Enter the 'Dragon': David Fincher's latest Oscar bait

There are two things that Oscar voters adore: 1) overdue, cool directors with edgy new films and 2) movies based upon books that have a fanatical following.

That combo bodes well for David Fincher's new release this Oscar season: "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." The helmer is considered to be so hip with academy voters that his last two flicks earned nominations for best picture and director: ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Social Network"). Both were also based upon notable published material: a classic short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald ("Button") and a bestseller about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ("Social Network").

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is a crime thriller based upon the hit "Millennium series" of books by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. A Scandinavian film version was directed in 2009 by Danish director Niels Arden Oplev. The new English-language screen version was penned by Steven Zaillian, who won an Oscar for "Schindler's List" and was nominated for "Awakenings" and "Gangs of New York." It stars Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer and Rooney Mara, who is considered to be a strong Oscar contender for lead actress.

-- Tom O'Neil

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Photo: Rooney Mara in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Credit: Columbia Pictures

Oscars: 'The King's Speech's' Tom Hooper wins for director

Tom Hooper won the Oscar for director for “The King’s Speech” at the 83rd Academy Awards on Sunday night. It is the first Oscar win for the 38-year-old filmmaker, who was considered to be in a tight race with “The Social Network’s” David Fincher for the prize. Hooper, whose film chronicles England’s King George VI trying to overcome his stutter, also won the Directors Guild of America Award and had been nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, the British equivalent of the Academy Award.

In addition to Fincher, Hooper was competing against Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan,” Joel and Ethan Coen for “True Grit” and David O. Russell for “The Fighter.”

The Academy Awards are taking place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood and are being televised live on ABC. We'll carry all the breaking news and reaction here on Awards Tracker.

-- Susan King

Photo: Tom Hooper. Credit: Associated Press.

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Oscars 2012: Who's going to be on next year's best picture list?

 
Are you as burned out on 2010's Oscar season as we are? If so, take a look into the future to see who we are going to be tired of by next February. We've compiled a completely arbitrary -- but intriguing -- list of what films could be making it to the winner's circle in 2012. Feel free to chime in with your predictions because, really, this time next year we will all likely have been proved wrong.

(Please note: these are in no particular order.)

1. "Contagion": Steven Soderbergh, Oscar winner for "Traffic," is back with another ensemble piece, this time an action-thriller centered on a team of doctors that must deal with a deadly disease outbreak. The film features an all-star cast with Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Marion Cotillard, along with this year's nominee in the supporting actor category John Hawkes. It may be too "Bourne Identity" for the academy but it's not a bad place to start. (Opens Oct. 21)

2. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close": Stephen Daldry ("The Reader") helms this adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's novel about a 9-year old boy who searches New York City for a lock that matches a key left by his father (Tom Hanks), who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. Eric Roth ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") adapted the book and the pedigree of cast and filmmakers has Oscar written all over it. And for that extra boost, uber-producer Scott Rudin is behind this one too. (Not yet dated.)

3. "The Descendants": Alexander Payne ("Sideways") is finally back with a new film, seven years after "Sideways" was released. Payne adapted Kaui Hart Hemmings' novel about a Hawaiian land baron, played by George Clooney, who tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife suffers a boating accident.(Not yet dated.)

4. "Tree of Life": Terrence Malick ("The Thin Red Line") has returned with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn starring in a story of a Midwestern family in the 1950s. The film has been kicking around a while but that seems to be more an issue of a corporate distribution shuffle than any knock against the film. (Opens May 27)

5. "The Iron Lady": Meryl Streep pairs up with her "Mamma Mia" director Phyllida Lloyd in this biopic of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The script is written by British playwright Abi Morgan and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" writer Michael Hirst. Jim Broadbent co-stars as Mr. Thatcher. The British-financed flick does not yet have a U.S. distributor.

Why are Oscar pundits betting against Tom Hooper?

Check out the Oscar predictions at The Envelope's Buzzmeter and you'll notice something amazing. While six of the nine experts say "The King's Speech" will win best picture, none of the nine believe its helmer, Tom Hooper, will bag the trophy for best director.

Normally, those two awards match up -– about 80% of the time over the past 50 years. The agreement rate is a bit less in recent years -- 70% over the past decade -– but that's still impressive.

