Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi won his second Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film this past Sunday. To accept the award for his film, The Salesmen, Farhadi had an Iranian-American astronaut, Anousheh Ansari, give his speech while he boycotted the awards show. In the speech, Ansari reads, “My absence is out of respect for the people of my […]
The kinky erotic pop phenomenon 50 Shades of Grey has finally landed — or shall we say, tied down — a writer! British actress/scribe Kelly Marcel, who co-created the short-lived Steven Spielberg-produced series Terra Nova and scripted the upcoming Mary Poppins pic Saving Mr. Banks , will adapt E.L. James’ S&M romance about a young woman who falls for Christian Grey , a damaged dreamboat with a bondage fetish. Marcel’s a surprise choice for the hot property given her relatively scant writing credits; here’s hoping her script keeps all the salaciously sexy allure of the books, which will be one of the bigger challenges Universal and Focus face with their big-screen adaptation. One hurdle: Making a 50 Shades of Grey movie that’s half as great as this fan-made trailer : Oh, man. Never gets old . Once a script’s in place, the next trick will be casting their perfect Christian Grey . Someone not too old, not too young, the picture of male perfection and virility. An actor capable of pulling off both brute sensual dominance and crippling emotional trauma. A dude who knows how to wear a suit. Well, Marcel did co-found a theater company with Tom Hardy after the two worked together on Nicholas Refn’s Bronson , which she re-wrote. (Another fun fact: Dad Terry Marcel wrote and directed 1980’s Hawk the Slayer .) Maybe she can make a phone call… who’s down with casting Tom Hardy as Christian Grey? The official press release: UNIVERSAL CITY, CA, October 8, 2012—Universal Pictures and Focus Features today announced that Kelly Marcel will write the screenplay to the highly anticipated film adaptation of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti will produce the film based on E L James’ #1 bestselling book, alongside James. The announcement was made by Universal Pictures Co-Chairman, Donna Langley and Focus Features’ Chief Executive Officer, James Schamus. Marcel wrote the 2011 Black List script, Saving Mr. Banks , the story of Walt Disney’s twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to author P.L. Travers’ novel, “Mary Poppins,” and the rocky relationship that formed between the two. The film is currently in production at Walt Disney Studios starring Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson and Colin Farrell with John Lee Hancock directing. Marcel served as the co-creator and executive producer of the Amblin/FOX-TV series Terra Nova, for which she wrote the series’ pilot episode. She will also produce The Madonnas Of Echo Park for HBO. “Kelly’s work demonstrates her flawless structural technique and passionate commitment to emotion, humor and depth of character which is particularly visible in the celebrated screenplay for the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks,” said De Luca. “We were all taken with the depth and passion of Kelly’s engagement with the characters and world E L James has created, and we knew she was the right person to augment our Fifty Shades family,” added Brunetti. Universal Pictures and Focus Features acquired the rights to the three books in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy in March of this year. Focus Features will market and distribute the first film in partnership with Universal. “Fifty Shades of Grey” has become a global phenomenon and the trilogy has been translated in 45 languages worldwide since its release. In the U.S. alone, the “Fifty Shades” trilogy has sold over 32 million copies in e-book and print, making it one of the fastest selling book series ever. “Fifty Shades of Grey” follows the relationship of 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey and college student Anastasia Steele. Subsequent novels in the series, “Fifty Shades Darker” (September 2011) and “Fifty Shades Freed” (January 2012) explore the couple’s deepening relationship. For more information please see the official Fifty Shades of Grey Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/fiftyshadesofgreymovie. Marcel was represented in the deal by WME and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited. [ Deadline ]
