Word: studio
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...just change the name, from the Oscars to the Independent Spirit Awards? That was the first thought on hearing today's nominations for the Academy Awards. All five finalists for Best Picture were made independently of the big studios, and four of the five - Atonement, Juno, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood - were released by the so-called indie subsidiaries of the majors. Michael Clayton is the one official studio release, and that got made only when its star, George Clooney, ever so charmingly put a gun to Warner's corporate groin, cocked the trigger...
...Each of the five films was made for $30 million or less - unheard of when the average studio project costs three times that - and Juno had a ludicrously low budget of $2.5 million. Yet that endearing/annoying (take your pick) comedy about a pregnant teenager is the one solid hit among the Big Five. The movie, which has been in wide release only since Christmas day, has already earned $87 million. None of the others has yet topped $50 million at the domestic wickets (though the Brit Atonement is in Juno's league if you count the international gross...
...This lack of a big-studio pedigreed film makes predicting the winners a daunting task. No Country may be a masterpiece, but it's a cold-blooded one, perhaps too much a splatter fest and a museum piece for Oscar voters. There Will Be Blood has packed them in at a relatively few theaters since its Christmas day opening; as it rolls out for wider release, will it pick up steam or antagonize the mass audience? Even if Blood doesn't cop the top prize, as I uneasily predicted, it will win Daniel Day-Lewis the Best Actor award over...
...gave off the air of being willing to punch someone, but only if it would mask his own pain. Because of this combination of machismo and sensitivity, like a more handsome Russell Crowe, he was in demand. He just wasn?t sure that he wanted to be. "Heath," a studio boss once told me, "needs to decide who he really wants...
Compared to the gloomy atmosphere of the star-less Golden Globes night earlier in the week, Park City was pretty perky at the prospect of Hollywood returning to business. "We're excited," said Mark Burton, president of production for independent film studio and financier IndieVest, before carving into his veal shank at one of the festival's hotter tickets, a ChefDance dinner at Harry O's nightclub. "There's something on the table. The writers are gonna have to have really strong reasons to turn this down." A film buyer sipping champagne at the bar expressed hope that the prospect...