Brad Pitt, Bruno and lots of DVDs: Notes on the Town, Nov. 25

Stuff heard around town this week......

Quentin Tarantino turned moderator for a SAG screening of "Inglourious Basterds" Sunday, with 10 of his actors fielding questions at the post-screening Q&A. Guild members reportedly started lining up at 8:30 a.m. for the noon event that also featured a casual and bearded Brad Pitt, who was mobbed by paparazzi when the panel finally ended. Quentin, who loves doing this sort of thing, kept it going even after publicists were waving at him to end it for nearly 20 minutes.

Christoph Waltz, the supporting actor front-runner,got time off from "The Green Hornet" to attend, while co-star Melanie Laurent flew in from Germany. Diane Kruger, Eli Roth and just about every other "Basterd" was there for the movie that seems to be holding its own this award season despite its summer release. With mixed reviews coming in for many of the big fall Oscar hopefuls, voters could return to these "Basterds" and make it a major player at the Academy Awards. The DVD screener of the movie started showing up in mailboxes Tuesday just in time for Thanksgiving weekend viewing.

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One academy member waiting for her screeners is former Oscar nominee  Patricia Clarkson  ("Pieces of April") who sat down for a chat with me at her favorite L.A. haunt, the Chateau Marmont. She's hoping that her performance as the ever-evolving Southern mother in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works" will be remembered by voters.

It's tough competition this year for those five slots in supporting actress, so Sony Pictures Classics wisely made sure it was one of the first screeners out there this year. Clarkson, a highly respected actor among her peers, just hopes the actors' branch sees the June release. Woody obviously has a great track record delivering Oscars to lots of his female stars, including Dianne Wiest ("Hannah And Her Sisters," "Bullets Over Broadway"), Mira Sorvino ("Mighty Aphrodite") and last year's champ, Penelope Cruz for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" which also co-starred Clarkson, who is infatuated with Allen's writing for women.

"His supporting actress track record is unmatched and this role was the most uncompromising, truly comedic part I have been allowed to play," Clarkson told me. "When it came along I had to pinch myself. It's a truly great and genuinely funny part." She added that her own Southern roots really helped her nail the role.

Clarkson is a diligent Oscar voter herself and loves seeing all the movies sent her way.

"I watch my screeners, I love my screeners especially the ones from earlier in the year where I can revisit performances I may have missed like Sam Rockwell in 'Moon' this year.He's wonderful," she said pointing out that she should go out to more movies but doesn't because she knows she is going to get the screeners.

In terms of seeing movies I am sure she agrees the best way is whatever works.

Cast of 'Nine' shines for SAG

 

Director Rob Marshall was originally billed to handle the question and answer duties at a recent Screen Actors Guild screening of "Nine," but plans changed. Instead, I jumped in and happily moderated a 50-minute session with Daniel Day-Lewis and five of the women who support him as Guido in the big-budget musical based on the Broadway hit and 1963 Federico Fellini classic, "8 1/2":  Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Dame Judi Dench, Kate Hudson and Nicole Kidman, who was hanging out backstage at the Pacific Design Center with hubby Keith Urban before the session began. It was fun back there catching up with the likes of Cotillard and Cruz who I have frequently encountered on various stages in past award seasons. Considering they had come from a New York junket and the Oprah Winfrey taping in Chicago, this was a pretty lively bunch and the actory audience lucky enough to get in  (about 300 were turned away outside) was pumped to see them in person offering up non-stop standing ovations to each and every one (I introduced the ladies alphabetically --how else with this cast?). Here are some of the 'Notes':

Daniel Day-Lewis on working with this cast of women: 

"It was bewilderingly wonderful. We had eight weeks of rehearsal together as a group. Because we were all terrified, I was at least, it was a lovely way to begin."

On playing Judi Dench's "son" in a production of "Hamlet": 

"She was a great mother. We got to kiss. It wasn't an entirely happy experience, but that was the happiest part. Every night I got to snug with Judi Dench."

On another screen mother, Sophia Loren's statement that "there were so many big stars in 'Nine' I thought we might all kill each other'':  

"Well, if that were the case then Sophia would have been the only one left standing in the end!" 

Marion Cotillard on the art of "acting" a song:

"It was my dream to do a musical. Music carries a lot of emotions and when you hear the music it really drives you where you have to be."

Penelope Cruz on singing and dancing with ropes and pink drapes:

"Sadly I only ever sang with my karaoke machine before. It was terrifying but in a great way. I remember the day they showed me the choreography. I was speechless. 'How do you think I am gonna be able to do this?' I said. But then I just couldn't wait to go and train. Then finally on the day when you sing and dance at once without stopping you feel drunk. When it was all over I felt sad that I couldn't do it ever again. I wanted to take those ropes to my house."

Dame Judi Dench, who actually studied costume design early in her career, on portraying a costume designer:

"It was very nice to get to play something I tried to be."

After doing many musicals on the London stage including "Cabaret" and "A Little Night Music" this is the first time she gets to be in one on film:

"It was the first time -- and maybe the last!"

Kate Hudson on being just like her mother Goldie in her 60's-inspired number "Cinema Italiano":

"It mirrors very much where my mother started. She was a go-go dancer. It's really kind of wild that I got to experience something like where she started her career. It was a total blast for me."

And on her "look" for "Nine":

"I had so much hair! I had this big kind of toupee and it was falling off but you don't stop for Rob Marshall. It's funny. I was wearing very little but between the hair and the costume it must have weighed 30 pounds!"

Nicole Kidman on preparing for the role of a voluptuous international film star:  

"I had just had my baby so I didn't get to do much preparation to play Claudia. I got to have big boobs because I was breast feeding. That was my preparation!"

-----   Pete Hammond

Photo: Kate Hudson, left and Daniel Day-Lewis star in "Nine."
Credit: Weinstein Co.

No. 2 with a Bullock -- Sandy's Oscar chances rise

Friday night I got a call from Roger Durling, who is the artistic director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and a very knowledgeable and film-savvy guy. In other words, he knows what's good and what isn't. He had just wandered out of  a showing of John Lee Hancock's new film,"The Blind Side," which opened this weekend No. 2 at the box office, and said he was "BLOWN AWAY in capital letters"  by Sandra Bullock's performance.He repeatedly asked me why more people/pundits had not been touting her for awards this season (other than this writer).  

I must confess it's been awfully lonely at the Buzzmeter. I remain the only one of the 20 pundits predicting that Sandra Bullock will be one of the five Best Actress Oscar nominees. I stand by this more than ever now that the movie has opened with an over-performing $34.6 million (Bullock's best ever) and a very rare A + Cinemascore rating. That's especially impressive in the wake of the tsunami-like $140-million debut of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" (brooding, boring, bad -- sorry Twihards).

On Nov. 4, I wrote in a blog item that drew more comments pro and con than any so far this season, that word of mouth would likely propel this inspiring movie into the winners circle at the box office and by extension launch the previously unbuzzed-about Bullock into an awards season contender slot.

Portman, Plummer and a new Oscar voting rule: Notes on the Town

Stuff heard around town this week.....

In chatting with "Up" director Pete Docter I stumbled onto an interesting change just adopted in the Oscars voting process that affects writing, directing and acting hyphenates. The way it has normally worked is members of a branch such as acting who may also have been nominated previously in another category such as writing or directing were still only allowed to nominate people in their specific branch (and of course in the best picture category, where all members are eligible to vote). Beginning this year, anyone who has ever been nominated at any time for an Oscar in a category outside of their own area will now be allowed to also nominate in that race too.

This means multi-hyphenates such as actor Warren Beatty now get a say in the exclusive directing and writing clubs as well. Docter, a member of the animation branch, was nominated as a writer last year for "Wall-E" along with other 'toon branch members Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon. All have been informed that they are suddenly eligible to vote for writing nominations for the first time. Depending on the numbers of academy members affected by this change, it could have an impact on some races.

"They are obviously looking for ways to shake things up, because until this year it was just the people in that branch that did the nominating,"  Docter says. "Now we'll see what happens. If they are gonna honor someone with a nomination, letting you help nominate the next one makes a lot of sense."

It does indeed.

