For those who care: Scream 4 gets a new poster.

Best news: He'll be almost 30! Henry Cavill is Clark Kent in Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel!

By Hollywood standards, the newest last son of Krypton is actually kinda old. By the time Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel (or whatever its called) comes out in December 2012, Mr. Henry Cavill will be 29 years old. If, as I predict, the film gets pushed back to July 19th, 2013, then the newest Clark Kent will be a whopping 30 years old when the film is released. I jest a little of course (obviously 39-year old Jon Hamm never had a chance), but Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh were both 26 years old when Superman: the Movie and Superman Returns went wide in America in December 1978 and June 2006 respectively. Dean Cain was 27 years old when Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman debuted on ABC back in September 1993. Other than that, I have little to add on this one. Cavill is a fine actor who has impressed on The Tudors, Stardust, and elsewhere. He auditioned to play Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins back in the day, was among the front-runners for what eventually became Superman Returns when McG was set to helm the picture, and was actually author Stephanie Meyers's first choice to play Edward Cullen in Twilight, but he was 25 years old by the time casting began. Hopefully this will be a case of the right person being cast in the role the second time around, ala Pierce Brosnan's belated run as James Bond (no offense to Timothy Dalton and Brandon Routh, as they both did their respective franchises proud). And that's all I really have to offer on this one at the moment. I'm certainly glad they didn't go with a teenager, or someone who looked barely out of high school.

Scott Mendelson

Weekend Box Office (01/30/11): The Rite tops, The Mechanic opens well, and Oscar nominees continue to soar.

While there were two major openers over the weekend and both of them opened within expectations, the real news was the performance of the various Oscar nominees that were in a position to capitalize on last week's nominations. Generally speaking, the news was good all around. Topping the weekend was The Rite, as the heavily-advertised religious thriller opened with $15 million. As far as religious horror pictures go, it pales to the $30 million scored by The Exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005, the $19 million earned by The Exorcist: The Beginning in 2004, the $20 million earned in the opening jaunt of The Last Exorcism several months ago (a surprisingly terrific little movie, by the way), and even the $19 million opening weekend of Stigmata from way back in September 1999. Still, The Rite had less overtly horror-ific moments to highlight in the ad campaign, as it mainly had a few fleeting shots of supernatural terror plus Anthony Hopkins to sell. The $35 million Warner Bros/New Line Cinema release will do just fine in the long run, and the film (for what it's worth) is Anthony Hopkins's biggest opening weekend for a top-billed star vehicle where he doesn't play Hannibal Lecter.

The other wide release was The Mechanic, which opened with $11.6 million. The most surprising thing about the box office performance of this Jason Statham vehicle (itself a remake of a 1972 Charles Bronson thriller), was that it managed a 3.0x weekend multiplier, which is quite rare in this day and age. Otherwise, the $11.5 million weekend falls right in Statham's zone of normality for his B-movie action pictures, as most of them generally open between $9 million and $12 million. For CBS Films, this is indeed a win, as they were able to deliver box office results similar to the Statham action films distributed by Lionsgate (War - $10 million, Crank - $10 million, and The Transporter 3 - $12 million), Fox (The Transporter - $9 million), Universal (Death Race - $12 million), and New Line Cinema (Cellular - $10 million). Statham has made a genuine niche for himself with these old-fashioned B-movie action pictures, which has pretty much been vacated by everyone else over the last ten years. In a fashion, Jason Statham is truly the 'last action hero'. The film cost a high (for this genre) $40 million, but CBS Films is only on the hook for acquisition costs. USA will run this one until the end of days). The only other semi-wide new release was the Lionsgate comedy, From Prada to Nada (a modern-day take on Sense and Sensibility), which grossed $1.1 million on 256 screens.

In Oscar news, The King's Speech went uber-wide and shot up 41% after receiving twelve Oscar nominations and scoring the Director's Guild Award just last night. The acclaimed historical drama grossed $11 million in its sixth weekend of wide release, bringing the total up to $72 million. The rest of the Oscar picks still in wide release were helped by the nominations, but it was more a case of lessening the weekend drops than a huge jump in ticket sales. True Grit (+3%) is now at $148 million, Black Swan (-13%) sits at $90 million, and The Fighter (-2.7%) is at $78 million. 127 Hours expanded to 900 screens but only captured another $2 million. It's not a huge jump for the Best Picture/Best Actor nominee, but the film is now at $13 million and could hit $20 million if it can keep the pace (if James Franco actually wins Best Actor, then $25-$30 million is not out of the question).

Rabbit Hole dropped just 5% and sits with $1.5 million, while the Best Actress nomination for Nicole Kidman gives the low-key drama an outside shot at recouping its $5 million budget. Biutiful, which played for exactly three days in a couple theaters at the end of the year for Academy consideration, opened in real limited release (57 screens) and earned about $8,000 per screen on the back of Javier Bardem's Best Actor nomination. Blue Valentine added another $1.5 million, thanks to the Best Actress nomination for Michelle Williams. The romantic drama has now grossed $6 million. Finally, The Social Network remains on over three hundred screens, as it desperately tries to cross the $100 million mark in time for Oscar night. It's at $96 million so far.

In holdover news, No Strings Attached dropped just 30% in weekend two, giving the Natalie Portman/Ashton Kutcher romantic-comedy $39 million in ten days, or about what The Dilemma has grossed in seventeen days (at 3x the cost of the $25 million No Strings Attached). The Green Hornet held up strong, dropping 36% in weekend three and giving the surprisingly popular (because it's surprisingly good) superhero adventure $78 million in seventeen days. $100 million domestic is well-within the realm of possibility. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I has now grossed $292.2 million domestically, making it the third-biggest grosser of the series in America and the second-biggest worldwide grosser in the franchise ($943 million).

That's it for this weekend. Join us next weekend when Universal tries desperately to convince you that James Cameron directed the underwater 3D thriller Sanctum (he's one of nine producers) and Sony tries to convince you that The Roommate is totally different from Single White Female. Until then, check out my 2010 year-end wrap-up to see where the Oscar nominees fell in (Best, Worst, Overrated, Underrated, and Good Films You Missed).

Scott Mendelson

Bad Marketing 101: movie posters that tell me what to do.

You're a movie poster. Your job is to advertise a film and make that film look enticing to me, the ticket buyer. You are not a parent, teacher, advisor, or self-help guru. Therefore, it is not your job to tell me how to live my life. It is not your job to offer theoretically empowering suggestions about how I choose to lead my existence. A moment of scorn for obnoxious movie posters of the last decade or so that saw themselves fit to tell me (and you) what to do. You're a movie poster. You are not the boss of me and I don't need your advice. Your only advice/order should be 'buy a ticket for this movie' and/or 'buy some popcorn and a soda'. Period. Enjoy some examples after the jump.

