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Live BAFTA Blog 2009
Bale Rant: Out Of Context?
The amusement of listening to Christian Bale throwing his toys out of the pram wore off pretty fast yesterday. If you’re yet to hear it – listen here.
But it raises a few interesting questions. Certainly, it would appear that the key presence on the set is Bale himself rather than relatively inexperienced director "McG". As pointed out in this blog entry from the Guardian, it’s more embarrassing for the director, who feebly suggests that Bale "take a walk" to try and calm the situation. When Bale shouts "Let’s go again!" he sounds like an actor/director.
Certainly, if it had been a director shouting at a technician, there wouldn’t nearly be such a scandal – it might even be considered normal. It’s solely due to Bale’s star status that the audio recording has become such big news.
Furthermore, if it was such a key scene, Bale would have undoubtedly been in a hot-headed frame of mind. John Conner is concerned with saving humanity from Skynet and a good bit of shouting would be commonplace for the character. Remember that Bale is a method man – remember when he thinned down to a puny streak of flesh for The Machinist? He submerges himself in a character…
I don’t read much Harry Knowles to be honest, but he pointedly makes the case in favour of Bale here over on Ain’t It Cool, claiming to know a witness to the incident who confirms that DP Shane Hurlbut was completely out of line in adjusting the lights during such a key scene.
Finally, it’s worth remembering that this was shot not long after the incident in which Bale was arrested (and later released) over allegations of abuse made by his own family. He was perhaps feeling the pressure out of character as well as in it. Such an eruption might well be expected under the circumstances.
Hurlbut must have a side of the story to tell, and probably will. But for now it’s impossible to judge Bale (or Terminator Salvation) without the benefit of context.
Who Should Play BA!?!
We get a lot of bad news in these days of infinite remakes, sequels and re-hashes. Nothing is sacred anymore. So we constantly are affronted with abominations like last year’s CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Keanu Reeves’ The Day The Earth Stood Still.
But this is a bit of good news.
Ridley Scott is making the A-Team movie!!!!
The key question, of course, is who should play BA Baracus?!!?
We asked you guys on our site poll today and here’s how the voting went. It’s a close run thing.
My ‘other’ would be Michael Clarke Duncan. What do you guys think?
And The Nominees Are…
Oscar nominations day today. Here are the nominees in the major categories. You read them here first!
Click on each nominee to find out more.
BEST FILM
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
FROST/NIXON
MILK
THE READER
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
LEADING ACTOR
FRANK LANGELLA – Frost/Nixon
RICHARD JENKINS – The Visitor
SEAN PENN – Milk
BRAD PITT – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
MICKEY ROURKE – The Wrestler
LEADING ACTRESS
ANGELINA JOLIE – Changeling
ANNE HATHAWAY – Rachel Getting Married
MERYL STREEP – Doubt
KATE WINSLET – The Reader
MELISSA LEO – Frozen River
SUPPORTING ACTOR
ROBERT DOWNEY JR. – Tropic Thunder
MICHAEL SHANON – Revolutionary Road
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN – Doubt
HEATH LEDGER – The Dark Knight
JOSH BROLIN – Milk
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS – Doubt
PENÉLOPE CRUZ – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
TARAJI P HENSON – The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
VIOLA DAVIS – Doubt
MARISA TOMEI – The Wrestler
DIRECTOR
MILK – Gus Van Sant
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – David Fincher
FROST/NIXON – Ron Howard
THE READER – Stephen Daldry
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Danny Boyle
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
WALL-E
HAPPY GO LUCKY
FROZEN RIVER
IN BRUGES
MILK
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Eric Roth
FROST/NIXON – Peter Morgan
THE READER – David Hare
DOUBT
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Simon Beaufoy
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX
DEPARTURES
THE CLASS
WALTZ WITH BASHIR
REVENGE
ANIMATED FILM
BOLT
WALL•E – Andrew Stanton
KUNG FU PANDA
That’s 13 nominations for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button! The big loser is Revolutionary Road, which misses out on Best Film, Best Director for Sam Mendes and Best Actress for Kate Winslet…
Harry 7 Underway!