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I had a great time this week moderating a Christopher Plummer Q&A for the SAG nominating committee in which the mikes at the audio-challenged Pacific Design Center kept going dead. Finally, the 79-year-old star of stage and screen, who received two standing ovations, threw his mike down in disgust and robustly announced "I am a theater actor. I will project." And so we did.

His movie "The Last Station," in which he plays Leo Tolstoy in his latter years, is currently screening for nomination consideration, so I asked him why it took so long for him to become a member of the academy. He has been in movies since 1957, but just two years ago finally joined as an official Oscar voter.

"I joined now basically because I was asked. I had earlier opportunities in my career, but I never wanted to. It's too hard looking at all these other movies," he said. "Last year I was overwhelmed with an avalanche of screeners!"

He added that he doesn't like the idea of having to pick 10 nominees for best picture and believes they should honor four or five performances with statuettes in the acting categories because every performance is so different.  Sony Pictures Classics is promoting Plummer's Tolstoy performance for supporting actor even though his character has such a strong presence he dominates every scene he's in.

There were reports that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association might put him in the lead actor in a drama category for Golden Globes but a SPC spokesperson now confirms he will definitely be supporting at the Globes. (Note:  On 11/21 there was a minor change made from the original post to clarify Plummer's category status at the Globes).

Plummer is currently shooting an independent film, "Beginners," in L.A. co-starring with Ewan McGregor in which he plays an aging father who suddenly reveals to his family that he is gay.

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Natalie Portman also turned up this week for a Q&A at a packed Saturday morning SAG screening of "Brothers" at the Directors Guild Theatre and mentioned that she had been friends with her costars Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal since she was about 14. She said she actually met Tobey in 1996 at the very same DGA venue at a premiere of a David Schwimmer movie, "The Pallbearer," and they have been tight ever since. They are now all grown up and playing the parents of an 8-year-old in the film, a new kind of challenge for an actress who started as a child performer and is now a mere 28 years old herself. She also talked about her production company, which is desperately looking for female-driven romantic comedies which, she says, are really hard to come by these days.

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With expensive trade ads and a media mailing of an elaborate coffee table book, plus today's  just-arrived DVD screener for voting groups, Warner Bros. is showing major awards support for "Where The Wild Things Are."  The Spike Jonze movie got mixed reviews, but it has its zealous fans, including Rosie O'Donnell, an academy member who announced on Jimmy Fallon's show that it was "the best movie I have seen in 10 years." Whether that endorsement helps or hurts remains to be seen. By the way, in addition to "Wild Things," the WB screener package included  Sandra Bullock's "The Blind Side" and "The Informant."

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"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" star Anna Kendrick was talking about the very loud  Monday night Westwood premiere of the film when I caught up with her Tuesday at the exceptionally well-received KCET Cinema Series screening of "Up in the Air," where Anna was joined on stage for a Q&A with co-star Vera Farmiga and writer/director Jason Reitman. She said the noise levels with the sounds of screaming fans (some had camped out for days to get a spot) were almost beyond human endurance as she made her way down the long press line. Then after the screening she said it was another endless line of press to do, so she never did get to go and enjoy the party. Hard times for movie stars on the promotional circuit.

Still, the 24-year-old is proud to be in this giant franchise and even happier with the reception she's getting for her Oscar-touted performance in "Up in the Air," which opens Dec. 4.  Kendrick, the second-youngest Tony nominee (for "High Society") in history,  is on her way to a major career on screen and stage.

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WIth two new movies out this month, "Disney's A Christmas Carol" and "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee", Robin Wright is riding high.

Even though the official credits of both list her as Robin Wright Penn, she's dropped the "Penn" name (she and Sean are getting divorced) and is back to her original Robin Wright.

Whatever she goes by, SAG members cheered her on at a screening of "Pippa Lee," directed and written by Rebecca Miller. Both were very funny at the post-Q&A where Wright described the torturous process of filming an "intimate" scene in the back of a van with costar Keanu Reeves. She was highly reluctant to do the scene initially, but with Miller's assurances and a bare-minimum crew presence, she went ahead. Not long into it, she melted down and ordered everyone out. She then started punching the walls and got to the point where she said, 'Screw it, let's do it'  and the powerful results are there for all to see in this little gem of an independent film that could find some real awards attention for Wright when it opens next week.

The actress says Pippa is the best role she's ever had, but she still spent a year talking it over in late-night phone calls with Miller before cameras ever rolled. Finally, one day she was at Miller's house and asked the director's husband, Daniel Day-Lewis, for advice on how to find this character in order to do the film. After a long pause he said just one word: "Confidence." She carried that with her through filming and it clearly all worked out.

NOTE:  A minor change was made on 11/21 to the original post re Christopher Plummer's status at the Golden Globes. --Pete Hammond

Photo: Natalie Portman
Credit: Los Angeles Times

Pete Hammond's bio

Pete Hammond is a writer, producer, movie critic and film expert whose commentary on the entertainment industry has appeared in numerous publications and on-air interviews, including in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, OK Magazine, "NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw," "Evening News With Brian Williams" on MSNBC, the CBC, BBC, Bravo, E!,  AMC, Canada AM and "KTLA Morning News."

Currently, Pete is the film critic for Boxoffice Magazine and Boxoffice.com as well as Backstage Magazine. Pete is also a regular contributing columnist for The Los Angeles Times and TheEnvelope.com, where he writes the insightful Notes on a Season blog.

Pete also secures the films and hosts the popular KCET Cinema Series, which has been selling out regularly for the past 10 years. He is also the instructor for UCLA Extension’s Sneak Preview Winter Session, in which he shows films prior to release and interviews filmmakers.

Additionally, for the past five years he has served as contributing editor, writing more than 500 reviews, for the bestselling "Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide." He is also a regular on-camera presence interviewing celebrities on Biography Channel’s series "Famous." Pete also serves on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, representing writers.

Pete’s previous writing positions include an award season commentary on a regular basis for HollywoodWiretap.com as well as a contributor to Variety, where he wrote numerous articles on the Cannes Film Festival, AFI Fest and the annual award season. He was also a film critic for Maxim Magazine / Maxim Online and Hollywood.com.

Prior to being a film critic, Pete was also a full-time consultant to the AMC Network. He also worked on numerous shows, including as coordinating producer for "Access Hollywood," "Extra" and "Entertainment Tonight," where he oversaw movie coverage.

Pete also was a talent producer for the "Martin Short Show" as well as a writer and segment producer for the final two years of "The Arsenio Hall Show."

Pete is known in the industry as one of the best “moderators.” His unique interview skills have been utilized by Variety for its annual awards screening series as well as by AFI for various panels. He has hosted numerous tributes at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, including ones to Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts, Heath Ledger, Forest Whitaker, Angelina Jolie, Tommy Lee Jones, Mickey Rourke, Kristin Scott Thomas and David Fincher. Pete has also moderated filmmaker discussions at Mill Valley, CineVegas, San Francisco Film Festival, Cannes, American Cinematheque, SAG, DGA, BAFTA and WGA.

Pete’s list of onstage interviews with some of our industry’s finest talent reaches far and wide, but some of his more notable subjects include Elton John, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Caine, Daniel Craig, Helen Mirren, Al Pacino, Woody Allen, Shirley MacLaine, Russell Crowe, Ridley Scott and Jodie Foster.

Pete is the recipient of five Emmy nominations for his television writing. He is the winner of the 1996 Publicists Guild of America’s Press Award.

Pete can be reached at petehammondentertainment@earthlink.net

Could Tennessee Williams win an Oscar in 2010?

"The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" is scheduled to open in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 30, which makes it the last release of the Oscar season. With a limited budget for campaigning it's a long shot, but that isn't stopping the producers and Mark Urman's new distribution company Paladin  from launching a  campaign to get it some attention.

Originally slated to be directed by Elia Kazan and star Julie Harris, the film version of Tennessee Williams' original screenplay got derailed in the late 1950s, but has finally been brought to the screen by actor-director and Williams aficionado Jodie Markell with stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Ann-Margret and Ellen Burstyn.

