Batman Movie News from RopeofSilicon.com

'The Dark Knight' Remains Five-Day Champ as Box-Office Actuals Arrive

Box-Office Mojo has updated their weekend charts with the three-day actual receipts and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen dropped from the original estimated three-day take of $112 million to finish with $108.9 million for the three-day weekend and $200 million for the five-day, which means The Dark Knight's five-day record of $203.7 million remains intact.

However, Revenge of the Fallen did still manage to break some records such as the biggest single-day IMAX gross with $3.9 million and the biggest five-day IMAX gross with $14.4 million. Of course, this does come with something of an asterisk since several of the so-called IMAX screens the film is showing on aren't the native 70mm IMAX screens as much as they are the refit IMAX Digital screens which are hardly representative of a true IMAX experience.

As for the rest of the box-office weekend, everything pretty much remained the same with Revenge of the Fallen being the only title to shift by anything more than $.2 million or so.

Critics Have Little-to-Nothing To Do With Box-Office Success

When people say a movie is "critic-proof" it really doesn't mean anything since reviews for movies have very little to do with determining whether or not the majority of people are going to go see a movie. With that said, what is published in David Germain's AP story "'Transformers': Worst-reviewed $400 million hit?" means absolutely nothing. Especially the line reading:

"Critics and mainstream crowds often disagree, but Revenge of the Fallen sets a new standard for the gulf between what reviewers and mass audiences like."

This line insinuates everyone that went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen this weekend liked it. Of course, the article backs things up saying, "According to Paramount's exit polls, 91 percent of the audience thought the sequel was as good as or better than the first Transformers, which received far better reviews." That sentence is so loaded with misconceptions it's staggering as it shows a complete lack of knowledge when it comes to movie watching.

Transformers is routinely referred to as "big dumb fun" and when it comes to "big dumb fun" there is a very short shelf life. Audience perception of a film is not generated in its opening weekend, it's created over time. Germain goes on in his article to reference previous films that reached the $400 million domestic box-office mark as that is where he sees Revenge of the Fallen headed. He begins comparing the movie to the likes of The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, Star Wars, Shrek 2 and Titanic. The matter in question here is will Revenge of the Fallen be able to sustain its dominance?

Last summer The Dark Knight remained at the top of the box-office charts for four consecutive weeks, Shrek 2 and Spider-Man only sustained two week dominance, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace lasted for three and the all-time king is Titanic with 15 weekends at the top of the box-office.

Let's not forget the first Transformers, which Germain is so quick to point out received better reviews than Revenge of the Fallen. It opened at number one as well only to fall to #2 in its second weekend to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Will Revenge of the Fallen be able to withstand this week's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Public Enemies? The last Ice Age opened to $68 million and I would think this one would do the same or better. Can Revenge of the Fallen match that?

Germain already tells us Revenge of the Fallen is getting great word of mouth saying, "Even after its whopping $60.6 million opening day, Revenge of the Fallen was packing theaters, a sign that unlike critics, who mostly hated the movie, audiences felt they were getting their money's worth and were giving the flick good word of mouth." This is in despite of the fact online ticket retailers were quoting figures almost two weeks in advance of the film's release saying showings were already sold out. Not sure how much word of mouth counts when people have already made up their mind to go see it, not to mention reviews weren't even online yet.

Perhaps the most twisted part of the whole article is the following:

Critics "forget what the goal of the movie was. The goal of the movie is to entertain and have fun," said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount, which is distributing "Transformers" for DreamWorks. "What the audience tells us is, 'We couldn't be more entertained and having more fun.' They kind of roll their eyes at the critics and say, 'You have no idea what you're talking about.'"

So you are telling me Paramount isn't talking bad about their own movie? Shocker!

Here's the deal, audiences were going to see this no matter what. Reviews only helped raise the awareness. Good or bad, it didn't matter. Kids were just getting out of school and parents needed someplace to unload them. Transformers was already a familiar franchise and something parents could take their kids to see.

Of all the films Germain mentioned in his article, I wonder if he believes general audiences will look back at Revenge of the Fallen and compare it fondly to The Dark Knight, E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, Star Wars and Titanic. If you wanted to use another public meter of determining an audience's perception of the film take a peek at IMDb and compare ratings for the first Transformers and those for Revenge of a Fallen, a film Paramount is trying to tell us audiences enjoy more than the first one (no account for short term memory considered).

The first Transformers currently sits with a 7.4 rating compared to Revenge of the Fallen's already lower 6.7 rating, and as most watchers of IMDb know these ratings typically start out high only to slowly fall and level off over time. Basically, as time wears on the general consensus for a film comes down to how it is remembered, not how much money it made one day ago. If it were the other way around Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would be considered the best film in the Indy franchise... not sure about you, but that isn't exactly how I see things.

To the point, critics have nothing to do with how a film does at the box-office. They are merely a tool for awareness and conversation starters. Critics see a movie, audiences see a movie and the film is discussed and its place in history is decided down the line. Some films will always be seen by more people; it's a fact that has nothing to do with reviews. The top spots at the box-office have always been reserved for the films that manage to appeal to the widest range of audience members. Revenge of the Fallen managed just that and just happened to not be liked by critics.

When I see people defending it the most common comment I see is something along the lines of "I think people expect too much" and "It's based on a cartoon, what did you expect?" This sounds to me like a person that got exactly as much out of the film as critics did, but were able to accept its flaws while others could not. Totally fair, but when you have to admit a film is bad in order to tell people it's good what is that really saying?

The consensus opinion at RottenTomatoes says, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a noisy, underplotted, and overlong special effects extravaganza that lacks a human touch." I don't think anyone will argue with that...

'Transformers 2' Looks to Best 'Dark Knight's Five Day Box-Office Record

It's going to be close folks as estimates now peg Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as hitting anywhere from $190-209 million for its opening five days, the latter number would mean a five-day box-office record for the feature as it added another $36.7 million to its cumulative total with Friday estimates.

Revenge of the Fallen has hit an estimated domestic total of $125.9 million in its first three days and now all eyes are focused on the five-day opening domestic box-office record of $203.8 million currently held by The Dark Knight.

Personally, this isn't surprising as I can't imagine anyone not at least being interested in seeing the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on the bigscreen as the film is currently playing in 4,234 theaters, 169 of which are IMAX. So what if critics (myself included) didn't like it? I guarantee if I wasn't reviewing this movie I would have been in theaters this weekend to see it even though I thought the first one was terrible. I don't think critical opinions matter on big dumb fun. I look at critical opinion in more of an effort to persuade rather than dissuade, and open up a line of dialogue, but that's just me.

While Revenge of the Fallen makes its way toward box-office stardom, last week's romantic-comedy The Proposal is holding onto second after Friday estimates with $6.1 million, while the Cameron Diaz weeper My Sister's Keeper opened to the tune of $5.1 million and currently sits in fourth position.

In the third slot is The Hangover with another $5.3 million and rounding out the top five is Pixar's Up with $3.9 million.

As for the limited releases this week Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is playing in only four theaters in New York and Los Angeles before expanding in July and opened with an impressive Friday tallying $44,528.

Miramax's Cheri took in $111,000 from 76 theaters and Woody Allen's Whatever Works brought in $98,000.

You can see the top ten slots from the Friday box-office just below and Laremy will be here tomorrow for a full weekend recap. Will Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen take The Dark Knight's slot in the record books? Stay tuned!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - $36.7 million
The Proposal - $6.1 million
The Hangover - $5.3 million
My Sister's Keeper - $5.0 million
Up - $3.9 million
Year One - $2.0 million
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 - $1.5 million
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - $1.2 million
Star Trek - $1.0 million
Away We Go - $510,000

The 2010 Oscar Best Picture Race... What are We In For?

As I sit down to ponder yesterday's news announcing the Oscars have increased the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten beginning with the 2010 Oscars I have Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans playing in the background. It wasn't one of the five films nominated for Best Picture at the 1993 Oscars, but with the new rules would it have been? I'm not quite sure, but I would assume The Player, Glengarry Glen Ross, Reservoir Dogs and Malcolm X would have definitely been in the mix. But would it have really mattered?

The Academy's decision to shake things up according to AMPAS President Sid Ganis is to return "to some of its earlier roots." By this he is referring to the period between 1932 and 1943 when the Best Picture category was usually made up of ten films. The exceptions in those years included the 1931/1932 ceremony with eight nominees and 1934/1935 ceremony with 12. However, is this really an attempt to go back to the old days following the 2009 Oscars, which were far from nostalgic with a rather impressive revamped ceremony?

Over at the Los Angeles Times Meg James put together a nice piece which included a quote from television analyst Larry Gerbrandt of Media Valuation Partners saying, "Hollywood is out of step with an audience that has already gone interactive with their own reviews, recommendations and Tweets. They no longer want a group of industry insiders telling them what they have already spent hard coin to validate. TV is about the mass audience, not auteurs or political correctness or even critical acclaim."

Personally I think Gerbrandt is wrong in his opinion here. People love to get the opinion of others. The problem isn't the opinion, it's the topic of conversation that upsets most people. Audiences aren't tuning out the Oscar celebration because Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture this past year or because Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Reader were nominated. They tuned out because films such as The Dark Knight and WALL-E weren't. Gerbrandt is right about the Academy being out of step, he's just a little fuzzy on the details.

However, does adding five more slots to accommodate these films really accomplish anything? Sure, now five more films can say they were nominated for Best Picture, but it took a rules change to do so. It's like playing a game of pick-up basketball and instead of only having five people on your team you have ten, only the final five never get a chance to play. How will this be any different?

Photo: Disney/Pixar

Over on Twitter, Pixar fansite UpcomingPixar.com posted a tweet saying, "What do you think about the decision to have 10 noms for Best Pic at the 2010 Oscars? I'm ecstatic because Up could be a serious contender!" Not only do I think Up is a serious contender, I think Up is a lock for a nomination now considering the dismissal of Ratatouille and WALL-E the past two years, but we aren't talking about being a serious contender for winning Best Picture, just merely getting a nomination. When the rules are changed to accommodate the masses is there anything to actually get excited about? It's like getting a trophy for being a runner-up. Worthless.

RATINGS

Obviously, appeasing the masses is the real key to this decision, not nostalgia. By making sure films liked by general audiences have a better chance at a nomination and will then be represented at the big show is sure to increase interest.

Ratings for this year's Oscars telecast were an improvement on the year prior by more than 4 million people. 36.3 million watched as Slumdog took the crown compared to the year prior when No Country for Old Men beat out Juno, Atonement, Michael Clayton and There Will be Blood. Just imagine how many more people would have watched had The Dark Knight and WALL-E been nominated, two films that managed to achieve artistic, critical and commercial appeal.

Can you believe the five Best Picture nominees in 2009, at the height of their widest release, only saw 9,121 theaters while The Dark Knight and WALL-E alone saw 8,358? Only a 763-theater differential and we're playing five-on-two here... Don't even get me started with critical ratings and box-office success because it will be hard for those five Best Picture candidates to compete with $757+ million at the domestic box-office and two films that scored 94% and 96% at RottenTomatoes.

ADVERTISING

So a ratings bump is an obvious reason and with higher ratings comes higher commercial appeal for a show that depends on advertising. The Academy's total revenue for 2008 was $81.7 million according to the "Los Angeles Times" and of that figure $73.7 million came as a result of the Oscars.

