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Happy Birthday (of sorts) To "Bugs" Bunny

NATHANIEL R — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Today is the 70th anniversary of the first “official” Bugs Bunny short, A Wild Hare , which was released on this very day way the hell back in 1940 and went on to win an Oscar nomination. It’s therefore something like Bugs Bunny’s birthday today. Ain’t he a stinker? Like many “official” anythings, it’s only part of the story. Bugs evolved through a few shorts before this. But this one is official . What’s your favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon? I mean besides What’s Opera, Doc ? (1957) which was weirdly NOT nominated for an Oscar. Bugs’ Oscar record goes like so (click links to watch shorts). A Wild Hare (1940) nominee Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (1941) nominee Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) *winner*

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Happy Birthday (of sorts) To "Bugs" Bunny

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Oscar Predictions. 3 of 10 Best Pictures Are Already Upon Us.

NATHANIEL R — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:33:00 +0000

The Oscar Predictions have been revised for July. Finally ! I think with the critical and (so far) audience response to The Kids Are All Right, Inception and Toy Story 3, we may have 30% of our Best Picture field filled in. Will we have a fourth by the time summer is up? Last year summer brought us 40% of the Oscar lineup: Up, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds and District 9 . The only one of these three buzzy titles I hadn’t predicted back in April was Toy Story 3 . Who could have forseen a third film in a franchise being that blissfully embraced? It’s possible that voters will figure Pixar is amply rewarded and look at other live action movies but given the lack of strong competitors that 2010 has offered, it’s looking good for the big show for now. Bear in mind that the rankings are a mix of hunches, buzz, Oscar history factors, personal feelings, reviews and more. They are strictly for entertainment/predictive purposes and predictions should never be confused with statements about quality. As you all know, both horrible and great films get nominations every year. This year, for example, the ghastly eyesore Alice in Wonderland is probably looking at a few nods through its sheer excess. (Sometimes AMPAS confuses “Most” with “Best”.) A good chunk of the remaining…

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Oscar Predictions. 3 of 10 Best Pictures Are Already Upon Us.

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Send in the (Green) Clowns

NATHANIEL R — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:07:00 +0000

I’m off to a slow start this morning. Sometimes it can’t be helped. Enjoy this first photo of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern while I hook up my coffee IV, finish Oscar page revisions, and write about Inception … all while humming Sondheim’s brilliant A Little Night Music score. What a mashup that will be. BTW, loved the Broadway show last night. Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch are theater legends for a reason. Peters was exceptionally moving during “Send in the Clowns” — I’ve never heard a Broadway audience go that quiet, basking in every nuance of that spectacular inimitable voice of hers — and very funny hamming up the comedic portions of the show. There’s this line in the second act about watching the summer sky smile, where Elaine Stritch says “That smile was particularly broad tonight.” That line reading just killed. It felt like an affectionate elbow to the cast surrounding her that evening. Stritch was so funny that the young actress playing her granddaughter regularly had to wait a few extra …

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Send in the (Green) Clowns

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Streep Nom #13: Adaptation (2002)

NATHANIEL R — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:05:00 +0000

Thirteen wasn’t exactly an unlucky number for Meryl Streep. Though she didn’t win the Oscar, her thirteenth Oscar honor brought her the title of Most Nominated Actor. It’s difficult to imagine anyone ever surpassing her since she’s widened the gap considerably since (Jack Nicholson is stalled at 12, tied with Katharine Hepburn and the only other living/working rivals for super frequent Oscar honors Al Pacino and Peter O’Toole are much further behind with 8 nominations each).

