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18 articles from 2009
10 closest Oscar races in the past 20 years
23 November 2009 1:12 PM, PST
| Gold Derby
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One of the shrewdest Oscarologists on the planet is Tariq Khan of Fox News, who often generously shares his views of current and past derbies with Gold Derby readers. Here he takes a nostalgic look at the past two decades, offering his take on the most competitive derbies. Words below are Tariq's. Thanks, m'friend!
We’ve often discussed those Oscar races that seem just too close to call . . . where it’s clear (or at least seems clear) that the eventual winner will nab the Oscar with only a few more votes than his or her nearest competitor.
While we can never really know for sure (unless we get one of those top jobs at the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers,) we do have some idea of what may have been the closest races in Oscar history. Allow me to present what I believe were the 10 closest acting races over the course of the past 20 years.
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- tomoneil
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New Extended Trailer for ‘The Killer Inside Me’
6 November 2009 2:30 PM, PST
| The Flickcast
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Casey Affleck has been known to take some pretty intense roles as of late. His first being the role of Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James and then his work on his brother’s project, Gone Baby Gone. It looks like Affleck is going to step it up once again as Sheriff Lou Ford in the ultra-violent The Killer Inside Me.
The film is based on the novel by Jim Thompson, who also wrote the novels films such as The Grifters and The Getaway were adapted from. The original 1976 film starred Stacey Keach, who took on the role that Affleck is now running with.
The extended trailer shows off some of the intense moments (hopefully not all) from the film, such as some raunchy aggressive sex with both Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson, as well as a violent murder of one of them. This may just be the
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- Matt Raub
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Stephen Frears Re-Teaming with His High Fidelty Screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis for Lay The Favorite
6 November 2009 1:20 PM, PST
| Collider.com
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Stephen Frears is probably one of the most successful directors that most Americans have never heard of because his movies tend to be highly British. However, he does enjoy some solid success when he comes over to this side of the Atlantic with the popular films “The Grifters” and “High Fidelity”. The latter film, adapted from Nick Hornby’s book, was a box office flop but has developed a strong cult following over the years. Now it looks like he may reunite with the film’s screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis for another adaptation. This time they’re going for geeky gamblers rather than music nerds. Hit the jump for details.
According to THR, Frears and DeVincentis would re-team for “Lay the Favorite”, based on Beth Raymer’s upcoming memoir “Lay the Favorite, Take the Dog”. As THR describes the plot, it looks like this film could be a lot of fun:
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- Matt Goldberg
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Stephen Frears Gears Up for 'High Fidelity' Reunion
6 November 2009 12:32 PM, PST
| Cinematical
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Having dipped into the seductive waters of sexy courtesans, Stephen Frears is now looking towards the future, and the future's got lots of gambling. The trades are reporting that Frears is set to direct Lay the Favorite, a dramedy that will rejoin him with High Fidelity scribe D.V. De Vincentis. The project stems from an upcoming memoir by Beth Raymer called Lay the Favorite, Take the Dog, which will be published this Spring.
Now, why did I say trades and not pick one? That's because it's time to play Pick the Plot.
In one corner, we've got The Hollywood Reporter, who says that this is a world of "geeky gamblers" who "figure out how to work the sportsbook system in Las Vegas for their own profit. It centers on a woman in her early thirties who has made a series of bad choices but achieves a redemption of sorts when
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- Monika Bartyzel
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Weird Trailer for Casey Affleck's 'Killer Inside Me'
5 November 2009 6:38 PM, PST
| GetTheBigPicture.net
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I read The Killer Inside Me about 25 years ago, and in general I'm an admirer of the work of pulp novelist Jim Thompson. His most recognized works are probably that title, The Killing (later turned into an early Kubrick film), The Getaway, and The Grifters, released as a film over 10 years after his death. I heard about him while growing up in Oklahoma, because that's where he was from.
