How Many Nominations?/Moneyball/Rudderless/COENS MUSICAL #4

George Clooney and Ryan Gosling on the set of "The Ides of March" (thanks to thehollywoodstory.com)

A busy 24 hours in terms of news and such that may or does have a bearing on the Telluride Film Festival. 

I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY BEST PICTURES THERE ARE!
First, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS...the Oscar people) announced in the middle of last night that beginning this year there will be between 5 and 10 Best Picture nominees.  For most of its existence the Academy had nominated 5 films each year.  Then the last two years, they have nominated 10 (they used to nominate more than 5 way back in the beginning days of Oscar as well). 

Well, now, this year if will be at least 5, not more than 10 and could be any number of films in between.  So in a "down" year...(like 2008) maybe only 5 get nominated.  In a good year (like last year) maybe 7 or 8 or 9.  In a great year you might get 10.  Apparently it will all hinge of the percentage of first place votes a picture gets during the nominating process.  The threshold is going to be 5% if I'm reading their press release correctly.  You can read that release here:
http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2011/20110614a.html

Most critical reaction this morning seems generally positive, but it will make prognostication a bit trickier...

ANOTHER EARLY, EARLY OSCAR PREDICTION!
Next, The LA Times is out today with its list of 15 films it says are possible Oscar contenders.  That list and descriptions of the films are here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/awards/2011/06/oscars-preview-15-front-runners-for-best-picture.html
TFF#38 suspects on The Envelope's list are: "The Artist," "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," "Carnage," "The Descendants," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," "The Ides of March," "The Iron Lady," and "Young Adult."
Also on their list that I don't realistically think will be at Telluride (and why):
"War Horse"-Spielberg doesn't need to festival and hasn't "Tellurided" (though his compadres Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall are both members of the festival's Board of Advisors and are frequently in Telluride for it).
"The Tree of Life"-Terrence Malick's film was released May 27.
"Like Crazy"-a Sundance Festival hit...which almost totally precludes it (though not 100%- "An Education" played both Sundance then Telluride, but it's unlikely).
"J. Edgar"-Clint Eastwood's biopic about the former FBI director starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It's been a long time since Clint has been to Telluride and he doesn't need to "festival" for people to pay attention to this film.
"Hugo Cabret"-Martin Scorsese also doesn't need the T-ride exposure..and it's in 3D...which I'm guessing is not something that Telluirde has prepared technically to project.
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"-Despite the fact that director David Fincher was a tributee in 2008, I have to doubt that he'll return with this American adaptation of the Swedish phenomena..if he didn't pop "The Social Network" at Telluride, I have a difficult time believing he'd bring "Tattoo" to the San Juans.
"A Dangerous Method"-David Cronenberg's film about Freud and Jung starring Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender.  I believe Cronenberg will play Venice and Toronto and be happy with that (despite Viggo being a Tributee in 2009).

MONEYBALL!
One film NOT on the LA Times Envelope list today is Bennett Miller's "Moneyball."  I think it has a shot to play at Telluride because it IS Bennett Miller's first feature since "Capote" which was at Telluride in 2005.  The Playlist has a nice story about its trails and tribulations and a set of clips shown on last night's Entertainment Tonight...here that is:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/watch_first_brief_clips_from_moneyball_starring_brad_pitt_jonah_hill/

RUDDERLESS!
Yesterday we teased our minuscule connection to the film "Rudderless."  We already know that William H. Macy is set to direct, but perusing the IMDB entry we also find that casting director and music supervisor (and the music is crucial to the film) are signed on as well.  Casting is in the hands of Ronnie Yeskel whose previous credits include: "Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction," and "The Long Kiss Goodnight" among others.  The music supervisor is Debra Baum who has been involved with the music for "The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood," "A Walk to Remember," and "3000 Miles to Graceland' again among others.

COENS BROTHERS MUSICALS CONTINUE...
Despite the fact that I'm pretty sure most of you are tired of the joke...it's till making me laugh, so, with apologies...as you are now  aware the next Coen Brothers film may be a musical.  I've had some fun this week with suggesting that we go back over the Coen canon and re-make all their films as musicals...today's example: "Burn After Reading: The Musical" featuring such hit tunes as: "Intelligence is Relative,"  "Raw Data," "Osborne Cox:Secret Agent Man" and "I Did Not See That Coming."

AND FINALLY...
The Playlist has an article about David Lynch and his opening a "Mullholland Drive" based theme night spot in Paris...and what they think would be a better use of Lynch's time.  It's kind of funny.  Here's the link:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/five_things_wed_rather_see_david_lynch_do_then_open_his_mulholland_drive/