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Streep Nom #13: Adaptation (2002)

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Who’s Up For Hugo

JA — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:39:00 +0000

JA from MNPP here, with a bit of casting news hitting the internet today. Martin Scorsese’s gathering up his cast for Hugo Cabret , his adaptation of the apparently popular book by Brian Selznick, and you might recognize one or two of them. Jude Law. Frances de la Tour. Sacha Baron Cohen. Richard Griffiths. Christopher Lee. Ray Winstone. Ben Kingsley. Asa Butterfield. Helen McCrory. Not pictured is Chloe Moretz of Kick Ass and the unnecessary Let the Right One In remake (but the less I say about her the better). Hey look, History Boys reunion! Not that those two haven’t already done the Harry Potter thing. They are English actors, after all. Anyway, since I haven’t read the book I only have a couple of points to make. Firstly, Martin Scorsese is working with Christopher Lee. Secondly, Martin Scorsese is working with Christopher Lee. Okay I guess that’s all I got. It makes this horror-geek’s head happy though. Anybody familiar the book? I’m assuming the chance to fetishize George Méliès it promises is what drew Scorsese to the material, no? Now that he’s won his Oscar it’s nice seeing Marty loosen up again (even if I wasn’t too keen on Shutter Island ). .

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Who’s Up For Hugo

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Hayward on My Mind.

Jose — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:25:00 +0000

Jose here. Today is the anniversary of Susan Hayward ’s birth (she would’ve turned 93). Browsing through her filmography it struck me how conflicted I am regarding her acting. Despite her extreme beauty (what did they feed these women back then?) I find her acting slightly hammy sometimes and rather inexpressive on different occasions. Hayward was nominated for five Best Actress Oscars and perhaps the reason for my slight discontent with her is that in a way, she created the “easy way to an Oscar nod”. Let’s take a look at the characters that got her Oscar’s attention and the reasons why AMPAS couldn’t resist to nominate her: 1946 Angelica ‘Angie’/'Angel’ Evans Conway in Smash-Up, The Story of a Woman Angelica is a club singer who marries a rising performer, gives up her career and becomes …

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Hayward on My Mind.

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Oscar Night… in January?

NATHANIEL R — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:15:00 +0000

I don’t know how much stock to put in Deadline Hollywood’s “breaking” rumor — how is a rumor, “exclusive news”? Discuss — that AMPAS is debating about moving the Oscars to January. If it is true, or rather, if after discussing it (which is all the “news” states), they actually decide to do it, I can’t imagine we’ll see that happen until the 2011/2012 race. Pros: Hollywood might actually release …

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Oscar Night… in January?

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Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer to Produce 83rd Academy Awards® Telecast

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Beverly Hills, CA — Academy Award®-winning producer Bruce Cohen and acclaimed television producer/director Don Mischer will produce the 83rd Academy Awards telecast, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announced this evening. Mischer will also serve as the telecast’s director. This will be the first involvement with the Oscar® telecast for both men, though the two worked together on the Academy’s inaugural Governors Awards event in November of 2010.

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Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer to Produce 83rd Academy Awards® Telecast

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She’s "Mad" at "Hel" And She’s Not Going to Streep It Anymore!

NATHANIEL R — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:40:00 +0000

” Streep @ 60 ” continues… Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn were 43 and 46 respectively when they made the summer promotional rounds in support of Death Becomes Her in 1992. The satirical comedy focuses on the hostile friendship between two desperate aging women, Helen ( Hawn ) a writer, and Madeline Ashton ( Streep ) a famous actress. In the early nineties, the 40s were still considered ‘The End’ for actresses, so the casting and topic made sense. To give you a sense of how bad it was, magazines were already taking shots at Michelle Pfeiffer (!) who was all of 34. “She’s not getting any younger,” one article stated with unnecessary hysteria, whilst discussing Pfeiffer’s post-Catwoman …

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She’s "Mad" at "Hel" And She’s Not Going to Streep It Anymore!

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Academy’s Contemporary Docs Series Tells War Stories

Wed, 19 May 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Beverly Hills, CA — Oscar® nominee “The Conscience of Nhem En” and “Standard Operating Procedure” will screen as the next installment in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts

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Academy’s Contemporary Docs Series Tells War Stories