The "Los Angeles Times" goes on to say of that $81.7 million, the Academy spends $31.1 million to stage the Academy Awards, Oscar luncheons and the Governors Ball. The excess revenue is hugely important to the organization, helping it to sponsor an array of public events and exhibits, and pay for restoration work, film archives, financial grants to other institutions, student contests, screenwriting competitions and science and technology programs.

So, when the rate for a 30-second commercial in the Oscar telecast dropped to below $1 million for the first time since 1998 this year, according to the Nielsen Co., something needed to be done. The Academy had already changed the rules to allow studios to buy one 30-second commercial slot to show a trailer for one of their films and yesterday's move simply appears to be stage two.

WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT?

What will be the result of the change? Obviously, this is the big question. It's tough to say if it is a good move or a bad move until we actually see some results. My snap judgment is to say I don't like it because it lessens the value of a Best Picture nomination by half. I remember last year trying to actually put together a list of top ten films and having an extremely hard time doing it. I would argue most years don't actually churn out ten Best Picture caliber films... that is, unless the Academy is going to open up and embrace some foreign language pictures in the category, but who are we kidding? And for those of you wondering if movies like Star Trek or The Hangover now have a shot, you are kidding yourself. If a movie wasn't thought of as a possible contender before it won't be one now.

Had ten nominations been available last year what five additional films would have joined Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Reader?

Photo: Warner Bros., Disney/Pixar, Fox Searchlight, Miramax, Weinstein Co., Paramount Vantage

I believe The Dark Knight, WALL-E and Doubt would have been shoo-ins. Beyond that I see possibilities with The Wrestler and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I also think we can look at films such as Revolutionary Road, Gran Torino and Happy-Go-Lucky. But at this point what are we really talking about? We're talking about people saying things such as, "It was just an honor to be nominated."

Last year Slumdog Millionaire was going to win. Everyone knew that and the addition of five additional nominees wouldn't have changed things. But to add to that, while Slumdog appeared to have an insurmountable charge behind it, what about years where the winner isn't so clear-cut? Such as... I don't know... the way 2009 is looking so far.

So far I would say The Hurt Locker and Up are the first two Best Picture contenders of 2009. I am seeing Public Enemies tonight and it may be added to that list in less than 24 hours, but we'll have to wait and see. What are we looking at beyond those three?

Daniel Day-Lewis and Judi Dench in Nine
Photo: Weinstein Co.

Clint Eastwood's Invictus and Rob Marshall's Nine are two films I would pencil in blind. I think Mira Nair and Hilary Swank teaming for Amelia would be a good bet and with ten slots open I don't see how Matt Damon in Greengrass's Green Zone or Soderbergh's The Informant doesn't take up at least one of them. We also can't forget about the long-delayed The Road.

Then there are the smaller possibilities. Lionsgate has established a film festival charge with Precious and Jane Campion's return with Bright Star sounds promising. An Education built some early steam from the festival circuit and wouldn't it be a nice shock to see the Academy support something as off-the-wall as Lars von Trier's Antichrist (releasing on Oct. 23 by the way) sounds like it is?

The blockbusters that should gain traction begin with James Cameron's Avatar, a film that may likely be a top contender without the additional slots, we'll have to wait and see. Scorsese's Shutter Island may now stand a bigger chance, and perhaps Peter Jackson's Lovely Bones will impress.

Finally, I can't leave off the Coen brothers with A Serious Man, Jason Reitman's Up In the Air and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. Isn't guessing without a net fun?

With this news I need to finally get cracking on opening up The Contenders section of the site, but for now I will sit back and listen to what you have to say. Like it or not, things have gotten interesting and if nothing else it makes for great conversation.

BREAKING: Oscar's Best Picture Nominees Will Expand to Ten

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just announced in a small blurb the Oscars this year will be bumping their Best Picture nominees from five to ten beginning with the upcoming 2010 Oscars President Sid Ganis announced today at a press conference in Beverly Hills.

"After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year," said Ganis. "The final outcome, of course, will be the same � one Best Picture winner � but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009."

The move is an obvious response to the recent discussion concerning The Dark Knight's absence from the nominees for more art house style films such as The Reader and I would expect we can now look at Up as a serious contender for a Best Picture nominee when previous Pixar favorites Ratatouille and WALL-E were left in the cold.

"Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize," commented Ganis. "I can�t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February."

Personally I am not sure what I think about the move as it obviously cheapens the category, but then again I guess it will all but eliminate the complaining. This also means my year-end predictions will now be more about predicting slots 8-10 than 1-5. Could be interesting... We'll have to wait and see. What are your thoughts on it?

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2. The Oscar ceremony honoring films for 2009 will again take place at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and#038; Highland Center in Hollywood on March 7, 2010, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network.

Midnight Screenings Earn 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' $16 Million

Just because it is a hot topic I don't feel bad going with a short post on this one as Variety has revealed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earned an estimated $16 million in midnight runs, second only to The Dark Knight. It's the best midnight run ever for a movie opening on a Wednesday.

Of course, the difference being The Dark Knight was opening on a Friday, but I think we can now expect big things from Transformers, as if we weren't already.

The Dark Knight went on to earn $67+ million on its opening day in 4,366 theaters. Transformers will take its estimated $16 million into 4,226 runs today after its roughly 3,000 runs last night.

Several of you have already made your predictions in our Transformers estimate article in which Laremy predicted a safe $43 million for Wednesday, a number that is now looking low as I would expect at least mid-50s. Thoughts?

Go Behind-the-Scenes of 'The Dark Knight' Viral Campaign

I am sure many of you remember the myriad of viral websites and corny crap Batman fans got involved in last year leading up to the release of The Dark Knight. From massive online generated scavenger hunts to faux websites propelling people into the world of Gotham City, marketing firm 42 Entertainment kept fans busy until the film finally hit theaters on its way to what is now a $1+ billion worldwide box-office tally.

Over the course of that time I did my best to keep on top of the many viral sites that sprouted up which resulted in a list of 35 sites, but I am sure I missed a few. Now, as pointed out by Film School Rejects, a video featurette detailing the success and scope of the viral campaing was revealed on Alternate Reality Branding and you may get a kick out of it by either laughing at the silly things people did or marveling at the idea the campaing included almost 10 million unique participants over 75 countries. Not too shabby eh? I don't think this will be the last time we see something of this nature.

Check out the vid below.

Welcome to the Dawn of Obamatainment

Can you feel it?

Don't mind the frightening wolves howling outside your door. Just be happy you have a door, even if it's just a flap on your cardboard shack. The world's imploding and we're all hobos now. Even Steven Spielberg has gone panhandling -- please Mr. Movie Studio Head-honcho spare some change for my Lincoln bio-pic. Yet, ignore it all. After all, we have hope. And during Sunday's Annual Circle Jerk Celebration of All that is Phony (A.K.A. The Academy Awards), Hollywood didn't let you forget it. It gave you Wolverine announcing the return of the worries-be-damned-it's-all-about-the-glam musical, and then capped the night by handing all the gold to you-just-gotta-have-hope Slumdog Millionaire. I was disappointed President Obama didn't present the award for Best (and Most Hopeful) Picture.

Yes, welcome to the sunny Age of Obamatainment. This year's Academy Awards was the launch party for it. Ding-dong the dark cynicism of the last 8 years is dead. It's pass�. Give up the dismal, it's time to get your hope on -- boo-yah! -- just like you did during the '80s when the country grew fatigued of Nixon-era disillusionment, threw a great communicator into the White House to handle a sputtering economy, and demanded that cinema aim more for the bubble-gum profundity of Zapped!

Slumdog Millionaire
Photo: Fox Searchlight

Hollywood got the memo then -- quick, toss some statues at Chariots of Fire, it's inspirational -- and they got it now. This year's best picture nominees all have a hopeful edge to them. Slumdog Millionaire not only retells the rags-to-riches story, but it throws the boy-gets-girl standby in the mix too. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button whimsically tells a love conquers all tale. Milk may have a downer of an ending, but it's brimming with hope for the evolution of our culture. Frost/Nixon unfolds in the tradition of the old-as-the-Bible, hope-obsessed yarn of David versus Goliath. And even The Reader has a bizarrely hopeful outlook.*

And that thread of optimism is precisely why The Dark Knight didn't garner any of the major Oscar noms (with the exception of Saint Ledger's). The film, with its Batman on the lam ending, is too much of a negative ninny to have made this year's cut. It's an artifact of the Bush era, in which pessimism ruled. Last year, the Academy Awards tapped out on the bleak vibe by naming a manifesto on nihilism as best picture. No Country for Old Men and its main competition in last year's race, There Will Be Blood, are films that slam, bolt and weld the hatch shut on optimism. They were the apocalyptic crescendo of the doom-drenched misery encompassing the Bush years.

Dubya was a sad lemon of a president, a smug golem who churned out one tragic decision after another like he had a quota to meet... I already miss him. We've lost our bogeyman of a muse. Say what you will about the string of travesties carried out by the carnival geek show that was the Bush administration, but give credit when due: Bush provoked the arts and entertainment industry to step it up over the last 8 years. If art is the expression of reaction, then just about everyone with a pen, camera, or crayon reacted to the daily horror show of the Bush era. We have George W. Bush, the villain**, to thank for nearly a decade's worth of enraged, brilliant satire, comedy, allegory and drama across the spectrum of arts.

Entertainers and artists discussed with outraged zeal the absurd, dark regions of the loathsome America character Bush represented. Whether it was Jon Stewart mocking Bush nightly or nearly every documentary filmmaker in the universe tackling the disastrous consequences of his administration's policy, dissent in the arts thrived over the last 8 years -- contrary to the myth that Bush and his cronies had quashed all protest.

Yet, such critical reflection wasn't reserved for cable TV or indie theaters. The cautious wimps of Hollywood rat-stomped Bush too. After all, everyone else was doing it. Despite low box-office returns*** major studios released several films focused squarely on the negatives of the post-9/11 environment (war, torture, you know, the daily grind for the Bush administration). Yet, even the blockbusters, the easily consumable Big Macs of Hollywood, played the whack-a-Bush game. Film reviewers had little problem digging up allegorical parallels to the current geo-political climate within films such as The Village, War of the Worlds, and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. Even the freakin' Star Wars prequels took shots at the Bush administration.

Blockbusters depicting a sense of world-awareness veiled by aliens blowing sh*t up met with varying results. But you couldn't help but smile even at the failures. At the very least, Hollywood was trying to be interesting and subversive in its own mainstream way. And when films weren't intentionally drawing connections to the world according to Bush, they were capturing the national zeitgeist of despondency. Movies were unafraid to go dark. In fact, we wanted films to explore the shadows -- culminating in the success of The Dark Knight.

But ahh, how just half a year and a leader with a sanguine vision can change the national mood. We know the world still stinks. But move on. It's time to buck up. Get cheery. It may still be hailing outside, but Obama has given us an umbrella and rose-tinted binoculars. It's only a short matter of time before that attitude fully imbues itself within our arts and entertainment. This year's Oscars shot the opening salvo.

* Unfortunately it's a horribly twisted outlook that conveys an unintentional hopeful message for Holocaust deniers and Nazi sympathizers. Don't play the indignant card. It's a perfectly legit criticism against this messy, incoherent film.

** And just as Jason Voorhees -- a silly relic of the '80s -- replaced the villainous phantom of Richard Nixon in '70s cinema, is it any surprise he circled back to take over for George W. Bush?

