MCN Columnists
David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Best Picture Chart

BEST PICTURE
Picture
Studio
Director
Awards –
Poss Stars
Comment
Seen And Fully In The Scrum
July 20
Hairspray
NL
Shankman
Travolta
Blonsky
Musical Comedy
Sept 21
Into The Wild
ParVan
Penn
Holbrook
Hirsch
Road Trip/Feel Good
Oct 12
Lars & The Real Girl
Kimm
Gillespie
Gosling
Heart Film/Comedy
Nov 9
No Country For Old Men
Mir/
ParVan
Coens
Bardem
Jones
Powerful Drama
Dec 7
Atonement
Focus
Wright
Knightley
Period Film
Dec 17 The Diving Bell & The Butterfly
Mir
Schnabel
Fine Art
Dec 26
The Savages
FoxS
Jenkins
Hoffman
Linney

Bosco
Black Comedy/Family Saga
In Need Of Some Adrenaline… Backdoor Possibilities
Sept 7
3:10 To Yuma
Lions
Mangold
Bale
Crowe
Hard slog
Sept 14
Eastern Promises
Focus
Cronenberg
Mortenson
Watts
Pitch black
Sept 28
Lust, Caution
Focus
Lee
Leung
Wei
Long, Sexual, Mandarin
Oct 5
Michael Clayton
WB
Gilroy
Clooney
Wilkinson
Perhaps More Intellectual Than Emotional
Oct 12
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
U
Kapur

Blanchett

Very Mixed Reaction
Oct 26
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
Think
Lumet
Hoffman
Hawke
Brutal Family Saga W/Hoffman Nude Scene
Oct 26
Things We Lost In The Fire
DW
Bier
Del Toro
Tough, Tough, Tough, Sad Story
Nov 2
American Gangster
U
R. Scott
Denzel
Crowe
Commercial
Nov 21
I’m Not There
TWC
Haynes
Blanchett
Challenging Structure
Dec 14
Juno
FoxS
Reitman
Page
Pregnant Teen Comedy
Still Waiting On A Consensus Or To Be Seen At All
Nov 2
The Kite Runner
ParVan
Forster
Nov 9
Lions For Lambs
UA
Redford
Cruise
Streep
Redford
Nov 16
Beowulf
Par
Zemeckis
Dec 21
Sweeney Todd
DW
Burton
Depp
Bonham-
Carter
Dec 21
Charlie Wilson’s War
U
Nichols
Hanks
Roberts
Hoffman
Dec 26
There Will Be Blood
ParVan
Anderson
Day-Lewis
TBA The Bucket List
WB
Reiner
Nicholson
Freeman
TBA

The Great Debaters
TWC
Washington
Washington
Bowed & Bloodied (Awards-Wise) In Toronto
Sept 14
In The Valley Of Elah
WIP
Haggis
Jones
Theron

Not hated, but not enough love
Oct 19
Rendition
NL
Hood
Flatline
Nov 9
Reservation Road
Focus
George

Phoenix
Ruffalo
Connell
y

Frustrating
AND THE REST…
June 8
La Vie En Rose
PictH

Dahan

Cotillard
Not The French Nominee
June 22
A Mighty Heart
ParVan
Winterbottom
Jolie
June 29
Evening
Focus
Koltai
Streep
Close
Redgrave
May 4
Away From Her
Lions
Polley
Christie
Actress/Screenplay Poss
Sept 14
The Brave One
WB
Jordan
Foster
Howard
Sept 29
The Darjeeling Limited
FoxS
W Anderson
Wilson
Brody
July 13
Rescue Dawn
MGM
Herzog
Bale
Zahn
Aug 24
Ressurecting The Champ
Yari
Lurie
Jackson
Supp Actor Poss
Oct 12
Grace Is Gone
TWC
Strouse
Cusack
Oct 12
We Own The Night
Sony
Gray
Phoenix
Oct 19
Margot At The Wedding
ParVan
Baumbach
Kidman
Nov 2
In Bloom
Mag
Perelman
Thurman
Wood
Nov 16
Love In the Time Of Cholera
NL
Newell
Bardem
Nov 30
Cassandra’s Dream
TWC
Allen
McGregor
Wilkinson
Dec 7
His Dark Materials
NL
Weitz
Dec 14
Youth Without Youth
SPC
Coppola
Roth
OUT of 2007
The Other Boleyn Girl
Sony
Chadwick
La Misma Luna
FoxS
Riggen
Fererra
x
Guerilla
Focus
Soderbergh
x
Margaret
FoxS
Lonergan
x
Synecdoche, New York
SK
Kaufman
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon