Woody Allen

2012 Oscar Nominations Announced; HUGO and THE ARTIST Lead the Pack

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 24th, 2012 at 6:05 am

The nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards have finally been unveiled. Many of the categories have fallen in line just as most have predicted (I fared alright with my predictions, but not great), with Hugo scoring 11 nods, followed closely by The Artist with 10. The biggest surprises are War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close getting in for Best Picture, the exclusion of The Adventures of Tintin from Best Animated Feature, and The Tree of Life nabbing Best Picture and Best Director nods (hooray!). On the snub side of things, despite landing the most precursor critics awards of any other actor in the race thus far, Albert Brooks was denied a Best Supporting Actor nod for his stellar work in Drive (boo). Additionally, Tilda Swinton was overlooked for giving the best performance of the year in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and AMPAS has no love for Michael Fassbender‘s haunting work in Shame.

There’s still plenty to be happy about, as Gary Oldman has his first ever Oscar Nomination (yes, that’s right) and Melissa McCarthy is a Best Supporting Actress nominee. Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees. The 84th Academy Awards will be presented by Billy Crystal on February 26th.

Oscars 2012: Adam Predicts the Nominees

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 21st, 2012 at 2:38 pm

As I’ve been covering awards season pretty extensively here on the site over the past few months, I figured it would be appropriate to (foolishly) try to predict the upcoming Oscar nominations. It’s been a fairly tame year, as a few frontrunners were singled out early in the race and have held their ground throughout the grueling awards season. We haven’t been without a few surprises, as Steven Spielberg’s War Horse took a massive tumble following snubs from most of the major guilds, and David Fincher has surged back into the race bringing his adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with him.

Though there are plenty of safe bets when it comes to the 2012 Oscar nominations, there are still a few wildcards and tricky categories. I’ve put on my prognosticating cap (those interested can purchase one of these nifty hats at your local Target) and compiled a list of who and what I think will make the cut. Hit the jump to see how I think the nods will stack up when they’re announced on January 24th.

2012 Golden Globe Winners Announced; THE ARTIST and THE DESCENDANTS Take Top Prizes

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 15th, 2012 at 8:20 pm

I’ve just spent the past three hours watching and live-blogging the 2012 Golden Globe Awards.  My brain feels mushy.  After the jump and presented without comment is a list of this year’s winners. If you don’t even want to hit the jump, The Artist and The Descendants won Best Comedy/Musical and Best Drama, respectively.  If you want to awards prognosticate, I’ll save you the trouble: both were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  Those nominations haven’t been announced yet, but they were nominated.  Trust me.  I’m a professional.

Also, feel free to sound off on the winners and losers.  Lord knows I’ve been doing it for the past three hours.

THE ARTIST Wins Top Prize at Critics Choice Awards; George Clooney Named Best Actor

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 12th, 2012 at 7:52 pm

With each passing awards ceremony, it’s looking more and more likely that we’re in for a fairly boring/predictable Oscars this year. The Artist continues to dominate the precursor ceremonies as it took home the Best Picture and Best Director prize at the Critics Choice Awards. On the acting side of things, George Clooney was named Best Actor for his work in The Descendants, and Viola Davis won Best Actress for The Help. The Artist is our clear frontrunner headed towards Oscar night, and I don’t really think anything else will be able to take it down. I can’t really complain about any of the acting wins, though for what it’s worth I think Brad Pitt gave the best performance of the year in Moneyball.

Elsewhere, Drive won Best Action Movie (though it’s really a drama) Bridesmaids won Best Comedy, and Rango was named Best Animated Feature. Hit the jump to see the full list of winners.

Directors Guild Nominations Announced; Contenders Include Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, and David Fincher

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 9th, 2012 at 10:36 am

As we move ever closer to the Academy Awards, the director’s guild has just announced the five nominees who will contend for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2011. The DGA’s are a major prognosticator for the Best Director award at the Oscars, as only six times has the DGA winner not gone on to win Best Director. This year’s nominees include Martin Scorsese for Hugo, Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, Michel Hazanavicious for The Artist, Alexander Payne for The Descendants, and David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Hit the jump for more, including my thoughts on the nominees.

Sony Pictures Classics and Woody Allen Reunite for Summer 2012 Release NERO FIDDLED

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: December 21st, 2011 at 4:57 pm

After one brief fling in 1999 with Sweet and Lowdown, Sony Pictures Classics got back in the Woody Allen business in 2009 to produce Whatever Works, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, and Midnight in Paris.  The partnership was especially lucrative this year, since Midnight Paris grossed $144 million worldwide on the way to major Oscar buzz.  So it comes as no surprise when SPC announced today their acquisition of Allen’s next project, Nero Fiddled.  Said Allen:

“[Sony Pictures Classics] seems to be very sensitive to the kind of films I make, and I’m looking forward to working with them now again.”

Set in Rome, Nero Fiddled is comprised of four vignettes—two center on American characters; the other two center on Italians.  Allen will step in front of the camera for the first time since 2006′s Scoop to take on a starring role alongside Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, and Ellen Page.  The comedy is tentatively scheduled for a summer 2012 release.  Read the press release after the jump.

2012 Oscar Preview: Best Picture and Best Director

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 27th, 2011 at 7:24 am

And so our 2012 Oscar Preview has come to a close. Over the past three days we’ve brought you our coverage of how the race stacks up for Best Supporting Actress and Actor, Best Actress and Actor, and Best Animated Feature, Screenplay, as well as the technical categories. Today, we’re covering the big ones: Best Picture and Best Director. There are two early frontrunners for the big prize, but we’ve still got a number of unseen pics that could play the spoiler. As for the director race, does Steven Spielberg have a shot at his first trophy in over a decade, or will an Oscar virgin take home the prize? Hit the jump for the current state of the race in the Best Picture and Best Director categories.

2012 Oscar Preview: Best Animated Feature, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Technical Category Quick Picks

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 26th, 2011 at 10:19 am

Continuing on with our look at the 2012 Oscar race, today we delve into Best Animated Feature and the technical categories. As Pixar’s Cars 2 was the studio’s worst-received feature to date (it currently sits at 38% on Rotten Tomatoes), we’ve got ourselves an actual competition in the Animated Feature category. Not only that, but if all 18 films that were submitted to the Academy are deemed eligible, we’ll have a total of five nominated films. This leaves us to debate the merits of Rango and The Adventures of Tintin against the likes of Puss in Boots and Arthur Christmas.

Additionally, we’ve taken a stab at Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, and the technical categories. As these are incredibly tricky to predict this far out (and my picks would be doomed to haunt me come February), I’ve simply listed a couple of frontrunners in each category instead of going in depth. Though it’s still early, we’ve got an overall picture of how things look like they’ll stack up; so hit the jump to check out the state of the race so far. If you missed our previous preview articles, be sure to take a look at our picks for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, and Best Actor and Best Actress.

Trailer for WOODY ALLEN: A DOCUMENTARY

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: November 17th, 2011 at 11:05 am

Beginning Sunday Night, PBS’ American Masters series will air Woody Allen: A Documentary, and the film’s trailer has been posted online.  No matter your thoughts about the hit-and-miss aspect of his later films or how you feel about his personal life (which shouldn’t matter in the first place if you’re appraising his art), Woody Allen is a legend of American cinema.  Director Robert Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm) was allowed unprecedent access to Allen and followed him through the making of You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger through the premiere of Midnight in Paris (a film which will probably earn Allen his 15th Oscar nomination for screenwriting).   Along the way, Weide conducted a plethora of interviews with Allen’s peers and the actors he’s worked with over the course of his long career.  While the trailer makes the movie looks more like a celebration of Allen rather than a warts-and-all documentary, Allen is a director who should be celebrated for his work and I’m excited to see how Weide has approached his subject.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Woody Allen: A Documentary is a three-and-a-half film that will air in two parts.  Part one will run Sunday, November 20 from 9-11 PM, and part two airs Monday, November 21 from 9-10:30 PM.  Click here for what producer Brett Ratner had to say about the documentary.

Brett Ratner Talks TOWER HEIST, the Oscars, BEVERLY HILLS COP 4, HONG KONG PHOOEY, the Woody Allen Documentary He’s Producing

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: November 1st, 2011 at 8:32 pm

With Brett Ratner’s comedy Tower Heist opening this weekend, I was able to chat with the busy director on the phone when he was in New York City promoting the movie.  Starring Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Gabourey Sidibe, Téa Leoni, Stephen Henderson, Judd Hirsch, Michael Peña, and Alan Alda, Tower Heist centers on a group of disgruntled employees who decide to rob a white-collar criminal living under house arrest in their high-rise after he scams them all out of their savings.

During our wide-ranging conversation, Ratner talked about how he got involved in the project and who was originally going to star in it, the test screening process, deleted scenes, improv, what will be on the Blu-ray/DVD, and what it was like to work with Eddie Murphy.  In addition, Ratner talked about producing next year’s Oscars, future projects like Movie 43, 39 Clues, Hercules, Hong Kong Phooey, Beverly Hills Copy 4, Rush Hour 4, the Woody Allen documentary that he’s producing, and a lot more.  Hit the jump for the interview and audio.

Brett Ratner Talks Eddie Murphy, the Oscars, a Woody Allen Documentary, BEVERLY HILLS COP 4, Tarsem’s SNOW WHITE, and More

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: October 24th, 2011 at 5:37 pm

Brett Ratner is a very busy guy at the moment.  He’s currently preparing for the release of his latest directorial effort Tower Heist, which features an all-star cast that includes Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, and Alan Alda, and he’s also gearing up to produce the Academy Awards.  In addition, Ratner is juggling a number of other projects.  Steve recently got the chance to talk to Ratner and the conversation covered a wide range of topics.  In addition to talking about his plan for the Oscars and getting Eddie Murphy as a host, Ratner also spoke about Tarsem Singh’s Untitled Snow White Project which he’s producing, a comprehensive documentary about Woody Allen (which sounds awesome) that he’s also producing, a miniseries on Sidney Korshak, and much more including updates on Beverly Hills Cop 4 and Hong Kong Phooey.  Hit the jump to check out the full conversation.

Woody Allen Changes Title of New Film to NERO FIDDLED

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: October 13th, 2011 at 5:17 pm

Woody Allen’s new film now has a new titled. What was formerly The Bop Decameron shall henceforth be known as Nero Fiddled. Variety reports that Allen changed the titled because he found that The Bop Decameron was confusing too many people, though I’m not sure Nero Fiddled is much of an improvement. The pic is comprised of four separate vignettes, two featuring American characters and two featuring Italian characters. However, as one may expect, the vignettes never interact.

The impressive cast includes Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, Alison Pill, and Alessandra Mastronardi. In addition to writing and directing, Allen also stars in the film as well. The director’s most recent effort, Midnight in Paris, recently became his highest grossing film of all time. The French-set film, which I loved, is surely poised to be a serious contender in the coming Awards season.

Exclusive: Jesse Eisenberg Talks 30 MINUTES OR LESS, ZOMBIELAND 2, Woody Allen, THE SOCIAL NETWORK and More

by Hunter Daniels    Posted: August 12th, 2011 at 8:39 am

Coming to theaters today is Ruben Fleisher’s 30 Minutes or Less. The film, which reunites Fleisher with his Zombieland star Jesse Eisenberg, tells the story of a pizza delivery boy (Eisenberg) who is strapped to a bomb and forced to rob a bank as part of a harebrained scheme hatched by two hapless criminals (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) looking to inherent a fortune. Along the way, Eisenberg enlists his best friend, (Aziz Ansari) to help with the heist.

Recently, I got on the phone with Eisenberg to discuss the film. Unlike most actors, who seem to have been coached to death on what to say to every question, Eisenberg comes off as a genuine and intelligent person who actually considers the topic, rather than just reverting to scripted anecdotes. He even sources his jokes back to their originators. He’s an interesting guy who seems to be interested in acting far more than he is in being a “star”. During our interview, we discussed the pitfalls of action filmmaking, his approach to characters, how he would handle a bank robbery, why he doesn’t think Zombieland 2 will happen, Fred Durst as a director, Woody Allen, the pitfalls of being famous in the age of camera phones and much more.  Hit the jump for the full interview.

Set Photo Roundup: Len Wiseman’s TOTAL RECALL Remake and Woody Allen’s BOP DECAMERON

by Jason Barr    Posted: July 27th, 2011 at 3:22 pm

Normally, I’m not the biggest champion of set photos. I just don’t understand what they prove beyond the fact that “Movie X” is indeed filming in “Location A” with “Talent C.” Nevertheless, when you give them a little context, I tend to care a little more. For example, director Len Wiseman (Underworld) told Steve at Comic-Con that his Total Recall remake was in the process of shooting a 15-day hovercraft chase scene (for comparison sake, chase scenes and other comparable action sequences generally take around 5 days to film). With that information in mind, I was actually kind of excited to see some images from that shoot pop up online.

In addition to the Total Recall images, we also have some pics from the Rome set of writer/director Woody Allen’s Bop Decameron. Granted, those pics fall closer to the somewhat bland example outlined above, but fans of Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, and Greta Gerwig may still find something worth checking out after the jump. Starring Colin Farrell, Bryan Cranston, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Ethan Hawke, Total Recall hits theaters on August 2nd. Allen’s Bop Decameron is currently eyeing an unspecified 2012 release.

Full Cast for Woody Allen’s Next Film THE BOP DECAMERON Announced, Includes Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin and Ellen Page

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: June 20th, 2011 at 11:22 am

Midnight in Paris is the best film Woody Allen has made in years. Whimsical, delightful and enchanting, it’s also one of the best times you’ll have at the movies all year. It’s this charm that I’m hoping Allen maintains for his next film The Bop Decameron, for which the full cast was just announced. Allen himself described this next effort as a “broad comedy,” and it’s set to shoot in Rome next month.

The cast for The Bop Decameron includes Allen himself, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page, with Alison Pill, Alessandra Mastronardi and more set to co-star. Hit the jump to read the full press release, which includes the full cast listing.

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