Some Day A Real Rain Will Come...

JA from MNPP here, taking a quick glance at the forward momentum Darren Aronofsky’s next project seems to be gathering – the Black Swan director’s wanted to make a movie about the Biblical story of Noah and his animal-clogged ark since the start of his career and he’s finally got a whole half of the 130 million dollars he seeks.

The other half is expected to sweep in if/when he can get a star attached, and word is that he’s looking for recently Oscar-crowned Christian Bale to fill out Noah’s flowing robes.  The part’s obviously a good fit for Bale, who could play this sort of crazed role in his sleep (and probably does). And it’s probably the Aronofsky connection but I can’t help but picture Rachel Weisz as Noah’s wife Naamah; there’s also the matter of their three sons and those son’s wives to be cast. Plus a two-by-two animal chorus of thousands!

Aronofsky’s on the record as saying he sees the story in terms of its environmental aspects:

“It’s the end of the world and it’s the second most famous ship after the Titanic. So I’m not sure why any studio won’t want to make it. I think it’s really timely because it’s about environmental apocalypse which is the biggest theme, for me, right now for what’s going on on this planet. So I think it’s got these big, big themes that connect with us.”

Ha ha smart boy, summoning up the ghost of Cameron's iceberg billions. It is curious to wonder what angle he'll take on the religious aspects of the story - while he's certainly dealt with spirituality before it seems difficult to imagine him making something that would kowtow to fundamentalist Christians that take the Bible literally. There even seems to be an active component of people, where religion and politics meet, that abhor an environmental reading of the Ark story altogether and I cna imagine that they're already sharpening their knives at the thought of it.

Indeed Aronofsky’s such a modern filmmaker in my mind, so focused on the rhythms of the here and the now, that I’m having a hard time wrapping my brain around what it’ll be like to have him plunked down in the leather sandals of ancient allegory. It brings to mind the conquistidor section of The Fountain of course, another passion project for Aronofsky that he got made through much adversity. His will is strong and he’s wanted to make this for so long I have no doubt we’ll see it in some form from the filmmaker.

Podcast: The Elephant in the Room

For this final podcast of the 83rd Oscar season, we've misplaced Katey. Oops? Where she go? But Nick, Joe and myself (Nathaniel) are back to close out the season.

We had fun chiming in weekly and after a  break will be back with Off-Season cinematic musings.  While we normally have quite a laugh during these, and there's a fair bit of that againe, we do get a bit serious on a couple of topics. "The End" always brings a smidge more sober take-it-all in perspective.

Topics covered include:

• Kirk Douglas & Melissa Leo. The early peak.
• Dressing like a winner / Dressing like a nominee
• Cate Blanchett, Sharon Stone and other fancy dressers
• Nobody ever likes the hosts of the Oscar show. But Anne Hathaway & James Franco?
• Ovearching themes and production confusion: Old or Young?
• Why no visual gags for non-comedian hosts?
• Colin Firth, Christian Bale and Natalie Portman speeches
• Awards Fatigue (and strategies for coping)
• Next?

Listen in and join in the conversation in the comments.

Podcast: The 83rd Annual Oscars. Season Finale

"I think, Evelyn, that we've lost touch..."

Evelyn: Why, what's wrong?

Patrick: I need to engage in homicidal behavior on a massive scale, cannot be corrected, but I have no other way to fulfill my needs. We need to talk.

Evelyn: Talk about what, Patrick?

I'm pretty sure that a fresh Oscar gets you an 8:30 res' at Dorsia any night you want.

Three whole days have gone by and I haven't mentioned how pleased I was to see Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) receive his Oscar from former fiancé Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon). And they still don't seem very important to each other!

Patrick: It's over Evelyn. It's all over.

Evelyn: Touchy Touchy. i'm sorry I brought up the wedding. Let's just avoid the issue, all right? Now.. are we having coffee?

Patrick: I'm fucking serious. It's fucking over, us. This is not joke. I don't think we should see each other anymore.

Evelyn: But your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. I really don't think it would work.

If you don't know what the hell we're talking about your assignment is to watch American Psycho (2000) immediately. For maximum time capsule pleasure, try to find a store that still rents VHS tapes so that you can return some videotapes later.

Bale's performance as the psychopath is justifiably classic already but less often discussed is how much Reese nails her vacant pseudo human fiancee. Reese has always been so great at comic stylization. When are the great directors and screenwriters going to give her something worthy of her gifts again? It's been way too long.

Christian Bale's Oscar was 10 years late but at least it arrived. Speaking of which, under the decade too late rule, who is due for a statue in 2012? Whose coronation should we obsess over next?

Supporting Actress (and Mothers & Sons)

It occurred to me when completing the Best Supporting Actress page -- now with "How'd they get nominated?" theorizing, Polls and Trivia -- that "The Wisdom of Crowds" might be in order for this category in terms of predictions. It's the only category that seems ripe for an upset, given both the nature of the category (the most frequently upsettable as it were) and the unfortunate turning of the tide against Melissa Leo. I say unfortunate because I think that Melissa Leo is absolute aces in The Fighter and far less deserving performances win Oscars every year! She'd be my personal winner in a year that didn't contain something as untoppable as Jacki Weaver's "Smurf" my first pencilled in candidate for Best of the Decade in 2020 when we pretend that the Oscars are only held once a decade.

So humor me by voting on this poll and explain yourself in the comments. Who IS going to win? Also make sure to vote on each of the categories for your "should win" on the Oscar pages

poll by twiigs.com

You know you want to.

It feels like a nailbiter as we just discussed on the podcast. I'm still leaning towards thinking that Leo is going to pull off the win, given that I think her competitors are probably too strong across the board to steal all the NOT LEO votes for themselves.

But while researching this category, I realized that if Bale and Leo both win for The Fighter, it'll be the first time since Holly Hunter & Anna Paquin in The Piano (1993) that actors playing immediate blood relatives have both won. But what of Mothers & Sons? It turns out there aren't very many of them that are ever nominated.

Ordinary People (1980) and My Left Foot (1989)

Past 50 Years of Mother & Son Oscar Combos - wins?
Melissa Leo and Christian Bale in The Fighter (2010) -we shall see
Julianne Moore and Ed Harris in The Hours (2002) -neither won
Toni Collette and Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense (1999) - neither won
Kate Nelligan & Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides (1991) - neither won
Brenda Ficker and Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot (1989) -WINNERS!
Jessica Tandy and Dan Ackroyd in Driving Miss Daisy (1989) - only the mom
Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People (1980) -only the son
Meryl Streep and Justin Henry in Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979) -only the mom
Gladys Cooper and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1964) - only the son
Thelma Ritter and Burt Lancaster in The Bird Man of Alcatraz (1962) -neither won

I think I've accounted for all of them. Are you fond of these pairings? Do you think we'll have another (fictional) mother & son set on Sunday night?

p.s. the SUPPORTING ACTOR Page is also updated

Birthday Bale

Here's to Christian Bale, future Oscar winner (unless this King's Speech thing *really* gets out of hand), on his 37th birthday! He might even win the SAG Award tonight on his birthday.

It's hard to remember that he's not even 40 yet. He's been in the movies for so long!

Christian Bale, the 12 year old star of "Empire of the Sun"

Since that auspicious debut in Steven Spielberg's Empire (1987) which was nominated for 6 Oscars (but strangely didn't catch fire in any of the top categories, despite being a World War II epic) it's been quite a trip: He assisted a royal Oscar powerhouse (Henry V); ended his teenage years dancing (Swing Kids) and singing (Newsies); got curiously soft and swoony (Pocahontas, Little Women); was overcome by hormonal confusion in his mid 20s (Velvet Goldmine, Metroland, A Midsummer Night's Dream); played God and then the Devil back to back in his late 20s (Mary, Mother of Jesus & American Pyscho) as if to warn us, spiritually, of his physical yo-yoing to come; and then the films came fast and furious with the actor jumping genres and personas and body types left and right (Laurel Canyon, Reign of Fire, Equilibrium, The Machinist, Batman Begins, The New World, Rescue Dawn, The Prestige, I'm Not There, etcetera).

[gif source]

It's been hard to keep up with him. He's dancing as fast as he can through the cinema.

What's your favorite Bale performance?