Tom Hooper recently won the top prize bestowed by the Directors Guild of America, which also tends to overlap with the Oscar for  director: 70% over the past 10 years.

Given these stats, you'd think all Oscarologists would be betting on Hooper. Or at least most of them. But it's utterly flabbergasting that none of the pundits we poll is in his camp. Everybody's betting on David Fincher ("The Social Network"). Why?

There is a widespread belief this year that "The Social Network" is getting cheated out of the best picture award that major film critics' groups believe it deserves. In fact, "The Social Network" won the best picture awards bestowed by them all, plus the Golden Globe. Consensus like that is rare. Suddenly, as it heads into the Oscars, "The Social Network" looks like it is being punished for being artistically honest -– for not being a huggy, feel-good film, which Oscar voters like.

As a result, guilt-ridden Oscar voters will probably want to give it a top award in some category. Sure, it will probably win the awards for adapted screenplay and film editing, maybe music score too, but that's not enough. If it had a realistic chance to win an acting award that might take care of voters' obligation to give it major due, but it doesn't.

Therefore, the Oscar category for director seems to be the logical place for voters to go. Arguably, "Social Network" is a superior directorial achievement to "King's Network" anyway. Let's be honest:  David Fincher really deserves to win. Hooper took DGA because voters had the same heartfelt response to its story and had only one category to express themselves. If they had had two categories, they probably would've split their votes for both films.

Still, it seems ludicrous to bet against Hooper considering he won DGA and his film is universally expected to win best picture too, don't you think? No. Let's recall 2002 when "Chicago's" Rob Marshall won DGA and the film claimed the Oscar for best picture. Marshall lost the Academy Award for  director to Roman Polanski ("The Pianist"). I think it's a parallel situation. Back then, DGA voters had a strong emotional response to "Chicago," so they honored Marshall with their only award. At the Oscars, voters had a chance to split the honors and did so.

-- Tom O'Neil

Photos: Tom Hooper (Weinstein Co.); David Fincher, right, with Aaron Sorkin (Columbia)

What does David Fincher's BAFTA win mean for the director at the Oscars?

It was no big surprise, really, that "The King's Speech" dominated the BAFTA awards Sunday night. It is, after all, the hometown film, even though audiences stateside have embraced it wholeheartedly as well. So it was a bit of a shock when David Fincher beat out Tom Hooper for best director over there on the "King's" turf. Fincher's "The Social Network" was the early Oscar favorite but saw its chances fade once  "The King's Speech" started its drive. (The surprise win for Tom Hooper at last month's Directors Guild of America awards was a big spark in the turnaround.)

Is there now a possibility that "The Social Network" and "The King's Speech" could split the two big prizes on Oscar night, with Fincher walking away with best director while "The King's Speech" wins best picture? It's happened before, most recently in 2005 with "Crash" winning best picture and Ang Lee winning best director with "Brokeback Mountain," and again in 2002 when "Chicago" won best picture and Roman Polanski was awarded the best director statue for "The Pianist."

It could happen again, and anecdotally, I've heard motion picture academy members talking in such fashion. But how much influence do the  BAFTA awards have on the Oscars? According to my colleague Tom O'Neil, there are about 500 British Academy of Film and Television Arts members who are also members of the 5,800-member American academy. And the two award shows' choices have matched up four times in the last decade when the BAFTAs moved their show up earlier than the Oscars. 

It is significant, though, that the BAFTAs didn't go with one of their own Sunday evening, especially considering how Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter dominated the acting prizes. Rather, the British Academy chose Fincher for his job directing 20-somethings in their founding of Facebook. The BAFTAs also chose Aaron Sorkin, for adapted screenplay, a scenario we are likely to find repeated at the Oscars. "The Social Network" also won for editing, besting both "Inception" and "The King's Speech," a category many say you need to win to get best picture.

There are only two weeks to go till the big night and ballots are due a week from tomorrow. Most voters probably already have their minds made up.

-- Nicole Sperling

BAFTA Awards: David Fincher wins best director for 'The Social Network'

It was all going "The King's Speech's" way Sunday evening at the BAFTA Awards at the Royal Opera House,  and then David Fincher -- not "The King's Speech's" Tom Hooper -- was named best director for "The Social Network."

The drama about how Facebook was founded by Harvard students had been the early favorite in the awards season picking up award after award, but it had been overshadowed of late by "The King's Speech," which won the Producers Guild and Directors Guild of America Awards.

