-stars. She owns every scene. If I got to choose, the Oscar would go to Portman, no question. The movie is powerful and stunning and the performance is tremendous.
All three of these women - Bening, Lawrence and Portman – give terrific performances. I think all three will be nominated and it’s really anyone’s guess who will take home the Oscar. My choice would be Portman for the sheer magnitude of her performance, but both Bening and Lawrence have formidable talent, supporters and advantages.
Who Else?
There are plenty of other performance being tossed around the ether when it comes to this race. The one that looks most promising as an additional front-runner is Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but it seems tailor made for her acting strengths. You can bet I’ll be seeing it before the awards ceremony.
In the end I don’t spend a lot of time fretting over who wins what, but I love my Oscars (I’ll very likely Live Blog them, like I did last year). It’s great to see such a stellar field of women competing this year for Best Actress. May the Hottest Woman Win!!
Also on Movie Rewind:
Vote on Who Should Play Mitch Rapp
December 4, 2010
Vote On Vince Flynn’s Consent to Kill Lead
All New Mitch Rapp Movie Update – June 2011!
Okay, people. We know you’re looking forward to the movie version of Vince Flynn’s novel Consent to Kill. We also know that there are strong feelings and much anticipation about who should play lead character and major badass Mitch Rapp.
So we’re going to give you, the fans, the chance to vote for the best actor for the role.
Movie Rewind wants to know who you think should play Rapp. First, pick your favorite three choices. The three actors with the most votes will then make the finals and everyone picks the Big One, the one actor who more fans want to see play Mitch Rapp than any other.
And who knows? Maybe Vince himself will stop by. We already know studio types subscribe to our feed because, well, we can see them.
Hey, maybe Eric Bana’s next door neighbor is a faithful reader. You just never know.
So get to clicking, campaign for your favorite, get your friends and fellow fans over here to do the same and if you choose “other” tell us your choice in a comment. I can tell you that I will turn down the role if it’s offered to me, so do not feel pressure to write me in (though I am an obvious choice). I don’t know about George, he could probably kick some Mitch Rapp butt.
Loading ...Okay, fine, I put in the last one just for myself. Be thankful that I didn’t use it as an excuse to post another picture of RDJ. So come on now, LET’S VOTE!
Who Looks Like Mitch Rapp? Let Vince Flynn Tell You.
December 1, 2010
Author reveals his vision of main Consent to Kill character
All New Mitch Rap Movie Update – June 2011!
With so much talk and speculation surrounding not only the movie Consent to Kill, but the choice of who will play main character Mitch Rapp, it’s only natural to want to know what the author thinks. Thanks to an inteview with McNallyRobinson.com, now we know it isn’t Gerard Butler.
As the author notes, he has no control or say over casting decisions. But his vision of Mitch Rapp apparently looks more like Eric Bana than Gerard Butler.
That may seem like a blow to fans of Butler. But what an author wants and what is feasible in Hollywood are often – usually? – two different things. Consent to Kill has been slow to move past the starting gate and there has been no official word on casting – or really anything else - since CBS Studios announced earlier this year that Antoine Fuqua would direct the film.
In the ensuing months, there has been speculation about a host of actors taking on the tough-guy role of Rapp, including Butler, Brad Pitt, Colin Farrell, Matthew Fox and others. Bana isn’t a name I’d seen bandied about with the rest, but who knows? Maybe Flynn has more clout than he thinks and the studio will be looking up Mr. Bana to see if he’s interested in the role.
Of course, it’s all speculation until an official casting announcement is made, but that’s what fans do – speculate. Cast anticipation is part of the fun of the process of seeing a book turn into a film. So now there’s another hat in the ring, thrown there by Vince Flynn himself. Bana or Butler? Farrell or Pitt? Or maybe someone unknown?
