In this morning’s roundup of Oscar news ‘n’ notes from around the web, the supporting actor race may expand to let in a mad hatter and a corporate raider.
On the heels of his former colleague Pete Hammond falling in line with the push to get Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” into the Best Picture race, Tom O’Neil suggests that Johnny Depp could be a “serious contender” if his performance as the Mad Hatter is considered in the Supporting Actor category. I’m not really buying it … but O’Neil then says that Michael Douglas is “Oscar bait” as well for his role in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” His headline there is more than a bit provocative: “Will Michael Douglas’ cancer be a factor at the Oscars?” (Gold Derby)
Jeff Wells is upset at the anonymous exhibition exec I quoted in my ShowEast reaction story saying that Tony Scott’s “Unstoppable” is “a totally routine action film” – because, he says, Scott is “constitutionally incapable of making routine action films.” Wells thinks Scott’s “The Taking of Pelham 123” should have been a Best Picture nominee last year, and apparently he’s holding out similar hopes for “Unstoppable.” It’d be refreshing if he’s right, but I’m afraid that pretty much everybody I canvassed agreed about the film. (Hollywood Elsewhere)
Since comedies don’t get Academy Awards (or so generalizes Peter Bradshaw), the Guardian chooses the 25 greatest comedies of all time. The first five on their list are “Annie Hall,” “Borat,” “Some Like It Hot,” “Team America: World Police” and “The Ladykillers,” which should give you some idea of just how odd and eclectic the list is. And to show that Bradshaw’s generalization is pretty accurate, the first of those films is the only entry on the list to win Best Picture. (The Guardian)
James Cameron tells Dave Itzkoff that he’s sick of talking about “Avatar,” which has become “a kind of never-ending saga” courtesy of its long run, its awards (for a change he doesn’t gripe about losing the Best Picture Oscar to “The Hurt Locker”), his subsequent “environmental work” and the various DVD releases and extended versions and special editions of the film. But apparently he’s not sick of reworking it, because those new versions just keep on coming … (The New York Times)
It wouldn’t be an Oscar foreign-language race without a few little controversies, and this latest one is mostly of interest to those in the Bollywood community: Planet Bollywood explains the rift between Aamir Khan, the producer of India’s official entry, “Peepli[Live],” and co-directors Anusha Rizvi and Mahmood Farooqui. Turns out it has to do with “creative differences” and credit-hogging. Good thing none of that stuff ever happens on Hollywood movies. (Planet Bollywood)