But Fincher usurped Hooper's throne by winning the Orange British Academy Film Award. "The Social Network" also won awards Sunday for Aaron Sorkin's adapted screenplay and for editing.

-- Susan King

Photo: David Fincher. Credit: Chris Pizzello / Associated Press

Oscar luncheon: Schmoozing joined with a little lecturing

 
If Hollywood is some kind of weird manifestation of high school and the Oscars are prom night where the king and queen are crowned, surely the Oscar luncheon held Monday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel is graduation day.

This year's class of nominees first posed for a group photo before being issued their certificate of nomination and the requisite photo with Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences President Tom Sherak. The only things missing were the caps and gowns.

This year's event was the most well-attended of all with a record 147 out of 191 nominees present. (Most notably absent were supporting actor nominee Christian Bale and director David Fincher.) Despite some good, old-fashioned schmoozing that saw Oscar night producer/director Don Mischer and his wife posing for a photo with lead actor nominee Javier Bardem; "Black Swan" director Darren Aronofsky chatting up Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, the director of foreign language film nominee "Biutiful"; and "The King's Speech" director Tom Hooper getting in some face time with Oscar producer Bruce Cohen, the luncheon was also instructive. 

Mischer and Cohen were present to remind nominees to make meaningful, short and special speeches. The duo presented a video clip featuring Tom Hanks with detailed instructions on how to give an Oscar acceptance speech. The simple, but important, instructions involved beating the 45-second clock each nominee is given to accept their award; deciding ahead of time for the group awards who is going to accept the award; and, most important, never take out a piece of paper to read from. "Reading a long list of names only shows us your bald spot," quipped Hanks on the video as a slew of balding noggins appeared on the screen. Mischer even went so far as to pull out research showing that any time a winner pulls out a piece of paper, the Oscar telecast loses hundreds of thousands of viewers.

The producers also showed the audience a new indicator that will appear on the center camera that graphically counts down the 45 seconds each winner has to speak. The new method, which replaces the flashing "Please Wrap Up" message that would normally appear at 30 seconds, was met by some audience laughter. But the academy is so serious about sticking to the allotted time that it is sending home practice DVDs with the 45 second graphic, which depicts an inverted triangle that fills up more and more of the screen as time goes on.

"Playing you off to music is disrespectful to you, to our audience, to the academy and to our industry," said Mischer. "Our dream, our fantasy is to never have to play any of you off to music."

The majority of the event was spent with Hollywood luminaries chatting each other up. Best actor nominee Colin Firth blew Annette Bening a quick kiss after receiving his certificate of nomination along with the official Academy Awards gray sweatshirt that each nominee is given. (Bening immediately threw on her sweatshirt, perhaps to fight off the frigid ballroom chill.) Documentary nominee Lucy Walker ("Wasteland") and her date, musician Moby, who contributed music to Walker's film, chatted up Hooper, while best supporting actress nominee Amy Adams ("The Fighter") commiserated with her costar and fellow nominee Melissa Leo. Jeff Bridges, who received the prime front-and-center seat, with Bening on his lap, chatted up Ed Begley Jr., on hand as one of the academy governors.

The event (see a gallery of photos here) ended rather abruptly after dessert was served, with many nominees running off to do more interviews, or in the case of sound mixer Mark Weingarten, returning back to work on Fincher's latest film, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Sherak didn't seem ready for anyone to leave, joking, "We have the room til 6 tonight."

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--Nicole Sperling

Photo: Javier Bardem at the 83rd Academy Awards nominations luncheon on Monday. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

 

Oscar experts clash over predictions at The Envelope's Buzzmeter

Most Oscar experts at The Envelope's Buzzmeter think "The King's Speech" will win best picture: Dave Karger (Entertainment Weekly), Susan King (L.A. Times), Mark Olsen (L.A. Times), Betsy Sharkey (L.A. Times), Anne Thompson (Indiewire) and me.

However, there are significant naysayers who still back early front-runner "The Social Network": Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood-Elsewhere).

Curiously, they all predict "Social Network" helmer David Fincher will win best director even though he lost to Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") at DGA.

Beyond best picture, the other category that invites most disagreement is best supporting actress. Everybody opts for Melissa Leo ("The Fighter") except three pundits who foresee an upset by Hailee Steinfeld ("True Grit") –- Karger, Thompson and Stone.

