MCN Columnists
David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Best Picture Chart

BEST PICTURE
Picture
Studio
Director
Stars
Comment
The Nomination 90% Locks (in alphabetical order)
Dec 11
Invictus
WB
Eastwood
Freeman
When Eastwood Met Apartheid
Nov 25
Nine
TWC
Marshall
Day-Lewis
Et al
Lots of beloved actors dance and sing a forgettable score based on an unforgettable movie
May
Up
Disney
Docter
Petersen
A truly great movie that will get enough support to break out of the animated ghetto
The LeadIng Contenders To Fill The 10 Slots (in alphabetical order)
Oct 9
An Education
SPC
Scherfig
Mulligan
Saasgard
A charmer.
Dec 18

Avatar
Fox
Cameron
?
The big muscle movie that is embraced as The Future?
Oct 2
Capitalism: A Love Story
Over
Moore
If it’s up to Moore’s past
June
The Hurt Locker
Sum
Bigelow
Renner
A masterwork of humanity and explosions
Aug 7

Julie & Julia
Sony
Ephron
Streep
Adams
This year’s Prada?
Nov 6
Precious
LG
Daniels
Sidibe
‘Nique
Another test of how much The Academy likes Black people
Oct 2
A Serious Man
Focus
Coens
Stuhlbarg
Kind
The Coens, right?
The Commercial Chasers (by release date)
May
Star Trek
Par
Abrams
Urban
A surprise box office win now looking like a #4 slot for the summer will likely return it to “it’s tv” notion
July
Public Enemies
U
Mann
Depp
Critics more in love than people
Oct 2
Shutter Island
Par
Scorsese
DiCaprio
A out and out thriller, but so was Cape Fear and with 10, it would have made it
Feb
Coraline
Focus
Selick
A glorious film… will the older voters watch it?
Oct 9
The Informant!
WB
Soderbergh
Damon
How broad the comedy?
Oct 23
Amelia
FxSch
Nair
Swank
Looks fogged in
Nov 6
A Christmas Carol
Dis
Zemeckis
Carrey
Oldman
Another visual breakthrough… will the script match?
Dec 4
Brothers
Lions
Sheridan
Maguire
Gyllenhaal
Great actors piece… but can it get real movement?
Dec 11
The Lovely Bones
Par/DW
Jackson
Weiss
Ronan
Wahlberg
Sarandon

We’ll know when we see it.
The Arthouse Chasers (by release date)
June
Tetro
AmZ
Coppola
Gallo
Ehrenreich
Masterful, but tiny.
June
Cheri
Mir
Frears
Pfeiffer
Seems more liked than loved
Sept 25
Coco Before Chanel
SPC
Fontaine
Tautou
We’ll see
Nov 20

Broken Embraces
SPC
Almodovar
Cruz
Not as hot as expected out of Cannes
Dec 25

The White Ribbon
SPC
Hanaeke
Critics film?
???
Bright Star
BB
Campion
Whishaw
Cornish
Brand new distributor… but Berney has been here before
Could Join The Racers (by release date)
Aug 28
Taking Woodstock
Focus
Lee
More light than Oscar
Sept 18 The Burning Plain
Mag
Arriaga
Theron
A tough, tough, brilliant little film… if no nod for Theron, cops should be called
Sept 25
Fame
MGM
Tancharoen
The original had that feeling
Oct 16
The Road
TWC
Hillcoat
Theron
Mortensen
Cormac McCarthy again… from the brilliant director of The Proposition
Nov 13
The Fantastic Mr Fox
Fox
Anderson
Fox is serious about this film
Nov 20

The Blind Side
WB
Hancock
Bullock
Bates
Would be a shock, but good material
Dec 25
Sherlock Holmes
WB
Ritchie
Downey
Not really going to happen… but one must bow to Downey’s popularity
Dec 25
Nancy Meyers Comedy
FoxS
Nancy
Streep
Baldwin
Martin
Could ascend in a hurry when we see it.
Will They Race This Year? (in alphabetical order)
???
Biutiful
U/Foc
Gonzalez-
Inarritu
Bardem
???
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
SPC
Kounen
Mikkelsen
Dec?
Green Zone
U
Greengrass
Damon
Most likely to move up fast if the movie is ready for release… much harder for indies
???
Intrigues At Tire-Larigot
WB
Jeunet
???
The Last Station
?
Hoffman
Plummer
Giamatti
???
Love Ranch
Think
Hackford
Mirren
Dec?
Men Who Stare At Goats
Over
Heslov
Clooney
Bridges
Dec?
Ondine
ParV
Jordan
Bachleda-Curus
Dec? Up In The Air
Par
Reitman
Clooney
2010? Shanghai
TWC
Håfström

Cusack
Yun-Fat
Li



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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