The Killer Inside Me is a whale of a book. I wouldn't say it's a must-read, but it's tougher than a bus station corndog. It's been turned into a movie before, and a new version was filmed this summer mostly in Oklahoma, even though Thomspson's book is set in Texas. Casey Affleck plays the sociopathic lawman Lou Ford, and you'll see what I mean when you watch this promo trailer.
According to The Playlist, this is very likely what's being used
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- Colin Boyd
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The Killer Inside Me Sales Trailer: Michael Winterbottom Does Sex and Violence and Desperation
5 November 2009 1:00 PM, PST
| Slash Film
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I've really been looking forward to footage from Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel The Killer Inside Me. I'm a massive Thompson fan, and adaptations of his novels have about a .500 average. (I'm the guy that doesn't like The Grifters much; I infinitely prefer a movie like Tavernier's Coup de Torchon.)
The cast here seems to be on the money -- Casey Affleck as the duplicitous small-town sheriff deputy Lou Ford, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson as the women in his life, and supporting work from Ned Beatty, Bill Pullman and Elias Koteas. Now there's a rough long-form sales trailer that makes the concoction look fairly potent. See it after the jump.
Give a big hand to The Playlist for digging up this trailer. Now, if you don't know the story you might not want to watch this one. It's about five minutes long and gives away
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- Russ Fischer
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Interview: 'Cheri' Director Stephen Frears
26 June 2009 7:02 PM, PDT
| Cinematical
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Multiple Oscar nominee Stephen Frears is a tough nut to crack. Amiable but terse, his excellent multilayered films do the talking for him, from his first collaboration with Christopher Hampton and Michelle Pfeiffer on 1998's Dangerous Liaisons to 2007's The Queen. In his latest film, Cheri (read Cinematical's review here), Frears turns his lens onto the cloistered and often duplicitous world of wealthy courtesans. Frears' films often focus on subversive outsiders who must make their own "family," as it were, such as Dirty Pretty Things, The Grifters, and My Beautiful Laundrette. But Cheri's delicious spin on sex, love, and aging is typical of its source material from author Colette, whose books Cheri and The Last of Cheri present a world of upside-down relationships and self-sufficient, frankly sexual women.
Michelle Pfeiffer leads the cast as the stunning Lea de Lonval, a famous courtesan whose friend Madame Peloux, played with busty abandon by Kathy Bates,
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- Jenni Miller
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Dueling with Stephen Frears
26 June 2009 7:56 AM, PDT
| ifc.com
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Stephen Frears burst on the scene in 1985 with his cheeky "My Beautiful Laundrette," igniting a winning streak that included "Prick Up Your Ears," "Dangerous Liaisons," "The Grifters" and "The Queen." Though famously hard to pigeonhole, the genre-spanning filmmaker gravitates toward folks struggling on the social margins or engaged in emotional gamesmanship. Frears is also, famously, a royal pain to interview. He almost defies you to extract responses from him, looking simultaneously gleeful and contrite, so you somehow empathize with him. In a sit-down for his new film "Cheri," he was reliably armored -- perhaps because his antennae are exquisitely attuned to pick up what he might call a "dodgy" reaction to his latest project.
More than two decades after "Liaisons," "Cheri" reunites Frears with ace screenwriter Christopher Hampton and Michelle Pfeiffer. Set in Belle Époque Paris, the saucy tragicomedy centers on the sumptuous world of courtesans -- demimondaines -- banned from polite society,
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- Erica Abeel
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Confidence
13 May 2009 4:27 AM, PDT
| Twitch
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The con, the flim flam, the gaffle, the grift, the hustle, the scam, the confidence swindle or (for lovers of lost language) bunco. All of these terms describe the art of getting someone to do something on the promise of only the confidence you give them to do so (of course playing to their vanity, greed and own desires never hurts). Having enjoyed a sit down with The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson some time ago (transcription of that chat is coming later this week), we certainly bonded in our love of Ricky Jay. Card artiste, illusionist and showman extraordinaire, Jay knows how to command an audience with a simple monologue, which is as much (often more!) compelling than the supple movements of his hands. It is not surprising in the least when one considers number of films the illusionist/actor/consultant has performed voice over narration, a clever contraption,
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- Kurt Halfyard
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Top Ten: After Kate Winslet, Who?