Even though Williams died in 1983, he is still eligible for posthumous consideration in the Original Screenplay category. The filmmakers are also hoping for some attention in the acting categories, particularly for lead actress Howard and supporting actress Burstyn. In that regard they plan a series of events and retrospectives to drum up attention for the little indie release, including a Museum of the Moving Image series Dec. 5-13 (at IFC Center) called "Tennessee Williams on Film," a panel discussion at Times Center in New York City with the stars on Dec. 9, and a Dec. 9 American Cinematheque-sponsored West Coast retrospective at the Egyptian featuring screenings of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Suddenly Last Summer."

It's appropriate to show both those Elizabeth Taylor/Williams collaborations because the art of the film's stunning poster (hitting theater lobbies this weekend) vividly recalls Taylor in her Maggie the Cat heyday. Whether the film wins any award contention is up in the air, but the gorgeous poster should become a major contender for Key Art awards. Check out this Web exclusive here with an artists rendering of a brunette Howard doing her best Liz.

Even though the role was intended to be played by someone from a different generation, Howard is thrilled to get the first crack at it. At a recent well-received screening for the Screen Actors Guild she told me that even though she had never before tackled Williams in her many stage outings there was something exciting about waiting until this moment.

"How many actors actually get to create a new Tennessee Williams character anywhere? There certainly aren't many women who have done that on stage or screen,"  she says adding, "I feel incredibly proud to be  the first to play Fisher Willow."

Photo: Paladin

update 11/18: A clarification was made to the original post regarding the name of the distributor and its campaign involvement. ----  Pete Hammond

Oscars in November: A brand new kick-off to awards season

As stars and filmmaking elite arrived Saturday night for the inaugural non-televised Governors Awards, in which honorary Oscars are handed out, it became apparent this new, more intimate awards showcase was indeed a big hit. The academy was clearly out to claim ownership of awards season by making its presence known in November, before Oscar campaigns even begin and other kudos shows start trying to hog the limelight.

Producer-director Roger Corman, cinematographer Gordon Willis and actress Lauren Bacall received honorary Oscar statuettes for their long careers, while producer and studio executive John Calley got the coveted Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given for the first time since 2001, when it was presented to Dino de Laurentiis.

Before things got rolling in the Oscar-adorned Grand Ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland Center, where the Oscars Governors Ball is usually held, lots of starry attendees were seen having a good time mingling at the pre-reception or table hopping during dinner.

Just-announced Oscar co-host Alec Baldwin was one of the first to arrive. While he grabbed a drink at the bar, he told me he was happy to be hosting this year just to "preserve the dignity of the Academy Awards, an event I have a great deal of respect for."

Baldwin said he wasn't at all nervous about the March 7 show because he was sure co-host Steve Martin would be handling most of the heavy lifting. He said that because his sitcom, "30 Rock," was still going to be in production, he would be working on that through Wednesday of Oscar week, grab a red-eye and rehearse the Oscar show beginning March 4.

With a new movie, "It's Complicated," opening Christmas Day, a recent second Emmy and now the Oscar-hosting gig, it's a big time for the busy star.

"I just want my movie to do well for Universal, to host the Oscars, have '30 Rock' picked up for a fifth season and then retire from the business," he quipped (I think).

When two-time best-actor winner Tom Hanks spotted potential "Precious"  best-actress nominee Gabourey Sidibe chatting near the Lionsgate table, he quickly darted over to offer advice for her to heed during the next four months of awards events.

"Just enjoy the ride, pretend it's like a homecoming dance every night, and get some comfortable shoes," he said, before adding that he had seen her acclaimed hit just after the Toronto Festival in September and thought she was wonderful in it.

Sidibe replied that the compliment was barely registering because she couldn't believe she was actually there talking to Hanks in the first place.

Last year's Oscar producer Bill Condon, sitting at a front table with his co-producer, Laurence Mark, and this year's Oscar producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic, also heaped praise on the young star, saying he had just spent the day shooting scenes with Gaby for a Showtime pilot, "The C Word," starring  Laura Linney. Condon, a real Oscar aficionado, was eager to see how these new Governors Awards were going to be received, being presented for the first time outside the actual Oscar telecast.

Mechanic gave me a few hints about his plans for the Oscarcast. He said he had already set Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodovar to present the award for best foreign language film. He added that he and Shankman were not going to repeat the use of five presenters in the acting categories that Condon and Mark instigated so brilliantly last year. Mechanic instead promised presenter pairings that had "real significance." It seems as though he really wants to shake things up, as well as "bring a lot of comedy" to the show. Asked about potential musical numbers, he was evasive and  said he wasn't sure what might happen in that regard yet.

Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman sat at the Warner Bros. table. After surviving the crush in the lobby, he was wondering how they would fit everyone in the ballroom.

"I thought this thing was oversold," said Freeman, star of the much-awaited Clint Eastwood film "Invictus," to be released in December.

"Inglourious Basterds" star Christoph Waltz, at the Weinstein Company table, and Jeff Bridges, who toplines last-minute 2009 awards entry "Crazy Heart," were among other acting contenders spotted, along with "Bright Star's" Abbie Cornish, looking elegant as she worked her way through the cocktail reception. For those with dreams of Oscar dancing in their heads, it was a good place to be seen since there were academy voters everywhere you looked.

And speaking of those voters, Oscar-winning producer Dan Jinks ("American Beauty") was saying how he didn't think the new rule allowing 10 best-picture nominees would work very well.

"I think it's going to dilute the value of a nomination. How are people in the Midwest going to have time to go out and try to see 10 best-picture nominees?" he said. "They will be overwhelmed, and it won't be good for the business."

At that moment, academy Executive Director Bruce Davis wasn't concerned about the upcoming change. He was nervously eying the room, just happy that everything seemed to be going smoothly at the current event. This particular Oscar experiment seemed to be a big success, at least with the people in the room.

I told former academy President Sid Ganis that people seemed to be having a great time table hopping like they were at the Golden Globes. He laughed and said that was praise and damnation all in the same sentence.

Fashion icon and novice film director ("A Single Man") Tom Ford made a beeline for honoree and friend Lauren Bacall's table after telling me it was about time somebody gave that woman an Oscar.  Bacall lost her only Oscar shot to Juliette Binoche when that actress beat her in 1997 in the supporting-actress race. Many had predicted Bacall would win the award for her performance in "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

There was a real warmth and laid-back feeling in the room as toasts were made to the recipients and more than one star commented on the welcome lack of TV cameras in the room.

Academy President Tom Sherak welcomed everyone, and a little later, Ron Howard kicked off the main festivities by recalling how he got his film-directing start from Roger Corman, who produced Howard's first film, "Grand Theft Auto."

"He said to me, 'Do a good job, and you'll never have to work for me again,' "  referring to the man who started so many stellar careers with a launch in low-budget exploitation movies. 

Quentin Tarantino lauded the likes of Corman's "Bloody Mama" and women in prison movies before introducing Oscar winner Jonathan Demme ("The Silence Of The Lambs") who said he made five movies for Corman before presenting the honoree with the first Oscar of the evening.

Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel then lauded his colleague and hero Gordon Willis by noting all the best-picture classics Willis had shot, such as "The Godfather," Parts 1 and 2, and "Annie Hall," for which he wasn't even nominated. Willis accepted his award from Bridges, who recalled working with him in 1972's "Bad Company."

Kirk Douglas took the stage after dessert to salute his friend of 60 years, Lauren Bacall, whom he said he once tried to seduce -- without success. Then Anjelica Huston came up to offer praise of her own for  the legend who made her debut in 1944's "To Have And Have Not" opposite her longtime love, Humphrey Bogart.

"Lauren defines what it means to be a huge movie star," she said, introducing Bacall. 

"A man at last," the 85-year-old Bacall exclaimed as she clutched her brand-new honorary Oscar. "I'm here to stay so you better get used to the idea!"

The evening ended with a touching tribute to John Calley, who was reportedly too ill to attend the ceremony. Seven previous winners of the Thalberg Award -- Walter Mirisch, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Saul Zaentz, Norman Jewison, Warren Beatty and Dino de Laurentiis -- all lined up to accept on his behalf and promised to send over footage of the presentation for Calley to see on Sunday.

It was a bit surreal to see Hollywood getting dressed up on a Saturday night in November, heading to Hollywood & Highland and handing out shiny new gold Oscar statuettes. But there was something truly special and collegial about an evening where presentations were given room to breathe, and no one's acceptance was cut off by the orchestra or a commercial break. 