Thanks for the advice, Crazy/Beautiful. You felt you were so real, you were more than willing to not stand in the way while Disney studio execs cut your film down to ribbons in order to secure a PG-13. I think that counts as letting something stand in your way, so don't dare try to lecture me about making life-altering decisions.

Go? Go where? Engage in unhealthy habits, drug abuse, and/or wanton sexual promiscuity? Oh, you meant 'let yourself go' to the movie and buy a ticket to the latest Julia Roberts vehicle, because that's the only place you should be telling me where to go. Such arrogance...

First of all, those are some very specific instructions you've got there, Mr. Rider. You're implying that I should overthrow the current regime at my school and impose my own unelected authority, thereby saving the world? I suppose saving the cheerleader no longer causes said world to be saved? I see a bunch of helicopters and scary men on motorbikes, so is this an armed coup of some kind? Is collateral damage acceptable? More importantly, if you've seen the movie, the film has absolutely nothing to do with Alex Rider's schooling. At no point does his education, or the place where he is educated, play a role at all in the James Bond Jr. narrative at play. So, not only is it stupid advice, it is inaccurate advice in regards to the movie being sold.

How exactly should I go about raising hell? Should I commit random acts of violence to terrify the populace, or were you referring to a more biblical interpretation of 'raising hell'. Because if you merely meant that I should buy a ticket to this long-delayed (and allegedly quite terrible) Nicolas Cage/Ron Perlman adventure picture, then I hardly think that qualifies as even slightly subversive behavior.

Why exactly must I 'take back my life'? Who has taken my life from me? I was not aware that, except perhaps in some existential sense, my life was not my own. You could of course argue that, as a parent of a three-year old, I am no longer the primary decider of my own fate, but I hope you're not suggesting that I hire a gun-toting Liam Neeson to take care of that particular problem for me? Not that I'm too worried about that, as I'm pretty sure Allison would kick his ass and have him writhing on the floor while she repeatedly kicked him in the nuts screaming "Who's not-Abraham Lincoln now, bitch?" Point being, the marketing campaign for this film is pretty mediocre. How about less time telling me to 'take back my life' and more time actually making Unknown look like something worth giving up two hours of my life.

Wow, not only does this poster offer two empowering pieces of advice, but the title itself doubles as an order to boot. Don't hold back? Thanks, I'll remember that, especially when I'm genuinely upset at family members and/or people in authority. Don't give up? Sounds like logical advice, although it depends on what I'm attempting (sexual harassment, domestic terrorism, movie piracy, etc). Raise my voice? Um... in a movie theater? I don't think the other filmgoers would be too thrilled with that.

And that's the first batch I was able to track down. Feel free to send in your favorite examples of obnoxiously bossy and/or patronizing movie posters.

Scott Mendelson

Alana De Garza to join Law & Order: Los Angeles in part of casting overhaul. Other casting suggestions: ditch Molina, Howard, Stoll, and Coyote.

To the surprise of few who were paying attention, a regular of Law & Order has indeed been added to Law & Order: Los Angeles, in the form of Alana De Garza. She joined the original show as A.D.A. Connie Rubirosa in its sixteenth-year. She stuck around for four seasons, including the final three seasons that made up the creative comeback of what fans refer to as 'the mothership'. She felt completely out of place sparring with by-then grandfatherly Sam Watterson in her first season, but was a perfect fit with Linus Roache once Watterston's Jack McCoy got promoted to DA during season 17.

Considering how much her character thrived when matched with a similarly-aged A.D.A. in the form of Roache's Mike Cutter, it's almost tragic that the show will likely return her character to the role of 'mentoree' to Terrence Howard's Deputy District Attorney Jonah Dekker. While it appears that most of the casting changes have already been completed, allow me to add a few suggestions of my own: Jeremy Sisto, Anthony Anderson, Linus Roache, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Sam Watterson. Oh, and they should move the show to New York City and drop that silly suffix. That is all. Actually, that's not all. If they can poach Richard Belzer over from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, more power to them, as Detective John Munch hasn't left the squad room in about four seasons. "Chung-Chung".

Scott Mendelson

The 24 Hour News Cycle of Movie-News part II: Obsessing on the Unknown.

In a continuing feature of sorts on how the 24-hour news cycle hurts the world of film news (part I), we'll be briefly (I hope) discussing the weird phenomenon whereby countless column inches are spent dissecting and analyzing that which is either not-yet known or painfully obvious. Would you have guessed that Warner Bros. wanted a young male heartthrob to play Clark Kent in Zack Snyder's Superman picture? Most of us would have, yet Nikki Finke reported this obvious fact as some kind of shocking new development. I don't mean to pick on Finke (her main sins come in the realm of box office analysis... come back next week), and the real problem is that every other blogger to just repeats the rumor/speculation/lie, complete with their own personal casting list or counter-point commentary ("Why Taylor Lautner shouldn't play Spider-Man!").

You'd think it was pretty obvious that Warner Bros and Chris Nolan would want a young starlet to snag a major female role in The Dark Knight Rises. But we had countless speculative articles asking 'Who will play the female lead in Batman 3?'. None of these articles had any inside information, but they all allowed the writers to discuss a popular project and toss in half a dozen sultry pictures of the likes of Anne Hathaway, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, and Keira Knightley. The same thing happened prior to Rooney Mara being cast as Elizabeth Salander in David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo or Andrew Garfield being chosen to star as Sony's newest Peter Parker. Everyone tossed out their own 'here's who is being considered' list, complete with glossy photos and often snarky commentary. Steve Rogers must have been 'almost cast' about two dozen times during the summer of 2009. I was even on the 'short list' for a couple days, and you probably were too.

The latest 'let's report twenty different versions of the same casting news' came just this week, as Christian Bale, no wait, Viggo Mortenson, no wait... Javier Bardem for real this time(!) will be playing the lead role in the Dark Tower adaptation. But wait, there's more! Because Tom Hardy and Angelina Jolie are sure to be playing the lead roles in Snow White and the Hunter, unless it's really Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortenson, with the possibility of Kristen Stewart playing Snow White. None of this is fact, all of it is rumor and/or speculation, but it is being reported and commented on as if it were news. Because there is no easier way to get attention than to scream "Twilight's Bella to play Snow White!" I eagerly await the next dozen stories regarding various directors who will not be directing Iron Man 3 after all, before landing on whomever actually gets the job (my money is still on Terrence Mallick).

Until you have real knowledge of whom is going to play whom or who is going to direct what, feel free to speculate to your heart's content. But don't pretend that you have any real insight into how it's going to develop. And please don't try to sell a lie that a casting decision is all-but finalized when you in fact have no idea what's going on in the casting process. Being short-listed doesn't mean a damn thing until you sign on the dotted line (just ask 'he who would be Spider-Man' Logan Lerman). Don't pretend that your predictions have any weight to sway the decision. The idea of waiting for the truth has become irrelevant in the Internet age. The idea of accuracy has been lost to the lure of being 'first', irrelevant of the fact that being 'first' is pointless in the Facebook/Twitter era where everyone will know your 'exclusive' news within 90 seconds of publication. And please, if you must discuss a list of people allegedly up for a role, do discuss the contenders in a fashion slightly deeper than "She should get the role because she's so fucking hot!" or "He'd be perfect for this role because he played an identical part two years ago in another fan-friendly franchise!" Otherwise, you're just adding insult to your journalistic injury.

Scott Mendelson

Review: The Rite (2011)

The Rite
2011
114 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

Mikael Håfström's The Rite is a case where the true story that the film is seemingly based on seems far more interesting than the movie that got made.  The opening act of the picture seems to be setting up a story set in a relatively new Vatican program to teach modern-day priests how to perform exorcisms.  Sounds neat, right?  But the film quickly discards that idea to focus on a couple token case studies that, while interesting, too often feel like toned-down variations of any number of exorcism genre entries.  To its credit, the film is far more of a drama than an outright horror picture.  The third-act dovetail into the overtly 'scary' feels more like a test screening demand than an organic filmmaking choice.  But the film is creditably performed, looks polished throughout, and contains worthwhile insights about maintaining faith in an era of intellectual doubt.

A token amount of plot: For Michael Kovak (a low key and effective Colin O'Donoghue), a scholarship to seminary school seems to be the only likely escape from taking over his father's mortuary.  But on the eve of graduation, a tragic accident exposes just how little he believes in his own faith.  However, his supervisor Father Matthew (Toby Jones) politely but bluntly explains that a failure to take the oath will turn his scholarship into a student loan. But seeing a genuine crisis in faith, Father Matthew sends Michael to the Vatican to take a newly formed course on exorcisms.  He is quickly introduced an older, somewhat venerated exorcist (Anthony Hopkins) who exposes him to things that may affirm his faith or threaten his life.

For the record, this is not a horror film in any conventional sense.  In his first scene, Hopkins's Father Lucas Trevant states that if we're expecting pea soup and spinning heads than we'll be quite disappointed.  And most of the film is patently low-key, with an emphasis on Kovak's personal issues over violence, gore, and shocks.  Rutger Hauer gets all-too little screentime as Kovak's father, but his very presence creates an impact (with the last half-decade of overt stunt casting, it's nice to see Hauer get a chance to actually act).  Alice Braga plays a journalist investigating the new class, and she is basically a stand-in for the author (Matt Baglio) of the original book that the film was 'suggested' by.  But the majority of the film is an acting duel of sorts between O'Donoghue and Hopkins, and they suit each other well.  Hopkins plays it closer to the vest than you'd expect for this kind of material, and O'Donoghue is more than up to the challenge.

Alas, the film eventually falls into the trap of so many religious thrillers: they set up a challenge of faith and solve it by providing something awfully close to genuine proof.  Without going into details, Kovak doesn't come to terms with his faith or lack-thereof so much as he's confronted by audio-visual evidence.  And, as I mentioned above, as this morose character drama was playing out, I desperately wanted to get back into the classroom and see just how the Catholic Church went about teaching the craft of exorcism to an age where many of the would-be symptoms have been explained by medical science.

Still, The Rite remains a moody and intelligent drama, with strong performances and a genuine sense of mood and place. The first two acts are engaging and thoughtful, and the somewhat more visceral third act doesn't fatally wound the film.  It loses points for cheating at the end and loses more by ignoring a theoretically more interesting subject that exist merely on the fringes.  Anyone expecting a full-blown scary movie will be quite disappointed, but The Rite earns points for being a character drama and an occasionally compelling one.  

Grade: C

The Best Picture nominees: doing the box office math.

By Oscar night, at least five of the ten Best Picture nominees will have crossed $100 million, with The Fighter possibly being the sixth. Ironically, much of The Social Network's momentum was based on how much it had made ($95 million) and how that gross for a purely character-driven drama was a testiment to how well it connected to the public. What will the argument be when it enters Oscar night as the fourth or fifth lowest-grossing nominee in the pack? The ten-nominee thing is new enough to affect the math, and The Hurt Locker was a fluke, as the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in modern history (had Avatar not been set up by the media as the Goliath of the nominees, The Hurt Locker could not have so easily slid in as the proverbial David). Generally speaking, one of the two highest-grossing nominees amongst the traditional five nominees ends up winning.

Using that math, Toy Story 3 ($415 million) and Inception ($292 million) are the front-runners, but we of course know that's not the case at the moment. 127 Hours ($11 million), Winter's Bone ($6 million), and The Kids Are All Right ($20 million) are the arthouse pictures that were thrown a bone, a positive side effect of the ten nominee process. So, if we only count 'traditional Oscar nominees', then it comes down to a fight between Black Swan ($83 million), The Social Network ($95 million), The Fighter ($72 million), The King's Speech ($57 million), and True Grit ($138 million). By Oscar night, all five of the 'main contenders' will have grossed at least $95 million. True Grit has passed $100 million, while Black Swan and The King's Speech are sure to join it in the century club in the next few weeks. The Fighter has a shot (it's falling a little faster than The King's Speech and Black Swan), but more likely it will get over the hump after Melissa Leo and/or Christian Bale win their respective categories. Point being, by Oscar night, The Social Network will no longer have one of its trump cards, that its high box office take somehow makes it a film that speaks to a mass audience in a relevant way.

What does this mean? Well, the race still feels like a two-way fight between The King's Speech and The Social Network, with True Grit playing the spoiler. But it does mean that the ten-film nomination process may in fact change the way that box office affects the Best Picture race, which is arguably a good thing.

Scott Mendelson

Random commentary/analysis on the Oscar nominations.

