This year’s Oscars may have average nominee ages of 47, 61 and 62 in such categories as Actor, Director and Supporting Actor (respectively), but trust producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer to rope in the youngs where they can. To wit: If the Academy won’t nominate the four-quadrant blockbuster Bridesmaids for Best Picture, then at least the cast can drop by to present an award. Hence this morning’s news from AMPAS: Six actresses – Rose Byrne, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig – from the hit comedy Bridesmaids will be presenters at the 84th Academy Awards, telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced today. McCarthy received her first Oscar nomination this year for her supporting role in the film, and Wiig also became a first-time nominee for the film’s original screenplay. All six will be making their first Oscar show appearances. No word yet on which category they’ll present or how Bruce Vilanch will work very relevant and timely sink-defecation jokes into their shtick. Suggestions welcome below. [ AMPAS ]
As you may have heard or read, the 2012 Academy Award nominations have stirred strong reactions in certain pockets of the Oscar snubculture. And you just know that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close filmmaker Stephen Daldry — a first-time non -nominee for Best Director — is seething somewhere out there: “But at least two of those guys won’t even show up! ” Fair enough! Or is it? While everyone expects Michel Hazanavicius, Alexander Payne and Martin Scorsese to attend the 84th Oscars ceremony on Feb. 26, the odds do not especially favor appearances by Woody Allen and Terrence Malick. Allen, who used to have his longstanding jazz dates at the Cafe Carlyle to excuse him from from the old Monday night Oscars (he has never formally accepted any of his three Academy Awards — two in 1978 for Annie Hall , one for Hannah and Her Sisters in 1987), has only deigned to drop by the Sunday night Oscars once: In 2002, mere months after the Sept. 11 attacks, he drew a standing ovation before introducing a montage of classic films set in New York. By all indications, Allen’s opinion of the event and its organizers hasn’t changed much from 34 years ago, when he lobbed one of history’s most enduring Oscar dismissals : “I have no regard for that kind of ceremony. I just don’t think they know what they’re doing. When you see who wins those things — or who doesn’t win them — you can see how meaningless this Oscar thing is.” That said, Allen would do well to represent the biggest professional success of his career — particularly on a night that’s already shaping up as a showcase for Hollywood’s complicated relationships with both nostalgia and the future. Moreover, this year’s class of Director nominees contains three world-renowned masters (including Allen) at whom it would be pretty unreasonable to cast aspersions, plus a man who made a silent film about the futility of pride. Industry back-patting aside, this year — of all years — would be the one to express a little artistic solidarity with peers like Scorsese and Malick. Oh, right: Malick. Terry, Terry, Terry. The legendarily publicity-shy filmmaker attended the Cannes premiere of Tree of Life last May but delegated producer Bill Pohlad to accept the Palme d’Or on his behalf. But according to Pohlad , Malick was “genuinely happy” to hear about Tree ‘s nominations and may be responsive to persuasion when it comes to attending. “I’m hesitant to push Terry to do something he doesn’t like doing, but I also want him to enjoy it,” Pohlad told the LAT , adding: “Sometimes, its frustrating how removed from it he tries to keep it, but it comes from a real place. He’s tried to do something original and adventurous and he wants the focus to be on that.” Hmm. Well, trust me, Mr. Malick: We all pinky-swear to focus on The Tree of Life and all of its originality and adventurousness and the rest if you just drop in for a little while. Ryan Seacrest promises not to accost you on the red carpet; Christopher Plummer promises not to bring up any more hard feelings about The New World . The Academy even promises not to vote for you if not having to take the stage would guarantee your attendance. We’ll do anything! Just say the word. Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Or some other lukewarm cling-monkey: “If I were feeling less generous and more cynical on this holiest of all Oscar-calendar mornings , I might say that to decipher this year’s Academy Awards contest, we need only look for inspiration to the GOP presidential race. The Artist is Mitt Romney — desperate to please, doesn’t stand for anything in particular, not especially popular with the general public, will eventually keep most of its money offshore, and, though dinged up and trash-talked, will probably cross the finish line first by default. The Descendants is Newt Gingrich (emotionally unsteady, hard on wives, doing better than expected, but probably can’t go all the way). Hugo is Rick Santorum (a little slow, doesn’t really like anything that changed in the culture in the last 80 years). And The Tree of Life is Jon Huntsman (believes in evolution, probably a little too classy for this field).” [ Grantland ]