4 March 2009 10:48 AM, PST
| FilmExperience
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Kate Winslet finally won her Oscar, delighting the bulk of fans who have been rooting for her since she dreamt of Hollywood in '94 -- 'they're desperately keen to sign me up!' -- or nearly drowned in '97. She never let go. So, who is next?
Or rather... who is most overdue?
Contrary to popular belief, it ain't easy to win an Oscar. It certainly wasn't easy for Kate the Great. You need more than an accent, a disability, a good or popular movie, old age makeup or mimicry skills. You also need star charisma, a role that compliments or complicates that charisma and media support. Above all else you need luck combined with surgically precise good timing. History is full of performers who never won the movie's top prize despite plentiful contributions to the art of acting.
For the following list I'm ignoring outstanding performers who have never
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- NATHANIEL R
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Watch out, Mickey Rourke: Indie Spirit is Oscar's consolation prize
21 February 2009 1:43 PM, PST
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The Independent Spirit award is supposed to salute what past ceremony host Samuel L. Jackson once called "the strange, the weird, the eclectic, the visionary, the new blood." Ideally, its purpose is to help those low-profile quality films that could use a boost so that someday, maybe, the filmmakers and performers could compete in the big league of the Oscars.
And back when the Spirits took flight, they tried hard to keep to that mission. Indeed, its first best-picture winner in 1985, "After Hours," wasn't nominated for a single Oscar. But then "Platoon" won best pic at both the Spirits and the Oscars the next year. From then on, the Spirits focused more and more on seemingly academy-friendly films, with a corresponding increase in its own profile. While 1987 best-pic winner "River's Edge" was snubbed at the Oscars, other early champs made it into Oscar categories like screenplay ("sex, lies and videotape,
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- tomoneil
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Colette and Audrey. Michelle and Kathy
8 February 2009 10:45 AM, PST
| FilmExperience
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I'm well into the novel Chéri, the movie version of which will premiere in just two days at Berlinale. It's a great read. There's exquisite descriptions of complicated emotions and intriguing relationships. There's also an unembarrassed sensuality to the material. If they can capture the nuances and the texture on film, it'll be quite a good sit.
I didn't know much about French novelist Colette (seated spectacularly, left) prior to the news about this movie and I blame that on Gigi the movie which is based on her most famous novel. I'd never read it because I didn't like the movie. I figured she wasn't for me. How wrong I was! The more I learn about Colette, the more I love. Not only am I instantly on board with her writing but then to learn that she was once a performer at the Moulin Rouge?!? Add in lesbian love affairs,
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- NATHANIEL R
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Four More See 'The Killer Inside' Casey Affleck
7 February 2009 10:48 PM, PST
| GetTheBigPicture.net
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About three months ago, we discussed the very cool adaptation in the works for The Killer Inside Me. Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba will star in the film, based on the novel by The Dimestore Dostoyevsky, Jim Thompson.
If you're not familiar with Thompson's name, you probably are familiar with his work, which includes two Stanley Kubrick movies (Paths to Glory and The Killing), plus The Grifters, The Getaway, and After Dark, My Sweet. Dark stuff, mostly, and The Killer Inside Me would suggest more of the same based on the title alone. And yes, it's pretty screwed up stuff.
Affleck will play a sheriff who over the course of the film becomes a homicidal maniac, while Alba plays a pro. Screen Daily has announced that four new cast members have signed on - Kate Hudson, Elias Koteas, Bill Pullman and Ned Beatty. Odd that Hudson would show up here.