Is Chris Nolan the new Steven Spielberg? Inception received eight nominations, including Best Picture, but Nolan failed to receive a directing nod this morning. That is arguably the biggest surprise in the otherwise predictable batch of Oscar nominations today. Even as someone who doesn't think it was the greatest genre entry of all-time, it IS a director's picture through-and-through. Of course, since we now have ten Best Picture nominees and only five Best Director slots, there are arguably five other directors who might be a little annoyed this morning. I'm personally saddened (as much as one can be 'saddened' by stuff like this) by the omission of Debra Granik for her direction of Best Picture nominee Winter's Bone. I know we all like the Coen Brothers, but True Grit is a pretty normal western. If True Grit is Oscar-worthy, then so was 3:10 to Yuma and Open Range. There will be much handwringing over Lisa Cholodenko not getting a Best Director nomination for The Kids Are All Right. But since I kinda hate the film, I'm not too personally annoyed by the omission. At least Mark Ruffalo pulled out a Best Supporting Actor nod out of the deal, since he was the best thing about the film (of course, Ruffalo is usually the best thing about every film he's in).

The actual ten Best Picture nominees were pretty much as predicted a couple months ago (eight of the ten films made either my Best of 2010 or Overrated of 2010 lists). You have two mainstream blockbusters (Inception and Toy Story 3), two mid-summer arthouse favorites (The Kids Are All Right and Winter's Bone), the one Oscar-bait critical darling that didn't quite catch fire at the box office (127 Hours), the presumptive front-runner (The Social Network), and the four uber-popular, audience-pleasing bits of late-year Oscar bait (Black Swan, The Fighter, The King's Speech, and True Grit). It's a solid cross-section of nominees and proof that the ten-nominee gimmick is a pretty great idea. Not only did the best damn film of the year get in (Toy Story 3), but five of the ten films were released prior to the official Novemeber/December Oscar-bait season. I'm still pulling for a Pixar upset, but right now the four front runners (the films with Picture, Director, Acting, and Editing nods) are The Social Network, Black Swan, The King's Speech, and The Fighter.

I could spend a column whining about what shouldn't have been nominated (everything about True Grit save Halee Steinfield), and I won't mention that I see not a single minority in any of the major nominees lists. But I will only make mention of the fact that Helen Bonham Carter, having spent the last two decades playing all manner of weird and unique characters, gets an Oscar nom for playing the cliched 'supportive, nurturing, stand-by-your-man wife', a character with little to do and almost no dialogue. But let's move on to positive developments. Melissa Leo is now a two-time Oscar nominee and I can't wait to be able to type the sentence: "Melissa Leo is an Oscar-winning actress". Christian Bale received his first (!) Oscar nomination for The Fighter, and he's still the front-runner (only Geoffrey Rush can beat him). Natalie Portman of course was nominated for Best Actress for Black Swan, and at this point she still seems unbeatable (barring a 'career-award' upset from Annette Bening).

John Hawkes pulled off a somewhat surprising (and completely pleasing) Best Supporting Actor nomination for Winter's Bone. Best Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence justifiably got most of the media buzz, but Hawkes's supporting turn truly dominates the third act of the terrific little drama. Jackie Weaver snagged a Best Supporting Actress nod for Animal Kingdom, which means the DVD I have from Blockbuster is will probably be watched this evening. Javier Bardem got a somewhat surprising Best Actor nod for Best Foreign film nominee Biutiful and Michelle Williams snuck in for Blue Valentine. Nicole Kidman got a deserved nod for Rabbit Hole, as it's nice to see people talking about her acting instead of her alleged botox treatments, and/or the shocking fact that films like Rabbit Hole don't play like Happy Feet or Batman Forever. Whatever my issues about The Social Network (its truthfulness, its alleged cultural impact), Jesse Eisenberg gives a genuinely brilliant performance, so I'm happy he was not lost amidst the press given to director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin.

The Illusionist made the cut in the Best Animated Film Category joining Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon while beating out more mainstream releases like Despicable Me and Tangled. I sincerely hope that the voting block doesn't engage in Pixar-backlash and deny Toy Story 3 the Best Animated Film win that it so clearly deserves, but that's certainly possible. There were few surprises in the various technical categories, although I'm somewhat happily surprised that Tron: Legacy missed out in the Best Visual category. Good on the terrific action picture Unstoppable getting a deserved Best Sound Editing nomination, and yay for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I getting notice for its often-invisible Visual Effects and its moody Art Direction.

That's all I have for the moment. I'll offer my predictions for who or what will win in what categories when time permits, but that's enough ranting for now. Who do you think got robbed and/or undeservedly nominated? Which nominations made you happiest? Feel free to check in. Oh, and full nomination list is below.

Scott Mendelson

Best Picture
"Black Swan," Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
"The Fighter" David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
"Inception," Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
"The Kids Are All Right," Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
"The King's Speech," Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
"127 Hours," Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
"The Social Network," Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán, Producers
"Toy Story 3" Darla K. Anderson, Producer
"True Grit" Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in "Biutiful"
Jeff Bridges in "True Grit"
Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network"
Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"
James Franco in "127 Hours"

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in "The Fighter"
John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone"
Jeremy Renner in "The Town"
Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right"
Geoffrey Rush in "The King's Speech"

Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right"
Nicole Kidman in "Rabbit Hole"
Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone"
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine"

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in "The Fighter"
Helena Bonham Carter in "The King's Speech"
Melissa Leo in "The Fighter"
Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit"
Jacki Weaver in "Animal Kingdom"

Animated Feature Film
"How to Train Your Dragon" Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
"The Illusionist" Sylvain Chomet
"Toy Story 3" Lee Unkrich

Art Direction
"Alice in Wonderland"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"
"Inception"
"The King's Speech"
"True Grit"

Cinematography
"Black Swan," Matthew Libatique
"Inception," Wally Pfister
"The King's Speech," Danny Cohen
"The Social Network," Jeff Cronenweth
"True Grit," Roger Deakins

Costume Design
"Alice in Wonderland," Colleen Atwood
"I Am Love," Antonella Cannarozzi
"The King's Speech," Jenny Beavan
"The Tempest," Sandy Powell
"True Grit" Mary Zophres

Directing
"Black Swan," Darren Aronofsky
"The Fighter," David O. Russell
"The King's Speech," Tom Hooper
"The Social Network," David Fincher
"True Grit," Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Documentary (Feature)
"Exit through the Gift Shop," Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
"Gasland," Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
"Inside Job," Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Restrepo," Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
"Waste Land," Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)
"Killing in the Name"
"Poster Girl"
"Strangers No More"
"Sun Come Up"
"The Warriors of Qiugang"

Film Editing
"Black Swan"
"The Fighter"
"The King's Speech"
"127 Hours"
"The Social Network"

Foreign Language Film
"Biutiful," Mexico
"Dogtooth," Greece
"In a Better World," Denmark
"Incendies," Canada
"Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)," Algeria

