David Lynch, who worked on Blue Velvet with the late producer, commemorated his old collaborator with hallucinogenic praise. "Ten grown athletic men combined, on PCP, would not equal even a tiny fraction of the energy that Dino had every day," he said. "Dino was like a steamroller working, dreaming and thinking the movies." [AP]
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So close! Last year, the Academy Awards had enough official submissions for the Best Animated Film Oscar — sixteen — to expand the category to five nominees. This year, however, the submissions were one short of the necessary number, so only three films will receive a nomination. The category would seem to have two mortal locks already in Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon, so the going just got a lot tougher for films like Despicable Me, Megamind, The Illusionist, Tangled, and Shrek Forever After. [Thompson on Hollywood/Indiewire]
Looks like another Hollywood ingenue will have to give birth to Angela Lansbury. Deadline reports that Katherine Heigl has dropped out of the fantasy drama Adaline, where she was supposed to play a woman given immortality by a freak lightning strike. The movie (which Heigl and her mother were producing with Andy Tennant onboard to direct) was already casting up and set to start in March; Deadline says that rumors have circulated that Heigl was fired from the film, though official word is that she withdrew to spend more time with her adopted daughter. Lakeshore Entertainment intends to replace the actress soon, so Amy Adams, now you know who's been calling you all day. [Deadline]
Why Do Movie Posters Always Shoot Cowboys From Behind?
By Kyle BuchananA lot of celebrities are vain about always being photographed from their "good side," but who knew that cowboys were the same way? Universal just released the poster for Jon Favreau's sci-fi Western Cowboys & Aliens (the film that Favreau hopes will survive the summer-2011 bloodbath), and in the way it positions star Daniel Craig — shooting him from behind and below to emphasize his weapon and cowboy hat, at the expense of his recognizability — it recalls two other cowboy movies: this year's Josh Brolin bomb Jonah Hex, and the Clint Eastwood classic Unforgiven. We imagine that only one of those allusions was intentional. (Also, is this a sign that Christopher Nolan really, really wants to direct a Western?)
Jean-Luc Godard Says Honorary Oscar Meant ‘Nothing’ to Him
By Kyle BuchananFor months, the attempt to present Jean-Luc Godard with his honorary Oscar has bordered on French farce: Though reps for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences insisted that Godard was appreciative and would be traveling to Los Angeles to accept his award in person, sources close to Godard repeatedly indicated that the French filmmaker had no interest in the Oscar and wasn't going. Eventually, AMPAS admitted defeat, though Academy president Tom Sherak said of Godard at this weekend's Governors Awards, "I want you to know that this award is meaningful to him." Not so much, Godard recently told NZZ in a blistering interview (translated here) full of sure-to-be-controversial statements.
"Of course, a black person can wear glasses and a watch, but this doesn't make us the same."
Over twenty years before he was the Oscar-winning screenwriter and director of Crash, Paul Haggis got his start writing for TV shows like The Love Boat, Diff'rent Strokes, and The Facts of Life. "It was so much fun for me," Haggis tells Movieline. "I was a bad writer for many, many years." Though he now gets to write for iconic big-screen characters like James Bond, Haggis's small-screen efforts were impressive enough in their own way: This is a man who put words into the mouth of Gary Coleman and Tootie, after all. Still, Haggis says the character he enjoyed writing for most was One Day at a Time's comical building superintendent: "I loved Schneider … loved Schneider." [Movieline]
It couldn't push past Megamind at the box office, but not for lack of trying. If you saw it, what'd you think? Let us know as succinctly as possible, using only one period, exclamation point, or question mark. Show Leonard Maltin he's not the only one in the short-review game.
Angelina Jolie's directorial debut, a drama set during the Bosnian war, is about the complicated relationship between a Muslim woman and a Serbian man. (Complicating factor: rape.) The actors in the movie are largely unknown in the states — except for one! According to a first-person Hungarian-language account of a set visit (so, be warned, Google translator had to get involved), Brad Pitt has already filmed a cameo. While the sudden appearance of Pitt's megafamous mug in the film may be jarring, it will also, as with all things Brangelina, garner much attention ("Brangelina's first collaboration since Mr. and Mrs. Smith!") — so, you know, realism shmealism. [Origo via Playlist]
Jim Carrey, in the city shooting Mr. Popper’s Penguins, has reportedly rented space in Julian Schnabel’s studio to pursue work on a “large abstract canvas.” (Previous Carrey works have looked like this.) Bushwick was just a bit too far, naturally. [NYP]
Take that, Giamatti! The ex-president was giving a speech in Bangkok and stopped by the set. He will not play a skirt-chasing, overeating, smooth-talking governor of a southern state with designs on world power. He will play himself. [People]
Darren Aronofsky's X-Men movie will be titled The Wolverine, the director announced yesterday. The film will be a "one-off" stand-alone project, written by Christopher McQuarrie, and not a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The plot's promising: It'll reportedly feature Logan, played by Hugh Jackman, beginning a forbidden romance with a Japanese woman whose hand in marriage is already promised to another man. Naturally, he then battles her father and samurai-sword-wielding brothers in order to be with her. Sounds kind of awesome. [Coming Soon via Movieline]
Emma Stone will reunite with Will Gluck, who directed her in the excellent Easy A, on an untitled comedy that Gluck will write and direct. It's the duo's third project together, counting the upcoming Friends With Benefits, which opens July 22. With Stone's star rising higher every day, these two could be the next Almodovar/Cruz, Bergman/Ullman, Woody/Mia? Probably not really any of those, but we did like Easy A a lot. [Variety]
Liam Neeson is a perfectly respectable choice and all, but now that we think of it, wow, we really wish Paul Giamatti had been tapped to fill in for Mel Gibson on The Hangover 2. Alas, Giamatti will just be taking on some part in the currently shooting film that was never intended for Gibson. But, casting agents, keep Giamatti in mind next time Mel Gibson gets fired, kay? [Deadline]
Oscar Futures: The Fighter Punches Back
By Lane BrownEvery week between now and January 25 when the nominations are announced, movies and stars will help themselves — or sometimes, hurt themselves — in the Oscar race. Vulture's Oscar Futures will listen for insider gossip, comb the blogs, and out-and-out guess when necessary to track who's up, who's down, and who's currently leading the race for a coveted nomination.
| Best Picture | ||
|---|---|---|
| CURRENT PREDIX: 127 Hours, Another Year, Black Swan, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter's Bone. | ||
You read that right. In the upcoming film Adaline, where Katherine Heigl plays a woman killed in a car crash but given new life and immortality by a simultaneous lightning strike (sadly, she doesn't appear to also get super-strength), Angela Lansbury will play Heigl's not-immortal daughter, who has aged into her 80s. It's Lansbury's second movie role in a row after a five-year absence from the screen; she's currently shooting Mr. Popper's Penguins opposite Jim Carrey. Finally, Betty White has a legitimate rival. [Deadline]
This weekend's new releases are all over the map. Will it be Morning Glory, the newsroom romantic comedy (newsromedy)? Or Unstoppable, the locomotive on the loose movie pairing living legend Denzel Washington with next-big-thing Chris Pine? Maybe your Eric Balfour fascination will lead you to alien adventure flick Skyline? Is buzzy indie film Tiny Furniture coming to a theater near you? Or are you staying close to your DVR? What's your pick and why?
The Four Special Effects That Movies Still Struggle to Pull Off, According to the Skyline Directors
By Kyle BuchananWe've reached an era of special effects where almost anything can be done in a computer, but that doesn't mean it can all be done well. Brothers Colin and Greg Strause know this better than anyone: The two of them have logged over fifteen years in the effects industry, and they and their company Hydraulx have worked on concocting CG visuals for films like Titanic, 300, The Day After Tomorrow, and Avatar. The brothers' new film is Skyline, which they also directed, and it represents one of their greatest effects challenges yet: an elaborate alien-invasion movie, brought in for under $20 million (in fact, physical production for the film only cost the brothers $500,000, and they spent the rest of the budget on large-scale effects). Who better, then, to fill Vulture in on the four types of special effects that are still really, really hard to do?
Carey Mulligan Now the Front-runner to Play Daisy in Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby
By Claude Brodesser-AknerThe cast of Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is firming up, and it appears the Australian director's critique of the American Dream may feature some international personnel: Carey Mulligan, the British starlet who was nominated for an Oscar for An Education, is now the front-runner to play effervescent East Egg–er, Daisy Buchanan.
A Breakdown of Morning Glory for Rom-Com Purists
By Willa PaskinReviews of Morning Glory, the romantic workplace comedy starring a very charming Rachel McAdams, are out, and a consensus of sorts has formed: It's neither as bad or good as it could be. In the words of David Edelstein, "Morning Glory isn’t terrible. It has a lot of craft, a lot of star power, and a fair number of laughs. What irks me is that the filmmakers settle for so little ... They follow the formula, no matter how insipid and predictable." But for romantic-comedy devotees, the formula is enough. Girl and boy meet, something contrived happens, and boy and girl end up together, all while tugging heartstrings, jerking tears, provoking "aws," and unleashing giggles. Genre-lovers don't need a review, they need a breakdown, explaining just how the totally predictable Morning Glory fulfills their very precise rom-com needs and where it fits in the canon. So, we made one for you.
Barrier.... to Love: She's a workaholic ... He just wants her to turn off her phone during sex!
Unstoppable Director Tony Scott on Chris Pine’s Sex Appeal and ‘Bloodletting’ With His Brother Ridley
By Kyle BuchananIn his new Denzel Washington–Chris Pine action movie Unstoppable, Tony Scott shoots the big, bad runaway train almost like it's alive, breathing hard and out of control. Spend a few minutes with him and you can see the connection: In conversation, Scott is a little bit like a runaway train himself, barreling headlong into subjects with speed and enthusiasm, taking unexpected detours, and dropping shouted expletives like a train conductor excited by the choo-choo of it all. Vulture recently sat down with the 66-year-old director of Top Gun, True Romance, and Crimson Tide to talk about casting, his relationship with brother Ridley, and how he got away with setting so much of Unstoppable inside a Hooters restaurant.
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