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- Colin Boyd
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SAG Live Blogging (Part 2)
25 January 2009 8:31 PM, PST
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continued from part one
9:03 One thing I should mention about Sally Field. I love that she referred to her fellow nominees (i.e. the losers) as "the cable girls." Heh. Whoever chose the clips for the TV Drama Actress category (which also included the great Holly Hunter looking ravishing as always) defines great acting as screaming. Every clip was pitched to the rafters. Is the editor a member of SAG too.
It wouldn't surprise me. They're such suckers for the Big moments.
9:04 Forrest Whitaker loves James Earl Jones's "mesmerizing deep valley voice". That's great. Maybe Whitaker should do this live-blogging because my descriptive powers have failed me. Jones is accepting a lifetime achievement award (the name I forget). Apparently Jones moved to Michigan at age 5 and his life changed after winning a poetry contest. (I won a spelling bee contest in Michigan but it did not change
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- NATHANIEL R
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Batman’s Commissioner Gordon is Dead
4 January 2009 9:16 PM, PST
| Slash Film
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Pat Hingle, a veteran actor known for playing judges, police officers, and other authority figures, has died at age 84 after a battle with blood cancer.
Hingle is probably best known to the /Film community as the actor who played Commissioner James Gordon in Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. According to the AP, Hingle was diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November of 2006, and died in his Carolina Beach home late Saturday night.
His television and film career spanned six decades, and included roles in Gunsmoke, Murder She Wrote, Splendor in the Grass, The Gauntlet, Hang ‘Em High, Norma Rae, Sudden Impact, Brewster’s Millions, Maxim Overdrive, The Land Before Time, The Grifters, The Quick and the Dead, Larger Than Life, Muppets From Space, Shaft, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
Hingle was also nominated for Broadway’s 1958 Tony Award as best supporting or featured actor (dramatic) for
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- Peter Sciretta
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Writer Donald E. Westlake dies, aged 75
2 January 2009 3:40 PM, PST
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Novelist and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake has died, aged 75. The Oscar-nominated screenwriter collapsed on Wednesday following a suspected heart attack as he headed to a New Year's Eve dinner in Mexico with his wife. Westlake wrote more than 100 books under a variety of pseudonyms. Those adapted for film included Point Blank, starring Lee Marvin, and The Hot Rock starring Robert Redford. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay to 1990's The Grifters, which starred Anjelica (more)
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- By Lara Martin
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Mystery Writer Westlake Dies
2 January 2009 4:08 AM, PST
| WENN
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Oscar nominated writer Donald Westlake has died at the age of 75.
The prolific author collapsed on Wednesday following a suspected heart attack while on his way to attend a New Year's Eve dinner with his wife, Abigail, during a sunshine break in Mexico.
During Westlake's long and successful writing career he earned an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay for 1990 movie, The Grifters, as well as winning three Edgar Awards and the title of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.
A string of his novels were adapted for the big screen, including Lee Marvin's Point Blank in 1967 and The Hot Rock, starring Robert Redford, in 1972.
Westlake also worked on the script for 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies.
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Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008
1 January 2009 8:32 PM, PST
| Comicmix.com
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We've just received word that Donald E. Westlake passed away yesterday.
Donald is probably best known to comics fans as the author (under the psuedonym Richard Stark) of the Parker novels that Darwyn Cooke is adapting and bringing to Idw Publishing later this year. But that's the barest fraction of his output. Over a career that lasted decades, he was a four-time Edgar Award winner in four different categories. In 1993, the Mystery Writers of America named Westlake a Grand Master, their highest honor.
His novels were turned into twenty-one different movies, including Payback and The Hot Rock (featuring his famous character John Dortmunder) and wrote screenplays on his own, most notably for The Grifters, where he was nominated for an Academy Award, The Stepfather, and a treatment for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.
He will be missed.
Here's a promo image from the upcoming Cooke series:
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- Glenn Hauman
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18 articles from 2009
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