Makeup
"Barney's Version," Adrien Morot
"The Way Back," Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
"The Wolfman," Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)
"How to Train Your Dragon," John Powell
"Inception," Hans Zimmer
"The King's Speech," Alexandre Desplat
"127 Hours," A.R. Rahman
"The Social Network," Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)
"Coming Home" from "Country Strong," Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light" from "Tangled," Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
"If I Rise" from "127 Hours," Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
"We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3," Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Short Film (Animated)
"Day & Night," Teddy Newton
"The Gruffalo," Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
"Let's Pollute," Geefwee Boedoe
"The Lost Thing," Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
"Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)" Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)
"The Confession," Tanel Toom
"The Crush," Michael Creagh
"God of Love," Luke Matheny
"Na Wewe," Ivan Goldschmidt
"Wish 143," Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Sound Editing
"Inception," Richard King
"Toy Story 3," Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
"Tron: Legacy," Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
"True Grit," Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
"Unstoppable," Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing
"Inception," Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
"The King's Speech," Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
"Salt," Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
"The Social Network," Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
"True Grit," Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects
"Alice in Wonderland," Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1," Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
"Hereafter," Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
"Inception," Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
"Iron Man 2," Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
"127 Hours," Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
"The Social Network," Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
"Toy Story 3," Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
"True Grit," Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"Winter's Bone," Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Writing (Original Screenplay)
"Another Year," Written by Mike Leigh
"The Fighter," Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
"Inception," Written by Christopher Nolan
"The Kids Are All Right," Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
"The King's Speech," Screenplay by David Seidler

How Kevin Smith's Red State could have been the new face of Video On Demand.

There are people with stronger feelings one way or another about Kevin Smith than I. I loved Clerks II and Dogma, hated Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, liked Clerks and Chasing Amy, and I have yet to see Mallrats, Zack and Miri Make A Porno, Jersey Girl or Cop Out. So I'm not going to get terribly worked up over the hurt feelings allegedly inspired by Smith's decision to distribute Red State in the classic Road Show style (sometimes called 'four-walling'), taking the film around the country as if it were a traveling circus attraction. It would seem that Smith is, if anything, guilty of announcing a perfectly-okay personal choice in a manner that put him in a most negative light. Similar to James's press-conference last summer, Smith basically failed at that whole 'tact' thing. James had every right to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers after seven years, but the self-aggrandizing press-conference probably wasn't the best way to go about it. Same thing here: if Smith wanted to turn his film into some kind of sideshow exhibit, then more power to him. But perhaps the Sundance Film Festival wasn't the best place to criticize the various means of distribution for smaller films (while showing a token amount of ignorance about how smaller films are marketed), especially after (allegedly) implying that the film was going to be put up for sale following the first screening last night. More importantly, even if much of the fanboy criticism of Smith was truly overblown, Kevin Smith doesn't realize that he missed out on the chance to truly be a pioneer.

If handled properly, Red State could have been The Matrix of Video on Demand. Only a few small studios (notably Magnolia and IFC) have truly embraced the concept of offering theatrical pictures for home viewing prior or during their theatrical release. While the major studios have wrestled with the idea of offering same-day releases for some of their features on multiple platforms (theaters, DVD, OnDemand, etc), the dangers were plenty. Obviously, the major theater chains wouldn't be thrilled about having their first-run pictures being offered on DVD at the same time they were being offered on the big screen. And, more importantly, the theatrical exhibition of a picture, the idea that it indeed was a big and/or important enough film to screen in US theaters is what sets one film apart from the countless direct-to-DVD features littering the walls of Blockbuster. One can certainly argue (especially in the horror genre) that many films that go direct-to-DVD are superior to many of the theatrical releases, but the idea that 'theaters = real movie' is still potent, and a genuine factor for international ticket sales as well.

Whatever one's thoughts on the new distribution model, if Video On Demand is to thrive in any way, shape, or form, there needs to be a test case. There needs to be a 'big' movie that dips its toes into the pre-theatrical VoD marketplace. I argued last summer that Universal/Rogue should have gone this route with Macgruber, a genuinely funny picture that nonetheless completely flopped at the box office. Point being, the R-rated, $10 million action-comedy was just the sort of film that didn't feel worth a trip to the theater, but would have been far more attractive as a $20-$30 rental after the kids had gone to bed. Just as The Matrix came out on DVD just as the emerging format needed a kick in the pants in late 1999 (and, to a lesser extent, how The Dark Knight, Sleeping Beauty, and/or Avatar helped mainstream Blu Ray discs), a film as buzzed-about as Kevin Smith's Red State, if picked up by Magnolia or IFC, could be a test case at at-home pay-per-view viewing for something that theoretically could very well have been a major theatrical release.

I'm of two minds about the whole 'video on demand' concept. On one hand, since becoming a parent, the idea of screening a major release on or before opening night in the comfort of my home with my wife easily able to watch with me, is frankly irresistible. As a working parent whose three-year old rarely takes weekend naps, I'd gladly pay premium prices if I could watch something like The Rite or The Mechanic (to say nothing of Oscar-bait character-dramas like The King's Speech or Rabbit Hole) at home after my daughter goes to bed. Moreover, as the HDTVs get larger and cheaper and surround-sound systems become cheaper and easier, the at-home viewing experience becomes that much-more appealing for more and more pictures.

On the other hand, before I became a parent, I was an absolutist when it came to theatrical exhibition, so I concede that my circumstances dictate my 'morality' in this specific case. Moreover, there is a plausible fear that mainstreaming 'same-date releases' will eventually kill theatrical movie-going all together, which in turn will kill the potential for the fantastical epics that we still go to the biggest screen we can find to enjoy. No studio is going to fund the next James Bond movie or Avatar 2 so it can go straight-to-DVD or cable. There are plenty of intelligent people who believe that same day-release strategies are the beginning of the end for mainstream movie-going, and I again admit that my perception is hopelessly colored by my specific situation.

But VoD is indeed an emerging distribution network, and one that isn't utilized perhaps as often as it should be. Kevin Smith had a chance to put his faith in the kind of studio that gave him a career. He is where he is today partially because Miramax took a chance on Clerks and because Lionsgate stepped in to distribute Dogma (which in turn put that small studio on the map). Smith has achieved artistic and financial success because he put his trust in smaller distribution studios, who in turn believed in his work. He had a chance to re-establish that trust yet again, and he turned his back on the independent cinema while implicitly mocking those who can and will benefit from the likes of Magnolia or Sony Pictures Classics. Whether he did it because he's a self-aggrandizing fop, or because he has truly lost the faith (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt), Kevin Smith has missed out on a prime opportunity to become truly relevant yet again. Red State could have been the Journey to the Center of the Earth for Video on Demand, instead of just another variation of Repo: The Genetic Opera.