A record 71 countries, including first-time entrant Kenya, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 85th Academy Awards®. Not joining the list this year is Iran which is boycotting this year’s Oscars because of fall out from the anti-Islam video Innocence of Muslims . Last year, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language film for A Separation , a first for a filmmaker from that country. The list of contenders follows: The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at The Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide. The 2012 submissions are : Afghanistan, “The Patience Stone,” Atiq Rahimi, director Albania, “Pharmakon,” Joni Shanaj, director Algeria, “Zabana!” Said Ould Khelifa, director Argentina, “Clandestine Childhood,” Benjamín Ávila, director Armenia, “If Only Everyone,” Natalia Belyauskene, director Australia, “Lore,” Cate Shortland, director Austria, “Amour,” Michael Haneke, director Azerbaijan, “Buta,” Ilgar Najaf, director Bangladesh, “Pleasure Boy Komola,” Humayun Ahmed, director Belgium, “Our Children,” Joachim Lafosse, director Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Children of Sarajevo,” Aida Begic, director Brazil, “The Clown,” Selton Mello, director Bulgaria, “Sneakers,” Valeri Yordanov and Ivan Vladimirov, directors Cambodia, “Lost Loves,” Chhay Bora, director Canada, “War Witch,” Kim Nguyen, director Chile, “No,” Pablo Larraín, director China, “Caught in the Web,” Chen Kaige, director Colombia, “The Snitch Cartel,” Carlos Moreno, director Croatia, “Vegetarian Cannibal,” Branko Schmidt, director Czech Republic, “In the Shadow,” David Ondrícek, director Denmark, “A Royal Affair,” Nikolaj Arcel, director Dominican Republic, “Jaque Mate,” José María Cabral, director Estonia, “Mushrooming,” Toomas Hussar, director Finland, “Purge,” Antti J. Jokinen, director France, “The Intouchables,” Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, directors Georgia, “Keep Smiling,” Rusudan Chkonia, director Germany, “Barbara,” Christian Petzold, director Greece, “Unfair World,” Filippos Tsitos, director Greenland, “Inuk,” Mike Magidson, director Hong Kong, “Life without Principle,” Johnnie To, director Hungary, “Just the Wind,” Bence Fliegauf, director Iceland, “The Deep,” Baltasar Kormákur, director India, “Barfi!” Anurag Basu, director Indonesia, “The Dancer,” Ifa Isfansyah, director Israel, “Fill the Void,” Rama Burshtein, director Italy, “Caesar Must Die,” Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani, directors Japan, “Our Homeland,” Yang Yonghi, director Kazakhstan, “Myn Bala: Warriors of the Steppe,” Akan Satayev, director Kenya, “Nairobi Half Life,” David ‘Tosh’ Gitonga, director Kyrgyzstan, “The Empty Home,” Nurbek Egen, director Latvia, “Gulf Stream under the Iceberg,” Yevgeny Pashkevich, director Lithuania, “Ramin,” Audrius Stonys, director Macedonia, “The Third Half,” Darko Mitrevski, director Malaysia, “Bunohan,” Dain Iskandar Said, director Mexico, “After Lucia,” Michel Franco, director Morocco, “Death for Sale,” Faouzi Bensaïdi, director Netherlands, “Kauwboy,” Boudewijn Koole, director Norway, “Kon-Tiki,” Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, directors Palestine, “When I Saw You,” Annemarie Jacir, director Peru, “The Bad Intentions,” Rosario García-Montero, director Philippines, “Bwakaw,” Jun Robles Lana, director Poland, “80 Million,” Waldemar Krzystek, director Portugal, “Blood of My Blood,” João Canijo, director Romania, “Beyond the Hills,” Cristian Mungiu, director Russia, “White Tiger,” Karen Shakhnazarov, director Serbia, “When Day Breaks,” Goran Paskaljevic, director Singapore, “Already Famous,” Michelle Chong, director Slovak Republic, “Made in Ash,” Iveta Grófová, director Slovenia, “A Trip,” Nejc Gazvoda, director South Africa, “Little One,” Darrell James Roodt, director South Korea, “Pieta,” Kim Ki-duk, director Spain, “Blancanieves,” Pablo Berger, director Sweden, “The Hypnotist,” Lasse Hallström, director Switzerland, “Sister,” Ursula Meier, director Taiwan, “Touch of the Light,” Chang Jung-Chi, director Thailand, “Headshot,” Pen-ek Ratanaruang, director Turkey, “Where the Fire Burns,” Ismail Gunes, director Ukraine, “The Firecrosser,” Mykhailo Illienko, director Uruguay, “The Delay,” Rodrigo Plá, director Venezuela, “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” Hernán Jabes, director Vietnam, “The Scent of Burning Grass,” Nguyen Huu Muoi, director.