It  recalled the days when going to the Academy Awards looked like it was actually fun.

Photo: From left, Roger Corman, Lauren Bacall and Gordon Willis. Credit: Getty Images

Why Oscar doc voters prefer war to Michael Jackson

Yesterday was the deadline for voters in this year's Oscar documentary feature competition to submit their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Four different groups of doc filmmakers watch 12 films apiece and rate them. The accountants then determine a "shortlist" of 15 movies that will continue in the race to the eventual five nominees. The shortlist finalists will likely be announced by the academy next week.

One doc/concert movie that won't be on it, Michael Jackson's "This Is It" just passed the $200-million mark at the worldwide box office, not bad for a reality movie. It opened too late to qualify for the doc race this year (absolute cutoff is Sept. 30) but distributor Sony plans to campaign it for best picture, sound mixing, editing and director for Kenny Ortega. They will send screeners, take out ads and have Ortega participate in a series of Q&A sessions. The rapturous response the film got at its packed official academy screening Nov. 1 has the studio jazzed, if not unrealistic about its long, long shot prospects in the best pic category.

Judging by the voting history of this branch it probably would have been a long shot as well for a documentary feature nomination. No show biz-related film or concert movie has been nominated in this decade. With precious few exceptions, there aren't a lot of examples of movies with a relationship to the entertainment industry that ever get into this club. (The last to win was "Woodstock" in 1971). Not one of last year's 15 shortlisted films had a showbiz connection and that's usually how it goes.

It isn't stopping backers behind docs like "Anvil! The Story Of Anvil," "Yoo Hoo Mrs. Goldberg" about TV pioneer Gertrude Berg, the rocker summit movie "It Might Get Loud" and others from hoping their film will turn the tide against the more serious-minded subjects that usually get preference in this race. Stuff like war, disease, disasters, poverty, the Holocaust, etc.

News on 'Avatar,' 'Star Trek,' 'District 9': A sci-fi Notes on the Town

Stuff heard around town this week ...

When I caught up with 20th Century Fox co-chairman Jim Gianopoulos at last Thursday night's BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards at the Century Plaza, he had just seen the latest cut of James Cameron's eagerly awaited 3-D extravaganza, "Avatar," and was full of more genuine enthusiasm than I have ever heard him express for any of his films. He said there are about six scenes that just blow him away every time he sees them.

Another person, not connected to the film in any way, tells me he has seen 90% of the movie in 2-D and it's definitely best picture fodder. This counteracts bad buzz I heard two weeks ago, so take it all in cautiously until Fox shows the finished movie.

Cameron, who was just named today as the recipient of this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Modern Master Award, is racing to complete the film before its Dec. 18 opening. However, the director will take an afternoon off on Nov. 21 to participate in a Q&A following a screening of footage from "Avatar" in 3-D and a sneak peek at the new 3-D version of his last film, 1997's Oscar giant, "Titanic." It's part of a benefit on the Fox lot for MUSE elementary school and is co-hosted by Cameron's wife, Suzy Amis. By the way, wouldn't it be interesting if Cameron finds himself nominated for best director this year opposite one of his ex-wives, "The Hurt Locker's" Kathryn Bigelow? I actually think this could happen, and that would be an academy first to be sure.

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"Star Trek," another sci-fi best picture hopeful, is trying to grab attention Monday by throwing a major DVD/Blu-ray launch party at the Griffith Observatory. Paramount is sparing no expense, bringing in director J.J. Abrams, cast and crew for what the invite describes as a "stellar event."  It's ostensibly to plug the DVD release, but let's face it, this is all about snagging one of those 10 best-picture Oscar slots. When you're an early summer movie, you have to do something to keep the buzz going against all the fall award juggernauts. Beam us up there, Scotty.

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Sony is also trying to remind voters of its own summer sci-fi hit, "District 9." Director Neill Blomkamp, co-writer Terri Tatchell and star Sharlto Copley are hitting the Q&A circuit this week for various award groups. An enthusiastic session I moderated Wednesday night before a guild crowd at the Pacific Design Center proved this group is the real thing even though, remarkably, "District 9" is just their first film. In fact, Copley revealed he had never even acted outside of high school and was only helping out his friend Neill by filling in as the lead character during early tests. Blomkamp showed those "tests" to producer Peter Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, and now Copley has a brand-new career and even award buzz. He's currently shooting the big-screen version of "The A Team" as Howlin' Mad Murdock opposite Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper. According to Copley, he even has a trailer now. You have to love Hollywood.

"District 9" was a big smash at its academy screening over the summer, and I predict several Oscar nominations, including for original screenplay and maybe even best picture, especially if that "other" South African-set picture called "Invictus" isn't all that. We'll know soon, I guess.

Both Copley and Blomkamp said they want to do sequels to "D9," but Blomkamp says he has another sci-fi film that will take up the next two years of his schedule. By the way, taking strategic advantage with the paucity of award screeners so far, Sony will be mailing "District 9" and "Julie & Julia" to various voting groups and the academy early next week -- just in time for Thanksgiving. Smart. I was getting tired of watching "Anvil! The Story of Anvil!" over and over.

In case you wondered, screeners of Sony's hit Michael Jackson doc, "This Is It," will also be going out eventually. Yes, they are pushing it for best picture.

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At the Britannia Awards, we also ran into Fox Searchlight chief Nancy Utley, who confirmed that one of the reasons they decided to release "Crazy Heart" as a last-minute award candidate on Dec. 16 is to avoid running into another upcoming Jeff Bridges flick now on the fast track, "True Grit." That's the Coen brothers' remake of the 1969 western that won John Wayne his only Oscar. Jeff as a drunken country singer (in "Crazy Heart") competing against Jeff as a drunken cowboy (Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit") probably wouldn't be a good idea.

She said they waited so long because they just got a decent version of "Heart" the week before and could finally make the decision. The film, from actor and novice director Scott Cooper, was acquired last summer by Searchlight but has been worked on extensively since. Now that it's in the shape they are comfortable with, the studio thinks both Jeff and Maggie Gyllenhaal have shots in the lead actor and actress races. Utley asked me what I thought about running Maggie for lead instead of supporting. I think it will cause confusion and split whatever votes she does get.  I know Patricia Neal actually won the lead actress Oscar for a role in 1963's "Hud" that was essentially the same size of Gyllenhaal's, but, sorry, Maggie belongs in supporting.

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At the Britannia Awards after-party, I caught up with Fox Searchlight's big Oscar winners from last year, "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle (winner of the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for artistic excellence in directing)  and producer Christian Colson. They were both extremely excited to be reteaming with Searchlight on "127 Hours," the story of mountaineer Aron Ralston, who survived a harrowing ordeal on a climb in Utah in 2003. They hope to have "Slumdog" screenwriter Simon Beaufoy on board as well.

Both said last year's award season was overwhelming but that it's time to get back to work. Ironically, a couple of days later, the movie was nominated yet again -- for the European Film Awards -- where it is only now eligible. I asked Boyle about the talk that his "Slumdog" follow-up was going to be a remake of someone else's Oscar-winning best picture, 1964's "My Fair Lady" with Keira Knightley in the Audrey Hepburn/Julie Andrews role of Eliza Dolittle. Indeed, he confirmed that he flirted with it. 

"Emma has written a really good script. She's a wonderful writer", he said referring to the new "Fair Lady" screenplay by actress Emma Thompson. In the end, though, he decided that it really wasn't the kind of thing he does best, so he passed. Smart, Boyle. He's not sure now of the status of the project, as everyone involved seems to be busy elsewhere. Colson also seemed relieved they are doing "127 Hours" instead. Remaking best picture winners is dicey as best. Remember "Around the World in 80 Days" with Jackie Chan?

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Speaking of best picture winners, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is premiering a digital restoration of its 1953 champ, "From Here to Eternity," at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18 in the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre. Costar Ernest Borgnine, now 92, will appear for a Q&A moderated by Lou Diamond Phillips. Sadly, Borgnine, who played Sgt. "Fatso" Judson, is the only principal cast member still alive, as Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Jack Warden, Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra have all gone from here to eternity themselves. Not Ernie, though. He's finished five movies this year alone, including his very touching performance in "Another Harvest Moon" opposite Piper Laurie and Doris Roberts. The 1955 Oscar winner (for "Marty") was also  Emmy nominated in September for his "ER" guest appearance.

