LOTR News 03/10

  • Ron Howard won Directors Guild Awards
  • Oscar song category highlights movie work of veteran rockers
  • Ten good reasons to love our movie
  • 'Ring'-ing it in?


    'Rings' set to out-sell them all
    The New Zealand Herald

    The Lord of the Rings is set to break the New Zealand box office record held by Titanic.

    The first Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, has made more than $12.6 million in three months.

    It is less than $300,000 away from breaking the record, with weekend ticket sales still to be tallied.

    A film industry spokeswoman yesterday predicted Fellowship would roll Titanic within the next 10 days.

    Titanic, released in 1997, is still the world's biggest-grossing film at US$1.8 billion ($4.18 billion), when inflation is not taken into account.

    Fellowship has so far earned $1.6 billion worldwide.

    Latest figures show the film climbed back to number one and took $283,671 in the week ending March 6.

    The recent success at the Bafta awards helped The Fellowship to reclaim the top ranking, the spokeswoman said.

    Box office takings should "improve substantially" with the Academy Awards coming up in two weeks.

    Ron Howard won Directors Guild Awards
    Reuters

    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Directors Guild of America handed former child TV star Ron Howard its award for best film director of 2001 for the psychological drama "A Beautiful Mind" as the countdown to Hollywood's highest film honors, the Oscars

    With two weeks to go ahead of the Oscars, which will be given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on March 24, Howard nabbed the best director award from the directors guild, which establishes him as the front-runner to nab the Oscar for best director this year.

    Since 1949, when the Directors Guild of America first gave out an honor for top film director, all but five winners of best director of a movie have gone on to claim the Oscar.

    More important is the Oscar winner for best director almost always sees his film claim the Academy Award for best motion picture. So Howard and "Beautiful Mind," in which Russell Crowe portrays genius mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. through a lifelong struggle with schizophrenia, are now the front-runners for the best picture Oscar.

    Or, so it seems.

    OSCARS WIDE OPEN

    This year, the Oscar race has been wide open, and another of this year's nominees for best film, "Moulin Rouge," claimed Hollywood's producer guild award last week for this year's top motion picture.

    Moreover, critics awards have been split between "Mind," "Rouge" and the three other nominees for best picture "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "Gosford Park" and "In the Bedroom."

    Next up on the Oscar watch is Sunday's Screen Actors Guild awards, which will honor motion picture actors and actresses.

    Highlighting this year's Oscar race was last year's DGA winner, Ang Lee, who claimed the award for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" only to see Steven Soderbergh win the Oscar for "Traffic" and "Gladiator" take home the Oscar for best motion picture.

    "One last piece of advice," Lee offered before opening the envelope to reveal this year's winner, " don't get over confident at the Oscars."

    VICTORY A SURPRISE

    Howard, a lifelong member of Hollywood's "A" list, child television star and teen sensation on 1970s hit sitcom "Happy Days," said he was a little surprised at claiming best honors among a wide open field here at the DGA awards.

    "I didn't think I was going to win, so I didn't prepare a speech," Howard said.

    He then acknowledged his competition -- Baz Luhrmann for "Moulin Rouge," Peter Jackson for "Rings," Ridley Scott for action film "Black Hawk Down" and Christopher Nolan for independent hit "Memento" -- and said "it was a tough selection."

    Earlier in the evening, Howard paid tribute to the rest of the people who worked on the story that attempts to give viewers a glimpse inside a schizophrenic's mind.

    He thanked his business partner and producer, Brian Grazer, writer Akiva Goldsman and co-star Jennifer Connelly and Crowe, whom he singled out for his work playing Nobel Laureate Nash.

    "The effectiveness of Beautiful Mind' cannot be separated from the effectiveness and power of Russell Crowe's performance," Howard said.

    Elsewhere among the top award winners at the DGA's ceremony on Saturday were Frank Pierson, who was named best director for a made for television movie for HBO's "Conspiracy."

    Alan Ball was named best director of a television drama for HBO's "Six Feet Under," and Todd Holland claimed the honor of best director for a television comedy series for "Malcolm in the Middle."

    Ten good reasons to love our movie
    Diane Wichtel
    The New Zealand Herald

    It is difficult to see the downside of the phenomenal success of The Lord of the Rings but, this being New Zealand, some have tried.