Scott Mendelson

Weekend Box Office (01/23/11): Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher top chart with No Strings Attached, Way Back and Company Men under-perform.

As the lone new wide-release of the weekend, the Ivan Reitman romantic-comedy, No Strings Attached, debuted with $20.3 million. The $25 million picture was a solid win for both Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. Portman probably deserves credit, as this was the first mainstream project to capitalize on her Black Swan press, as well as her new unfortunate role as a tabloid darling (re: surprise engagement + pregnancy = no escape). But the $20 million opening falls right in Ashton Kutcher’s median average when dealing with commercial fare such as this (What Happens in Vegas, Guess Who, etc). Out of fifteen wide-release openers, seven of them opened between $17 and $23 million. Killers, with $15 million, was just as much an anomaly on his box office filmography as Valentine’s Day (where, ensemble cast aside, he and Jennifer Garner were the leads) opening with $56 million. Journalists may unfairly tag him as a flop machine, and audiences may say they hate him, but as he’s not making a $70 million spy comedy, Kutcher is a reliable draw for reasonably-budgeted pictures such as this one

Comparably, this opening is Natalie Portman’s second biggest ever outside of the Star Wars franchise. V For Vendetta pulled in $25 million five years ago, and the next highest is the $9.6 million opening for Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (which is actually pretty good, thanks to a terrifically warm supporting turn by Jason Bateman). This may indeed be the start of her career as a genuine box office draw (Black Swan is already her biggest-grossing non-Star Wars picture ever), but that remains to be seen. Her next theatrical release is a small IFC-distributed picture, The Other Woman. The next big test will be Your Highness (red-band trailer), opening on April 8th, and then Thor (trailer) on May 6th, which will likely open or not open regardless of Portman.

It’s also worth nothing that this is Ivan Reitman’s biggest opening weekend in 22 years, after Ghostbusters II, which actually set the record for opening weekend with $29 million in June 1989… if only for a single week. And, in equally useless stats, Cary Elwes is BACK! This is his second $20 million+ opener in just under three months (after his 'buzz'-building supporting turn in Saw 3D)! Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but I'm always happy to see Elwes steadily working. Point being, the adult romantic comedy is not dead in the least, it just shouldn't cost $70 million (The Dilemma) or $120 million (How Do You Know).

There were only two other notable releases, both in respective limited debuts. Peter Weir's epic drama The Way Back, opened in 650 screens with just $1.4 million. The escape adventure starring Collin Ferrel, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan (who has a franchise of her own in April with Hanna), Mark Strong, and Jim Sturgess (remember when he was the next big thing just two years ago?) never had a chance, as it is long and brooding, with absolutely no awards heat and limited critical fuss attached to it. Weinstein Company finally debuted The Company Men into 106 theaters this weekend, after pulling it from the 2010 schedule to avoid competition with more surefire Oscar contenders. The recession drama with Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, and Chris Cooper grossed just $767,000 for a mediocre $7,000 per-screen average. It's a shame, as I remember a time when a drama starring any two of those actors would be a major wide release...

Second place went to The Green Hornet, which held up pretty well considering it was coming off of a holiday weekend. The superhero comedy dropped 46% for a $18.1 million second weekend. That's not a huge hold, but it's not a major drop for a geek-friendly genre picture in today's marketplace, and I can say from copious anecdotal evidence that it's going to be the 'second choice' for general movie goers for at least the next couple weeks. The too-expensive ($120 million) but awfully fun (review) picture has a ten-day total of $63.4 million. The Dilemma had an okay hold as well, dropping 47% for a $9.4 million second weekend. Its $33 million cum would be just fine had the critically-savaged romantic comedy not cost $70 million. Country Strong has now equaled its $15 million budget in domestic grosses, while Season of the Witch lost 18% of its auditoriums (520 screens) and tumbled accordingly (-52% for a $22 million total). Laugh all you want, but when all but the biggest hits are being tossed out of multiplexes on their fifteenth day, general moviegoers are just that much more likely to wait for DVD.

The King's Speech is holding up quite well, and will only grow stronger after its surprise win at the Producer's Guild Awards last night (this no longer makes an Oscar win for The Social Network a sure thing). Anyway, the crowd-pleasing period piece grossed another $9.2 million (-0.2%) and it currently sits with $58.6 million. True Grit had another solid weekend, dropping just 27% and ending its fifth weekend with $138 million. The other two major Oscar contenders are holding their own as well. Black Swan (you know, the other Natalie Portman movie) dropped just 25% and now sits at $83.5 million. It would have seemed unfathomable that a hyper-sexual and oppressively grim horror film set in a ballet studio directed by Darren Aronofski would make it to $100 million, but now that seems like a foregone conclusion. David O Russel's The Fighter may get there too, especially if Christian Bale and Melissa Leo win their respective Oscar categories, as the boxing drama has already grossed $73 million.

In non-Oscar news, Little Fockers is still holding on, having crossed the $141 million. For any other comedy, this would have been a very impressive achievement, but for the $100 million+ sequel to the second highest-grossing comedy of all time, it's okay at best. Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader has crossed $100 million in domestic dollars, and it just topped $355 million worldwide. Tangled is at $186 million stateside and is near $400 million internationally. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I is just under $700,000 domestically from becoming the third-highest grosser in the series, but it's just surpassed the $938.2 million worldwide take of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to become the second-biggest international grosser of the franchise, behind the first picture ($974 million). Tron: Legacy crossed the $160 million mark this weekend, ending Sunday with $163 million domestic and $334 million worldwide. Not only is there a sequel on the way, there is apparently a teaser sequence for said sequel that was already shot back in Thanksgiving and will appear on the DVD/Blu Ray.

That's about it this weekend. Join us next weekend for another light load, as CBS Films hopes that Jason Statham killing people as The Mechanic will prove more successful than The Rock killing people in Faster. Also, Anthony Hopkins returns to the horror genre (where, let's be honest, he is most at home) with The Rite. Until then, keep reading and take care.

Scott Mendelson

Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood (with Amanda Seyfried) gets a terrible second trailer, with a stunningly stupid musical choice.