Even as Iran’s boisterous leader (but not supreme leader) President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in New York for the opening of the U.N. Assembly this week, and already causing some local controversy here staying at a luxury Manhattan hotel, his country is apparently opening a new front in its anti-U.S. proclivities – The Oscars. An Iranian official said his country should boycott the 2013 Academy Awards and not submit a film for Best Foreign-language consideration due to the anti-Islam video Innocence of Muslims which rocketed the Muslim world since its debut on YouTube earlier this month. Iranian cinema has won accolades at festivals around the world for some time now. The government has jailed various filmmakers there, most notably Jafar Panahi ( Crimson Gold ). Last year, fellow Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi won the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language film for A Separation , a first for a filmmaker from that country. But now, Iran’s filmmaking community may be shut out of the Oscars – at least in the foreign-language category – if the country’s head of its government-controlled cinema agency has his way. Javad Shamaghdari said the committee that oversees selection of Iran’s choice for the Oscar category should “avoid” doing so, according to A.P. , which quoted Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency. The committee had already identified Ye Habbeh Ghand ( A Cube of Sugar ), which centers on a family wedding that turns into a funeral after the groom’s relative dies, to represent Iran’s choice at the Oscars in February. The government still needs to give its consent for the title to move forward. Shamaghdari said the a boycott of the Oscars should take place until the Academy denounces Innocence of Muslims , the once-little noticed video that has resulted in major clashes outside U.S. missions throughout the Islamic world, killing at least 51 people including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. Shamaghdari has in the past pulled Iranian films from festivals worldwide. After Farhadi’s win earlier this year, Iranian officials praised the Academy Award triumph for A Separation , especially since it took the prize over an Israeli film also vying in the category. Some nationalists, however, denounced what they saw as a less than rosy view of Iranian life portrayed in the film, which involves a marriage falling apart. [ Source: A.P. ]
Because the only thing audiences want to see more than Woody Allen acting in someone else’s movie is Woody Allen whoring John Turturro out to rich women, we will soon have a film entitled Fading Gigolo (which still sounds better than Nero Fiddled ). Turturro will write and direct the buddy comedy, “which finds Turturro and Allen playing cash-strapped best friends who decide to go into the gigolo business together and subsequently attract the suspicion of the Hasidic Jewish community in which they live. Duo take on the pseudonyms Virgil and Bongo, with Allen pimping out Turturro’s character until he falls for a Jewish widow, who has not yet been cast.” [ Variety ]
This new Funny or Die bit featuring reigning Oscar king Jean Dujardin pushing a fictional brand of cigarettes in the suavest, most charming and youth-enticing way possible is pretty good (“And now in Cotton Candy and Snickers Bar!” I LOL’ed). Still, when it comes to animated/live-action smoke pushers, Dujardin and his partner in crime have pretty formidable competition in the infamous Happy Joe Lucky. Right down to the accordions! Who’s got the kid-pleasingest cigarettes around? Dujardin’s video calls for a rummage through the YouTube wilds, where we find the animated Lucky Strike mascot dueting with Your Hit Parade star Gisele MacKenzie. What an era! Smoke if you got ’em! BRB, etc. Jean Dujardin’s Cigarettes from Jean Dujardin Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Sometimes a movie demands attention more for its “How” than its “What,” and writer-director Joseph Cedar’s Footnote falls squarely in that category. A movie about feuding father-and-son Talmudic scholars isn’t a surefire way to pack ’em in at the box office. But Cedar approaches his subject with so much wit and verve that he almost – almost – makes you forget you’re watching a movie about a very small, cloistered subset of academic obsessives whose life’s work is about as visually undynamic as you can imagine. How do you get action and drama out of pages and pages filled with Hebrew lettering? Somehow Cedar – who was born in