Potter starlet Emma Watson updated her official website with this yesterday. They’re already underway with Part VII!!
"On Monday I go in for test shoots for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1). I am quite excited to be back actually. I don’t think I have seen Dan since the summer since he left for NY and Rupert since Autumn. I think I have a couple of costume fittings and a hair appointment to make my hair a bit browner. Not sure whether we have a couple rehearsals as well.
Excited to see if they have cast anyone yet…"
There’s a November 19, 2010 release for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, followed by a May 2011 release of Part II.
For me, it just highlights the ridiculousness of The Half-Blood Prince being held back until next summer. They’ll have nearly finished this one by the time it comes out. The whole franchise is out of sync…!
Those Bafta Noms In Full…
Why do they have to read them out at 7.30 am??? BEST FILM
- THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Ceán Chaffin
- FROST/NIXON – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
- MILK – Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen
- THE READER – Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti, Redmond Morris
- SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Christian Colson
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
- HUNGER – Laura Hastings-Smith, Robin Gutch, Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh
- IN BRUGES – Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh
- MAMMA MIA! – Judy Craymer, Gary Goetzman, Phyllida Lloyd, Catherine Johnson
- MAN ON WIRE – Simon Chinn, James Marsh
- SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Christian Colson, Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD
for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film
- SIMON CHINN (Producer) – Man On Wire
- JUDY CRAYMER (Producer) – Mamma Mia!
- GARTH JENNINGS (Writer) – Son of Rambow
- STEVE McQUEEN (Director/Writer) – Hunger
- SOLON PAPADOPOULOS, ROY BOULTER (Producers) – Of Time And The City
DIRECTOR
- CHANGELING – Clint Eastwood
- THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – David Fincher
- FROST/NIXON – Ron Howard
- THE READER – Stephen Daldry
- SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Danny Boyle
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- BURN AFTER READING – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- CHANGELING – J. Michael Straczynski
- I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG – Philippe Claudel
- IN BRUGES – Martin McDonagh
- MILK – Dustin Lance Black
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
- THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Eric Roth
- FROST/NIXON – Peter Morgan
- THE READER – David Hare
- REVOLUTIONARY ROAD – Justin Haythe
- SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Simon Beaufoy
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX – Bernard Eichinger, Uli Edel
- GOMORRAH – Domenico Procacci, Matteo Garrone
- I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG – Yves Marmion, Philippe Claudel
- PERSEPOLIS – Marc-Antoine Robert, Xavier Rigault, Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Parannaud
- WALTZ WITH BASHIR – Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahl Ieli, Ari Folman
ANIMATED FILM
- PERSEPOLIS – Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Parannaud
- WALL•E – Andrew Stanton
- WALTZ WITH BASHIR – Ari Folman
LEADING ACTOR
- FRANK LANGELLA – Frost/Nixon
- DEV PATEL – Slumdog Millionaire
- SEAN PENN – Milk
- BRAD PITT – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- MICKEY ROURKE – The Wrestler
LEADING ACTRESS
- ANGELINA JOLIE – Changeling
- KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS – I’ve Loved You So Long
- MERYL STREEP – Doubt
- KATE WINSLET – The Reader
- KATE WINSLET – Revolutionary Road
SUPPORTING ACTOR
- ROBERT DOWNEY JR. – Tropic Thunder
- BRENDAN GLEESON – In Bruges
- PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN – Doubt
- HEATH LEDGER – The Dark Knight
- BRAD PITT – Burn After Reading
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- AMY ADAMS – Doubt
- PENÉLOPE CRUZ – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- FREIDA PINTO – Slumdog Millionaire
- TILDA SWINTON – Burn After Reading
- MARISA TOMEI – The Wrestler
MUSIC
- THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Alexandre Desplat
- THE DARK KNIGHT – Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard
- MAMMA MIA! – Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
- SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – A. R. Rahman
- WALL•E – Thomas Newman
Globes And Going Forward
Big success for Slumdog Millionaire, Kate Winslet and Mickey Rourke at yesterday’s Globes.
Four wins for Slumdog (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Score and a win at The Critics’ Choice Awards) make it the new favourite for the Oscar. Previously the commonly beheld favourite was Revolutionary Road. Now all we need is to convince the world that it isn’t a Bollywood film as some people have mistakenly dubbed it.
I’m happy that Slumdog is the new top dog. If it wins the big prize in February it’ll be a victory for fun, fast-paced filmmaking. I saw Revolutionary Road last week, and I very much enjoyed it. But, from weepy violin soundtrack to big-name emotional breakdown scenes, it is so much an Oscar film that I hope it doesn’t win. I watched it with my other half and I very much enjoyed. But her response was, "Well I wouldn’t choose to see it." And I can absolutely understand where she was coming from. It’s very much the same as I felt about Million Dollar Baby.
But (but!) Kate Winslet was magnificent. I have so much respect for this amazing actress. The look on her face as her marriage to Leo DiCaprio collapses in Revolutionary Road is just incredibly convincing. It’s the kind of performance in which you know that the actor suffered with the character. She drove the entire film and I am absolutely convinced that she’ll get the Oscar. She is the most favourite of all the favourites, which is bad luck for Ange Jolie and Changeling – but the winner is clear.
I’m still awestruck by The Wrestler and I hope Mickey Rourke goes on to pick up an Oscar too. It’s the Best Film as well as far as I’m concerned, but the chances of it winning that at the Oscars seem pretty slim. Here’s my review – go see it!
Slumdog Dancefloor
Thanks to ents manager Steve for sending me this this morning.
I was lucky enough to catch a screening of Slumdog Millionaire – Danny Boyle’s oscar-tipped Mumbai-set drama last week and it really lived up to the hype. Such a simple idea to structure a film around a game show. It sounds sketchy and even a tad cheap at first. But the execution, as hinted at by this alternative version, is outstanding…
If you only see two films in January, make it this and Mickey Rourke’s The Wrestler, which I’ve reviewed here.
This will be the last blog entry before Christmas and the new year as I’m away from tomorrow. So I wish everyone a happy seasonal period and I’ll see you all on the other side…
Murphy the Mr E?
Edward Nigma that is… remember Val Kilmer solving that particular puzzle in Batman Forever? His adversary was Jim Carrey, villainously camping it up in a skin-tight green suit. Carrey was the undeniably b-list bat-villain known as The Riddler.
The Sun reported today that Eddie Murphy will play The Riddler in the third of the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale batman films.
The Sun also reports that Shia LaBoeuf will play Robin and Rachel Weisz will play Catwoman. The tabloid’s source for the story is an anonymous ‘film insider’.
So let’s not get carried away just yet. Personally, I’m still thinking of this as only a rumour. This interview with Alan Horn, the President of Warner Brothers, suggests that Nolan isn’t even close to the casting stage of the new movie. Murphy has been linked to the new Bat-Flick, nothing more.
It’s worth considering the prospect of a bat-villain from Murphy’s perspective. Norbit, Shrek The Third and Meet Dave have been his last three films. He might appear to be short on critical credibility, but don’t forget he was showered with glory for his perfectly cast role in Dreamgirls.
Even if he was seeking to break out of the image of gimicky comedy merchant, the path of The Riddler is fraught with danger. For starters, how do you follow Heath Ledger? Whoever accepts the role is already behind before they’ve even thought about building a performance in the same league. The Joker is the villain of the franchise. His successor as the scourge of Gotham will always struggle to convince.
Shia LaBoeuf might make a decent Robin, though it’s hard to imagine any kind of side-kick keeping up with Bale’s solitary and surly bat. Holy personality clash Batman!
But Rachel Weisz as Catwoman!? Please no!
I, for one, will be hoping this is just rumour.