On one level, this second look at Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood is a pretty generic trailer, a plot-centric piece that basically gives away the majority of the film in chronological order. It also achieves the impossible, as it makes Gary Oldman boring, as his endless narration explicitly spells out the plot of the film in bland generalities. Two trailers in, and the film doesn't feel the least bit original or inspired behind the all-star cast and a hope for some of the self-depreciating humor that made Twilight so much more fun than its morose sequels. Sleepy Hollow had the visual brilliance of a re-energized Tim Burton, the kooky lead performance of Johnny Depp (back when that was still a bit fresh), and a cavalcade of British all-stars. The Wolfman at least had the promise of grown-up horror fare for adults with adult actors at the helm. Both prior films also had the allure of R-rated violence and gore. The film comes out in just under two months, so we'll see as always.

But it's inexplicable music choice in the second half turns the preview into some kind of camp classic. I've written a hundred times about how the right music choice can elevate a preview into art, but the wrong choice can kill whatever images are being presented. Say what you will about using modern rock music to score period piece horror movie trailers, but it's not something I'm opposed to on principle. However, whatever song is used frankly sounds like the instrumental opening to Bon Jovi's 80s classic "Living on a Prayer". Frankly, if Summit wanted hard rock behind the second trailer, they should have just bit the bullet and bought the rights to Duran Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf". Yes, it would have been on the nose and cheesy as all hell, but it would be no worse than this trailer, where we spend the entirety of the second half waiting for Jon to start singing about the struggles of Tommy and Gina.

Scott Mendelson

Friday Box Office (01-22-11): No Strings Attached opens with $7.3 million, but Nikki Finke falsely calls Ashton Kutcher a flop-machine anyway.

"...any movie starring Ashton Kutcher is probably a bomb..." - Nikki Finke discussing Paramount's unwillingness to personally send her a press briefing on No Strings Attached

An absolute falsehood. She bases her assertion on a single film, Killers, which opened with $15 million and grossed $93 million worldwide (which would have been fine had the film not cost $70 million). Valentine's Day (an ensemble film where he had the lead role) opened to $56 million just last year. What Happened In Vegas opened to $20 million and ended up with $219 million worldwide (his biggest grosser ever) just under three years ago. Sure, he occasionally out-and-out whiffs (A Thing Like Love, My Boss's Daughter), but Kutcher is a relatively consistent opener.

Of his fifteen wide-openers as a lead (including No Strings Attached, which should do about $20 million following a $7.3 million Friday), his lowest is My Boss's Daughter with $4.2 million, followed by A Lot Like Love with $7.3 million. After that we get the lower-end, but okay openers: $13 million for Dude, Where's My Car and Killers with $15 million. Then he he has seven films opening between $17-23 million. The two high-end outliers are Cheaper by the Dozen at $27 million and Valentine's Day. Point being, Kutcher is a reliable opener who delivers mid-level opening weekends for movies that generally have mid-to-low budgets, films that generally gross (9 out of 14 so far) between $93 million and $219 million worldwide. Ashton Kutcher actually remains one of the more reliable stars working today, as long as you keep your budget in check.

Anyway, the No Strings Attached number is pretty solid, proving that the adult romantic comedy was in no real peril, but rather that the last couple high-profile entries (The Dilemma and How Do You Know) just cost way too much. The Dilemma cost $70 million and How Do You Know cost $120 million. The Natalie Portman/Ashton Kutcher vehicle cost just $25 million. Lesson learned? Of course not.

Scott Mendelson

NBC picks up David E. Kelly's Wonder Woman pilot.

According to Nellie Andreeva over at Deadline Hollywood, NBC has indeed picked up David E. Kelly's Wonder Woman reboot for next season. The project was announced late last year, and then was initially passed on by the major networks for reasons ranging from cost to brand loyalty (IE - ABC is owned by Disney who now owns Marvel Comics). NBC was apparently interested from the beginning (what else do they have going for them?), but was reluctant to commit due to the regime transition. New NBC entertainment president Bob Greenblatt decided to make the pick up after officially taking over his new position. This is good news for fans of David E. Kelly, fans of Wonder Woman, and parents of Allison Mendelson, who now stand a much better chance of finding Wonder Woman-related party favors for said child's fourth birthday at summer's end. Alison Elizabeth Mendelson's parents are still less-than-optimistic about procuring the oft-requested 'magic lasso' and/or 'invisible jet'. For my personal thoughts on the project, read my initial reactions from last October. And once again I ask you loyal readers, who do you think should play Wonder Woman this time around?

Scott Mendelson

What may keep me out of theaters in 2011 part II: Movies out of theaters in a flash.

Tonight is 'Babysitting Night'. One Friday a month, our daughter's preschool hosts a pizza/movie/pajama party after school hours from 6:00-10:00pm, meaning we overworked and overstressed parents get a guilt-free night off. So tonight, my wife and I were planning on catching an evening screening of Season of the Witch. Why Season of the Witch? Well, um... sometimes we enjoy schlock. And we had no interest in No Strings Attached, I've seen the other Oscar bait pictures, and there's no way in hell I'm convincing my wife to blow a date night on Blue Valentine or The Way Back. So Season of the Witch it was to be. Except it's not. Because Season of the Witch is only playing at our local cineplex at 9:50pm tonight. At the AMC Promenade 16, Season of the Witch, currently entering its fifteenth day of release, is now only playing at one late-night show.

Once again, and I know I've said this before, if you want moviegoers to still see movies in theaters, it helps to keep those films in theaters long enough to accommodate casual film-goers. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who thought 'Hey, Season of the Witch looks fun, nothing that I need to run out and see, but if we have the time, we'll check it out'. Well, it appears that I did indeed have to 'run out and see it'. Keep in mind, the film did not out-and-out tank. It opened with $10 million on its opening weekend and pulled in a little under $5 million this weekend. No one is happy with the results, but it's not like the film opened like Delgo or The Nutcracker 3D. Yet in this hyper-crowded marketplace, a mainstream studio release is losing 18% of its screens in just two weeks.

My wife and I had similar issues when seeing a matinée showing of Sorority Row in late 2009 (her pick). At just ten days out, we were told that we couldn't use our AMC free-ticket passes, because the film was still a special engagement. We went ahead anyway, but I imagine any number of moviegoers would wait on something like that until they could use their discount passes or free tickets. Too bad, because Soriority Row was out of most of its theaters by the start of day fifteen. And it's not just for flopping horror films. My wife and I had to go to an out-of-the-way theater to see The A-Team this summer, just three weeks after it opened to $25 million. And don't even bother trying to find 2D prints of any major 3D movie more than two weeks after its opening weekend. The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Tron: Legacy, Yogi Bear, etc are now 3D-exclusive theatrical engagements for much of the country. I'm lucky in that I have several large theaters within reasonable driving distance. But for those who only have one or two multiplexes, it's quite likely that the movie that you actually want to see, but you're waiting for a convenient time... it might not be at your local theaters by the time you get around to it just two or three weeks after opening day. In an environment like this, it's almost impossible for any movies to really have legs in the traditional sense.

