Posts for 'News' Category

Critic Tim Appelo reports from Telluride that The King’s Speech is a serious Oscar contender.
Buck Henry likened the Telluride Film Festival to Valhalla, the place where cinema’s great warriors go for eternal glory – say, tonight’s tribute honoree Claudia Cardinale. But Valhalla is Old Norse for “Hall of the Slain,” and Telluride is more like the Hall of the Newborns, a ward for indie gods getting their first worship. Is there a springier springboard to the Oscars than the Telluride Film Festival?

The big worship winner and potential Oscar magnet I’ve seen so far at Telluride 2010 is the world premiere of Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, with Colin Firth as Bertie, King George VI of England, and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, the Australian speech coach/de facto shrink tasked with curing Bertie’s crippling stutter. There’s more at stake than pride, since Hitler is taking over Europe, and as the King tells his little daughter Elizabeth when she asks what Hitler is saying in his radio speech, “I don’t know, but he seems to be saying it rather well.

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Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis will be seen next in “Black Swan,” a psychological thriller that debuted at the Venice Film Festival just the other day and that’s already getting massive awards buzz.

The film is directed by acclaimed director Darren Aronofski, who’s also the man behind the shocking “Requiem for a Dream” and the heart-breaking “The Wrestler.”

It tells the story of an ambitious ballerina (Portman) that feels her place is being usurped by a younger dancer (Kunis) and, judging by initial reaction to it, it will be huge upon release, Entertainment Weekly writes. Because that’s just the type of films Aronofski makes, “Black Swan” will be a “hate it or love it” release, EW writes, based on reviews after the first screening in Venice.

However, what’s amazing is that even those who say the film aims too high and falls short of expectations were impressed by how brilliantly it was put together and how impressive Portman’s performance in it.

“An ultimately devastating study of a young dancer’s all-consuming ambition, Black Swan serves as a fascinating complement to Darren Arononfsky’s The Wrestler, trading the grungy world of a broken-down fighter for the more upscale but no less brutal sphere of professional ballet,” Peter Debruge of Variety.

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter says that the movie is “so out there” that only a filmmaker like Aronofki could have ever dreamed of making it and for that alone – and how wonderfully he put it together – he deserves praise.

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Tupac Biopic Gains Oscar-Winning Screenwriters: Antoine Fuqua's forthcoming Tupac Shakur biopic will soon have a script: Two Oscar-nominated writers, Stephen J. Rivele and Chris Wilkinson, have been tapped to write the screenplay.

The scribes, whose writing credits include "Nixon" and "Ali," told New York magazine that the film will focus on the late rapper's final day, with flashbacks of the preceding four years of his life interspersed throughout. Rivele added that the script centers on their perception that Shakur was miscast in the hip-hop world in which he found himself.

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Former Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) convenor Oscar Rebello has submitted his resignation from the organization. Rebello, who was the face of GBA when it launched an agitation against Regional Plan 2011, confirmed that he had resigned from the organization but declined to comment on the reasons behind his decision.

Last year he had quit as convenor of GBA. However, he had continued to serve as a core committee member. Sabina Martins, convenor of GBA, confirmed that she had received Rebello’s resignation letter, but was quick to add that the resignation had not been accepted.

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Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal, the gran of Sophie Dahl, has died after a battle with lung cancer. The 84-year-old, who was previously married to children's author Roald Dahl, passed away at her home in Martha's Vineyard on Sunday, surrounded by family. She is understood to have told them: "I have had a lovely time."

In a joint statement, her family yesterday said: "She faced her final illness as she had all of the many trials she endured: with indomitable grace, good humour and a great deal of her selfdescribed stubbornness." Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Patricia won a best actress Academy Award for the 1964 movie Hud alongside Paul Newman. She also appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Day the Earth Stood Still. She wed children's author Dahl in 1953 and they had five children during a troubled 30-year marriage.

Oscar winning star Patricia Neal, who survived several strokes to continue acting, has died aged 84.

The actress, who was married to Roald Dahl for 20 years, passed away at her home on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Neal had her family by her side as she lost her battle with lung cancer. "She faced her final illness as she had all of the many trials she endured:

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He's green, miserable, and likes rubbish, or as he calls it, trash. Who are we talking about? It's Oscar the Grouch of course the Muppet from Sesame Street, and he's in town to celebrate something of a coup for local TV. The Sesame Tree was a spin off programme designed specifically for Northern Ireland, but after just one series, it's been promoted to a nationwide series on the BBC. Our Arts correspondent Maggie Taggart went to find out if the Grouch was happy about it!

Back to designing for moving pictures, some sad news this week with the passing of production design great Robert F. Boyle at an impressive 100 years. Oscar nominated for his art direction and production design work on classic films like The Birds, The Thomas Crown Affair (the original), and Fiddler on the Roof, his IMDb listing is nothing short of incredible.

The LA Times files this great obituary looking back on Boyle and his career, and if you've never seen it, we highly recommend watching the short documentary about him, The Man on Lincoln's Nose about his building a realistic set for the iconic conclusion of North by Northwest:

Can Inception safely dream of Oscar glory? That’s one conundrum that will linger long after average moviegoers have stopped debating the ambiguities of Christopher Nolan’s twisty new thrill ride into the subconscious.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failed to reward Nolan’s most recent movie, mega-grossing The Dark Knight, with a best picture nomination, though it collected eight other nominations.

And though the producers, directors and writers guilds all nominated Nolan for that movie, the Academy didn’t. To date, Nolan has earned only one Oscar nomination, for his original screenplay for Memento.

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 It's a boy for Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody! "We had our boy early this morning! Marcello Daniel Maurio, 7lbs, 2 oz, lightly mustachioed." the "Juno" scribe Tweeted on Tuesday evening. Diablo  whose real name is Brook Busey  previously announced that.

This marks the first child for the writer and husband Dan Maurio. No further details were available on the couple's new addition to the family. Diablo's "United States of Tara" recently wrapped its second season on Showtime and she is also busy adapting the "Sweet Valley High" book series into a movie.