*** While Hollywood could turn out serious films related to the Bush administration's decisions (A.K.A. Iraq War movies), it couldn't market them worth a sh*t, which I think played more into their poor box-office than a cultural indifference toward them.

'The Dark Knight' is Now a Worldwide Billionaire

Photo: Warner Bros.

Over the weekend it finally happened as Box Office Mojo is reporting The Dark Knight has cracked the $1 billion mark in worldwide box-office receipts with a current total said to be $1,001,082,160 with just over $533 million of that coming from domestic box and almost $477 million from the foreign markets.

This places the Batman sequel in the #4 spot in the all-time worldwide charts behind Titanic ($1.842 billion), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.119 billion) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($1.066 billion). Based on the numbers it looks like this will be as high as it goes, but I must say reaching $1 billion no matter if you look at inflation numbers or not is an impressive feat.

Just last night The Dark Knight took home two Oscars, one for the late Heath Ledger and another for Sound Editing and there is an obvious fanbase that has a large amount of support for the film. It has certainly shaken up the landscape of film and placed itself as a film all others will strive to equal and will always be compared to.

'Slumdog,' 'Duchess' and 'Dark Knight' Take Costume Kudos

Pop quiz, hotshot. There's a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? "Uhhhhhhh.... Slumdog Millionaire?"

It is beginning to get a bit silly as there doesn't seem to be a question you can ask this award season that doesn't get answered with "Slumdog Millionaire." Last night the Costume Designers Guild Awards named Slumdog costumer Suttirat Larlarb the winner for excellence in contemporary film while awarding The Duchess (Michael O'Connor) for period film and The Dark Knight (Lindy Hemming) for fantasy film.

Of those three films guess which two can't win an Oscar... Yup, Slumdog Millionaire and The Dark Knight weren't nominated for an Oscar in the costume category with the crowd made up of The Duchess (my current pick to win) and Australia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk and Revolutionary Road.

Of course, looking at the way the Costume Designers Guild breaks out their nominees it does make a bit more sense how Slumdog won considering it was up against Iron Man (how is this contemporary but Dark Knight is fantasy?), Mamma Mia!, Sex and the City and The Wrestler while the Period Film category carried the majority of the Oscar nominees including The Duchess, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk and Revolutionary Road.

Australia was the only Oscar nominee not recognized by the CDG. You can find the complete list of nominees here.

Oscar Predictions: Best Cinematography and Art Direction

Photo: AMPAS

As I write this it is 11:33 PM PST on Tuesday, February 16. In just over 17 hours from now, at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 17 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must return their completed final Oscar ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Yup, the deadline is nigh and we continue to take a peek at the below-the-line categories leading up to the Thursday free-for-all. Today we take a look at Cinematography and Art Direction with Animated, Foreign Language and Documentary films following tomorrow and then the complete field on Thursday along with polls for you to vote for your projected winners.

You can take a look at past predictions made long the way by clicking on any of the links below.

As for this round, let's look at the nominees for ...

Achievement in art direction

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Achievement in cinematography

Changeling, Tom Stern
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight, Wally Pfister
The Reader, Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle

We can start with Art Direction, which recently saw honors handed out the Art Directors Guild on Saturday with production designers for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire taking home awards. The fact only Button and Dark Knight were nominated for an Oscar means we can actually forget about Slumdog for a moment. With Button getting the nod for best production design in a period film and Knight getting love for a fantasy feature I am not sure it gives us much ground to work with. Choosing between those two I will have to go with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button since I was more impressed with how The Dark Knight was photographed than how it was designed. However, after watching Changeling this weekend I wouldn't argue if it won and the same goes for both The Duchess and Revolutionary Road. I believe this is a solid group of worthy nominees, but still believe Button is the front-runner.

Photo: Warner Bros.

In terms of Cinematography I can pretty much tell you Anthony Dod Mantle is going to win for Slumdog Millionaire right now. The BAFTA Awards and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) awarded his work as the best of 2008 and while that doesn't always mean the Oscar will follow it seems illogical to vote against Slumdog in any of the categories outside of Sound. However, just as the production design in Changeling was impressive so was the muted palette Tom Stern brought to it and the work Claudio Miranda put into The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was also impressive. And like I made reference to earlier, the shot from The Dark Knight above speaks to the fantastic visuals Wally Pfister brought to that film.

The one wild card in the bunch is The Reader, a film I absolutely loved the look of, but the beauty of it seems to be what will lose it the Oscar in this category as so many see it as a contradiction of tone. I mean, how can we have a film that even touches upon the atrocities of the Holocaust (even though it is not a Holocaust film) look this beautiful? As much as I have tried to argue against The Reader haters I must say they have a point here and it really hit me when I saw the beautiful cinematography in Vicente Amorim's Good. Andrew Dunn's work in that film was fantastic but it was even more a contradiction to tone than was found in The Reader.

So, for Cinematography I am left with Slumdog Millionaire simply based on logic and good sense, but if almost any of the other nominees in both of these categories were to win I wouldn't consider it an upset and in some cases I would say it may be a better choice.

What do you think? Do you disagree? If so, why?

Oscar Predictions: Best Makeup and Costume Design

Photo: AMPAS

And the attempt to figure out who will win what at the 2009 Oscars continues on this Thursday afternoon with Makeup and Costume Design. You can take a look at my current predictions for Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and the Supporting categories right here, Adapted and Original Screenplay right here, Original Score and Original Song here and yesterday's predictions for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing here.

Drum roll... and the nominees please...

Achievement in makeup

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Greg Cannom
The Dark Knight, John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O'Sullivan
Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

Achievement in costume design

Australia, Catherine Martin
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jacqueline West
The Duchess, Michael O'Connor
Milk, Danny Glicker
Revolutionary Road, Albert Wolsky

We have some interesting choices this year in both categories as the Best Picture nominee The Curious Case of Benjamin Button finds itself in both categories, but I don't think it will win either in either of them. Fan favorite The Dark Knight gets a chance at Oscar gold and even Revolutionary Road is allowed to enter the discussion. But which one of the above flicks rises to the top in each category?

First for makeup and I am going to have to go with Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I think both The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Dark Knight relied too heavily on computer effects to earn the nod while Guillermo del Toro's make up crew, Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz, had to do far more work, especially on Big Red alone and not to mention the Angel of Death. In Ben Button Benjamin was a lot of effects and then in The Dark Knight Nolan went for the ghastly when it came to Two Face as opposed to simple facial abrasions. Yup, Hellboy gets my vote.

As for Costumes I think there is one obvious pick even though a case could be made for the rest of the features. Milk, Revolutionary Road and Benjamin Button all did extremely well at capturing their moments in time while Australia mixed the Outback leather with upper class flair. However, ever since the marketing machine for The Duchess began there was a central focus on the costumes. It was almost as if the film had been made solely to win an Oscar for Best Costumes and at this point I don't see how it can lose.

Have an opinion? Am I wrong? Share below and stay tuned as the march toward February 22 continues.

'Slumdog' Takes Home Seven at the BAFTAs while Winslet Continues Her Streak

The 2009 BAFTA Award winners have been announced and once again Slumdog Millionaire has taken on all comers and come out ahead with seven awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

On the acting side Kate Winslet has once again taken home hardware winning Best Actress for her performance in The Reader while Mickey Rourke won on the Leading Actor side beating Sean Penn among others for his performance in The Wrestler. Heath Ledger was awarded for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight and Penelope Cruz won for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

The acting awards are a big deal for those predicting the 2009 Oscar winners as last year all four acting winners at the BAFTAs went on to take home the Oscar, which included Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton. It also means good news for Danny Boyle as the Coens went on to take the Oscar after their BAFTA win.

However, there was a discrepancy last year as No Country for Old Men took home the Oscar, but Atonement won the BAFTA award. Of course many could chalk this up to the British Academy simply awarding a British film, but it is notable nonetheless.

You can check out the complete list of winners below and click here if you want to give the nominees another glance.

2009 WINNERS

BEST FILM

Slumdog Millionaire, Christian Colso

LEADING ACTOR

Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

LEADING ACTRESS

Kate Winslet for The Reader

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona

DIRECTOR

Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

In Bruges, Martin McDonagh

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Man on Wire, Simon Chinn / James Marsh

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

I've Loved You So Long, Yves Marmion / Philippe Claudel

ANIMATED FILM

WALL-E, Andrew Stanton

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle

EDITING

Slumdog Millionaire, Chris Dickens

PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Donald Graham Burt / Victor J. Zolfo

COSTUME DESIGN

The Duchess, Michael O'Connor

MAKE UP and#038; HAIR

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jean Black / Colleen Callaghan

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Barba / Craig Barron / Nathan McGuinness / Edson Williams

SOUND

Slumdog Millionaire, Glenn Freemantle / Resul Pookutty / Richard Pryke / Tom Sayers / Ian Tapp

MUSIC

Slumdog Millionaire, A. R. Rahman

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film

STEVE McQUEEN Director/Writer - Hunger

THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

Noel Clarke

Ledger's Family Will Accept His Oscar Should He Win

Photo: Warner Bros.

The Envelope just posted a new video conversation of a select group of Oscar pundits talking about Heath Ledger and how he is a lock to win Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. Inside of hit HitFix.com's Greg Ellwood wonders who will be picking up Ledger's Oscar now that Christopher Nolan hasn't been nominated and wonders if Nolan will even be in attendance as a result. Well, that has already been made public and it is just one more reason to pencil in Ledger as the winner.

Entertainment Weekly annouced if Heath Ledger wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor on Feb. 22, his family will accept the award on his behalf, Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan told EW.com at the DGA Awards Saturday night. This comes after Nolan accepted for Ledger at the Golden Globes and co-star Gary Oldman accepted for him at the SAGs.

There is no confirmation on which members of the family exactly would accept the award, but I wouldn't doubt it if Ledger's mother, father and sisters, Kate Ledger, Ashleigh Bell and Olivia Ledger, were to do it since they have all been making statements following the actor's death. Most recently Ledger's sisters read a prepared statement following Ledger's nomination.

Should the Oscars Nominate Certain Films to Obtain Better TV Ratings?

Recently I have seen people saying how they won't be watching the Oscars now that The Dark Knight wasn't nominated for Best Picture. The poster to the right is a mock-up of the official 81st Academy Awards poster made by someone that obviously believes people will not be tuning in now that a sympathetic Nazi is in contention and Batman is not. I wonder though, why is it that people would have watched the Oscars if The Dark Knight had been nominated for Best Picture? It's not like anyone ever thought it had a chance of winning. So what difference would it have made?

I can understand the point if this were a situation such as in 2004 when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was nominated for Best Picture and went on to win 11 Oscars and everyone pretty much expected it to win after the first two films had seemingly been overlooked in order to award the third film as a gesture of goodwill. However, with The Dark Knight it wasn't going to win, but Heath Ledger still will. Sure it was a bummer Chris Nolan didn't get a director nod or the fact the script didn't get a nomination, but with eight nominations to its credit it could still do quite well.

I have a feeling the animosity comes as a result of people feeling as if they are watching an award show that simply doesn't come close to sharing their opinion on film, which means they don't connect to what they are watching and would be bored quickly, or possibly even mildly offended when one film is called the best of the year and they either haven't seen it (or perhaps heard of it) and their favorite film didn't even have a chance. Had The Dark Knight simply been given that Best Picture nod it would have allowed for the art house snobs and the fanboys to finally agree on something. Unfortunately, selling Batman to the Academy is far different than selling Tolkien.

However, I remain stuck on this argument with regards to the ratings. Should the Academy consider television ratings when picking their year's best? Instead of voting The Dark Knight as their fourth or fifth favorite film of 2008 should it move up to #1 or #2, simply to ensure it gets nominated and therefore excites the general public into watching their show?

One of the more vocal Oscar bloggers upset with the decision to not include The Dark Knight as one of the five Best Picture nominees was Kris Tapley at In Contention, but based on his top ten films of 2008 and the way the Academy counts the votes his pick for The Dark Knight as the fifth best film of the year wouldn't have really helped matters. Especially if everyone voted similarly.

Based on what I believe are flawed voting procedures, if the majority of the Academy members didn't have The Dark Knight in their top 3 it had an almost impossible chance at receiving a Best Picture nom. I listed it as my fourth favorite film of 2008 so I am afraid my ballot wouldn't have helped much either.

I would be interested to see how close it came to making the Best Picture list because I wouldn't be surprised if it had been close, but I will say the last thing I would like to see would be for the Oscars to begin nominating films and performances simply as an effort to gain ratings. Then again, if they were ever going to do such a thing this would have been the year since it wouldn't look like pandering, which is what could happen later on down the line. So often with the Academy they are always a year or two behind the times and it becomes the reason why people begin winning Oscars because it was "their time". Is The Departed really the film that should have won Martin Scorsese his first Oscar? It's another reason why Milk may stand a chance after the gay cowboy movie was outdone by the long forgotten coincidence flick Crash.

It's the reason people thought Clint Eastwood would get an acting nomination for Gran Torino since he has never won an Oscar for acting. This year it looks like Kate Winslet is the "deserving" winner. I guess 33-years-old is considered old when you see Meryl Streep won her first statue at the age of 30. Winslet only has 6 nominations to Streep's 15 and the Academy needs a new golden girl for the next several years. However, Winslet is getting nominated at a faster rate than Streep who didn't hit 6 noms until she was 37. What's up with that?

The Oscars are already bordering on irrelevance after recent years and a rise in online coverage and discussion points out many of the flaws. So many people have their eyes on the show now and expectations to change with the times continue to grow. Will the Academy ever join the ranks of the majority or will they continue to remain in obscurity for the sake of doing so?

Questions to consider:

Should the Oscars nominate films to obtain better TV ratings?
Should box-office results be considered?
Should critical reviews be considered?
Consider some Rotten Tomato Ratings:
- WALL-E (96%)
- The Dark Knight (94%)
- Iron Man (93%)
- U2 3D (92%)
- The Wrestler (98%)
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (97%)
- Let the Right One In (97%)
- The Reader (60%)
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (71%)
- Milk (93%)
- Frost/Nixon (91%)
- Slumdog Millionaire (94%)
Do you think the Oscars will ever change?

YOU VOTE: Predict the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Award Winners!

Photo: Screen Actors Guild Awards�

With all the talk about the Oscars recently it seems everyone forgot that this Sunday, January 25 at 8 PM ET/PT on TNT and#038; TBS are the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards, the night the actors award actors with the Actor. As if anyone should, would or could forget. Well, if you did forget I am here to remind you while at the same time offer up some predictions for the film categories as well as ask you to do a little predicting of your own.

One thing to know before making your picks is to realize the SAGs don't necessarily follow with award season tradition. Sure, last year they awarded Javier Bardem and Daniel Day-Lewis just as did the Oscars and Golden Globes, but they also gave Ruby Dee (American Gangster) and Julie Christie (Away From Her) awards. In 2007 they matched up more accurately, but while Eddie Murphy won both the Globe and SAG for Supporting Actor, the Oscars went with Alan Arkin. So I am willing to bet there is sure to be a surprise (or two), it's just a matter of guessing the right one.

Below I have listed the nominees for you to vote on as well as offered up a tiny commentary just as I did with the Golden Globe predictions. Come Sunday I may be back for a Live Blog considering the Golden Globe live blog was such a success, but again I am running up against an East Coast/West Coast time difference and need to find a way to get that East Coast feed. Yes, there are ways, but they are scandalous ways.

Stay tuned, and for now, make your predictions for the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards!

Actor

There are two reasons I have a feeling Mickey Rourke is about to sweep the Globes, SAGs and Oscars. 1) He will show up and Sean Penn won't; 2) His acceptance speech is exactly what award show organizers and voters want to hear. Oh, and on top of that he gave a PHENOMENAL performance. Yeah, Rourke is my pick for this one.

MY PICK: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

[poll id="27"]

Actress

I said there would be surprises in the opening and as it turns out this is probably where they will come since the Oscars went the route of placing Kate Winslet in the Best Actress category, which opens the door nice and wide for a variety of winners this Oscar season. For the Globes I had Hathaway predicted, but I am now of the opinion that Rachel Getting Married was more a desperate critical plee to find a film to love rather than a majority opinion. Streep gives a great performance in Doubt and I just wish Mamma Mia! had been good so that both her and Winslet would have been competing with themselves all season long.

MY PICK: Meryl Streep, Doubt

[poll id="28"]

Supporting Actor

It seems this is the one lock all across the board as Ledger is about to have the best year of his career and unfortunately not be around to witness it or reap the awards. I guess we can only take solace in the fact he will be remembered so fondly even though we will never fully know what might have been.

MY PICK: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

[poll id="29"]

Supporting Actress

Here she is, the late season storm and I am quite happy she is here. I awarded Kate Winslet the RopeofSilicon Award for Best Supporting Actress and it appears the HFPA listened and I can only assume everyone did and will say she is going to take the Actor from the Screen Actors Guild on her way to tougher waters at the Oscars in February.

MY PICK: Kate Winslet, The Reader

[poll id="30"]

Ensemble Cast

Photo: Paramount / Fox Searchlight / Universal Pictures / Focus Features / Miramax

I see this as a two film race between Doubt and Milk and based on nominations and my personal opinion I have to believe Doubt is a mortal lock. Milk had plenty of great performances, but the entire Doubt cast is nominated for individual acting awards. Pretty clear cut if you ask me.

MY PICK: Doubt

[poll id="31"]

See you back here on Sunday for the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards!

Winslet Oscar Query Solved and 'The Dark Knight' Probably Wasn't Snubbed

Photo: The Weinstein Co.

Yesterday I posted an article eternally confused over how Kate Winslet could somehow earn an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role in The Reader and not Revolutionary Road. I looked into the Academy's rules, discussed the politics of it all and made assumptions here and there. The one thing I was missing was the final piece of the puzzle to help solve at the very least the voting riddle. Finally, after some further digging and this article at Variety I have cleared up this Winslet query as far as the voting process is concerned. Let me first give you the two rules I quoted in my article yesterday:

4. The leading role and supporting role categories will be tabulated simultaneously. If any performance should receive votes in both categories, the achievement shall be only placed on the ballot in that category in which, during the tabulation process, it first receives the required number of votes to be nominated. In the event that the performance receives the numbers of votes required to be nominated in both categories simultaneously, the achievement shall be placed only on the ballot in that category in which it receives the greater percentage of the total votes.
5. In the event that two achievements by an actor or actress receive sufficient votes to be nominated in the same category, only one shall be nominated using the preferential tabulation process and such other allied procedures as may be necessary to achieve that result.

The focus should be on the line where it says "preferential tabulation process" in rule #5 above from the Special Rules for the Acting Awards. This is something I didn't quite understand until just now and it clears up my complaints that Kate Winslet's performance in The Reader may have potentially received fewer votes than her performance in Revolutionary Road based on being the first to receive the required number of votes to be nominated. My reading of the rules was lacking some important information on how the Academy counts their votes.

You see, I assumed voters submit their ballots with their list of five nominees for each category (or however many nominees each category had) and then the number of times a film or performance was mentioned determined their voter's score. That's not how it works. In fact voters are asked to list their nominees in order from 1-5, #1 being their first pick obviously. This is then used to begin tallying the votes.

Here's how it goes and I am going to use Timothy Gray's lead at Variety to formulate my example. Gray used the Director's Branch for his example and I will attempt to convert it over to actors to keep with the Winslet question I posed yesterday.

The accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers assemble the ballots and first determine how many #1 votes an actor/actress needs to earn a nomination. The actors branch has 1,222 voting members and in order to figure out this number they divide 1,222 by six -- i.e., the number of eventual nominees (five) plus one -- which returns 203. They then add 1 to that number and 204 is the number used. This is the number of times an actor/actress must be listed on the voting ballots to earn a nomination, but it doesn't go down the line from 1-5 as you may suspect.

First they look at all the #1 choices on each ballot and put each performance into his/her own stack and once a performance reaches the 204 number they have enough for a nomination and any other ballots voting for that contender are put to the side to ensure everyone's ballot is counted and the process begins with the next name. If, after the first round, there are five contenders who got 204 votes you have your list of nominees. If not they then move to the #2 selections and so forth until five nominations are reached.

In the case of Kate Winslet and her performances in The Reader and Revolutionary Road this means her Reader performance simply received more #1 (and possibly #2) votes than her Revolutionary Road performance and therefore became her nominated performance. Basically the Academy does take the performance with the most votes, it just doesn't do it as I suspected and assumed in yesterday's piece.

Photo: Warner Bros.

This should also help explain why films such as The Dark Knight and WALL-E weren't included as Best Picture nominees. In all likelihood those two films were mentioned on several ballots (maybe even more than The Reader), they simply weren't listed as one of the top -- let's say three -- films of the year on those ballots and based on that it means there were probably already five nominees before they got down to counting the #4 and #5 slots on the voters' ballots.

In all actuality this means rarely does a performance or a movie actually get "snubbed" as Gray puts it. Every single Academy voter could have potentially included The Dark Knight and WALL-E on their ballots, but if they had them both around the #4 and #5 slot then they just weren't counted in the "preferential tabulation process".

Now before you look at this and think how stupid this process is and how it isn't fair and so on, do know this isn't a system the Academy adopted on its own. Australia adopted it as early as 1902 for elections in which there is more than one result. The Academy has been using it since 1936.

The goal of the process is to make sure it works from the top down and it sounds like a pretty reasonable way of looking at it if you ask me, but I am still not sure if I entirely agree with using it since I wonder if the voting members even realize it's how their votes are counted. It also seems weird to me that one film could be listed on every ballot around the #4 and #5 slot and end up not getting a nomination. It's hard to argue either side and one of those situations where you just have to go with what's being used. Nothing's perfect and when judging artistic endeavors it's a tough task to reach a consensus.

To read Timothy Gray's article at "Variety", which I used and quoted in putting this article together click here. I hope this helped clear up things for you after my article yesterday probably confused folks. It's a learning process and something I will never forget.

Girl's Best Friend: Worst Week Ever

Bill Nighy in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Aaaaargh!
Photo: Screen Gems

They say 'sex sells.' Too bad "they" are too busy trying to sell sex instead of trying to help you figure out how to potentially get it. That's why I am here... There are a few things that might increase your chances: (1) having a lovable, little dog with you while running on the beach; (2) owning a surfboard that is completely visible from your doorway despite that you live nowhere near a beach; (3) not talking about Grant Theft Auto for more than exactly three sentences. But if these things are all too hard, just try taking any average paramour with the desire to relax the brain and work other muscles out to the movie. For that endeavor, here is your weekly, one-stop guide to your girl's best friend (and the inner girl in you).

Wait a second -- where have all the chick flicks gone? This weekend's box office is nothing but fantasy, violence, and the awkward presence of mall cops as appropriate movie heroes. It looks like the girl's going to want to stay in this weekend. That could be nice... if you like dining with her parents, waiting on her friends, walking her dog or cleaning the house. You don't like these things. So what's the arm candy of a great girl with mediocre taste to do?

Get her to the movies.

If fantasy, violence or Vikings sound like options you can handle, here's how you might get her on board.

Your Options:

1. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Plot: Poor man's Lord of the Rings meets rich man's Twilight
Thought: Probably some bad CGI, some cringing -- but two hours of popcorn and vampires are still better than the girlfriend's friends.
Advice: Just call it 'Rise of the Lycans' when you try to spin it. The 'Underworld colon' has trouble written all over it.
Get her on board: Michael Sheen is in it! Yeah, that guy from Frost/Nixon. So who knows, it could be up for some awards. The title might be a reference to politics.

2. The Dark Knight [re-release]
Plot: The caped crusader fights the richest criminal ever. Seriously, where did Joker get all those explosives?
Thought: Um... best Batman movie ever?
Advice: Tell her it's the un-cut or un-rated version. Sure, it'll be exactly the same, but the damn thing is like three hours long. If she asks what scene got added, just mention 'that one in the middle when all those buses blew up.'
Get her on board: Mention you're love for Heath Ledger and make it a theme night. You sit through A Knight's Tale with her, and she sits through the (un-cut, un-rated) Dark Knight with you. That is such an un-even trade, and it's in her favor, so how can she say no?

3. Inkheart
Plot: Bridge to Terabithia meets The Spiderwick Chronicles meets Brendan Fraser sans mummies
Thought: I don't know if you really want to see this?
Advice: If you do, the 'no mummies' is your selling point. Plus, if you missed those other two movies that are oddly similar to this one, you can kind of claim three birds, one stone. Get her on board: Doesn't she want to see some of Brendan's acting depth when mummies aren't around (but all the other stuff still is)?

4. Killshot
Plot: A hitman movie with Mickey Rourke and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Thought: That sounds... pretty awesome.
Advice: It probably isn't awesome if it hasn't been marketed at all. But let's not say any of that.
Get her on board: JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT. That should do the trick.

5. Outlander [limited]
Plot: Vikings movie written by the same guy who wrote Underworld [colon] Rise of the Lycans... but this time, there are aliens.
Thought: James Caviezel... you were in The Count of Monte Cristo... now you're in this.
Get her on board: It's an historical love story (uh... but this time, there are aliens).

So, will you or won't you get to the movies this weekend? I'd like to hope you could complete this task -- even if you don't really surf. Let me know how it goes.

'Iron Man' Leads the Way in the Visual Effects Society Nominations

As the Society noms continue to roll in, the latest comes from the Visual Effects Society as they announce their nominees for the 7th Annual VES Awards, a ceremony recognizing outstanding visual effects in over a dozen categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games. Of course all I really care about are the film noms, but you can check out the full list of nominees by downloading the PDF press release right here.

Iron Man led the way with five nominations and is competing with The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Cloverfield in the Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture category, the category probably deemed the highest profile of the bunch and it went to Transformers last year only to see The Golden Compass pull out a surprise win at the Oscars.

With Iron Man in the lead, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Bolt didn't do too poorly either scoring four nominations each.

Strangely enough, of the seven films that make up the Oscar short list for Visual Effects, The Mummy only scored one nom while films such as Australia and Journey to the Center of the Earth received none. Who's right? Who knows. All I know is you can check out the film noms below.

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Cloverfield
Iron Man

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture

Changeling
Eagle Eye
Valkyrie
Nim's Island
Synecdoche, New York

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Motion Picture

Bolt - The Chase
Kung Fu Panda - Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting
A Matter of Loaf and Death - Piella's Mansion
WALL-E

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year

Cloverfield - Statue of Liberty Crash and Woolworth Tower Collapse
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Benjamin's Secret
The Day the Earth Stood Still - Newborn Klaatu
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Valley Destruction
Iron Man

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Benjamin Button
Steve Preeg, Matthias Wittmann, Tom St. Amand, David McLean
Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Elemental Sequence
Colin McEvoy, Christoph Ammann
Iron Man
Hal Hickel, Bruce Holcomb, James Tooley, John Walker
The Spiderwick Chronicles - Hogsqueal
Todd Labonte, Michael Brunet, Nathan Fredenburg, Aharon Bourland

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture

Bolt - Various Sequences - Bolt
Becky Bresee, Bob Davies, Renato Dos Anjos, Wayne Unten Jr.
Bolt - Various Sequences - Rhino
Adam Dykstra, Dave Gottlieb, Clay Kaytis, Hyrum Osmond
Kung Fu Panda - This Kung Fu Stuff is Hard Work - The Animation of Po
Jack Black, Dan Wagner, Nico Marlet, Peter Farson
WALL-E � WALL-E and Eve Truck Sequence
Ben Burtt, Victor Navone, Austin Lee, Jay Shuster

Outstanding Effects Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture

Bolt - Various Sequences
John Murrah, Michael Kaschalk, Dale Mayeda, Adolph Lusinsky
Kung Fu Panda - The Secret Ingredient - Visual Effects of Kung Fu Panda
Markus Manninen, Alex Parkinson, Amaury Aubel, Lawrence Lee
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - Effects in Africa
Scott Peterson, Laurent Kermel, Andrew Wheeler, Greg Gladstone
WALL-E - Effects in WALL-E
Jason Johnston, Keith Daniel Klohn, Enrique Vila, Bill Watral

Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture

Changeling - 1928 Downtown L.A.
Romain Bayle, Abel Milanes, Allan Lee, Debor Dunphy
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Richard Bluff, Barry Williams, Yanick Dusseault, Yusei Uesugi
Synecdoche, New York - Matte Paintings
Brett Miller, Garrett Eaton, Matthew Conner
Speed Racer - Overall Matte Painting Presentation
Lubo Hristov, Dennis Martin, Ron Crabb

Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture

The Dark Knight - Garbage Truck Crash Models and Miniatures
Ian Hunter, Forest Fischer, Branden Seifert, Adam Gelbart
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
David Fogler, Craig Hammack, Brian Gernand, Geoff Heron
Iron Man - Suit Up Machine
Aaron McBride, Russell Paul, Gerald Gutschmidt, Keiji Yamaguchi
My Darling of the Mountains - Hot Springs
Taro Kiba, Kenji Nagatani, Yuki Minagawa, Hideo Udo

Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture

Cloverfield - Brooklyn Bridge Sequence
David Vickery, Phil Johnson, Victor Wade, Sean Stranks
The Dark Knight - IMAX Gotham City Scapes
Peter Bebb, David Vickery, Philippe Leprince, Andrew Lockley
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Temple Heart
Michael Halsted, David Fogler, Steve Walton, David Weitzberg
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - Avalanche Sequence
Mike Meaker, Rich Mahon, Jason Iverson, Sho Hasegawa
Synecdoche, New York - Created Environment
Brett Miller, Garrett Eaton, Matthew Conner

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Stuart Lashley, Arundi Asregadoo, Mark Curtis, Richard Baker
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Benjamin Comes Together Janelle Croshaw, Paul Lambert, Sonja Burchard, Sarahjane Javelo
Iron Man � Head Under Display - HUD Compositing
Jonathan Rothbart, Dav Rauch, Kyle McCulloch, Kent Seki
Quantum of Solace - Sienna Chase and Fight Sequence
Anthony Smith, Christian Kaestner, Adrian Metzelaar, Jon Thum

Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture

The Dark Knight
Chris Corbould, Peter Notley, Ian Lowe
The Dark Knight - Garbage Truck Crash Mechanical Effects
Scott Beverly, Robert Spurlock, Jon Warren, Brian Kelly Hahn
Defiance - Special Effects
Neil Corbould, Steve Warner, Anne Maria Walters, Alan Young

International Film Music Critics Announce 2008 Nominees

I don't believe I have ever reported the nominees for the International Film Music Critics Association before, but in the spirit of covering more award season news than is probably necessary I figured, "What the hell?"

The nominees listed below make up the fifth annual International Film Music Critics Association Awards for Excellence with WALL-E receiving the most nominations including Film Score of the Year, Best Score for an Animated Film, Best Film Composition (for "Define Dancing") and Composer of the Year for Thomas Newman. The other big nominee is Danny Elfman who received the most individual nominations this year with seven: Composer of the Year; Film Score of the Year and Best Documentary Score for Standard Operating Procedure; Best Drama Score for Milk; Best Action/Adventure Score and Best Individual Cue for Wanted ("Success Montage"); and Best Fantasy/Science Fiction Score for Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

The International Film Music Critics will announce the winners of their 5th Annual Awards on February 18, 2009. The complete list of nominees can be found directly below.

FILM CATEGORIES

FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, music by Alexandre Desplat
The Dark Knight, music by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, music by John Williams
Standard Operating Procedure, music by Danny Elfman
WALL-E, music by Thomas Newman

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

Alexandre Desplat
Danny Elfman
James Newton Howard
Thomas Newman
John Powell

BREAKOUT COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

Paul Cantelon, The Other Boleyn Girl and W
Andrew Lockington, Journey to the Center of the Earth and City of Ember
Nico Mulhy, The Reader
Max Richter, Waltz with Bashir
Atli �rvarsson, Babylon A.D. and Vantage Point

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, music by James Horner
Che, music by Alberto Iglesias
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, music by Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, music by James Newton Howard
Milk, music by Danny Elfman

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM

Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis, music by Philippe Rombi
Burn After Reading, music by Carter Burwell
Fool's Gold, music by George Fenton
Leatherheads, music by Randy Newman
Tropic Thunder, music by Theodore Shapiro

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/ADVENTURE FILM

The Dark Knight, music by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer
Hancock, music by John Powell
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, music by John Williams
Speed Racer, music by Michael Giacchino
Wanted, music by Danny Elfman

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION FILM

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, music by Harry Gregson-Williams
City of Ember, music by Andrew Lockington
Hellboy II: The Golden Army, music by Danny Elfman
Inkheart, music by Javier Navarrete
The Spiderwick Chronicles, music by James Horner

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A HORROR/THRILLER FILM

The Happening, music by James Newton Howard
Let the Right One In, music by Johan S�derqvist
Mirrors, music by Javier Navarrete
Twilight, music by Carter Burwell
Valkyrie, music by John Ottman

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FEATURE

Bolt, music by John Powell
Ponyo on the Cliff, music by Joe Hisaishi
Horton Hears a Who!, music by John Powell
WALL-E, music by Thomas Newman
Waltz with Bashir, music by Max Richter

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, music by The Cinematic Orchestra
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about his Father, music by Kurt Kuenne
Night, music by Cezary Skubiszewski
Standard Operating Procedure, music by Danny Elfman
Tabarly, music by Yann Tiersen

FILM MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR

Cloverfield: "Roar Overture," music by Michael Giacchino
The Happening: "Be With You," music by James Newton Howard
Valkyrie: "They'll Remember You," music by John Ottman and Lior Rosner
WALL-E: "Define Dancing," music by Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel
Wanted: "Success Montage," music by Danny Elfman)

OTHER CATEGORIES

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR TELEVISION

"Battlestar Galactica" (Season 4), music by Bear McCreary
"John Adams", music by Robert Lane and Joseph Vitarelli
"Merlin", music by Robert Lane
"Lost" (Season 4), music by Michael Giacchino
"Pane e Libert�", music by Ennio Morricone

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A VIDEO GAME OR INTERACTIVE MEDIA

"Afrika", music by Wataru Hokoyama
"Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures", music by Knut Avenstroup Haugen
"Gears of War 2", music by Steve Jablonsky
"Mercenaries 2: World in Flames", music by Chris Tilton
"Star Wars: The Force Unleashed", music by Mark Griskey

BEST NEW RELEASE/RE-RELEASE OF AN EXISTING SCORE

"Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend", music by Jerry Goldsmith;
produced by Douglas Fake (Intrada)
"Body Double", music by Pino Donaggio;
produced by Douglass Fake (Intrada)
"The Boys from Brazil", music by Jerry Goldsmith;
produced by Douglass Fake (Intrada)
"Heavy Metal", music by Elmer Bernstein;
produced by Lukas Kendall (Film Score Monthly)
"The Matrix: The Deluxe Edition", music by Don Davis;
produced by Don Davis and Robert Townson (Var�se Sarabande)

BEST RE-RECORDING OF AN EXISTING SCORE

"El Cid", music by Mikl�s R�zsa; conducted by Nic Raine, produced by James Fitzpatrick (Tadlow)
"The Kentuckian/Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot", music by Bernard Herrmann; conducted William Stromberg;
produced by Anna Bonn, John Morgan and William Stromberg (Tribute Film Classics)
"Odna (Alone"), music by Dmitri Shostakovich; conducted by Mark Fitzgerald, produced by Hans-Bernhard B�tzing (Naxos)
"She", music by Max Steiner; conducted William Stromberg;
produced by Anna Bonn, John Morgan and William Stromberg (Tribute Film Classics)
"An Unfinished Life � Piano Sketches", music by Christopher Young; performed by Dave Guili, produced by Flavio Motalla and Christopher Young (BSX)

BEST COMPILATION ALBUM OR BOX SET

"Gangs of New York/The Journey of Natty Gann/The Scarlet Letter", music by Elmer Bernstein;
produced by Robert Townson (Var�se Sarabande)
"Indiana Jones: The Soundtracks Collection", music by John Williams;
produced by Laurent Bouzereau (Concord)
"Le Cin�ma de Georges Delerue", music by Georges Delerue;
produced by St�phane Lerouge (Universal Music France)
"MGM Soundtrack Treasury", various composers;
produced by Lukas Kendall (Film Score Monthly)
"Superman: The Music", various composers;
produced by Mike Matessino and Lukas Kendall (Film Score Monthly)

FILM MUSIC RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR

Film Score Monthly
Intrada
La-La Land
MovieScore Media
Var�se Sarabande

'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Ben Button' Lead BAFTA Nominees with 11 Followed By 'The Dark Knight'

The 2009 BAFTA Award nominees have been announced and Slumdog Millionaire, along with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, leads the way with 11 nominations with The Dark Knight close behind with nine. However, at the top of the pile it is immediately noticeable that The Dark Knight did not get a Best Film nomination as all the usual suspects are there, but The Reader is added to the pack as one of its five nominations.

Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) is considered a lead actor at the BAFTAs and earns a nomination in the category while he is competing Stateside for a Supporting nom. I believe he is more of a lead actor than a supporting, but Fox Searchlight obviously sees the supporting category as the easier place to get him a nomination and has pushed him in the category as a result. Other than that, the usuals are there with Brad Pitt earning a nomination, and Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road) and Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) left out in the cold. Pitt also scored a supporting nomination for his role in Burn After Reading and I am sure many will be happy to see Brendan Gleeson also scoring a Supporting nom for his turn in In Bruges, the film that earned Colin Farrell a Golden Globe, but Farrell was not nominated here.

On the actress side Kate Winslet will be competing against herself in the Lead Actress category as well as Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie and Kristin Scott Thomas. I would say the choice to nominate Winslet as a lead in the category ousted Sally Hawkins, whom I am surprised to see not nominated considering she is a Brit in a Brit flick, but then again you won't see Happy-Go-Lucky anywhere on this list of nominees, much to my surprise. As for Supporting Actress there are a couple of interesting inclusions such as Freida Pinto for Slumdog Millionaire and Burn After Reading's second of three nominations in Tilda Swinton. Amy Adams (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) round out the category.

In the director slot the only surprise - for me at least - is Clint Eastwood for Changeling. Stephen Daldry also earned a nomination for The Reader, but considering the film was given a Best Film nomination that isn't as much of a surprise.

The screenplay categories are all pretty much what you would expect outside of a nice inclusion as Martin McDonagh's script for In Bruges gets a nomination in Original Screenplay.

Overall, the only big surprise for me would be the eight nominations for Changeling, there hasn't been much talk about the film's award chances since its release and I didn't expect it to gain much traction across the pond. You can check out the complete list of nominees below. The awards take place in London on February 8, in a ceremony hosted by Jonathan Ross and screened live on BBC1.

2009 NOMINEES

BEST FILM

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Kathleen Kennedy / Frank Marshall / Ce�n Chaffin
Frost/Nixon, Tim Bevan / Eric Fellner / Brian Grazer / Ron Howard
Milk, Dan Jinks / Bruce Cohen
The Reader, Anthony Minghella / Sydney Pollack / Donna Gigliotti / Redmond Morris
Slumdog Millionaire, Christian Colso

LEADING ACTOR

Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon
Dev Patel for Slumdog Millionaire
Sean Penn for Milk
Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

LEADING ACTRESS

Angelina Jolie for Changeling
Kristin Scott Thomas for I've Loved You So Long
Meryl Streep for Doubt
Kate Winslet for The Reader
Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder
Brendan Gleeson for In Bruges
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Brad Pitt for Burn After Reading

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams for Doubt
Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Freida Pinto for Slumdog Millionaire
Tilda Swinton for Burn After Reading
Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler

DIRECTOR

Changeling, Clint Eastwood
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher
Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard
The Reader, Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Burn After Reading, Joel Coen / Ethan Coen
Changeling, J. Michael Straczynski
I've Loved You So Long, Philippe Claudel
In Bruges, Martin McDonagh
Milk, Dustin Lance Black

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth
Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan
The Reader, David Hare
Revolutionary Road, Justin Haythe
Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Hunger, Laura Hastings-Smith / Robin Gutch / Steve McQueen / Enda Walsh
In Bruges, Graham Broadbent / Pete Czernin / Martin McDonagh
Mamma Mia!, Judy Craymer / Gary Goetzman / Phyllida Lloyd / Catherine Johnson
Man on Wire, Simon Chinn / James Marsh
Slumdog Millionaire, Christian Colson / Danny Boyle / Simon Beaufoy

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The Baader Meinhof Complex, Bernard Eichinger / Uli Edel
Gomorrah, Domenico Procacci / Matteo Garrone
I've Loved You So Long, Yves Marmion / Philippe Claudel
Persepolis, Marc-Antoine Robert / Xavier Rigault / Marjane Satrapi / Vincent Parannaud
Waltz With Bashir, Serge Lalou / Gerhard Meixner / Yael Nahl Ieli / Ari Folman

ANIMATED FILM

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi / Vincent Parannaud
WALL-E, Andrew Stanton
Waltz With Bashir, Ari Folman

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Changeling, Tom Stern
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight, Wally Pfister
The Reader, Chris Menges / Roger Deakins
Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle

EDITING

Changeling, Joel Cox / Gary D. Roach
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Kirk Baxter / Angus Wall
The Dark Knight, Lee Smith
Frost/Nixon, Mike Hill / Dan Hanley
In Bruges, Jon Gregory
Slumdog Millionaire, Chris Dickens

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Changeling, James J. Murakami / Gary Fettis
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Donald Graham Burt / Victor J. Zolfo
The Dark Knight, Nathan Crowley / Peter Lando
Revolutionary Road, Kristi Zea / Debra Schutt
Slumdog Millionaire, Mark Digby / Michelle Day

COSTUME DESIGN

Changeling, Deborah Hopper
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jacqueline West
The Dark Knight, Lindy Hemming
The Duchess, Michael O'Connor
Revolutionary Road, Albert Wolsky

MAKE UP and#038; HAIR

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jean Black / Colleen Callaghan
The Dark Knight, Peter Robb-King
The Duchess, Daniel Phillips / Jan Archibald
Frost/Nixon, Edouard Henriques / Kim Santantonio
Milk, Steven E. Anderson / Michael White

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Barba / Craig Barron / Nathan McGuinness / Edson Williams
The Dark Knight, Chris Corbould / Nick Davis / Paul Franklin / Tim Webber
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Pablo Helman
Iron Man, Shane Patrick Mahan / John Nelson / Ben Snow
Quantum of Solace, Chris Corbould / Kevin Tod Haug

SOUND

Changeling, Walt Martin / Alan Robert Murray / John Reitz / Gregg Rudloff
The Dark Knight, Lora Hirschberg / Richard King / Ed Novick / Gary Rizzo
Quantum of Solace, Eddy Joseph / Chris Munro / Mike Prestwood Smith / Mark Taylor
Slumdog Millionaire, Glenn Freemantle / Resul Pookutty / Richard Pryke / Tom Sayers / Ian Tapp
WALL-E, Ben Burtt / Tom Myers / Michael Semanick / Matthew Wood

MUSIC

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
The Dark Knight, Hans Zimmer / James Newton Howard
Mamma Mia!, Benny Andersson / Bj�rn Ulvaeus
Slumdog Millionaire, A. R. Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

SHORT ANIMATION

CODSWALLOP Greg McLeod / Myles McLeod
VARMINTS Sue Goffe / Marc Craste
WALLACE AND GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH Steve Pegram / Nick Park / Bob Baker

SHORT FILM

KINGSLAND #1 THE DREAMER Kate Ogborn / Tony Grisoni
LOVE YOU MORE Adrian Sturges / Sam Taylor-Wood / Patrick Marber
RALPH Olivier Kaempfer / Alex Winckler
SEPTEMBER Stewart le Mar�chal / Esther May Campbell
VOYAGES D'AFFAIRES (THE BUSINESS TRIP) Celine Quideau / Sean Ellis

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film

SIMON CHINN Producer - Man on Wire
JUDY CRAYMER Producer - Mamma Mia!
GARTH JENNINGS Writer - Son of Rambow
STEVE McQUEEN Director/Writer - Hunger
SOLON PAPADOPOULOS / ROY BOULTER Producers - Of Time and the City

THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

Michael Cera
Noel Clarke
Michael Fassbender
Rebecca Hall
Toby Kebbell

NOMINATION TOTALS

Slumdog Millionaire: 11
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 11
The Dark Knight: 9
Changeling: 8
Frost/Nixon: 6
The Reader: 5
In Bruges: 4
Milk: 4
Revolutionary Road: 4
Burn After Reading: 3
Doubt: 3
The I've Loved You So Long: 3
Mamma Mia!: 3
WALL-E: 3
The Duchess: 2
Hunger: 2
Man on Wire: 2
Persepolis: 2
Quantum of Solace: 2
Waltz With Bashir: 2
The Wrestler: 2
The Baader Meinhof Complex: 1
Gomorrah: 1
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: 1
Iron Man: 1
Of Time and the City: 1
Son of Rambow: 1
Tropic Thunder: 1
Vicky Cristina Barcelona: 1

Complete List of 2009 Golden Globe Winners

Photo: Hollywood Foreign Press Association

The 2009 Golden Globes were held tonight at The Beverly Hilton with a live telecast airing on NBC at 8 PM (EST) and there were a few surprises to say the least.

