Today in potentially ill-timed legislative news: England's Tier 1 visa law -- which allows for "exceptional talent" to fast-track their way through the country's stringent immigration procedures en route to earning British citizenship -- goes into effect. More details on the celeb-baiting measure after the jump.
The first week of August (and the official beginning of the end of summer) rolled by in fine fashion; sure, it was at times an agonizingly slow news week, but the first looks, surprise developments, and WTF? revelations kept things bouncy. Head into the weekend with your head held high, week. You gave us plenty to munch on. For starters: The terms "Brett Ratner" and "Oscars" in the same sentence? You so crazy!
Well, isn't this quite the youthful shake-up! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has announced the producers who will create next year's Oscars telecast: previous telecast director Don Mischer and Rush Hour/X-Men 3 director Brett Ratner. Does this mean less snooze and more explosions for the annual awards season centerpiece?
When word hit that Kevin Smith was aiming for the Oscars with a qualifying theatrical run for his divisive film, Red State, critics split over his perceived goals and, more specifically, the financial terms of his week-long engagement at L.A.'s beloved, family-run New Beverly Cinema. Reached for comment, Smith explained his award season intent and why he's charging $20 for a screening and Q&A at a theater where you can get a double feature for $7 every night, often with an amazing Q&A for free.
Nicolas Winding Refn turned up the charm Friday night at the L.A. Film Fest, delivering a crowd-pleasing introduction for his highly anticipated crime pic, Drive. Part acceptance speech, part promotional spiel, and part comedy roast, Refn's delivery included nods to his wife Liv, Ryan Gosling, Prada menswear, a studio head in the making, his rumored Wonder Woman project, and Alejandro Jodorowsky -- wildly entertaining and all too rare, as far as these things go.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced to its members that online voting is in the works for next year's Oscar race -- and could possibly be implemented as early as this year. But will the digital move make the Oscars susceptible to hackers and disrupt the Academy Awards race as we know it?
Barry Levinson continues to surprise us here at Movieline HQ! After making the isopod creature feature-horror pic The Bay (shudder), the Oscar-winning writer/director behind such films as Diner, Bugsy, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Rain Man and the recent Emmy-winning You Don't Know Jack -- the hits go on, as do the Spheres and Toyses and Envys -- has signed on to direct Fiore Films' Gotti biopic. Yes, that Gotti biopic. After the jump, discuss what this means for all involved.
Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier's In a Better World raises a number of intriguing questions about the true meaning of masculinity, about how kids view their parents, about the necessity of knowing when it's not a good thing to turn the other cheek. But too many of these ideas simply hang in the air, like fruit that can't decide whether it's ripe or not. In a Better World won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Picture, and at the very least, it's a tight piece of craftsmanship. But it's at once too polished and vaguely unfinished, and its final act of forgiveness demands a huge leap on the part of the audience. The movie isn't just looking toward a better world; it has way too much faith in an unrealistically perfect one.
Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Tom Hooper's Best Picture winner The King's Speech got its own XXX parody, but who could have anticipated such... quality?
It's a good week to be an animation fan, what with Rango garnering rave reviews and a new trailer for the Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots hitting the web. (Unless, like me, you caught the Puss in Boots teaser in theaters at midnight in front of the aptly-named Beastly. Not a smart life choice, in retrospect.) But what mystical, family-friendly, Eastern-influenced laughs await us in the new trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2?
The folks at Rotten Tomatoes have tabulated their annual Best of the Best list, inserting Tom Hooper's 2011 Best Picture winner The King's Speech into the annals of Oscar history. But comparing great films to other great films has always been something of an apples to oranges situation; how can you measure, say, The Godfather Part II against An American in Paris -- two very different films that occupy adjoining slots on the list and have the same Tomatometer ranking (98 percent)? With a carefully calculated algorithm, that's how! Still... why does The King's Speech not quite feel right sitting so high above other bona fide classics?
Movieline hit the red carpet at Saturday's Spirit Awards, where Exit Through the Gift Shop took home Best Documentary, with one guiding mission: Find out who Banksy really is! But just in case we couldn't get to the bottom of that enigma, we had a backup mission: Find out what he'd look like if he came to an awards show incognito! Hit the jump to watch the results of Movieline's investigation into The Banksy Identity, as aided by a few celebrity informants.
Yes, yes. The King's Speech will win, and no matter how hard we try to tell ourselves any other film has a chance in hell, its abiding safeness will triumph Sunday night. But I'd like to think the Academy will spread the love around -- a win for The Social Network here, a Natalie Portman winner's guffaw there, and some gold for Hailee Steinfeld. Hope she brings her blingitude for the big night.
It used to be you could count on David O. Russell to be Hollywood's resident actor-alienating, on-set yelling enfant terrible. Not anymore. As the director told MSN Movies, he's well aware that years of bad behavior landed him in movie jail. And now that The Fighter has put him back in the industry's good graces with a Best Director Oscar nod as the cherry on top, Russell's all about making nice.
Earlier today Movieline caught up with director/digital wunderkind Jon M. Chu, helmer of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, to follow-up on the recently announced Director's Fan Cut hitting North American theaters on Friday. While you wait with bated breath for the full chat, posting on Wednesday, find out why Chu pegged David Fincher's The Social Network to come home with Oscar gold this Sunday.
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