Not long now

The final countdown has begun. Press screenings will be starting soon. The wait is almost over. 

Tintin Tuesday

I love Herge's Tintin and have been eagerly awaiting more news regarding the Spielberg/Jackson-directed trilogy of movies. A while ago it was revealed that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost had joined the cast as the Thompson Twins and now we have official confirmation that  Jamie Bell has replaced Thomas Sangster as the intrepid reporter and Daniel Craig will play the nefarious Red Rackham. Coooool! Additional cast members include Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook. 

Filming has apparently already started in LA on the first movie, The Secret Of The Unicorn, from a script by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. I'd heard that Cornish was rewriting the script, but Wright's involvement is news to me. Then again, they have written together before. 

Can't bleedin' wait.

Monday musing

Season 5 of Lost began here in the UK last night and continued the high standard of season 4. You can tell they're pleased to have an end date now, as there's less tease and more WTF revelations. 

With its flashforwards, "three years earlier/later" time frames, confirmed time travel, time skipping, Jack's rehabilitation of sorts, Ben Linus' murky machinations, Ana-Lucia's ghostly cop, the hint that maybe Locke might not necessarily be dead dead, it was a masterful opening two episodes. Once again, EW.com's Jeff Jensen provides a fine commentary. 

All of which meant I recorded but have yet to see Wire creator David Simon's latest Generation Kill, although that's going to have to wait until another day since I'm at the BFI Southbank tonight watching Encounters At The End Of The World followed by a Q&A with Werner Herzog. 

Should be interesting... 

Torso trouble

Last Sunday, interviewing David Fincher, I asked him what he was planning on doing next, since his name was attached to a host of cool sounding projects, among them Ness aka Torso, Heavy Metal, Black Hole and a cooking movie said to star Keanu Reeves. Fincher said his most immediate concern was a rest — since he'd made Zodiac and Benjamin Button one after the other. 

Of all the projects Fincher's been linked to, Ness is arguably the most interesting, based on a terrific true life crime comic by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Andreyko, and was the closest to going; although there was a pressing, time sensitive issue with the rights lapsing and Paramount having to re-up on them in order to greenlight the movie which had Matt Damon and Casey Affleck attached. 

Well, according to this Hollywood Reporter article, Paramount didn't renew its option, plunging the project into limbo. 

Last month, Paramount's ability to extend the rights option as part of the original deal expired, which would have then required the studio to purchase the rights outright to retain them -- a price the studio apparently was unwilling to shell out. While the studio still owns Kruger's screenplay, it is in discussions potentially to strike a new option agreement with the comic's writers, to whom the rights reverted. (Fincher and the producers remain attached.)

Given the Ness story line's basis in reality, one could argue that a public-domain version of it could be developed using similar material. But in the age of the industry-shaking legal tussle between Warner Bros. and Fox over "Watchmen," it's unlikely that Paramount would take that type of risk.

One source indicated that Fincher has been keen on making the project and expressed confusion as to why Paramount would dither. But given the projects and personnel that the belt-tightening Brad Grey-run studio shed last year, it's not surprising that it would balk at committing to another big-budget production at year's end.

"It's a weird and odd situation," Bendis said. "We heard it was greenlit one day, then the next we heard it wasn't. Hopefully, it'll have a happy ending."

Button love

So, 13 nominations for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button was an impressive if perhaps expected haul, and included one for Best Visual Effects which considering the balls up that had been perpetrated on Zodiac was very welcome indeed. 

But today's Oscar nominations threw up a few surprises, not least The Reader picking up five noms, including Film, Director and Actress for Kate Winslet who had widely been tipped to be nominated for her role in Revolutionary Road, a film which managed only two in total, for Costume Design and Art Direction. And no nomination for Kristin Scott Thomas? What's that all about then...

Slumdog Millionaire was the other big winner, scoring 10 nominations, followed by Milk with eight, The Dark Knight with seven, and Frost/Nixon and The Reader on five apiece. 

It was great to see both Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei nominated for The Wrestler even if the film didn't get anything else, not even for Bruce Springsteen for Best Song, Melissa Leo being recognised in the Best Actress category for Frozen River which also scored an Original Screenplay nomination for Courtney Hunt, Man On Wire up for Documentary Feature, Martin McDonagh recognised for his script for In Bruges and kudos to the Doubt mob who nabbed four acting nominations as well as an Adapted Screenplay one for John Patrick Shanley.

And it was another good year for the Brits, with Danny Boyle and Stephen Daldry picking up Directing noms, Working Title nabbing a Best Film for Frost/Nixon, The Duchess nabbing a handful of technicals, Simon Beaufoy getting an Adapted Screenplay nob for Slumdog, and Mike Leigh getting an Original Screenplay one for Happy-Go-Lucky.

Strange, though, that Waltz With Bashir gets nominated for Best Foreign Language Film but didn't warrant a Best Animated Feature nod. 

As for that early favourite, The Dark Knight picked up a host of technical nominations but, apart from Heath Ledger who was deservedly nominated for Best Supporting Actor and who died a year ago today, didn't feature in any of the major categories. 

Here are the nominations in full.

And how did I do? Well, I managed 19 1/2 from a possible 30 points which is about average for me for this kind of thing. No Eastwood. No Michael Sheen. No Sally Hawkins.

Nomination day

This year's Oscar nominations are announced today at 1.30pm UK time, 5.30am LA time. I'm not normally 100% accurate in my predictions, since I tend to go by my heart rather than my head on occasions such as these, but I'm prepared to give it a go and choose on what I think the Academy will plump for. At least in the top six categories: Film, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress.

Best Film
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Frost/Nixon

Best Director
Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)
Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)
Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Gus Van Sant (Milk)

David Fincher (The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button)

Best Actor
Sean Penn (Milk)
Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)
Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)

Best Actress
Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)
Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)
Kristin Scott Thomas (I've Loved You So Long)
Meryl Streep (Doubt)

Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)

Best Supporting Actor
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt)
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon)

Eddie Marsen (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Josh Brolin (Milk)

Best Supporting Actress
Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)
Viola Davis (Doubt)

Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona)

Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)

Lena Olin (The Reader)

Oscar predicting isn't an exact science and these are not necessarily my favourites, but we'll see how well (or how badly) I did later.

Ton up

Quietly and with, it seems, the minimum of fuss, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button cracked $100 million at the US box office this past weekend* which for a two hour 40 mins film isn't bad going and might just be a sign of good things to come at tomorrow's Oscar nominations.

* Only just noticed, in case you were wondering why I posted this today.

Today is...

... mostly transcribing an interview I did yesterday and then writing it up.

Although I was amused to see that one of my old Premiere muckers, Glenn Kenny, has a role as a "sleazy erotic website guy" in Steven Soderbergh's latest lo-fi effort, The Girlfriend Experience, which stars porn queen Sasha Grey, and has been drawing favourable notices for it. Well done, Glenn.

Tuesday thoughts

I've been remiss, again, in terms of posting, but in case you were wondering the Fincher thing went well.

He was typically smart, engaging, very funny and wonderfully candid and we managed to rattle through topics ranging from Benjamin Button, his early filmmaking influences, his time making promos, the nightmare that was Alien 3 and the lessons learned from that particular experience, Seven, Fight Club, through to the importance of sound in his movies in under an hour. As soon as the transcript is posted on The Guardian's website, I will, of course, link to it.

Onto other matters...

It's now President Obama, thank you very much.


And here's a snappy, new Watchmen TV spot