Visit the Buzzmeter here and remember to click through links to all the top categories.

-- Tom O'Neil 

Can 'The Social Network' still pull out a win?

 
Things aren't looking too hot for "The Social Network." Considering the SAG ensemble award for "The King's Speech," Saturday night's director's prize for Tom Hooper, and the Producers Guild top prize last weekend, the momentum has changed in a big way toward the British drama about the stuttering king. The DGA award is particularly significant given that only six times in the award's 60-plus-year history has it differed with how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted for best director.

The SAG Award, in particular, has likely derailed "Social Network's" cause since the largest branch in the academy is the actors, and if they went the way of "The King's Speech" for SAG, it's likely they'll go that way for Oscars too. (The ensemble award has matched the best picture Oscar seven times in the last 15 years.)

However, as the website In Contention points out, it is worth noting the last time the DGA and the academy differed. Back in 2002, the DGA chose then-42-year-old Rob Marshall for "Chicago." Marshall, a newbie to the feature world with only TV credits to his name at the time, did not maintain his momentum into the Oscars. While his film won best picture, the academy went a different route for director by choosing Roman Polanski for his work on "The Pianist."

Hooper, 38, is also a newcomer to the feature film world, with only television credits to his name. His work in "The King's Speech" is certainly award-worthy, but it will be interesting to see if there is a chance the academy chooses the veteran helmer, in this case David Fincher, the director behind "The Social Network" who has been nominated once before for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and has made eight films in his career.

Unfortunately, momentum is not on his side, and it doesn't help that the film about the founding of Facebook isn't winning any acting prizes either. (Jesse Eisenberg is the only actor from the film nominated for an Oscar in contrast to "The King's Speech," which has three acting noms.) "Social Network's" screenwriter Aaron Sorkin still has the best shot for the win in the adapted category, but the rest of his collaborators have shifted to underdog status quickly.

 

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Photo: Actors Armie Hammer, left, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg introduce a clip from "The Social Network" at the 17th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. Credit: Reuters.

— Nicole Sperling

Tom Hooper wins top honors from the Directors Guild of America

 

The Directors Guild of America on Saturday evening named Tom Hooper best director of 2010 for "The King's Speech," the film based on the real-life story of King George VI's battle to overcome a debilitating stammer. It is the first guild win in the feature category for the 38-year-old filmmaker.

"Oh my God," said a surprised Hooper. "I am so grateful to my wonderful cast. I am overwhelmed. This is the highest honor of my life."

Hooper was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Movie Award. He's also in contention for a BAFTA and an Academy Award.

"The King's Speech" was the surprise winner last week at the Producers Guild of America Awards -- the Facebook drama "The Social Network" had been favored to win the prize -- and leads the list of most-nominated films heading into the Academy Awards with 12.

The DGA Awards are one of the most dependable bellwethers of the Academy Awards. In fact, in the last 62 years, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the DGA have disagreed in their choices only six times.

The 63rd annual DGA ceremony was held at the Renaissance Hotel at Hollywood and Highland with Carl Reiner hosting.

The guild awarded its prize for directing a TV drama series to Martin Scorsese for HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," though Scorsese, who was said to be ill, did not attend the ceremony. Charles Ferguson won in the documentary category for his feature "Inside Job." Mick Jackson won for directorial achievement in movies for television and miniseries for HBO's "Temple Grandin," while Michael Spiller won for the ABC hit "Modern Family" in the TV comedy series category.

Glenn Weiss won in the musical/variety race for his direction of the 64th annual Tony Awards (CBS), and Larry Carpenter won for his work on "One Life to Live" in the daytime serials category.

The DGA also kicked off its 75th anniversary at the ceremony with DGA winners including Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, John Rich and Steven Spielberg introducing special film-clip presentations on "game-changing" moments in the guild's history.

Among the other awards handed out, Eytan Keller won for outstanding achievement in reality programs for "The Next Iron Chef" (Food Network); Eric Bross won top honors in the children's programs category for "The Boy Who Cried Werewolf" (Nickelodeon); and Stacy Wall was recognized for his achievement in commercials directing.

-- Susan King

Photo: Tom Hooper at the James Hotel in Chicago. Credit: Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune