| |
LOTR News 03/19
Internet Movie Database users picked their Oscar winners
Sweet success
And the Oscar could go to...Best Supporting Actor
Still time to see nominees
'Try Seventeen', starring Elijah wood, starts filming March 19
Secrets of an Oscar Seer
Best Picture Race
Newsday
GOSFORD PARK
USA Films
Producers: Robert Altman, Bob Balaban, David Levy
Director: Robert Altman
Stars: Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith
Released: Dec. 26, 2001
Total nominations: 7
Pre-award wins: 0
Vegas odds: 12-1
Subjective factor: A masterful ensemble featuring a who's who of British players.
IN THE BEDROOM
Miramax
Producers: Graham Leader, Ross Katz, Todd Field
Director: Todd Field
Stars: Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Marisa Tomei
Released: Nov. 23, 2001
Total nominations: 5
Pre-award wins: Los Angeles Film Critics
Vegas odds: 4-1
Subjective factor: Classic themes placed in a setting that really hits home.
A BEAUTIFUL MIND
Universal Pictures
Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
Director: Ron Howard
Stars: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris
Released: Dec. 21, 2001
Total nominations: 8
Pre-award wins: Golden Globe, drama
Vegas odds: 2-1
Subjective factor: Turned the mind into extraordinary cinematic matterTHE
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
New Line
Producers: Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson, Fran Welsh, Tim Sanders
Director: Peter Jackson
Stars: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm
Released: Dec. 19, 2001
Total nominations: 13
Pre-award wins: 0
Vegas odds: 6-1
Subjective factor: This Lord of the Noms=the Fellowship of the Entire Academy
MOULIN ROUGE!<BR> 20th Century Fox
Producers: Martin Brown, Baz Luhrmann, Fred Baron
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor
Released: May 18, 2001
Total nominations: 8
Pre-award wins: Golden Globe (musical or comedy); National Board of Review
Vegas odds: 3-1
Subjective factor: A visionary milestone; Baz ban can't stop can-can
Sweet success
Award-show fever is sweeping the country, in light of the Academy Awards broadcast scheduled for Sunday on ABC (Channel 13).
It seems everyone has a take not just on who will tote home trophies for Best Actor, Best Lighting and such but with an awards-show spin.
Count in Cold Stone Creamery. The ice cream-store chain, with outlets in the Las Vegas Valley, is accepting nominations through Wednesday for its tongue-in-cheek "Best Ice Cream Creation in a Motion Picture Category" poll, of flavors based on this year's Best Picture contenders, being conducted online at coldstonecreamery.com.
And the nominees are:
A Beautiful Mint ("A Beautiful Mind"), a concoction of mint ice cream, peppermint patties and chocolate fudge.
In the Berryroom ("In the Bedroom"), a blend of sweet cream-flavored ice cream, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.
Lord of the Swirls ("Lord of the Rings"), a mix of double-dutch chocolate ice cream with caramel, chocolate chips and chocolate fudge.
Praline Rouge ("Moulin Rouge"), strawberry ice cream with strawberries and praline pecans.
Toffee Park ("Gosford Park"), French vanilla ice cream flavored with butter pecan, Heath Bar candy and pecans.
The winning flavor will be announced Thursday at Cold Stone's Hollywood, Calif., store, in front of the Kodak Theater where the Oscar ceremonies will be held.
And the Oscar could go to...Best Supporting Actor
Marc Berman
Mediaweek
Over the next week I'll take a look by key categories of who could walk
away with the Academy Award this coming Sunday, March 24th for the best in
2001. First Up: Best Supporting Actor. The Nominees:
-Jim Broadbent (Iris)
-Ethan Hawke (Training Day)
-Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast)
-Ian McKellan (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)
-Jon Voight (Ali) -Who Should Win: Jim Broadbent. With a Golden Globe for his performance in Iris and recent
roles in Moulin Rouge and Bridget Jones's Diary, this was really Jim
Broadbent's year. Unfortunately for Broadbent Iris was the lowest
grossing film of the above three. -Who Will Win: Ian McKellan. If Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring loses out
to the more deserving A Beautiful Mind for Best Picture, consider Ian
McKellan's Oscar for Best Supporting Actor a nice consolation prize. -As for the Rest: The young Ethan Hawke has plenty of years ahead of him to win the trophy,
Ben Kingsley already won for Best Actor for Ghandi in 1982 (and no one
really saw Sexy Beast) and Jon Voight, also a Best Actor winner (for
Coming Home in 1978), would be better suited in the mock category of
Unrecognizable Actor in a Supporting Role.
Still time to see nominees
The Province
Your guide on what to see, where to see it and what to watch for to get ready for Sunday's showdown
How do you know whether Tom Wilkinson's a must-win for In the Bedroom -- you haven't seen it yet.
"Yeah, but I liked him in The Full Monty, that counts for something."
Don't let this be you on Oscar night. You know, the know-it-all who gabs on and on about movies he hasn't seen.
Maybe you can't see all the nominated performances but you can catch a good number of them before sitting down to watch next Sunday's awards show.
Here's our guide to catching up on your Oscar homework and a couple of smart remarks to help you fake it.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
Where to see it: Almost anywhere.
What to watch for: This movie scooped up 13 nominations, among them directing, screenplay and for supporting actor Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf. The rest were for cinematography, art direction, effects, costumes -- the labour-intensive work that goes into making a huge fantasy epic. God -- or Oscar -- lives in those painstaking details.
Smart remark: "Sure, McKellen was good under all that hair but he really should have won a couple of years back for Gods and Monsters."
Full article...
'Try Seventeen', starring Elijah wood, starts filming March 19
Stockhouse
"Try Seventeen," to be directed by Jeffrey Porter from a screenplay by Charles Kephart. The picture will star Elijah Wood ("The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"), Franka Potente ("Run Lola Run") and Mandy Moore ("A Walk to Remember"). Randall Emmett and George Furla, of Emmett/Furla Films, and Mike Elliott, Michele Weisler and Holly Weirsma will produce the picture. The picture is scheduled to begin filming March 19th, 2002. Millennium Pictures will distribute the picture world-wide.
Full article...
Secrets of an Oscar Seer
LA Times
Predicting the winners is a lot like handicapping. It helps if you ignore your own favorites.
One of the first indicators to look for, especially in the best picture category, is how many nominations each of the contenders had—simply because it indicates strength across the breadth of the academy membership. Which means this year's race will likely come down to "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "A Beautiful Mind" and "Moulin Rouge."
At first blush (and possibly even at final blush), "A Beautiful Mind" seems the picture to beat. With its artfully tidied-up reality and its uplifting message, it has seemed, from the moment it hit screens, like a movie that was almost genetically engineered to win the best picture Oscar. If one were to pick a favorite, this would have to be it.
But there are, as there always are, contradictory indications. Although pictures without best director nominations rarely win the big prize, "Moulin Rouge" has done a savvy job with its marketing, turning a negative—its perceived lack of appeal to older voters—into a positive by harvesting tributes from impressed senior citizens such as Robert Wise and Stanley Donen.
The film did win the Producers Guild award, which has correlated with the Oscar win in nine of the previous 12 years. On the other hand, the Producers Guild changed its membership this year, increasing its total voters by close to 25%, and such a radical change in its makeup throws its predictive prowess into question.
And what about "Lord of the Rings"? It did get 13 nominations, but films with a lot of nominations don't always do well. Two things speak in its favor: Because splitting tickets between director and film is not uncommon (it happened two of the past three years), Ron Howard's likely win in his category could help "Rings" in this one. And those with long memories will remember that the last time a Ron Howard-directed picture was up for the top prize was 1995, when the highly touted "Apollo 13" lost to a film very much like "Lord of the Rings": Mel Gibson's "Braveheart."
So, in direct contradiction to one of my own rules, I'm going to abandon the obvious favorite and pick "Lord of the Rings" because I have a personal preference for it. If I'm destined to go down with a ship, this one seems to suit the occasion.
Full article...
|