Categories
Awards

It always means more variety for movie fans when the two Awards hows don’t sync up.

Spirit Awards likely to sync up with the Oscars — again

he past four winners of the Independent Spirit Awards’ best feature — “12 Years a Slave,” “Birdman,” “Spotlight” and “Moonlight” — have gone on to take the Oscar for best picture.

Whether that streak extends to five will likely depend on how deeply motion picture academy voters embrace Steven Spielberg’s journalism drama, “The Post,” or Christopher Nolan’s war survival tale, “Dunkirk,” features ineligible for the Spirits because their budgets exceed the group’s $20-million threshold rule.

But with this year shaping up as one of the most indie-focused slates in awards season history, the slate that Spirit Awards voters put forth Tuesday will likely mirror the movies the academy salutes at its ceremony in March.

Spirit Awards nominees for best feature included “Call Me by Your Name,” “The Florida Project,” “Get Out,” “Lady Bird” and “The Rider.”

The luminous love story “Call Me by Your Name,” opening in limited release Friday, led the Spirits field with six nominations, including nods for director Luca Guadagnino and actors Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer.

Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” a horror movie boasting a scathing social satire, earned five nominations, with Peele picking up nods for writing and directing and Daniel Kaluuya finding recognition for his lead turn.

Peele’s movie, made for $4.5 million and released by Universal Pictures, is one of the biggest commercial hits to be feted by the Spirit Awards. Released in February, “Get Out” has grossed $253 million worldwide, becoming one of the more substantial indie film success stories in recent years. Recent awards season screenings for guild and academy members have been packed.

Josh and Benny Safdie’s “Good Time,” an immersive heist thriller that earned raves at Cannes, also netted five nominations, including nods for its sibling directors and cast members Robert Pattinson, Taliah Lennice Webster and Benny Safdie, who memorably portrayed a vulnerable character with an unspecified learning disability.

Dee Rees’ absorbing, ambitious drama “Mudbound” was given the Robert Altman Award, an honor presented to the film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast.

The recognition for “Mudbound” was one of several nods for minority filmmakers, including the multiple nominations for Peele and recognition for “Columbus” director Kogonada and actresses Salma Hayek (“Beatriz at Dinner”), Shinobu Terajima (“Oh Lucy!”) and Regina Williams (“Life and Nothing More”).

Voters — composed of committees of industry professionals, critics and members of Film Independent’s board — completely ignored Guillermo del Toro’s lavish fantasy romance, “The Shape of Water,” set to open next month.

Shutting out Del Toro’s well-liked movie, which won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival, rated as the day’s biggest surprise. Lead actress Sally Hawkins’ beautiful turn as a mute cleaning woman finding love with a water creature won solid praise at Venice and Toronto and still figures to be a strong Oscar contender.

But Spirit voters went their own way, nominating Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”) and Saoirse Ronan (“Ladybird”), as well as Hayek, Terajima and Williams.

As for best feature nominee “The Rider,” a melancholy drama about a South Dakota cowboy directed by Chloé Zhao, it’s currently scheduled to open in April, according to a Sony Pictures Classics spokesperson. It earned strong reviews at its Cannes Film Festival premiere and also earned Spirit nominations for cinematography, editing and direction.

If nothing else, the Spirit Awards’ stamp of approval provides cues for which movies academy members should watch over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

The nominated films can also trumpet the bevy of nominations as they look to expand — and survive — in a commercial marketplace crowded with awards-season contenders and big-budget studio movies.

Winners, selected by Film Independent Members, will be announced at the Spirit Awards on March 3 at a ceremony co-hosted by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney in Santa Monica. The show will broadcast live on IFC at 2 p.m. PT.

Categories
People

‘So much wasted time’

DAVID CASSIDY’S DAUGHTER SHARES HIS LAST WORDS

David Cassidy’s daughter Katie has revealed that the ‘70s star’s last words as he lay dying were, “So much wasted time.” He passed away last week, aged 67, after a battle with dementia and lifestyle-related health issues.

In a tweet, she wrote, “Words cant express the solace our family’s received from all the love & support during this trying time. My father’s last words were ‘So much wasted time’. This will be a daily reminded for me to share my gratitude with those I love as to never waste another minute… thank you.”