As the casting plot thickens, fans have no choice but to wait it out – and play the guessing game in the meantime! Stay tuned…
Want to read more about Consent to Kill? Here are some tidbits:
Our first glimpse into the movie
Sue discusses early casting debates
George gives a Consent to Kill update
Sue talks about Butler and Flynn fans
Fuqua and Butler to work together on a different film
Who do you think should play the lead? Vote in our Mitch Rapp Poll!
Antoine Fuqua to Direct Gerard Butler
November 15, 2010
Not in Consent to Kill…yet.
Well, there’s still no word on the cast for the Vince Flynn novel/movie Consent to Kill, but the named director for the film, Antoine Fuqua, will be working with Gerard Butler, a fan favorite for the lead role, in another movie.
Fans of both Butler and Flynn have been hoping that the the handsome Scot would be cast as Mitch Rapp, Flynn’s hard-boiled detective. It looks like they’ll be getting a preview of how the actor/director pair hits it off in the film adaptation of the comic series Afterburn, a sci-fi/apocalypse/treasure hunt actioner.
According to Deadline.com, the film has a script, someone on board to edit said script and producers in line. Now with a director and announced star, we’ll see how long it takes to come together.
If Butler and Fuqua hit it off, maybe the pair will indeed decide to repeat in Consent to Kill. Flynn and Butler fans await!
Adrien Brody – Nowhere to Go But Down
November 10, 2010
Oscar to…definitely not Oscar
I feel sorry for Adrien Brody these days. Yeah, I’m sure he has no use for my pity, but it’s genuine. This is a guy who won – legitimately – an Academy Award for Best Actor. And now he’s doing crappy horror movies. What the hell happened?
The Pianist was not – by far – Brody’s first film. He had been in 20+ productions prior to 2002, some of them quite successful. He was in The Thin Red Line and Summer of Sam and even worked with Woody Allen way back in 1989 in New York Stories. But he hit most people’s radar in 2002 with his extraordinary performance as Wladyslaw Szpilman in Ramon Polanski’s The Pianist. He deserved the Oscar he won for that role, he was phenomenal. I still loathe Polanski and don’t see his movies anymore, but a more naive me was blown away by Brody in that role.
So what happened? Since winning the Oscar and planting one one Halle Berry (perhaps more thrilling than the win itself) Brody has done nothing but crap. His resume from before The Pianist is far better than it has been since. I know, the Oscar curse. But does that really explain The Brothers Bloom and Splice? Those are just really bad choices. And not good performances. I don’t even want to think about The Village.
Brody may just be the kind of actor who has a hard time finding material to suit his strengths. The traditional leading man is going to fail – audiences expect bland good looks in those roles and Brody is too distinctive. Brooding and sensitive also seems doomed. The Darjeeling Limited proved that even if he’s good at it, nobody wants to watch it. I suppose if the rest of the movie wasn’t a train wreck that persona might have possibilities, but it hasn’t paid off so far.
My personal opinion is that he’s suited to heavy drama more than the quirky roles he’s been taking. He has an intensity that plays well to the serious and not so well to the goofy. Hopefully the movies he has in the can and in production will make use of his impressive skill and stop trying to make him into something he isn’t. Not every actor is suited to every genre, I hope Brody gets the chance to shine once again. Maybe even another chance to kiss a beautiful star on international television.
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Demi Lovato Becomes a Statistic
November 2, 2010
Hollywood chews up and spits out another child
Well, here we go again – another Hollywood kid circling the drain. Disney star Demi Lovato is off the stage and in the hospital. Actually, the treatment center. After appearing in Disney’s Sonny With a Chance and with the Jonas Brothers in Camp Rock (both Camp Rocks, in fact), the teenager was a central cog in the Disney machine. Unfortunately she had to go and be all human. She broke.
Reports are that she’s seeking help for an eating disorder and a cutting problem. How incredibly sad is that? A beautiful young woman, one who should be enjoying her rocket to fame, is instead so deeply wounded that she starves and cuts herself. Neither problem is apparently new, but they’re bad enough at this point to force her off an international tour with the Jonas boys.