New York but who has lived in Jerusalem since the age of 5 – pulls it off. Footnote was the Israeli Academy Award nominee for 2011; it lost to Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation , which provided the bullying Iranian government with an unfortunate opportunity to declare artistic supremacy (in addition to every other kind) over Israel. But while Footnote is a very different movie – it doesn’t pack the emotional charge that A Separation does – its craftsmanship is exceptional. Cedar has made a picture about scholarly obsession that really moves, even when its characters – who spend a lot of time at their desks, surrounded by piles of papers and books adorned with wrinkled sticky-note flags – don’t. Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar-Aba) has spent years, practically a lifetime, analyzing various versions of the Talmud, getting deep into minute differences in wording and phrasing. He makes a big research breakthrough, but just as he’s about to announce it, a rival professor (played by Micah Lewensohn) scoops him. Eliezer, an uncommunicative and taciturn sort, retreats deeper into his research, hoping that one day he’ll be appreciated and awarded the coveted Israel Prize. Meanwhile his son, Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi), also a Talmudic scholar, surpasses his father in both the respect and likability departments – he’s more of a born star, and he certainly likes the limelight. When it’s announced, finally, that Eliezer has been chosen for the Israel Prize, Uriel is relieved and happy for his father – until he learns exactly what Eliezer’s achievement will cost him, both professionally and personally. Between Uriel’s outright ambition and Eliezer’s naked need for recognition and respect, the relationship between father and son – which was never, it’s suggested, particularly warm to begin with – becomes increasingly tense. Cedar has cleverly organized his movie into chapter-like sections that somehow make analyzing reams of ancient text seem like an adventure, or at least something worth devoting your life to. He uses some lively effects, most of which are quite simple: He suggests the feverishness of scholarly devotion, for example, by showing sheafs of text whizzing across the frame, accompanied by the appropriate whooshing sound effects. The picture has a surprising agility, considering it really is about two guys with furrowed brows whose heads are generally buried in books. There is still the fact, though, that scholarship is just never going to be the jazziest subject on the planet, and even Cedar seems to know it. In places, Footnote strains to delineate the tension between father and son, re-embroidering their conflicts over and over again, long after we’ve gotten the point. Cedar – who previously made the 2007 Israeli war drama Beaufort – has taken great pains to add lots of emotional dappling and texture to this story, though in the end, what we take away from the relationship between these two characters is pretty simple: They’re victims of your garden variety criss-crossing jealousy and resentment. Still, the actors keep the drama believable and engaging: Bar-Aba, in particular, pulls off the tricky feat of making an impenetrable character sympathetic, albeit in a maddening, “Would it kill you to crack a smile?” way. And both Bar-Aba and Ashkenazi comfortably navigate the dry comic touches Cedar has added to the story: We don’t know whether to wince or laugh when, early in the film, Uriel publicly praises his father with a long-winded, backhanded story that essentially makes the guy sound like an uncommunicative jerk. Then again, that’s what he is. What Cedar captures here is the way a father and son can be bound so tightly they almost choke the air out of one another. You can’t exactly call it affection; it’s that far more complicated thing we call kinship. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The champagne’s been tippled, the winners are all celebrating, and somewhere Uggie ‘s getting a LOT of sausages. So let’s relive the highlights of the 2012 Academy Awards show! Click through for Movieline’s gallery and name your favorite moment from the big night. Was it Best Supporting Actress Octavia Spencer ‘s emotional acceptance speech? Or Descendants co-scripter Jim Rash’s impromptu Angelina Jolie impersonation? Those bits and more in vivid photographic detail after the jump! Click to launch the Oscars 2012 gallery . Miss the show? Relive the best (and worst) of the 2012 Academy Awards in Movieline’s liveblog .