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Finally, cheers to the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and congratulations to Martin Scorsese on being named the recipient of this year's prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award, which will be presented to him at the Golden Globes on Jan. 17. Not only is he overdue for this honor based solely on his body of work as a director, but also because of the unique relationship the HFPA already has with Scorsese's Film Foundation, an organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of cinema classics. The HFPA donates hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to the FF as part of its philanthropic activities. It's a noble cause that deserves recognition all around, and by giving Scorsese this award, they are also putting a spotlight again on the Film Foundation and its work. Well done.

Photo: "Avatar" / 20th Century Fox

Oscar 'toon race heats 'Up'

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has just announced that no fewer than 20 features have been submitted for consideration in the animated feature film category for the 82nd Academy Awards. This is at least three more than most pundits have been forecasting and, as this blog predicted first on Oct. 7, it almost certainly assures that the category will have five nominees instead of three for the first -- and only -- time since 2002. The list includes:

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," "Astro Boy," "Battle For Terra," "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," "Coraline," "Disney's A Christmas Carol," "The Dolphin -- Story of a Dreamer," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," "Mary and Max," "The Missing Lynx," "Monsters vs. Aliens," "9," "Planet 51," "Ponyo," "The Princess and the Frog," "The Secret of Kells," "Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure," "A Town Called Panic" and, of course, the 800-pound gorilla in the race: Disney/Pixar's "Up."

Is "Up," which is also mentioned on many pundits' lists of potential best picture nominees, a slam dunk to actually win in this category or could an "Up"-set be in the making? 

Tobey, Jake, Natalie and Oscar: O 'Brothers' where art thou?

With Lionsgate understandably basking in the glow of this weekend's $1.8-million, $100,000-per-screen, record-shattering opening of "Precious," the already stratospheric Oscar buzz is likely to soar even higher.

But do they have a second contender looming in the wings, and if so, why is no blogger buzzing about "Brothers" even with its Dec. 4 opening less than a month away?

This powerful and timely story of a decorated Marine, presumed dead in Afghanistan, who comes home to great conflict within his family and within his own head, is a poignant and explosive look at the toll that combat exacts from veterans' lives. It feels especially pertinent now in the wake of the Ft. Hood tragedy and shows that war doesn't really end for some vets once they return. It's an American remake of Susanne Bier's acclaimed 2004 Danish film, "Brodre."

The pedigree of the cast is certainly impressive. There's  Tobey Maguire, Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Natalie Portman, BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal,  Oscar nominee Sam Shepard, Oscar nominee Mare Winningham and current awards season "it" girl for "An Education," Carey Mulligan.

The Oscar pedigree of the film's director, Jim Sheridan, is also dazzling. His films have earned 16 nominations, including nods for "In America," "In the Name of the Father" and "My Left Foot." He usually writes his own scripts, but this one was adapted by David Benioff from Bier's and Anders Thomas Jensen's original.

Notes on the town 11/5: Globes vs. Oscars: Who's got the better host?

Stuff heard around town this week ...

The talk at AFI Fest's "Everybody's Fine" premiere party Tuesday at H.Wood at Hollywood and Highland was about Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, who had just been announced that afternoon. It was even the talk among several members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., who seem quite proud of their own recently named Golden Globes host: Ricky Gervais.

One HFPA member told me the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must have been "tearing their hair out" when they heard the Globes had Gervais, so he surmises they quickly scrambled when they realized the Oscars were "one-upped" by the surprise move. He said Martin and Baldwin were a safe choice but Gervais was "edgy." Looks like the debate over Globe/Oscar hosts could get more interesting this year than either organization's actual contest. (By the way, HFPA members seemed mixed on "Everything's Fine," but generally impressed with Robert De Niro's low-key performance.)

I think Gervais is an inspired choice for the fun, looser atmosphere of the Globes and my take on Martin/Baldwin is totally positive. Martin has proved to be one of Oscar's wittiest and most urbane hosts in the two times he's been at bat and Baldwin is a hoot.

I did a Q&A with Baldwin last spring at the Landmark for his indie film, "Lymelife," and he had the place roaring. As he has proved many times as host of "SNL," he's a natural. By going to a two-host format for the first time in over half a century, Oscar producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman have tapped into a concept that's fresh but still within the Academy's DNA.

Sandra Bullock 'Blind Sides' the competition and may grab her first Oscar nomination

Could this suddenly become the year of Sandra Bullock?

A little less than a month ago I traveled to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank to see a film called "The Blind Side" starring Bullock that, frankly, I wasn't expecting much from. Sometimes nice surprises happen.

This is the kind of  inspiring and solid upbeat studio release (directed by John Lee Hancock) that could, and should, put Bullock firmly in the race for best actress. This could be her "Erin Brockovich." Just like the film that earned Julia Roberts her Oscar, this is a true life story about Leigh Anne Tuohy, an unstoppable force of nature who persuades her very white Southern family to take in a virtually homeless African American teen named Michael Oher (played by newcomer Quinton Aaron). This unusual "adoption" leads to a brand-new life for the boy and sends him on his way to eventually becoming an All-American football star.

Like the far more visible (at least media-wise) "Precious," it's a story of a person lifted out of his or her own personal ghetto, who uses hope and an indomitable spirit to prevail against all odds.

Aaron and the rest of the cast, which includes Tim McGraw and Kathy Bates, are just fine. But it's Bullock, burning up the screen as an upscale Southern woman who finds her heart and soul, who should finally earn some awards attention. It's easily her best screen work since her underrated supporting turn in "Crash," but she has yet to appear on anybody's short list of best actress candidates. (This writer excluded.)

"The Blind Side," together with her romantic comedy box-office smash "The Proposal," should make 2009 this star's most memorable year ever. (The less said about "All About Steve" the better.) 

In fact, I've been told by sources at last week's ShowEast exhibitors convention that the movie played like gangbusters there. One top distribution exec for a rival studio actually told me that it could be classified as a great film if it were only about 10 to 15 minutes shorter. It does run long and could lose some of the football footage, but it never loses its grip on the audience thanks largely to Bullock.

Playing a real-life person is always helpful in awards season, particularly when that person can run around to media to say how authentic the portrayal is. It certainly worked with Brockovich's praise of Roberts, and I imagine Tuohy will do the same thing for Bullock.

It's entirely possible Bullock could even end up with two Golden Globe nominations this year if all the cards line up, one for actress in a comedy or musical for "The Proposal" and one for actress in a drama for "The Blind Side." And in the ever-fluid lineup of best actress Oscar candidates this year she has a real shot if Warners gets it out there to the acting community.

The major negative in this scenario is the film's Nov. 20 opening, directly against Summit's expected blockbuster "New Moon." It could get buried in the rubble that juggernaut leaves behind. Still, underdogs, which "Blind Side" undoubtedly is in this case, sometimes find a way to rise to the top.

It's called word of mouth.

Photo: Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side." Credit: Warner Bros.

'Precious' takes Hollywood by storm

Using the AFI Fest as a Hollywood launch pad, "Precious" made quite a debut in the industry's hometown on Sunday. The gala premiere at Grauman's Chinese had all the trappings of an end-of-season victory party rather than an early November awards season launch. Stars like Jamie Foxx and Will Smith turned up on the red carpet, admitting the incredible advance hype about the movie drew them there.

Clearly, with a series of standing ovations even before the film started, there was much anticipation from the locals for this Sundance, Toronto, N.Y. Festival sensation. Among the stars of the film showing up to hobnob with the press were Mariah Carey, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Sherri Shepherd and, of course, Precious herself, Gabourey Sidibe, along with director Lee Daniels.

There was much anticipation about Mo'Nique's appearance. For several weeks awards bloggers have been speculating on just how much effort this supporting actress front-runner would put into plugging the film. After all, she hadn't made any festival appearances since January's Sundance doings. Perhaps the fact that she was launching a daily BET talk show in Atlanta might have had something to do with her no-shows?

