When it rains it pours. Based on Movieline's impeccably researched Oscar Index, it seems likely that Julianne Moore will get snubbed in both the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories when the nominations are announced on Tuesday morning. Though that ignominy might pale in comparison to the New York Jets close-but-no-cigar loss in the AFC title game on Sunday night. "Too bad about the Jets, right?" Moore just wrote on Twitter. "Everybody's sad in my house." Our condolences, Jules. And then again for tomorrow. [@_juliannemoore]
Have you ever noticed that in most movies when the characters use a computer, it's usually an Apple? Kudos to Apple's product placement division, but it has become so standard that when I see a film that's distributed by Sony -- like The Social Network -- it's downright shocking to witness an on-screen world where all of the characters use Sony Vaios for their computing and Internet needs. So when I was re-watching David Fincher's Oscar contender over the weekend, I wasn't too surprised to see the film littered with Sony product placement...except for that one time when Mark Zuckerberg's Macbook was smashed into a million pieces.
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· The most impressive thing about the latest bit of Fine Brothers spoiling madness? The same thing that makes all their videos impressive: They do it in one take. Click ahead to watch their vocal dexterity -- but be prepared to have stuff like Tommy Boy spoiled for you. Then, stick around for more Buzz Break.
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Park City got downright crazy Sunday night, with Kevin Smith's Red State "auction" alienating sales agents and bloggers alike and reports of audience unrest at a midnight screening of Lucky McKee's latest horror pic. And then Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (The Host, Mother) took the mic at the raucous Fantastic Fest/Magnet Releasing karaoke party to warble a little Billy Joel as hundreds of partygoers cheered him on.
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The hits just keep on coming for The Social Network. From comparisons between Mark Zuckerberg and Bernie Madoff to a potentially game-changing loss to The King's Speech at the Producers Guild Awards over the weekend, the assumed Oscar frontrunner feels decidedly wobbly as it heads into these final, pre-nomination hours. And here comes another poke: Speaking at a tech conference in Germany over the weekend, Napster founder Sean Parker finally gave his review of The Social Network and Justin Timberlake's performance. Was he impressed?
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In between singing karaoke and stopping by Movieline's Sundance HQ, James Franco has spent his Park City downtime putting together a photo journal for the Guardian. Inside, the actor/director/karaoke artist posts pictures of people and things that are special to him, like a still from his new film, a snapshot of his grandmother, a photo of the tiger who protects him from predatory classmates...and then a picture of his handsome pudgy cat. Click through to admire Harry Franco for yourself.
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James Cameron is nothing if not a planner. "I am in the process of writing the next two Avatar films now," he tells EW. "[W]e will probably release them not quite back to back, but about a year apart. Christmas '14 and '15 is the current plan." Translation: You've got a bit of time before having to worry about pre-ordering tickets. That doesn't mean you can't speculate about what 3-D technology will be like in three years, of course! Here's hoping it gets replaced with actual Na'vi aliens performing on stage. [EW]
Whether or not True Grit is able to score loads of Oscar nominations on Tuesday morning remains to be seen, but perhaps the Coen Brothers smash hit remake has a higher calling: Political fence mending. "In our current winter of high domestic anxiety, as in the politically tumultuous American summer of 1969, [True Grit] is a hit with the national mass audience and elite critics alike," wrote columnist Frank Rich in the New York Times over the weekend. "The new version is doing as well in New York and Los Angeles as in red Cheneyland." If Barack Obama is reading this, he'd be wise to include a few Cogburn-isms in his State of the Union address. Just with better enunciation. [NYT]
Judging by the flurry of high-profile buying activity this weekend at Sundance, it looks as if distributors think independent film may be somewhat profitable again. Let's hope that the theatrical releases of the latest batch of acquisitions don't prove them wrong. Here's a rundown of the next Sundance films headed to a theater near you, including Paul Rudd as a hippie, this year's seminal indie love-story, and the Antonio Banderas/Snoop Dog thrill ride you've been waiting for.
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Also in this massive Monday edition of The Broadsheet: Judd Apatow rips into Ricky Gervais... Keanu Reeves talks more Matrix Sequels... the latest Sundance It Girl lines up her next project... and more ahead.
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Here's your Monday morning break from all that prestige-picture news coming out of Sundance and Oscar-land: The Razzies have announced their official nominations for worst cinematic offenses of the year. As usual, they went with a number of easy targets including Sex in the City 2 and The Last Airbender...and a movie with a 67 percent fresh rating from top critics on Rotten Tomatoes that New York Times critic A.O. Scott called "robustly entertaining." Huh?
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Do tongue-twisting, pretentious-sounding, or generic movie titles turn you off of a film even before you see it? Precious, renamed from the unwieldy Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire after its 2009 Sundance debut, we're looking at you. But every year yields a new batch of mildly nondescript-to-annoying-to-hard-to-remember film titles, and Sundance 2011 seems inundated with them, from movies from Win Win to Like Crazy to Martha Marcy May Marlene (which I dare you to remember correctly). And so, Movieline put it to our panel of critics and bloggers: Which of this year's Sundance movie titles would you rename if you could?
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Actor/writer/director and recent NYU film grad James Franco stopped by Movieline's Sundance HQ at the Levi's Dockers House in Park City for a lengthy chat with Elvis Mitchell on the smaller passion projects that drive his inner artiste, including an update on when his SNL documentary, Saturday Night, will finally hit theaters. Get your James Franco quick fix after the jump!
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Audiences decided they'd very much like to see Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher have a lot of sex this week, as No Strings Attached ruled the box office. And while the ladies were busy watching pretty people fall in love, the dudes watched a doughy stoner punch guys as The Green Hornet settled for a very close second place. Your weekend receipts are here.
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Do you remember that great Simpsons' Halloween episode where Lucy Lawless is besieged by a bunch of nit-picking nerds who are bitching about picayune mistakes in her show? Lucy (dressed as Xena, of course), gets so fed up that she just starts answering "A wizard did it." Well, I think director Matthew Vaughn just delivered the comic book equivalent of "a wizard did it" to any carping comic book dork with his pants in twist about X-Men: First Class.
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