ABC released a cutesy trailer for the 2012 Academy Awards telecast that speaks loads to the youthful new direction the show’s makers were going in when they brought Brett Ratner aboard, before his untimely exit ; in a slick parody of globe-trotting Hollywood fare, two heroes are tasked with tracking down wizened Billy Crystal for hosting duties on the Big Night. Those heroes? None other than Transformers castmates Josh Duhamel and Megan Fox, because of course. Nothing says current like the girl who was the hottest thing on earth three years ago! Watch the trailer and see if it entices you with its “Hey kids, check us out!” hip comedy stylings. The trailer even comes courtesy of Funny Or Die, it’s so plugged in! And hey, isn’t that Vinnie Jones as a mysterious bartender with inside intel? And Bill Fichtner as Oscarcast producer Brian Grazer? (At least that much makes sense.) And, well, Robin Williams as a Himalayan ferryman? (That cameo actually just makes me sad that he’s not hosting or co-hosting with Crystal.) See, the Oscars are for everybody! This milquetoast-but-four-quadrant trailer proves it! Verdict: The 84th Academy Awards will be televised live on Feb. 26 at 4p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET, and from the looks of it we’ll be in for a loooong night.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the poster for the 84th Academy Awards, and it’s… nice? I mean, Oscar looks sexy as ever, and all those foggy images of awards-night glories past recall both the champagne-fueled afterparties and the preponderance of white folks who take this hardware home every year. But isn’t something missing? Like, the host? After all that hullabaloo about Brett Ratner and Eddie Murphy that the Academy worked to deflect, and after all the lengths that the Board of Governors went to just to replace Murphy with an ultrasafe, ultrastable emcee, and after years of advertising hosts from Chris Rock to Jon Stewart to Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin to Anne Hathaway and Anne Franco, where is Billy Crystal? If I’m a casual viewer, I’m far likelier to take positive notice of the host than of the centrally positioned reminder that Driving Miss Daisy actually won Best Picture once upon a sad, sad time. Also: Can’t we get some more color in here? Sidney Poitier? Denzel Washington? Mo’Nique? If it has to be Best Picture alums, maybe Poitier and Rod Steiger from In the Heat of the Night ? Even Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner from The Hurt Locker . I’m not sure what this says about the young demographic that the aging Academy claims to covet; I doubt they’re watching Giant and/or The Sound of Music . Or maybe they are! Are you “young” and obsessive-compulsively watching Gone With the Wind on a DVD loop in honor of white, uptight, vaunted Academy legacies? Tell us in the comments! [via Awards Daily ]
A windfall of accolades, honors, plaudits and other year-end superlatives swept film culture over the weekend, with voting bodies including AFI and three major regional critics groups announcing their awards for 2011. And while it may not be enough to dramatically shake up the Oscar Index , voices have been heard and impacts have been made. Read on for six quick first impressions, a full rundown of winners and (hopefully) your take on where things stand.
Alec Baldwin, one of our chirpiest and most opinionated tweeters, has apparently given up Twitter altogether. The 30 Rock star and Oscar nominee fled the site following an incident in which American Airlines booted him off a plane for playing Words With Friends and for being violent, abusive, and aggressive . All that remains of his Twitter is the handle name and the word “Deactivated.” Sad, sad day. Thrust your American flag at the sky and never forget his above-average GOP putdowns. [ @AlecBaldwin ]
We’ve officially crossed the halfway point of this year’s Oscar Index — a bittersweet milestone where the team at Movieline’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics takes a deep breath, orders a stiff drink, and then… orders another eight or so stiff drinks. While they slam their ways over the awards-season hump, join me for a quick run-through of where things stand this week.
It’s awards madness this week at Movieline, with the New York Film Critics Circle and Gotham Awards having weighed in on their best of 2011, the Independent Spirit Awards revealing their nominees, and the National Board of Review winners forthcoming on Thursday. But amid all the institutionalized laurels and accolades, one subject remains notably absent — a subject so beloved within his own celebrated film that the omission remains a cruel snub at best and a skulduggerous interspecial sham at worst.
As cool-looking, dumb and deadly serious as you could desire, Immortals openly aims to be the heir to 300 , and succeeds in at least being a reasonable facsimile that hits many (too many) of the same testosterone-driven beats. The battles are just as imaginatively bloody, the abs painstakingly chiseled, the dialogue tin-eared, only this time around the stakes are not just the fate of the historic(esque) world, but of the divine one as well. There are gods in this film, beautiful, gold-cloaked ones who watch worriedly from atop Olympus as Greece is overrun by the armies of the wicked King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke), a man who wants nothing less than to bring about the destruction of their divine order, though they’re forbidden to interfere in the world of man for…oh, who knows why? Also, it’s in 3-D — dark, dark 3-D I’d avoid if given the option.