At any rate, Mo'Nique gave it her all on the AFI red carpet and also at a Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. news conference and an "all-guild" screening and Q&A earlier in the day. With several TV appearances planned this week including Ellen,Oprah, Craig Ferguson, plus a couple of magazine covers coming up, Mo'Nique looks anything but AWOL on the stump for "Precious."

At the all-guild screening Sunday afternoon at Pacific Design Center a raucous crowd ate up the emotional wallop the movie delivers and stayed for a lively Q&A I moderated right after. During the intros, Sidibe, Mo'Nique and Daniels received standing ovations. There was a fourth one that also greeted the ending of the event . Unprecedented.

Also on the panel were writer Geoffey Fletcher, co-stars Patton and Shepherd and singer/songwriter Mary J. Blige, who contributed the tune that was added after its initial success in Sundance, "I Can See In Color."

Blige performed the song live at Sunday's premiere after-party at the Chateau Marmont, where she was introduced by none other than co-executive producer Oprah Winfrey.

"Ultimately, this is a movie about hope and Mary J. Blige is all about that," Winfrey told the partygoers. "Mary and I are in the sisterhood of support for this film."

Winfrey and colleague Gayle King attracted a crushing crowd wherever they went at the party. It was like seeing a shepherd leading her flock. Where Oprah goes, people follow.

Mo'Nique's whirlwind appearance (she and fellow talk show host Shepherd had to catch red-eye flights to make it back east in time to tape their respective shows) was a great success for the "Precious" awards campaign. She killed during the Q&A session by saying that when director Daniels sent her the script he noted he would probably be [messing] up her entire career with this highly unsympathetic part. Now that critical acclaim is being heaped on her she turned to him and said 'thanks for [messing] up my career, Lee."

There were numerous Academy and Golden Globe voters attending the "Precious" festivities Sunday and the vibe was strong that a best picture nomination in both contests is almost a foregone conclusion. One veteran voter confessed this was the second time he had seen the movie, originally catching it at an early-morning festival screening months earlier. He said he was so moved by it initially that he couldn't talk when he ran into Daniels immediately afterward.

Incidentally the Chateau Marmont is distributor Lions Gate's good luck party place of choice. It is the same setting where they threw their Oscar night victory soiree for "Crash" in 2006 as well as this year's "Mad Men" Emmy win celebration.

AFI Fest also had a swell opening night on Friday, with "Fantastic Mr. Fox" launching the proceedings. Director Wes Anderson and stars Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman were in attendance and the mood was bright as word spread that two more animated movies -- "The Missing Lynx" and "A Town Called Panic" -- were getting Oscar qualifying runs. If true, and they submit the required paperwork by 5 p.m. Monday, it would seem likely that there will be 17 eligible entries for animated feature (you need 16) likely triggering a category with five nominations instead of three. That can only be good news for "Mr. Fox" (which will play at Tuesday's Envelope Screening Series at the Landmark with Anderson and Schwartzman participating in a Q&A moderated by Patrick Goldstein).

Updated at 1:45pm 11/2:  A couple of minor corrections were made to original post regarding Mo'Nique's tv  appearances and the fact that the fourth standing ovation should have indicated that it came at the end of the q&a event.  ---- Pete Hammond

Photo: "Precious" director Lee Daniels shares a moment with co-executive producer Oprah Winfrey at the film's AFI Fest premiere in Los Angeles. Credit: Getty Images

Notes on the town 10/29: New Contenders Surface

A new hopeful in the best actress race has just surfaced. Although the independent drama "London River" had successful screenings at Telluride and Toronto and previously won the best actor award (for Sotigui Kouyate) at the Berlin Film Festival, it still has no U.S distributor willing to sign on. That's not stopping the film's producers from mounting an Oscar campaign anyway to land star Brenda Blethyn a best actress nomination. The film will be self-distributed for one week only beginning Nov. 13  in Los Angeles to qualify for this year's Academy Awards as well as other groups, including the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Movie Awards. Screeners will also be sent to members of the academy's actors branch.

The film is directed by 2006 best foreign film Oscar nominee Rachid Bouchareb ("Days Of Glory") and was Algeria's entry for this year's foreign film race but apparently was determined to have too much English-language dialogue to qualify under academy rules in the category. Blethyn powerfully plays a concerned mother looking for her missing daughter after a London bus bombing. She was previously in the Oscar race in 1998 for her supporting turn in "Little Voice" and in 1996 for lead actress in "Secrets And Lies" for which she won the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. "London River" will also be screening on Friday at the AFI Fest as it still searches for an American distributor.

The Weinstein Company, which already has "Nine," "A Single Man," "The Road" and "Inglourious Basterds" on its plate, has now just decided to qualify yet another film, the teen comedy "Youth In Revolt" starring Michael Cera in dual roles for this year's award races. It will open for at least a week in December before going wide Jan. 8. Producer David Permut tells me the Weinsteins are really high on Cera's performance and are especially hoping for recognition from the Golden Globes, which of course have a separate category for best actor in a comedy or musical.

Back from the dead: Tennessee Williams, Orson Welles in Oscar race?

Heath Ledger won a rare posthumous competitive Oscar for "The Dark Knight" in February.

Could Tennessee Williams, who died in 1983, be the next?

For half a century, his original screenplay "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" has remained unproduced — until now. But novice feature director Jodie Markell, a Williams aficionado, has rectified the situation with her new independent feature that gives Williams a brand-new screen credit and a renewed shot at the Oscar, which eluded him while he was alive. He was nominated for his adaptation of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1951 but lost to "A Place in the Sun" and then again in 1956 for "Baby Doll," losing to "Around the World In 80 Days." Both movies were directed by Elia Kazan, and the original plan in 1957 was to see a reteaming of the pair on "Teardrop," reportedly to star Julie Harris, but Kazan went on to other projects, and the picture never got made. The script did surface in an anthology of Williams' screenplays (which also include "The Glass Menagerie," "The Rose Tattoo" and "The Fugitive Kind"), but now it has been rescued from the footnotes of Williams' storied career and turned into a feature in a very different cinematic environment than the one in which it was created.

The film, starring Bryce Dallas Howard as Fisher Willow, another of those Southern belles Williams so loved, will open in Los Angeles and New York on Dec. 30, just under the wire to qualify for Oscar consideration. It costars Chris Evans, Ellen Burstyn, Ann-Margret and Mamie Gummer (Meryl Streep's daughter). In the classic Williams fashion of Maggie the Cat and Blanche DuBois, Howard fiercely and impressively portrays a reluctant debutante who lures a handsome young hired man at her father's plantation to escort her to the season's big societal balls, parties she must attend in order to gain her aunt's inheritance.

Orson Welles, another great name from the ghosts of Oscars past, is also starting to turn up prominently this award season, but in his case he's being channeled by Christian McKay, whose phenomenal and uncanny impersonation of the legend is the driving force of "Me and Orson Welles," another indie trying to get a foothold in the Oscar race. Opening fairly wide on Nov. 25, this 2008 Toronto International Film Fest entry has genuine box office bait in costars Zac Efron, as the 'Me' in the title, an idealistic young actor taken under Welles' wing, and Claire Danes as a love interest for both. Efron and Danes are quite good in this highly entertaining film, but it's McKay who dominates, as you swear the young Orson Welles has returned from the dead. Although McKay could probably qualify as either a lead actor or supporting actor, depending on how you look at it, a run in the supporting category could possibly gain some traction. There aren't a whole lot of contenders there right now, and the academy has shown itself to be a sucker for performances based on people they know, love and, in this case, have even given Oscars to (Welles shared a writing award in 1941 for "Citizen Kane" and also received an honorary statuette in 1971). English actor McKay was nominated this week as most promising newcomer by the British Independent Film Awards.

Of course, with the high costs of campaigning and big-name competition, the Oscar odds are long for both of these independently made and distributed period films, but they are counting on the fondness for a couple of legendary last names that both start with a 'W' to get them through the academy's door this year.

— Pete Hammond

Photo: Christian McKay, left, and Zac Efron star in "Me and Orson Welles."
Credit: Liam Daniel / CinemaMX

Oscar hopefuls turn out in force at Hollywood Awards

If the Golden Globes are a great place to try out your Oscar acceptance speech, then the Hollywood Film Festival's Hollywood Awards are at least a great place to try out your Golden Globe speech.

Monday night's 2 1/2-hour gala at the Beverly Hilton hosted by "Entertainment Tonight's" perky Mary Hart, who claimed she has been doing this for "127 years," was a virtual nonstop parade of winners hoping to carve out an early spot this awards season.

The list included two-time Oscar winners Robert DeNiro and Hilary Swank as respective Hollywood Actor and Actress of the year, along with Julianne Moore, Christoph Waltz, Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Jeremy Renner, Gabourey Sidibe, Shoreh Aghdashloo, Zachary Quinto, Melanie Lynskey, Paul Schneider and directors Kathryn Bigelow, Nora Ephron, Pete Docter and Lee Daniels along with a host of "below the line" recipients including "A Serious Man" cinematographer Roger Deakins, "Nine" costume designer Colleen Atwood, "Avatar" production designer Rick Carter, "Up In The Air" editor Dana Glauberman, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" composer Alexandre Desplat and "Transformers" visual effects wizard Scott Farrar.

Relativity Media founder Ryan Kavanaugh waxed so rhapsodically about his "Hollywood Producer" trophy (presented by Universal boss Ron Meyer) you would think he just got the Thalberg Award instead.

Many of the movies for which these "winners" are being honored haven't even opened yet but, hey, this is Hollywood, isn't it? Founders Carlos de Abreu and Janice Pennington started this event 13 years ago to gain a foothold in the industry's endless awards season and now, before even one pitch is thrown in the World Series, they are the first on the block to hand out trinkets to Oscar wannabes. At the start of the show an announcer says "the selection [of winners] is based on private, press, preview and festival screenings, as well as recommendations from a cross section of Hollywood professionals, including actors, agents, executives, directors, film critics, entertainment journalists, managers, producers, publicists, screenwriters and members of the guilds and societies."

The box boy at de Abreu's local Ralphs supermarket probably has a say as well. If you aren't happy with these choices at least now you know who to blame.

The actual award may be a dubious distinction (how many given in this town aren't?) but the turnout by both winners and presenters is undeniably impressive. Among those who showed up just to present Monday night were Steven Spielberg, Morgan Freeman, Ewan McGregor,  Pierce Brosnan, Charlize Theron, Sandra Bullock, Diablo Cody, Kate Beckinsale, Kathleen Kennedy, Marisa Tomei, Michael Bay, Maria Bello, Edward Asner and Taraji P. Henson. And this thing isn't even televised!

But on a night that was surprisingly full of entertaining speeches, no one topped "Julie and Julia" writer/director Ephron for putting it all in perspective after good friend and Hamptons neighbor Spielberg gave her the Hollywood Screenwriter Award.

"I'm very excited to be here, wherever I am. I am pleased to thank the Hollywood Film Festival, whoever you are. And I want to thank the people at my table because you could all be home with your family eating anything but this," she said to great knowing laughter from the crowd as the Hilton's dry chicken main course would probably have Julia Child turning over in her grave.

Theron also got big laughs when in presenting Renner with his Hollywood Breakthrough Award she announced his nickname for her has always been "Assnuts." On a more serious note Renner said his "Hurt Locker" honor goes to "the families of our fallen troops."

Swank, in accepting her award for playing Amelia Earhart, exhibited uncommon honesty in saying, "I just didn't want to fall flat on my face."

For DeNiro, whose name presenter Beckinsale says is "practically a verb at this point," the Hollywood Award for his upcoming December release, "Everybody's Fine," is quite meaningful, he said.

"Many of you were disappointed when I didn't receive the Nobel Peace Prize and unlike that award the Hollywood Film Festival's doesn't have a cash component," he said. "I'd rather have this."

If Swank and DeNiro are no sure shots in their respective Oscar categories this year, the Hollywood Awards choices for Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" and Supporting Actress Julianne Moore in "A Single Man" are quickly moving into front-runner status in theirs, and their charming acceptances at this event are probably just the first of many we are going to be hearing from them all season long.

Waltz, who is now in L.A. playing the villain in "The Green Hornet," said that since Quentin Tarantino chose him to play the evil Col. Hans Landa, his life has been a whirlwind. Moore thanked "Single Man" director Tom Ford for giving her an "incredible" 15 minutes on film. She raced to the airport after getting her award early in the ceremony to return to work Tuesday morning.

Winner of Yahoo Movies public poll for Hollywood Movie Of The Year was "Star Trek."  That film's new Mr. Spock, Zachary Quinto, accepted and quipped, "Gee I'm shocked the online community chose to honor 'Star Trek'!"

Perhaps the most touching moment of the night came when young "Precious" star, Gabourey Sidibe, received her "New Hollywood" award and noted the presence of all the major industry players there in the ballroom.

"I'm a random girl from Harlem and this room is just way too big for me," she said as she thanked her director Lee Daniels (who also was rewarded) for changing her life.

A party sponsored by STARZ and held at the Beverly Hilton pool area went into the wee hours, where Sidibe was undeniably the belle of this particular ball.

Okay, so now that's one down and only 463 more awards ceremonies to go until Oscar! Better make sure you have some comfortable shoes.

-- Pete Hammond

Photo: Ewan McGregor, left, and Hilary Swank
Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

'Inglourious Basterds' Oscar campaign gets off to a roaring start

After running up a huge gross of more than $250 million worldwide since its late August opening, director Quentin Tarantino's WWII epic "Inglourious Basterds" is now shifting gears from its initial marketing phase as a "popcorn picture" to serious Oscar contender.

Thursday that campaign seemed to begin in earnest for the Weinstein Co. when Tarantino was honored with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Kirk Douglas Award for excellence in film at a black-tie gala at the Four Seasons Biltmore resort in Montecito, a voter-rich area with close to 100 Academy members in residence at various times.

Festival organizers threw a lavish cocktail party and sit-down dinner featuring generous clips of such Tarantino landmark movies as "Reservoir Dogs," "Jackie Brown," "Kill Bill" and of course "Inglourious Basterds." Among those in attendance were Douglas and wife Anne, who were seated next to the honoree, star Diane Kruger and the film's producer, Lawrence Bender. Festival director Roger Durling and board President Jeffrey Barbakow (former MGM/UA head) both made amusing and well-received remarks. Comedian and Santa Barbara resident Dennis Miller shared a table with "Basterds" co-star Samm Levine along with the entire Barbakow clan, including wife Margot and sons Bennett and Max.

During dinner, the 92-year-old Douglas and his wife were clearly enjoying their conversation with Tarantino, who later said he was obsessing on the legendary star's more obscure movies from his " '70s Italian period." The Douglases also responded heartily to all the clips on display, especially "Basterds" and "Pulp Fiction."

Tarantino promised to come back during the festival in February to program a Douglas film tribute series. During tells me that "Posse," a personal favorite of Tarantino's, is the first film set to screen. Douglas starred in and directed the 1975 western. 

Douglas was very funny in his own introductory remarks as he described Tarantino's directing process.

"When he was casting the picture he never once thought of me, and for 50 years all I was playing was bastards," he laughed. "He's a director, writer, actor , producer who has won Oscars, Palme d'Ors and everything else but his den has one empty spot so the Santa Barbara Film Festival has offered to fill it with the Kirk Douglas Award."

Tarantino, in accepting the trophy, told a funny story about being a child of around 7 and mixing up the plot lines of "The Vikings" and "Spartacus," which both featured Douglas and Tony Curtis. He added that 20 years ago he never would have imagined he would receive an honor with his idol Douglas' name on it.

Reaction in the packed ballroom was wildly enthusiastic, and if the idea was to kick off an Oscar campaign it appeared to be mission accomplished.

Afterward, Bender and recently departed Universal Co-Chairman David Linde (Universal handled the international release of "Basterds") were talking about strategy in bringing awards attention to their box office smash, Tarantino's most successful film ever. They noted that it's main strength in that regard is that filmmakers really seem to love it, and that should bode well once awards season gets around to Oscar and guild voters, the ones who really count.