I remember finally getting around to seeing that well-reviewed James Bond spoof I had heard about, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, three weeks or so into its theatrical run. The film had opened to $9 million, but held on for a good chunk of summer 1997 due to word of mouth. The question becomes, in today's climate, would Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery been unavailable to me to see in theaters just fifteen days after opening weekend? There are plenty of people who saw and loved Batman Begins long after its mid-June opening weekend in summer 2005. In today's climate, would the underwhelming $72 million five-day opening have doomed the film to a quick $155 million and done total, denying us The Dark Knight?

As I hinted at last month, I'm trying to become less obsessive about seeing movies as soon as they come out regardless of convenience. But now I'm left with wondering whether I have but two choices: see it IMMEDIATELY or wait until DVD. For stuff like Season of the Witch, it's a pretty easy decision. "Three more months to DVD... DVD... DVD. Three more months till DVD... Silver Shamrock!"

Scott Mendelson

The 24 Hour News Cycle of Movie-News part I: Reporting the Rumor as Fact.

For the second time in just under a week, film studios basically revealed that they had duped the entire Internet for a period of several months. The first blow came last Friday, when Fox announced that Ridley Scott's Alien prequel was being dumped and reconfigured into an original project entitled Prometheus. It was revealed that Scott and writer Damon Lindelof had been constructing this original story for at least the last couple months. That means that movie news sites spend the last two months breathlessly speculating about the project that did not exist. But the biggest con was still to come... Did you hear that rumor about Tom Hardy playing Dr. Hugo Strange in the next Batman picture?

Tom Hardy was officially added to the cast of The Dark Knight Rises back in October. Speculation, in the guise of 'alleged sources', immediately centered around Hardy playing Dr. Hugo Strange, a demented psychiatrist who was Batman's first super-villain way back in 1939 and showed up from time to time during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Nevermind that Chris Nolan had yet to comment on what characters he was adding to the third Batman picture. Nevermind that we had no real reason to believe these sources, this rumor became discussed in relation to The Dark Knight Rises as if it was fact. Would the film be based on the 1990 Legends of the Dark Knight story-arc entitled "Prey"? Again, no real reason this would be the case, except that it was one of the last notable Hugo Strange story-lines and its narrative (Dr. Hugo Strange is brought in by the police to profile the fugitive Batman and becomes obsessed with his subject) somewhat fit with the cliffhanger ending of The Dark Knight.

I will confess a token amount of guilt in this area. While what little I wrote about it was of the "Oh, I hope they don't use this silly story for the movie..." variety, I still spent time and words on this completely unfounded piece of speculation. As of yesterday, everything anyone wrote about Dr. Hugo Strange's role in the third Batman film, and the theoretical adaptation of said Legends of the Dark Knight story, has been rendered null and void. Tom Hardy will instead be playing Bane and Anne Hathaway will be playing Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Now there is no reason to assume that Nolan and company didn't know exactly which characters they were using at least since Hardy was cast in October. So that means that Warner Bros, Chris Nolan, and a handful of other people in the pipeline spent the last four months watching the Internet at large endlessly speculating and commenting on a blatant falsehood. Or worse yet, the entire world wide web got tricked into believing that a storyline for an upcoming video game, Batman: Arkham City, was in fact the story for The Dark Knight Rises.

We can laugh this off as just another case of those silly Internet fanboys getting it wrong. But this issue doesn't just reside in the realm of Aint It Cool News or CHUD, which at least serve a specific audience. The realm of movie bloggers has exploded over the last several years. More importantly, the way news is reported has dramatically changed. Once upon a time, a bit of casting news or preproduction information wasn't even mentioned as rumor unless it was either somewhat close to being factual or complete hogwash. So, when you read something on a movie news site, it was either/or. But, in the wake of the explosive popularity and success of Deadline Hollywood, and the attempts by mainstream entertainment outlets (think Hero Complex or The Vulture) to emulate Nikki Finke's gossip success, it's no longer enough to announce actual news.

No, now we have to announce rumors and the debunking of rumors and the re-reporting of those rumors all over again. We have to report the painfully obvious as if it were breaking and/or shocking news (Warner wants a young male Caucasian stud for the next Superman film... really!). We have to track each step of the casting or director-hiring process (the studio wish-list, the audition process, the callbacks, the contract, and then finally the actual hiring) with the same breathless reporting that once only greeted the signing on the dotted line. And, more importantly, we treat each piece of rumor-mongering or arbitrary speculation as if it were hard news.

And for the second time in a week, the Internet was dead wrong about the core elements of the story. Chris Nolan never confirmed that he was using Dr. Hugo Strange, just as he never actually discussed using The Riddler back in 2008. And Ridley Scott had long-since jettisoned his Alien prequel in favor of a whole new project. Countless sites, from homegrown blogs like this one to the likes of Fandango, speculated based on false information, information that they had no real reason to believe in the first place. Actual studios releasing actual press releases: 2, Internet gossip circles: 0.

In this new non-stop cycle of alleged movie news all the time, everyone has to run with the same half-hearted rumors in order to get those all-important hits. And, even if the given rumor turns out to be true weeks or months down the line, we all end up just writing the same damn story several times by the time its official. How many times did your favorite site write about a new James Bond film being prepped for November 2012 (I'm proud to say I only wrote about it once)? Point being, by the time any piece of film news actually becomes news, it has been reported, speculated, and commented on half a dozen times, making the actual breaking news feel passé. The most thrilling part of the last two big news breaks is that the Internet got it wrong. And the best part is that we film fans got to hear major news only after it actually became news. Reporting on stories only after they become factual: what a novel concept!

Scott Mendelson

X-Men: First Class releases a teaser poster (plus several images). Look familiar?

Obviously Fox is again going the minimalist route, while also selling the idea that this new X-Men prequel will be less about science-fiction and more about the ideologies behind the respective characters who would shape the world we have come to know. There have been several stills released in the last few days, including that cast photo that was apparently leaked early, photo-shopped, etc (it's real, but no one wanted it out there yet for whatever reason). Anyway, the rest of the photos thus far, including two new ones released just today, are after the jump. Since we now know that Captain America has a trailer debuting during the Super Bowl, X-Men: First Class is the last major summer tentpole to not yet release a teaser. Expect one any day now, but who knows what it will be attached to (if they can wait, I'm betting the February 18th releases of Big Mama's House: Like Father, Like Son and I Am Number Four.

Scott Mendelson