Of course I would say the big winner was Kate Winslet who went home with two Golden Globe Awards, one for Best Supporting Actress in The Reader and another for Best Actress for her performance in Revolutionary Road. Slumdog Millionaire was the night's other "big" winner as it won for Director (Danny Boyle), Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), Score (A.R. Rahman) and Picture (Drama). Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona was the winner for Best Picture (Comedy/Musical) and Mickey Rourke edged out Sean Penn for Best Actor (Drama) giving Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler second place for the night winning two awards, the other for best Original Song for Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler."

Sally Hawkins almost broke down on stage after winning Best Actress (Musical/Comedy) for Happy-Go-Lucky and a welcome surprise came as Colin Farrell won for Best Actor (Musical/Comedy) for his role in In Bruges which he said on stage he would cut in half and five a hemisphere to co-star Brendan Gleeson.

The virtually locked awards didn't change as WALL-E won for Best Animated and Heath Ledger was awarded Best Supporting Actor for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

The complete list can be found below with the winners bolded and in red along with the Primetime Television award winners on the second page. You can also get tonight's winners and the complete Golden Globe history right here. Basically, RopeofSilicon has you covered.

Stay tuned as I will be bringing my Golden Globes vs. Oscars article online in the next 24 hours as well as updated Oscar predictions. If you want to read my complete Live Blog of the night click here.

Always remember I am keeping track of everything award related under the sun in "The Contenders"! Enjoy the noms...

MOTION PICTURE NOMINEES

BEST PICTURE (DRAMA)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Revolutionary Road
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST PICTURE (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges

BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)

Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS (DRAMA)

Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

BEST ACTOR (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

Javier Bardem, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Colin Farrell, In Bruges
James Franco, Pineapple Express
Dustin Hoffman, Last Chance Harvey
Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges

BEST ACTRESS (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Frances McDormand, Burn After Reading
Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia!
Emma Thompson, Last Chance Harvey
Rebecca Hall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Ralph Fiennes, The Duchess

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Kate Winslet, The Reader

DIRECTOR

David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road

ANIMATED FILM

WALL-E
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda

SCREENPLAY

Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare, The Reader
Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley, Doubt

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

Gomorrah
I've Loved You So Long
Waltz with Bashir
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Everlasting Moments

ORIGINAL SCORE

James Newton Howard, Defiance
Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
A. R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Hans Zimmer, Frost/Nixon
Clint Eastwood, Changeling

ORIGINAL SONG

"Down to Earth" from WALL-E
"Gran Torino" from Gran Torino
"I Thought I'd Lost You" from Bolt
"Once in a Lifetime" from Cadillac Records
"The Wrestler" from The Wrestler

The television winners are on the next page...

PRIMETIME TELEVISION NOMINEES

BEST TELEVISION SERIES � DRAMA

"DEXTER" (SHOWTIME)
"HOUSE" (FOX)
"IN TREATMENT" (HBO)
"MAD MEN" (AMC)
"TRUE BLOOD" (HBO)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES � DRAMA

SALLY FIELD, "BROTHERS AND SISTERS"
MARISKA HARGITAY, "LAW AND ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT"
JANUARY JONES, "MAD MEN"
ANNA PAQUIN, "TRUE BLOOD"
KYRA SEDGWICK, "THE CLOSER"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES � DRAMA

GABRIEL BYRNE, "IN TREATMENT"
MICHAEL C. HALL, "DEXTER"
JON HAMM, "MAD MEN"
HUGH LAURIE, "HOUSE"
JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS, "THE TUDORS"

BEST TELEVISION SERIES � COMEDY OR MUSICAL

"30 ROCK" (NBC)
"CALIFORNICATION" (SHOWTIME)
"ENTOURAGE" (HBO)
"THE OFFICE" (NBC)
"WEEDS" (SHOWTIME)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES �COMEDY OR MUSICAL

CHRISTINA APPLEGATE, "SAMANTHA WHO?"
AMERICA FERRERA, "UGLY BETTY"
TINA FEY, "30 ROCK"
DEBRA MESSING, "THE STARTER WIFE"
MARY-LOUISE PARKER, "WEEDS"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES � COMEDY OR MUSICAL

ALEC BALDWIN, "30 ROCK"
STEVE CARELL, "THE OFFICE"
KEVIN CONNOLLY, "ENTOURAGE"
DAVID DUCHOVNY, "CALIFORNICATION"
TONY SHALHOUB, "MONK"

BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

"A RAISIN IN THE SUN" (ABC)
"BERNARD AND DORIS" (HBO)
"CRANFORD" (PBS)
"JOHN ADAMS" (HBO)
"RECOUNT" (HBO)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

JUDI DENCH, "CRANFORD"
CATHERINE KEENER, "AN AMERICAN CRIME"
LAURA LINNEY, "JOHN ADAMS"
SHIRLEY MACLAINE, "COCO CHANEL"
SUSAN SARANDON, "BERNARD AND DORIS"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

RALPH FIENNES, "BERNARD AND DORIS"
PAUL GIAMATTI, "JOHN ADAMS"
KEVIN SPACEY, "RECOUNT"
KIEFER SUTHERLAND, "24: REDEMPTION"
TOM WILKINSON, "RECOUNT"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

EILEEN ATKINS, "CRANFORD"
LAURA DERN, "RECOUNT"
MELISSA GEORGE, "IN TREATMENT"
RACHEL GRIFFITHS, "BROTHERS AND SISTERS"
DIANNE WIEST, "IN TREATMENT"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER"
DENIS LEARY, "RECOUNT"
JEREMY PIVEN, "ENTOURAGE"
BLAIR UNDERWOOD, "IN TREATMENT"
TOM WILKINSON, "JOHN ADAMS"

2009 Golden Globe User Predictions are In

Over the past day-and-a-half RopeofSilicon readers have voted on who they think will be taking home the Golden Globe awards tonight and the votes are in as the show is set to begin in less than five hours. Should the voting hold true it means Slumdog Millionaire will be the night's big winner with four awards including Director, Score, Screenplay and Picture (Drama). Based on the voting it is the only film that will receive more than one award.

Based on user votes the tightest races will be between Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep for Best Actress (Comedy/Musical) as the two battled it out, trading the top spot the entire time with Hathaway ultimately edging out Streep by only two votes. Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) was also hotly contested with Javier Bardem eging out fan favorite Colin Farrell by only 7 votes and the Comedy/Musical contest continued with Best Picture as Mamma Mia! beat out Vicky Cristina Barcelona by 40 votes and In Bruges, Happy-Go-Lucky and Burn After Reading weren't too far behind.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me is the overwhelming confidence in Kate Winslet's performance in The Reader for Best Supporting Actress. All award season long Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) has been the supposed front-runner yet Winslet won at the recent Broadcast Film Critics Awards and I also picked her to pull out the upset. I know the fact the person posting the article can lead some people to agree, but I never expected Winslet to win taking 50% of the vote and edging out Cruz by 309 votes. Is it just an overwhelming love for Winslet or a sign of things to come?

We will know soon as the 2009 Golden Globe Awards begin tonight at 5 PM EST. For now, here are the results from the RopeofSilicon Poll, which you can find right here.

Best Actor (Drama): Sean Penn, Milk (43%, 488 Votes)
Runner-Up: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (30%, 335 Votes)

Best Actress (Drama): Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married (35%, 405 Votes)
Runner-Up: Meryl Streep, Doubt (34%, 403 Votes)

Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Javier Bardem, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (27%, 274 Votes)
Runner-Up: Colin Farrell, In Bruges (26%, 267 Votes)

Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky (44%, 463 Votes)
Runner-Up: Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia! (32%, 341 Votes)

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (87%, 970 Votes)
Runner-Up: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt (7%, 76 Votes)

Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader (50%, 527 Votes)
Runner-Up: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (21%, 218 Votes)

Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (51%, 494 Votes)
Runner-Up: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (35%, 333 Votes)

Best Foreign-Language Film: Waltz with Bashir (44%, 317 Votes)
Runner-Up: Gomorrah (29%, 207 Votes)

Best Original Score: A. R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire (45%, 352 Votes)
Runner-Up: Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (35%, 272 Votes)

Best Original Song: "The Wrestler" from The Wrestler (58%, 451 Votes)
Runner-Up: "Down to Earth" from WALL-E (24%, 189 Votes)

Best Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire (46%, 376 Votes)
Runner-Up: Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (29%, 240 Votes)

Best Animated Film: WALL-E (89%, 731 Votes)
Runner-Up: Kung Fu Panda (9%, 74 Votes)

Best Picture (Comedy/Musical): Mamma Mia! (25%, 229 Votes)
Runner-Up: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (21%, 189 Votes)

Best Picture (Drama): Slumdog Millionaire (46%, 417 Votes)
Runner-Up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (36%, 324 Votes)

Stay tuned as the actual Golden Globe Winners will be announced later tonight.

USER POLL: Predicting the 2009 Golden Globe Award Winners!

Photo: Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Earlier this week Tom O'Neil at the "Los Angeles Times" and running their Gold Derby Blog asked for everyone's Golden Globe predictions, they are online right here. I sent mine in, but I knew I would have a change of heart on at least one pick come time to actually post my predictions here on the site and sure enough, one it was as my prediction of Penelope Cruz for Best Supporting Actress has shifted to a new name as you will see very shortly below.

Along with my predictions and very brief commentary I have added a poll for all 14 categories. The polls will be open from now until noon on Sunday, January 11 which is when the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards will take place Sunday, January 11, 2009 at The Beverly Hilton beginning with a live telecast airing on NBC at 8 PM (EST). I am considering doing a live blog of the events, but since we get the show on a three-hour delay here on the West Coast I am not sure how interesting it would be since it wouldn't really be "live". However, I will be updating the winners live right here so you can keep an eye on that if you like.

For now, make your predictions for the 2009 Golden Globe Awards!

BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)

Between DiCaprio, Penn, Rourke and Pitt I have no personal preference as to who will win this category, but it seems Sean Penn may be on his way to sweeping the Globes, SAGs and Oscars.

MY PICK: Sean Penn

[poll id="8"]

BEST ACTRESS (DRAMA)

I have a funny feeling the Globes will be the one award show to stir up a little excitement in the Best Actress race. Looking at the list of possible winners I can't help but think Meryl Streep is the obvious front runner, primarily by default based on her award history. However, I can't shake this feeling Anne Hathaway is going to take this one. When I sent in my predictions to O'Neil at Gold Derby I felt it was the most out-of-the-box pick I made and believe if any group is going to do it, it would be the HFPA.

MY PICK: Anne Hathaway

[poll id="9"]

BEST ACTOR (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

Personal preference would have me awarding Colin Farrell for In Bruges, but when it comes to predicting the direction the HFPA will take all signs point to Javier Bardem. In Bruges seems to have more of an online appreciation, Franco doesn't have much of a chance and Hoffman's Last Chance Harvey just doesn't have the buzz behind it.

MY PICK: Javier Bardem

[poll id="10"]

BEST ACTRESS (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

I would love, love, love to see Rebecca Hall accept the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Comedy/Musical), but alas I think this one easily falls into the hands of Sally Hawkins for her fantastic performance as Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky.

MY PICK: Sally Hawkins

[poll id="11"]

SUPPORTING ACTOR

I wonder if the future holds a questioning look at what is sure to be a Heath Ledger major award season sweep. Will future generations say he won his awards out of sympathy, or will the fact he managed to create a wonderful villain in The Dark Knight after many doubted the possibility drown out the naysayers?

MY PICK: Heath Ledger

[poll id="12"]

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

The supporting actress category has changed its tone recently. What was long thought a sure thing for Penelope Cruz has all but begun to fade. Viola Davis has been considered a close second, but I can't help but believe the lack of praise for Revolutionary Road may prove to be a good thing for Kate Winslet and The Reader and potentially have her seeing more hardware than she expected for what was the best supporting performance of the year.

MY PICK: Kate Winslet

[poll id="13"]

DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle has proven he has talent as he has bounced from genre to genre and his Bollywood-style Slumdog Millionaire has caught on with audiences and critics alike and he has done quite well in the award season critical awards, which is sure to help his chances as the major awards roll around. Also helping matters is a lack of a major stand-out director above all the rest.

MY PICK: Danny Boyle

[poll id="14"]

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

Since I have not yet seen The Baader Meinhof Complex or Everlasting Moments this category is rather difficult. I could go with my heart and say I've Loved You So Long or go with my gut and say Gomorrah.

MY PICK: Gomorrah

[poll id="17"]

ORIGINAL SCORE

My favorite scores of the year come from The Dark Knight, The Duchess and Defiance, but I believe this is another one that goes slumming.

MY PICK: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire

[poll id="18"]

ORIGINAL SONG

I didn't personally enjoy any of the original songs this year, which means I can only judge this category based on buzz.

MY PICK: "The Wrestler" (Bruce Springsteen), The Wrestler

[poll id="19"]

SCREENPLAY

I think Eric Roth's screenplay for Ben Button is fantastic as it tells a simple story on an epic scale. I also enjoyed David Hare's work on The Reader as well as Shanley's Doubt. Frost/Nixon not so much. However, I don't think this one will offer up any more of a surprise than the majority of the categories.

MY PICK: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

[poll id="16"]

ANIMATED FILM

Photo: DreamWorks Animation / Disney and Pixar / Disney

I enjoyed Kung Fu Panda but didn't really like Bolt all that much. However, my personal opinion aside, should this award go to any film other than WALL-E I expect a lot of jaws to hit the floor.

MY PICK: WALL-E

[poll id="15"]

BEST PICTURE (COMEDY/MUSICAL)

Photo: Focus Features / Miramax / The Weinstein Co. / Universal

Vicky Cristina Barcelona was my favorite movie of the year, but this category will most likely go to another great film - although it is a film I don't believe I will ever watch again.

MY PICK: Happy-Go-Lucky

[poll id="7"]

BEST PICTURE (DRAMA)

Photo: Fox Searchlight / The Weinstein Co. / Paramount Vantage / Universal / Paramount Pictures

The Golden Globes certainly shook things up with their Drama picks by not including expected Oscar front runners The Dark Knight and Milk and replacing them with The Reader and Revolutionary Road, one of the big reasons I believe Winslet is a strong pick for Best Supporting Actress. However, I think the HFPA will be the starting point to an award season sweep by Slumdog Millionaire as much as I don't agree.

MY PICK: Slumdog Millionaire

[poll id="6"]

See you back here on Sunday for the Golden Globes!

Director's Guild Announces their 2008 Director Nominees

The Director's Guild of America (DGA) isn't shy of letting folks know that only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award. So to assume we don't have our Director and Best Picture films locked and loaded is a little bit silly at this point as the five nominees named by the DGA correspond to my most recent Best Picture predictions and I am off by one name (Ron Howard) with my Best Director predictions - that is, based on these nominees, which are as follows:

Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)
Gus Van Sant (Milk)
David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon)

I thought for a long time Jonathan Demme (Rachel Getting Married) or Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road) may get a bump in the Oscar push from the DGA's, but it looks like our top five films for 2008 are pretty much prepped and ready to go.

The winner will be named at the 61st Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 31 2009, at the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Cinema Audio Society Names Sound Mixing Noms

During Comic Con in 2007 Disney had a panel where Ben Burtt was on stage going over all the sound details for WALL-E. Personally, I was bored out of my mind as Burtt played a bunch of beeps and boops, but I know a lot of people were interested and loved the presentation - especially since Burtt is well known for his work on the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. However, that doesn't stop me from realizing the sound in WALL-E was phenomenal; the work put in by Burtt and his team is top notch and WALL-E is one of the five finalists names by the Cinema Audio Society as they announced their Sound Mixing nominees from 2008.

The list of nominees goes as follows:

The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Quantum of Solace
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E

Out of those five WALL-E would be my personal choice and I don't see how it can't be the front-runner. Of the five films listed WALL-E was absolutely dependent on the sound achieving the highest of goals and it did just that. Not to say the others didn't depend on it, but if WALL-E's eye movement doesn't sound just right at the end of that film does it have the same impact? I hope WALL-E will be the front runner for both Sound Mixing and Editing come Oscar nominations.

Winners for the Cinema Audio Society award will be announced Feb. 14 in the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium-Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

'Dark Knight' Gets a Screenplay Nod from WGA and Woody Gets His 19th

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and have offered up The Dark Knight as a legitimate contender for Best Adapted Screenplay by making it one of their five nominees in the category. On top of that my favorite film of the year, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, saw Woody Allen's screenplay nominated for original screenplay along with a few you may not have expected. As Ryan Adams at AwardsDaily points out, this is Woody's 19th WGA nom and could potentially lead to his 15th Best Screenplay Oscar nomination on top of his two Oscar wins.

The complete lists for Original, Adapted and Documentary Screenplay noms are below. Winners will be honored at the 2009 Writers Guild Awards held on Saturday, February 7, 2009, at simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Burn After Reading, Written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Focus Features
Milk, Written by Dustin Lance Black, Focus Features
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Written by Woody Allen, The Weinstein Company
The Visitor, Written by Tom McCarthy, Overture Films
The Wrestler, Written by Robert Siegel, Fox Searchlight Pictures

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures
The Dark Knight, Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan; Story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer; Based on Characters Appearing in Comic Books Published by DC Comics; Batman Created by Bob Kane, Warner Bros. Pictures
Doubt, Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, Based on his Stage Play, Miramax Films
Frost/Nixon, Screenplay by Peter Morgan, Based on his Stage Play, Universal Pictures
Slumdog Millionaire, Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup, Fox Searchlight Pictures

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, Written by Stefan Forbes and Noland Walker, InterPositive Media
Chicago 10, Written by Brett Morgen, Roadside Attractions
Fuel, Written by Johnny O'Hara, Greenlight Theatrical / Intention Media
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Screenplay by Alex Gibney, From the Words of Hunter S. Thompson, Magnolia Pictures
Waltz with Bashir, Written by Ari Folman, Sony Pictures Classics

American Society of Cinematographers Name their 2008 Finalists

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has announced their five finalists in the feature film category of the 23rd Annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards competition. The recipient will be named during the awards celebration here at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel on February 15.

It's a great looking list and I am surprised while they were at it they didn't toss Doubt into Deakins's list of achievements, it wasn't as beautiful as The Reader, but it certainly compared to Revolutionary Road.

Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (Revolutionary Road and The Reader)
Anthony Dod Mantle, BSC (Slumdog Millionaire)
Chris Menges, ASC, BSC (The Reader)
Claudio Miranda (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Wally Pfister, ASC (The Dark Knight)

These are the eighth and ninth nominations for Deakins who earned top honors in 1995 for The Shawshank Redemption and in 2002 for The Man Who Wasn�t There. It's the fourth nomination for Menges, the second for Pfister, and the first for Dod Mantle and Miranda.

Stay tuned as we are expecting the Writers Guild to announce their noms in the next half hour as well as the Directors Guild tomorrow.

USER POLL: No 'Dark Knight' or 'WALL-E' - Let's Talk Bottom of the Best Picture Crop

I am just about ready to write The Dark Knight out of the top five contenders for the Oscar Best Picture, but I can't seem to figure out exactly what film to replace it with. As the headline implies, it won't be with WALL-E, a film that has earned some definite sympathy after many critics groups named it Best Picture of 2008. However, as much as those critical nods helped WALL-E isn't it likely they also may have hurt it by giving it its due so the Academy didn't have to? Not necessarily a theory I subscribe to, but a theory nonetheless.

As a matter of fact, as I am pushing Batman and the robot out of contention for this hypothetical, how about all the assurance that Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon has secured a spot among the top five. Where is the confidence in this picture coming from? Sure, Frost/Nixon was a perfectly fine film, but Best Picture? Was it really one of the five Best Pictures released in 2008? What about that film makes it extraordinary?

Of course, for this scenario I am going to subscribe to the notion that Frost/Nixon is in and the following films make up the list of "locked" Best Picture nominees:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

With that in mind, what film takes that fifth and final spot?

We all know the Oscars aren't about giving the award to the actual best motion picture of the year. If it were, we would be talking about films like The Class, Ballast and I've Loved You So Long. Nope, instead we are talking about generally accepted good films that have received a healthy dose of buzz, are traditional Oscar bait and have done a good job of getting in the face of the voters. The critics' kudos, reviews and Oscar punditry certainly helps matters as the 5,819 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sit down to make their decision.

However, when this group of actors (1,243), producers (454), executives (440), sound technicians (412), writers (396), directors (374), art directors (373), public relation specialists (369), animation artists (330), visual effects artists (264), members at large (254), musicians (235), editors (223), cinematographers (195), documentarians (141) and makeup artists (116) and they are left to decide between a robot, a man that dresses up as a bat to battle a maniacal clown and a professional wrestler passed his prime and trying to pick up the pieces which direction do you think they will be leaning? I don't say this as a pessimist, but as a realist.

So what films are left?

In my opinion it comes down to Revolutionary Road, The Wrestler, Doubt and if someone gets really lucky and Harvey Weinstein agrees to pay all the Academy members' bills in 2009 The Reader.

Now, if you subscribe to my "Frost/Nixon is not worthy" campaign that would imply two of the above films have a chance of worming their way into the Best Picture slot, but I am asking you to pick only one.

In the poll below, pick one of those four films, or the "Other" column, you believe has the best chance of taking that fifth and final slot should neither The Dark Knight or WALL-E get the nod. Also add your comments below as to your reasoning, especially if you pick "Other".

[poll id="4"]

Producers Guild Nominations for Best Production of 2008

It's beginning to look a lot like the same-old, same-old as the Producers Guild of America have announced their nominees and named the following five films in contention for its Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award, which in a roundabout kind of way equates to Best Film without actually saying it.

Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Milk
Frost/Nixon
The Dark Knight

The winners, determined by voting of the 3,600 members of the PGA, will be announced Jan. 24 at the Hollywood Palladium.

Oh, and the teaser was meant as sarcasm and here are the noms for Animated pic and Best Documentary:

Animated

Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

Documentary

Man on Wire
Trouble the Water
Standard Operating Procedure