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Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 9:38PM Psssst. Oscar voting closed 2 hours ago. Can you believe we're almost there?!
Film School Rejects good god, Warren Beatty is still going to make that Howard Hughes picture and it started shooting today (!!!) Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, The Bening and the rumors go... Jack Nicholson to co-star
IndieWire porn stars pick the Oscars
E Online Jared Leto's mom reacts to going to the Oscars
/Film Sony wants to release a Spider-Man movie every year now. As I've predicted one day film and television will totally merge since tv got way more cinematic and nearly all movies Hollywood wants to fund are basically tv series with huge budgets that franchise their way across decades with new "episodes"
Variety Oscars are always under heat about omissions and hierarchies of the In Memoriam section. A sordid thing for controversy but it's true. People are always upset by something in it
Screener interesting interview with an Academy member on what they really talk about and how they like to vote
Advocate Our friend Nick on Oscar's dotage and the shrinking window of films they consider
Variety the winners of the makeup and hairstyling guild includ The Butler, Prisoners, American Hustle and actual Oscar nominees Bad Grandpa and Dallas Buyers Club. I'm unclear on why the makeup category is the only category that is still less than 5 nominees. It's not like every single film non-animated film that exists doesn't use hair and makeup.
Oh and it's good to see Anthony Mackie get his own poster for something even if, for all we know, this is another thankless role (albeit an expensively costumed one). Here he is as The Falcon in Captain America: Winter Soldier. Superheroes movies always start packing in the characters in their sequels. This one will be juggling the good captain, the titular villain, Black Widow, Nick Fury and The Falcon.
small screen
Caryn James on Ronan Farrow's new show on MSNBC
Shadow and Act Viola Davis has a few TV projects in the works (sigh, but good for her) include How to Get Away With Murder for Shonda Rhimes
The Playlist suggests that a tweet from the writer of True Detective means two female detectives next season. The tweet doesn't actually suggest this. It just says that structurally there are only two POV characters and this time they happened to both be men. (My guess? opposite sex partners next year)
and finally...
A huge congratulations to Steve McQueen, John Ridley and Fox Searchlight. Solomon Northup's memoirs "12 Years a Slave" is finally making its way into American high schools. From the press release:
The National School Boards Association is honored to partner with Fox Searchlight Pictures and Penguin Books to ensure that every public high school student in America has the opportunity to stare the stark realities of slavery in the eye through books and film,” said NSBA President David A. Pickler. “We believe that providing America’s public high school students the opportunity to bear witness to such an unrelenting view of the evils of slavery is essential toward ensuring that this history is never forgotten and must never be repeated.”
When I attended the AFI Steve McQueen event late last year, the push to get the book in school was all that McQueen seemed to want to talk about, barely mentioning the acclaim or the Oscars or anything of the sort during his conversation with that evening's moderator.
Reader Comments (12)
Good god, some of those comments on the True Detective story are atrocious! If they plan on doing a male/female duo, I hope there isn't going to be some cliché will they/won't they situation. I did see someone mention Tilda, that would be awesome.
The world does not need another Howard Hughes film or any more films starring Lily Collins. Then again, the cinema desperately needs Warren Beatty back, so I suppose I shall pick my battles.
I am shocked that Swank is in your banner. Is that part of a 12-step program or something?
So the plot of the Beatty/Hughes movie is rumored to be that Hughes's assistant (Collins) slowly turns away from her boyfriend (Ehrenreich) because she's fallen in love with Hughes (Beatty)? Sounds about right.
I hope Viola's new show isn't as nutty plot-wise as Scandal (I just can't with that show). With Shonda Rhimes you never know. It sounds okay at first blush, and I'd like to watch.
Anthony Mackie...yes please!
What Jase said!
lol at kin's post.
Okay, let's suss out cumulative earnings of the three franchise currently out of Marvel's hands:
Spidey:
Spider-Man: $821 million on budget of $140 million. $280 million to break even, $541 million split in half = $270.5 million earned.
Spider-Man 2: $783 million on budget of $200 million. $400 million to break even, $383 million split in half = $191.5 million earned.
Spider-Man 3: $890 million on budget of $258 million. $516 million to break even, $374 split in half = $187 million earned.
The Amazing Spider-Man: $752 million on budget of $200-230 million. $400-$460 million to break even, $292-352 million split in half = $146-176 million earned.
Total earnings: $795-825 million earned. Cost to aggressively buy back right now: 1.59-1.65 billion. That's Marvel's entire bank right now. Diagnosis: TWO box office bombs neeed before aggressive buy back.
The Uncanny X-Men:
X-Men: $296 million on budget of $75 million. $150 million to break even, $146 million split in half = $73 million earned.
X-2: $407 million on budget of $110 million. $220 million to break even, $187 million split in half = $93.5 million earned
The Last Stand: $459 on budget of $210 million. $420 million to break even, $39 million split in half = $19.5 million earned.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine: $373 million on budget of $150 million. $300 million to break even, $73 million split in half = $36.5 million earned.
X-Men: First Class: $353 million on budget of $140-$160 million. $280-320 million to break even, $33-73 million to split in half = $16.5-36.5 million earned.
The Wolverine: $414 million on budget of $120 million. $240 million to break even, $174 million to split in half = $87 million earned.
Total Earnings: $326-346 million. Cost to buy back right now: $652-692 million. (Diagnosis: One bomb away from getting bought out. I hope Days of Future Past IS that bomb. Also: If Marvel does revive the series, can we at least get Brie Larson and John Gallagher Jr. as the new Jean Grey and Cyclops? Please? Also: No Wolverine. For at least THREE movies, guys?)
Fantastic Four:
Fantastic Four: $330 million on $100 million budget. $200 million to break even, $130 million to split in half = $65 million earned.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer: $289 million on $130 million budget. $260 million to break even, $29 million to split in half = $14.5 million earned.
Cumulative Earnings: Less than $100 million. Cost to have aggressively bought back before production began: $159 million. Why Disney didn't do that before this third dud of a Fantastic Four movie started production, I will never know.
Holy cow, does Ronan Farrow look like the mini-me of Frank Sinatra in that photo!
Kin and Brookesboy--do you really despise Swank's acting abilities? Or just the fact she won over more deserving nominees in her win years? There's been a lot of anti-Swank comments on this site, especially regarding her Oscar wins, which I truly believe are unwarranted. Just trying to understand...
Viola Davis is doing a procedural. I hope you're not contemplating suicide.
peggysue -- i'm always contemplating suicide when it comes to my favorite actresses over 40
Pam: Win one is okay. Win two is...why!? A second public win should NEVER be about the merit of that performance alone, it should ALSO be "have you been succeeding in stretching outside of your first turn, have you notched up unmissable iconic turns in the interim and how is this role, in specific, substantially different than your last win." Swank had not succeeded in stretching, had not notched up the iconic turns to justify it and the role wasn't even THAT different than her first one. (Oh, yeah, another tragedy of a masculine woman. Haven't seen that from Ms. Swank before.) That's why no one has a problem with Streep being a three time winner (on a symbolic level, at least), but they DO have a problem with Swank (and Waltz, for that matter) being just a two time winner.
My comment had nothing to do with my view on Swank. Just curious about the choice considering how she is far from one of Nat's favorites.