Oscars With New Rules
NEW OSCAR RULES
Last week The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a big change for the Best Picture category...specifically that there will now be between 5 and 10 nominations in that category each year. The see-saw over the last three years about number of pictures reportedly reflects a schism in the Academy. The impulse three years to expand to 10 Best Picture nominees was popularly believed to stem from the fact that Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" was shut out of the Best Picture nomination that many Academy members thought it deserved. Now, comes this latest tweaking of the rules that appears to be a backlash against the "Winter's Bone" nomination that occurred this past year. Many Academy members ( at least this is the way the story goes) didn't believe that "Bone" was deserving of a Best Pic nomination. Count me among their number. My view was John Hawkes' nomination made a lot of sense and after that...meh. It's a good film. Jennifer Lawrence...it's a nice performance, but not earth shaking.
Interestingly (at least to me) is this story from The Wrap that suggest that the new rules will make a significant number of Oscar Best Picture ballots meaningless. See it here:
http://www.thewrap.com/awards/column-post/new-best-picture-rules-could-discard-hundreds-ballots-or-more-28412
RECLUSIVE WARREN BEATTY TO PLAY BILLIONAIRE RECLUSE: METHOD ACTING???
The last few days have seen an announcement from Paramount hat Warren Beatty was going to write, direct, produce, and star in a new project. Speculation as to its content has been running at a slow boil for a couple of days. Now comes word from multiple sources that Beatty will play iconic billionaire whack job Howard Hughes. Not a lot more is known other than it's supposed to be a comedy and a lot of A-listers are rumored to have a potential involvement. The best take I've run across is from The Playlist yesterday. Their post is here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/warren_beattys_new_project_howard_hughes_film_alec_baldwin_jack_nicholson_/
WILLIAM H. MACY WON'T BE FREAKY DEAKY
We mentioned last week that William H. Macy is set for his first gig as a director as he is set to direct a friend's screenplay. The film title: "Rudderless."
Now comes word that Macy has dropped out of an announced role in the adaptation of Elmore Leonard's superb novel "Freaky Deaky." Charles Matthau is set to direct the film which has also had to replace Sienna Miller.
The Playlist has the dope:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/warren_beattys_new_project_howard_hughes_film_alec_baldwin_jack_nicholson_/
One or two quick observations:
1) I'd like to believe that Macy's departure means that my friend's film is one step closer to happening. No news from my back channel source on that, though. It does seem, however, that The Playlist doesn't have a real idea as to Macy's reason for leaving the project, so....
2) Sienna Miller has been in Oklahoma lately shooting Nick Cassavetes "Yellow" (which apparently will have a brief cameo from one of my former students). That might explain Miller's dropping out of the "Freaky" project. Also, in a weird twist of coincidence, it seems that Cassavetes is also named in the Online Poker lawsuit that currently has Tobey McGuire ensnared. Here's that story from The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tobey-maguire-nick-cassavetes-sued-204705
FINALLY, FOR THOSE OF YOU LIVING UNDER A ROCK...
George Clooney's Facebook status: Single.
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