Weinstein campaigners plan an extensive screening program with the Screen Actors Guild and various Below The Line showings being set. Editors are expected to respond in a big way since Tarantino placed  his editor, Sally Menke, right below himself in the film's credits, an unprecedented move.  Among other events set is a Dec. 14 special screening at Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema (the revival house of which he's part-owner) as "Basterds" co-star Melanie Laurent, who plays a projectionist in the movie, will actually be handling the projection of the film. Bender told me that, while the crew was filming in Berlin, accuracy nut Tarantino actually sent her to L.A. to learn how to thread a print by spending hours in the booth running "Reservoir Dogs" at the New Beverly.

A consultant working on the film told me this campaign is a fun one so far, as the pressure is off. The film is already more successful than even their wildest hopes, so awards are just the icing on this particular cake. Considering the strong response the film seems to be getting in the industry, nominations for screenplay, directing, supporting actor (Christoph Waltz, maybe even Brad Pitt, too), editing, cinematography, sound, costumes and best picture are realistic goals in a wide-open season so far,  especially if the film's occasionally graphic violence doesn't turn off queasy voters. With Oscar maven Harvey Weinstein calling the shots anything is possible, even with internal competition from other expected Weinstein contenders, including the still unseen "Nine," "A Single Man" and perhaps "The Road" (at least for Viggo Mortensen).

At any rate, these "Basterds" clearly have a new mission and is name is Oscar.

-- Pete Hammond

Photo: Quentin Tarantino, left, and Kirk Douglas. Credit: Michael Buckner / Getty Images

'Notes' on the town

In addition to all our regular blogging, every Thursday,  Notes on a Season goes out on the town and spreads the word on all the awards buzz that's fit to print.

As a follow-up to our Oct. 16 story on the Academy Awards' foreign film competition, which began in earnest Friday night and continues through Jan. 16, our spies on the foreign-language committee tell us that entries from Mexico, Hungary and Switzerland screened very well over the weekend but that there was a mass exodus Monday night from the 9:55 pm unspooling of the Croatian film "Donkey" after 30 minutes, the point at which voters are allowed to leave without losing credit for seeing the movie. It wasn't that the movie was so bad, the cheapo English subtitles were apparently unintelligible, and unless Serbo-Croatian was your second language, the flick was impossible to understand. Our spy said that out of a crowd of over 200, only about 50 made it to the end, if that many. It probably didn't help that the food served between movies was, according to one picky voter at least, not even up to standards of a soup kitchen. Hey, don't complain; it's not Spago. Personally I love tuna fish sandwiches for dinner. ...

Speaking of screenings at the academy, after my Oct. 5 post on the subject I heard from a new member of the committee that chooses which movies get "official" showings for the Oscar voting elite. After receiving some complaints, the academy was trying to bring "younger," more in-tune members into the process who have a better understanding of the kind of quality picture that should get priority at these all-important screenings, and it was making "significant" changes. Looking at the just-out schedule for November, you can see a difference already. The lineup is full of potential contenders including "Precious," "The Young Victoria," 'The Road," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "A Christmas Carol," "Me and Orson Welles," "Everybody's Fine," "The Last Station," "A Single Man," "Planet 51" and "Broken Embraces." Not a clunker in the bunch. Looks like the "season" is finally beginning big time over at 8949 Wilshire Blvd. ...

And while we're on the subject, a recent Oscar-winning producer told me that he took his children to the academy's official screening of the critically acclaimed "Where the Wild Things Are" over the weekend and thought the flick was a dud. Another member told me that she loved it and it "played great." Looks like divided opinions on whether this one has any real Oscar potential. Some critics loved the movie so much that I wouldn't be surprised if Warner Bros. winds up with a best picture nod from a major critics organization at the end of the year. It's just the sort of contrary thing crix love to do to shake things up. ...

The same producer (a major honcho) told me that he thinks the new rule of 10 nominees could be good for his upcoming movie, but that as a voter he is hard-pressed at this point to name even two films he's seen that he would put on his ballot. ...

Perhaps a visit to the AFI Fest beginning next week will help voters like this guy. There are no fewer than six "galas" happening, one practically every night at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre, starting with the Oct. 30 opening night of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and followed by "Precious" (Nov. 1), "The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus" (Nov. 2), "Everybody's Fine"(Nov. 3), "The Road" (Nov. 4) and "A Single Man" (Nov. 5). What? No big awards contender on Halloween? Obviously cash-strapped distributors looking for a cheaper way to have a splashy send-off for their Oscar hopefuls have found it by riding on the coattails of the AFI Fest. Is this a record number of premieres in one week's time for the Chinese, the most famous premiere palace in Hollywood history? ...

Having already seen every one of those movies, I must confess to being more excited by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's and ace programmer Ian Birnie's monthlong tribute to Audrey Hepburn, "Then, Now and Forever." It kicks off Friday night with her Oscar-winning performance in "Roman Holiday" on a double bill with one of her later films, 1981's "They All Laughed," to be introduced by its director, Peter Bogdanovich. Saturday two more movies for which she should have also won: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961 best actress nomination) and my all-time fave, "Two for the Road" (1967, same year she was nominated for "Wait Until Dark," which screens Nov. 6 with "Charade"). The tribute, which also includes such classics as "Sabrina", "Love in the Afternoon" and "War and Peace," will end Nov. 13 with 1964's "My Fair Lady," the best picture winner that sadly did not earn Hepburn one of her five Oscar nominations, but should have. (She also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award posthumously in 1994.) Voters blew her off because she didn't do the singing in "Lady" (dubbed by Marni Nixon), and there was bad publicity around the fact that Jack Warner snubbed the original Broadway star, Julie Andrews, by casting a bigger movie name at the time in Hepburn. Of course, Andrews got sweet Oscar revenge that year by making "Mary Poppins" and winning the golden statuette. Now, shudder the thought, there are plans to remake "My Fair Lady" with Keira Knightley in the lead. I love you, Keira, but you're no Audrey Hepburn. Nobody is, or ever will be again.

Photo credit: Associated Press

With new Oscar producers, academy makes a statement

In choosing former studio executive and producer Bill Mechanic and "Hairspray" director-choreographer Adam Shankman as co-producers of the 82nd annual Academy Awards, the academy is clearly carrying on what was started last year with the Laurence Mark-Bill Condon teaming.

In pairing Mechanic -- a veteran exec and producer with wide-ranging relationships garnered from years of experience at studios like Fox (where he was chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment), Paramount and Disney -- and Shankman, a creative producer, director and choreographer, the academy has essentially re-created the Condon-Mark dynamic and is clearly looking at that as the blueprint for future academy telecasts.

Although Condon and Mark turned down the opportunity to repeat this year because of film commitments, Condon has said he strongly believes the Oscar telecast works best if it is produced jointly by two producers whose skills complement each other. Last year's show was an innovation in this regard as the job has usually gone to a single producer. It's obviously an enormous task to pull off and certainly new academy president Tom Sherak could have gone in any number of directions, including bringing in past producers like Gil Cates (a 14-time veteran of the job), Laura Ziskin or his old partner at Revolution Joe Roth. Instead, Sherak has decided to build on last year's critical and ratings success by pairing a veteran with strong talent connections and a successful movie musical director at the helm of the mother of all awards shows. Sherak in fact worked closely with Mechanic when both were at Fox.

It will also mark the first time that a judge of a reality TV show is producing the Oscars. Shankman has been a judge on "So You Think You Can Dance," although curiously, the academy's official press release omits that information. For those naysayers in the media who decry the Oscar show's fondness for song and dance numbers, get ready to start kvetching. Shankman's selection is a clear indication the academy Board wants to see more singing and dancing at the Kodak on March 7. It will inevitably get it.

Shankman's credits not only include "Hairspray" and "So You Think You Can Dance" but he also has "Rock Of Ages," "Bob: The Musical" and a "Bye Bye Birdie" remake in development. Additionally, he's producing a couple of 2010 releases: "The Last Song" and "Step Up 3D."

Now that the producers have been selected, a host can be firmed up, and if I were Hugh Jackman I would be waiting by the phone for the offer any minute. Of course if he's not available Shankman can always call on one of his "Hairspray" cast to jump in.

Zac Efron, anyone?

Photo: Adam Shankman at Elle Magazine's Women in Hollywood tribute Oct. 19. Credit: Matt Sayles / AP