I have some hope for her, though. She’s only 18 years old and is reportedly making this choice herself. She has acknowledged her issues in the past and talked about self-image, being badly bullied as a kid and continuing to have issues with body image. She doesn’t deny, she doesn’t ignore. Unlike Lindsay Lohan who has to be ordered by the court to go into rehab – several times and after dozens of incidents indicating a downward spiral – Lovato turned directly to treatment after a stress-filled summer ended with a public spat.
She’s just a kid, yet she is in the Hollywood grinder every day. Disney has not given this child a break in months and she finally cracked under the pressure. Not terribly surprising and there should have been people along side her paying attention and tending to her long before she got to this point. When does a Disney performer cease to be a commodity and turn back into a human being? Apparently not until she is self-mutilating and, more importantly, causing scenes in public.
Would Disney have kept pushing if Lovato’s argument with another member of the tour had not been in a public airport? Would she have been encouraged or allowed to leave the tour? Your guess is as good as mine, but in this business, money is more important than children. Just ask Lindsay.
I hope Lovato fares well and deals with her issues. I hope she has a reasonable family that keeps her out of the spotlight as long as possible. Truth? I hope she decides to become an accountant or a chemist or anything that gets her the hell out of Hollywood. She was fragile before she became famous, stardom will only destroy her.
See also:
Remake Rocky Horror? No Glee From Me.
October 19, 2010
Glee may be great, but this is absurd.
I don’t watch Glee. I know, I know, I really should because it’s the bestest thing in the whole wide universe. I believe you! I just didn’t start watching from the beginning and now I have to go back to Season 1. I’m a purist. I’ll get to it.
But no matter how great the show is, I refuse to accept that Glee creator Ryan Murphy should remake the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Deadline.com reports that Fox is hoping that Hollywood’s latest hot property will helm a brand new version of the cult horror classic. I can only hope that the upcoming Rocky Horror themed Glee episode has sparked untrue rumors. Please, please let them be untrue…
I don’t have a whole lot against remakes in general. Maybe I’ve just come to accept them as the current Hollywood MO. Maybe I do believe there is nothing new under the sun and everything is really a remake. Maybe I’ve just been driven to cultural apathy and originality impairment. But no matter how you feel about remakes, this is a horrible, horrible, horrible idea.
First, let’s just admit that remakes of cult classics are failures. Take a movie from which people have memorized copious quantities of dialogue and remake it and you’re destined to lay an egg. Now let’s add a few more layers. How about a movie that still plays theatrically all over the country every week? The egg grows. A movie that not only inspires quoting, but also dressing up, singing along and ten trillion Halloween costumes every year? Your egg is now the size of a monster truck. A movie that fans have seen dozens, if not hundreds, of time? The egg is starting to eclipse the sun. A movie that even I have seen at a raucus midnite showing? The egg just ate the universe. That’s a serious egg.
I have no doubt that Ryan Murphy is a very talented fellow. Glee is a huge success, critically acclaimed and by all accounts, actually good. He made Eat, Pray, Love into a movie with Julia Roberts. Yeah, that doesn’t increase his cred with me, either, but he did. But I don’t care if he’s secretly Batman, nobody should be remaking Rocky Horror. Under any circumstances.
I do love the homage – the Rocky Horror Glee Episode idea is genius. We love it when the young people show some love to our cultural icons. We just don’t love it when they think they can do it better. Or that those icons need “updating” or “improving”. Maybe Frank N. Furter would be better as a motion capture CGI character! Let’s have Brad and Janet be played by Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus! Oh, the humanity.
Leave it alone, Fox. Walk away, Ryan Murphy – this can do nothing but harm your promising career. For the love of cult classics everywhere, leave the Rocky Horror Picture Show alone.
For those of you who are sane, you can get the original Rocky Horror on Blu-ray, in a 35th Anniversary edition, starting today. Isn’t that a far better choice?
I think so, too.
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