    Local journalism's grouches and hobbit-haters - you know who you are - have been doing their patronising best to imply that anyone who likes the film is a dupe of corporate hype and the mindless cheerleading of everyone in the local media except, of course, themselves.

    True, there was a lot of hype. I loved the books when I was 17 and now have to stop myself from fixing strangers with a glittering eye and raving about the film. But, even for a fan, declaring the only marginally hobbit-like Pete Hodgson "Minister for Lord of the Rings" was going a bit far.

    Still, I doubt very much that the judges of the Baftas were unduly influenced by the antics of our wacky MPs. Or by Wellington's evening paper taking leave of its senses, dubbing itself the "Middle Earth Post" for a week. Sorry, we dupes were right, the film is a winner.

    There's no guarantee that The Lord of the Rings will do as well at the more political - and often distressingly politically correct - Oscars. Though major contender and Kiwi Russell Crowe's Tony Soprano-esque discussion with the producer of the Baftas for cutting his speech might well have improved our odds.

    Whether or not the film wins something on March 24, there are at least 10 good reasons - well, 10 reasons, anyway - The Lord of the Rings is The Great New Zealand Film we've all been waiting for:

    (1) Because it won five Baftas. Five. Count them.

    (2) Because it annoyed Australians. Martin Graham's widely reprinted, vicious and, admittedly, hilarious attack in the Sydney Morning Herald has seen him appear on Holmes. "I would have thought that the biggest problem faced by the producers," wrote Graham, "was making Wellington look modern enough to pass for anything after AD 1300." He later apologised. Sort of. "Yes, I have been to Hobart on a Sunday," he admitted. "Point taken."

    (3) For getting away with casting local soap icon Craig Parker as an elf. When you think about it, for getting away with casting anyone as an elf.

    (4) Because the film reflects the deep vein of unease about women that has made New Zealand film the disturbed, gothic art form we know and often avoid. There are hardly any women in Lord of the Rings and those there are are powerful, strange creatures who speak in scary voices, much like Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark. It's all white phallic towers, swords and spears on the surface. Beneath, in damp, subterranean caves, strange creatures are born. Could Gollum be more foetal? Freud would have a field day.

    (5) Because, even though there are hardly any New Zealanders in anything but bit parts, Elijah "Frodo" Wood confessed to peeing in the Cuba Mall fountain after a big Wellington night out (if Martin Graham will forgive the contradiction in terms). Wood might be American but he's clearly a Kiwi bloke at heart.

    (6) Because of the great scene where those scary Riders enter the town of Bree, squashing our own Martyn Sanderson under a door. Another veteran local movie man, Ian Mune, does even worse. He barely gets a line out before his head is lopped off. If Jackson is making a statement here about the local film industry, what it says is, "Outta the way, boys. Real movie coming through."

    (7) For Jackson's obligatory cameo, glimpsed as the hobbits trudge into Bree. Perhaps the only actor in the film who needed no help from the makeup department, Jackson is the wild-haired loon who takes a swig of grog and belches into the camera. If Jackson is making a statement to his critics, it could well be, "Whatever. I'm laughing all the way to the bank."

    (8) Because, unlike Once Were Warriors, no one in The Lord of the Rings cooks any f***ing eggs, although Hobbits Sam and Merry fry up some bacon, with almost as violent results.

    (9) Because, despite what the cynics maintained, The Lord of the Rings couldn't have been made just anywhere. If its Middle-earth is just another version of England, so were we for years.

    The lovely, blank, indifferent stare of our spirit-haunted landscape has inspired other good New Zealand movies, including Vigil, The Piano and anything starring Bruno Lawrence as yet another Kiwi bloke going bonkers on the road to nowhere (or, in the case of the great Smash Palace, on the road to Horopito).

    By a happy coincidence of Tolkien and Peter Jackson's weird visions, The Lord of the Rings expresses the improbable, sinister, magical quality of the place as never before by populating it with improbable, sinister, magical creatures. Unlike most characters in New Zealand films, they look right at home.

    I don't think it was corporate hype or free preview champagne that brought a tear of recognition to my eye as I watched. Just to be sure, I went to see it again in the cold light of day. It was still a bizarre but oddly touching version of home.

    (10) Because the film's credits go on forever, lovingly naming what looks like half the country. That alone is enough to make The Lord of the Rings a New Zealand movie, at least in spirit. One with something so many other local movies lack - heart.

    There was a lot of tut-tutting about the legitimacy and desirability of the tax breaks the film received. As far as I'm concerned, they can direct debit my taxes straight into Peter Jackson's account. So far, whatever it's cost, it's been money well spent.

    Oscar song category highlights movie work of veteran rockers
    Canadian Press

    Some songwriters savour the challenge of writing music as a companion for a specific story.

    "With an album, it's sort of a blank canvas, you can write anything you imagine," said Enya, nominated for May It Be from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. "But on a film, you have to be influenced by what you're seeing on the screen. It's just something I've always enjoyed."

    The Irish singer flew to New Zealand to see parts of the unfinished film for inspiration. She and her co-writers, Nicky and Roma Ryan, found they could work the epic journey of the sword-and-sorcery tale into an ethereal melody with lyrics written in the film's fictional Quenya dialect of the Elves.

    "I didn't have that much trouble because my first language is Gaelic and they both come from very old Celtic languages," Enya joked. She has also written songs that appeared in Sweet November (2001), Far and Away (1992) and Toys (1992).

    Full article...

    'Ring'-ing it in?
    Metromix

    Which will win 2002's Best Picture Oscar: the movie about the brilliant man falling apart or the movie about a fantasy world at war?

    This year's Best Picture Oscar front-runners - "A Beautiful Mind" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" - represent two very different kinds of movie-making: a prestige psychological drama that focuses on human anguish anguish, and an extravagant fantasy adventure that recreates re-creates a whole teeming literary universe. Yet one or the other will almost certainly take top honors at the 74th annual Oscar ceremonies on March 24.

    The other top Oscar races tend to settle into small duels as well: Best Actor (Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington), Best Actress (Sissy Spacek and Halle Berry) and Best Director (Ron Howard and Peter Jackson). There are two notable exceptions: Supporting Actress and Animated Feature, which currently seem to belong to Jennifer Connelly and "Shrek." As Oscar night approaches, the races usually become clearer, but this major two-movie race remains clouded in doubt. It could still go either way - or even somewhere else.

    An Oscar night with fewer sure things, though, is an Oscar night that might be more entertaining and surprising. (My picks are in boldface type.)

    Best Picture

    "A Beautiful Mind"
    "Gosford Park"
    "In the Bedroom"
    "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"
    "Moulin Rouge!"

    "Lord of the Rings" starts with an incredible advantage: an overwhelming 13 Oscar nominations, indicating broad support from many different Academy branches. But "A Beautiful Mind," long considered the favorite, remains the kind of movie that usually wins Best Picture Oscars — serious, intelligent, humane, inspirational, a portrait of human problems. So either one is a plausible victor. That is why the recent Producers Guild award for "Moulin Rouge!" was such a shocker: Big, artificial, tongue-in-cheek extravaganzas like Baz Luhrmann's Parisian romp usually don't conquer all.

    But then neither do film fantasies, no matter how popular or critically applauded. What makes "Lord of the Rings" special is the kind of fantasy-adventure it is — it's adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's popular cult trilogy and is a literary triumph — and also the magnitude of the risk and achievement it represents. That's why it may nudge ahead of one-time heavy favorite "A Beautiful Mind."

    Best Director

    Ron Howard, "A Beautiful Mind"
    Ridley Scott, "Black Hawk Down"
    Robert Altman, "Gosford Park"
    Peter Jackson, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"
    David Lynch, "Mulholland Drive"

    Howard and Jackson are the leading contenders, with Altman a strong dark horse for what would basically be a career Oscar. Howard benefits strongly from his sheer likability and the fact that the actor's branch — which helped give Best Director Oscars to actors such as Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Mel Gibson — is the Academy's most populous. Jackson, on the other hand, is admired for his sheer guts and panache on bringing off "Rings." It's close. And Altman could shock everybody.

    Best Actor

    Russell Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind"
    Sean Penn in "I Am Sam"
    Will Smith in "Ali"
    Denzel Washington in "Training Day"
    Tom Wilkinson in "In the Bedroom"

    When Crowe blew up and attacked the producer at the British Academy Awards after winning a Best Actor prize for "A Beautiful Mind," he may have sunk his chances of repeating for a second year in a row as Best Actor, even though his portrayal of schizophrenic Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash almost certainly would have won any other year. That gives the voters a chance to correct an injustice. In 1999, Washington was dubiously denied a Best Actor Oscar for "The Hurricane," partly because of a furious last-minute campaign that questioned the film's veracity and attacked the character of the real-life movie subject, boxer-convict Rubin Hurricane Carter. Academy members can now ease their consciences by awarding him for his performance as a flashy but corrupt narcotics detective in "Training Day." The dark horse is Wilkinson.

