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 25
Nine
TWC
Marshall
Day-Lewis
Et al
In a thin year, getting over the post-production fights, looking like the front-runner
May
Up
Disney
Docter
Petersen
Could the first animated film to get a BP nod in a year with an animated category get the win?
The Nomination 80% Locks (in alphabetical order)
Dec 11
Invictus
WB
Eastwood
Freeman
The Waiting Game…
Nov 13 Up In The Air
Par
Reitman
Clooney
Very well liked already… a reflective comedy
Nov 6
Precious
LG
Daniels
Sidibe
‘Nique
The race race
Toronto Contenders Looking Likely
Oct 9
An Education
SPC
Scherfig
Mulligan
Sarsgaard
Belle Of The Ball
Oct 2
A Serious Man
Focus
Coens
Stuhlbarg
Kind
It’s the Jewish Precious… but funny!
Nov
A Single Man
TWC
Ford
Firth
It’s the Gay Precious… but pretty!
Serious Contenders To Fill The Last 3 Slots(in alphabetical order)
June
The Hurt Locker
Sum
Bigelow
Renner
A great movie… will Summit spend to play?
August
Inglourious Basterds
TWC
Tarantino
Waltz
A more commercial film… but looking better and better as the “contenders” slide
Sept 25
Coco Before Chanel
SPC
Fontaine
Tautou
The strong small film for women…. could push out Streep’s Julia Child… or not
Nov 13
The Fantastic Mr Fox
Fox
Anderson
Fox Searchlight on it now!
Dec 18 Avatar
Fox
Cameron
?
Is it a gamebreaker?
The Still Blurry, Waiting For Focus
Dec 25?
The Lovely Bones
Par/DW
Jackson
Weiss
Ronan
Wahlberg
Tucci

Will get a late, limited release
Nov 6
A Christmas Carol
Dis
Zemeckis
Carrey
Oldman
A breakthrough?
Damaged Goods
Oct 2
Capitalism: A Love Story
Over
Moore
Folks are trying to get excited, but privately are dissapointed
Aug 7 Julie & Julia
Sony
Ephron
Streep
Adams
A modest hit… seen as all about Streep… could rise if others fall
Nov 25
The Road
TWC
Hillcoat
Theron
Mortensen
Not as problematic as righties claimed, but hard road for Oscar
The Walking Dead Since July’s Chart
June
Tetro
AmZ
Coppola
Gallo
Ehrenreich
People heard something was coming… didn’t know it landed
June
Cheri
Mir
Frears
Pfeiffer
Commerical miss
Aug 28
Taking Woodstock
Focus
Lee
Commerical miss
Sept 18 The Burning Plain
Mag
Arriaga
Theron
Too heavy for a theatrical…
Sept
Bright Star
BB
Campion
Whishaw
Cornish
DOR – Dead On Release
2010
Shutter Island
Par
Scorsese
DiCaprio
Moved to 2010
2010
Green Zone
U
Greengrass
Damon
2010
The Commercial Chasers (by release date)
May
Star Trek
Par
Abrams
Urban
Bloom off the rose with #4 summer finish
July
Public Enemies
U
Mann
Depp
Mann’s #2 high grosser ever has been tagged “a flop”
Feb
Coraline
Focus
Selick
Fighting the notion of 2 animated nominees
Sept
The Informant!
WB
Soderbergh
Damon
Tone is throwing some off
Nov 20 The Blind Side
WB
Hancock
Bullock
Bates
Could be a surprise
Dec 25
Sherlock Holmes
WB
Ritchie
Downey
Not likely… Guy Ritchie
Dec 25
It’s Complicated
U
Meyers
Streep
Baldwin
Martin
Could well be the surprise
The Arthouse Chasers (by release date)
Oct 23
Amelia
FxSch
Nair
Swank
No one is excited
Nov 20 Broken Embraces
SPC
Almodovar
Cruz
Excellent… but not a ground breaker
Dec 4
Brothers
Lions
Sheridan
Maguire
Gyllenhaal
It wasn’t at TIFF… how will it find wings with Precious as LGF’s true love?
Dec 4
Everybody’s Fine
Mir
Jones
DeNiro
Remake of a Tornatore classic
Dec?
Men Who Stare At Goats
Over
Heslov
Clooney
Bridges
Liked, not loved.
Dec 25 The White Ribbon
SPC
Hanaeke
Fine art
Unlikely To Race This Year (in alphabetical order)
Biutiful
U/Foc
Gonzalez-
Inarritu
Bardem
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
SPC
Kounen
Mikkelsen
Intrigues At Tire-Larigot (Micmacs)
WB
Jeunet
The Last Station
Hoffman
Plummer
Giamatti
Love Ranch
Think
Hackford
Mirren
Ondine
Jordan
Bachleda-Curus
Shanghai
TWC
Håfström

Cusack
Yun-Fat
Li

Be Sociable, Share!

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

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