    Best Actress

    Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball"
    Judi Dench in "Iris"
    Nicole Kidman in "Moulin Rouge!"
    Sissy Spacek in "In the Bedroom"
    Renee Zellweger in "Bridget Jones's Diary"

    Another two-person race between actresses who played distraught, bereaved mothers: Spacek in "Bedroom" and Berry in "Monster's Ball." Kidman, my own favorite, is hampered because "Moulin Rouge!" is a musical. Dench, the British Academy winner as Alzheimer's-stricken novelist Iris Murdoch, has, rather puzzlingly, generated little enthusiasm stateside; perhaps it's too depressing a role. Zellweger, in a light comic role, has no chance. As for the favorites, Spacek has one clear advantage: Her part is better written and it's in a much better-liked film — with little chance for an award elsewhere.

    Best Supporting Actor

    Jim Broadbent in "Iris"
    Ethan Hawke in "Training Day"
    Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast"
    Ian McKellen in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"
    Jon Voight in "Ali"

    Three top-flight British actors — Kingsley as the brute gangster in "Sexy Beast," Broadbent as Murdoch's writer-husband John Bayley in "Iris" and McKellen as Wizard Gandalf in "Rings" — are the obvious front-runners. But Kingsley's foul-mouthed psycho-bully may be too off-type (and hard to understand), while McKellen's Gandalf is upstaged by his entire movie. Broadbent's gentle, long-suffering husband is a tailor-made Oscar performance. It also doesn't hurt that they'll have seen his versatility showcased as slimy impresario Zigler in "Moulin Rouge!"

    Best Supporting Actress

    Jennifer Connelly in "A Beautiful Mind"
    Helen Mirren in "Gosford Park"
    Maggie Smith in "Gosford Park"
    Marisa Tomei in "In the Bedroom"
    Kate Winslet in "Iris"

    It's nice to have one category where everything seems settled — and when Connelly took the British Academy's top prize for her part as the long-suffering wife in "Mind," she may have indicated invulnerability in this category. If any group was going to anoint her main competitors, Mirren or Smith in "Gosford Park," it should have been their countrymen. They didn't, and neither will the Yanks.

    Best Animated Feature Film

    "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius"
    "Monsters, Inc."
    "Shrek"

    In this new category, there are two blockbuster monoliths — "Monsters" and "Shrek" — and one weird little toss-in, "Jimmy Neutron." (A win for "Jimmy" would rank with the biggest Oscar upsets ever.) "Shrek" is better liked among audiences and critics. One big tip-off: "Shrek's" screenplay nomination, rare for a feature cartoon.

    Best Foreign Language Film

    "Amelie," France
    "Elling," Norway
    "Lagaan," India
    "No Man's Land," Bosnia & Herzegovina
    "Son of the Bride," Argentina

    Everyone's favorite seems to be winsome "Amelie" — but in a year when we've suddenly become war-conscious, the powerful Bosnian anti-war dark comedy/drama "No Man's Land" looks like a spoiler.

    Best Screenplay
    (based on material previously produced or published)

    Akiva Goldsman, "A Beautiful Mind"
    Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff, "Ghost World"
    Rob Festinger and Todd Field, "In the Bedroom"
    Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"
    Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Joe Stillman and Roger S.H. Schulman, "Shrek"

    Along with Jennifer Connelly, this is one of the surest bets in the entire contest; probably no one else but the "Bedroom" scribes has even a chance.

    Best Screenplay
    (written directly for the screen)

    Screenplay by Guillaume Laurant and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, dialogue by Guillaume Laurant, "Amelie"
    Julian Fellowes, "Gosford Park"
    Screenplay by Christopher Nolan, story by Jonathan Nolan, "Memento"
    Milo Addica and Will Rokos, "Monster's Ball"
    Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, "The Royal Tenenbaums"

    Another tight two-movie race between "Gosford Park" and "Memento." If Altman wins Best Director, the voters could skew to Nolan. Otherwise, this is the Academy's one chance to give "Gosford" a major award.


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