David Cassidy, star of The Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974, was hospitalized a little more than a week ago after suffering major organ failure. He’d been reported to have been placed in a medically-induced coma before later regaining consciousness, but was in need of an urgent liver transplant. His passing on Nov. 21 triggered a series of tributes from across the rock world.

In February he revealed his dementia to People magazine, saying that the illness appeared regularly in his family. Speaking of his mother’s struggle with it, he said, “In the end, the only way I knew she recognized me is with one single tear that would drop from her eye every time I walked in the room. I feared I would end up that way.”

He’d decided to end his touring career in order to focus on enjoying the time he had left. “I want to focus on what I am, who I am now and how I’ve been without any distractions,” he noted. “I want to love. I want to enjoy life.”

Categories
Awards

Fingers crossed for DUNKIRK!!

Oscars: ‘Get Out’ and ‘Dunkirk’ Fight to Get Voters’ Attention After Early Release

Both critically acclaimed films hit theaters months ago, which is why their respective directors, Jordan Peele and Christopher Nolan, are stumping hard.
In February, on the same weekend as the 89th Oscars, a little $4.5 million horror movie called Get Out opened and immediately struck a nerve, capturing the top spot at the box office with $33 million on its way to a worldwide gross of $253.4 million — not that Academy members necessarily noticed at the time. Then, in late July — as Hollywood folks were fleeing town for far-flung summer vacations — a much bigger movie, the $100 million Dunkirk, hit theaters with a $50.5 million bow and ultimately garnered $525 million worldwide.

Both films debuted to critical cheers. Get Out scored a nearly unanimous 99 percent positive score on Rotten Tomatoes, and Dunkirk checked in at 92 percent. And both now are angling for best picture Oscar noms. But they face a potential roadblock. Between now and the Christmas holidays, about two dozen new films will be making bids for awards attention. And because the Academy tends to favor shiny new objects — seven of last season’s nine best picture nominees were released in November and December — Get Out and Dunkirk are in danger of feeling like old news. And so, the filmmakers behind both are now out on the hustings.

To be sure, even before Get Out — a satirical look at the pernicious racism that lurks behind the facade of even seemingly enlightened white liberals — could make a serious best picture run, it first had to establish its bona fides as a “serious” movie. So way back in May, when Universal held a party on its lot to mark the film’s home entertainment release, that routine promotional event was used as an excuse to invite awards bloggers and Academy members to get the conversation started. In June, the film’s cred got a big boost when its writer-director, Jordan Peele, appeared at the PGA’s Produced By Conference, where he was interviewed by none other than Norman Lear, who testified, “I lose words when I think about how much this man’s film affected me.”

Since then, Peele and his team, including producer Jason Blum and actor Daniel Kaluuya, have been making nonstop appearances. There they were shaking hands at the Nov. 11 Governors Awards. Writer-producer Damon Lindelof hosted a screening to which DGA, WGA and Academy members were invited. Peele delivered a keynote at the Film Independent Forum on Oct. 22 and dropped by AFI Fest for a Nov. 10 conversation about 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? — to which his own film owes a debt. And on Nov. 17, Universal threw yet another reception, featuring an exhibit of fan art inspired by the movie, to toast Get Out, which already has picked up four Gotham Awards noms.

Dunkirk faced a different challenge: Once Christopher Nolan’s film roared into theaters, no one could deny the film rose to the challenge of re-creating the fabled World War II British military retreat. But Nolan has never been an Academy favorite. He has received only one best picture nomination (for 2010’s Inception), two screenplay noms and no directing noms. So while Nolan usually prefers to have his films speak for themselves, this time he’s also working the room.

In an unusual move, the film crashed the Toronto Film Festival — “Haven’t you all seen this already?” TIFF director Piers Handling joked before the screening, which ostensibly marked Imax’s 50th anniversary — and artistic director Cameron Bailey hosted a chat with Nolan afterward. The director is now fronting a series of L.A. screenings — one of which was moderated by writer-producer John Wells. He also made the requisite pit stop at the Governors Awards and, as an ardent proponent of celluloid, visited the Library of Congress on Nov. 2 to speak about film preservation, one of his pet causes.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle facing Dunkirk is that the film will lose a lot of its power if Academy members simply watch it on screeners, and so Warners has jumped into the breach, announcing it will be rereleased Dec. 1 in 34 markets, where it will play in 50 Imax and 70mm theaters. It’s the studio’s way of insisting that attention must be paid.

Categories
Lawsuits

This is too bad.

A War Is Brewing in the Steely Dan Universe

Earlier this fall, the rock and jazz communities took a massive hit when Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker unexpectedly died at the age of 67. But those hoping to catch the band’s other founder, Donald Fagen, on the road in the near future to honor his friend might have to brace themselves for the worst case scenario: No music, new or old, for a long time. Per Rolling Stone, Fagen is suing Becker’s estate in order to retain control of the band and keep the Steely Dan name. The crux of the lawsuit boils down to a buy/sell agreement the duo signed before the release of their first album in the 1970s, which stipulated “that if a member of Steely Dan quit or died, the band would purchase all of that member’s shares in the group.” However, four days after Becker’s death, Fagen alleges he received a letter from Becker’s estate that said the agreement is “of no force or effect,” and Becker’s widow is insisting that she’s entitled to 50 percent ownership of the band — as well as a director or officer title.

Among the many details in Fagen’s lawsuit, he claims Becker “reaffirmed his commitment to the buy/sell Agreement and its validity” in 2009, when Becker even shot down attempts to tweak it in any way — making the duo the “only remaining shareholders and signatories to the buy/sell Agreement” at the time of his death. Additionally, Fagen is also suing the band’s longtime business management firm for “engaging in other secretive behaviors.” (How mysterious.) A court date has yet to be scheduled, but we have a feeling that Ohhhh, noooo, 50 percent won’t do for Fagen.

Categories
Movies

Still can’t decide if I need to see COCO or not. I probably will, but I’m in no rush.

Coco tops Thanksgiving box office with $71.2 million; Justice League No. 2

Coco has struck a chord. Disney and Pixar’s vibrant Día de los Muertos-themed animated musical is poised to debut with an estimated $71.2 million from 3,987 theaters in the U.S. and Canada over the long holiday weekend, easily displacing last week’s box office champ, the struggling superhero team-up Justice League.

Coco‘s five-day bow — $49 million of which comes from the Friday-Sunday frame — marks the fourth-highest Thanksgiving opening ever, not adjusting for inflation, behind Frozen ($93.6 million), Moana ($82.1 million), and Toy Story 2 ($80.1 million). It also gives Disney 10 of the top 11 Turkey Day openings all time and comes as good news for Pixar in the wake of co-founder John Lasseter taking a six-month leave due to unspecified “missteps” that made some staffers feel “disrespected or uncomfortable.”

Directed by Lee Unkrich and co-directed by Adrian Molina, Coco received glowing reviews from critics (it’s currently rated 96% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) and a coveted A-plus CinemaScore from moviegoers, suggesting that word of mouth should be strong. The film, which centers on a 12-year-old Mexican boy who confronts his family’s ancestral ban on music, has grossed an additional $82.2 million from foreign markets. Coco‘s cast includes newcomer Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, and Alanna Ubach.

In second place, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment’s big-budget spectacle Justice League is on track to take in about $63 million over five days, and $40.7 million Friday-Sunday. The latter figure represents a 57 percent decline from an underwhelming first weekend and doesn’t bode particularly well for the uneven DC Extended Universe, which Justice League was intended to be the standard-bearer for.

That said, the Zack Snyder-directed movie has added about $309.8 million overseas, putting its worldwide total at $481.3 million. Despite unenthusiastic reviews and a mediocre B-plus CinemaScore, Justice League has been buoyed by a star-studded cast that includes Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, and Ezra Miller. (Joss Whedon, an alum of Disney and Marvel’s rival Avengers franchise, also oversaw extensive reshoots as Snyder dealt with a family tragedy.)

Rounding out the top five this weekend are a trio of holdovers: Lionsgate’s family film Wonder, with about $32.3 million over five days ($22.3 million Friday-Sunday); Disney’s superhero threequel Thor: Ragnarok, with about $24.3 million over five days ($16.8 million Friday-Sunday); and Paramount’s comedy Daddy’s Home 2, with about $18.6 million over five days ($13.3 million Friday-Sunday).

In limited release, director Luca Guadagnino’s critically acclaimed love story Call Me by Your Name is set to gross an estimated $405,000 (Friday-Sunday) from four locations in New York and Los Angeles, for a per-theater average of $101,000 per screen — the highest such mark this year. Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer star in the film, about an affair between a precocious 17-year-old boy and a mysterious, handsome grad student in northern Italy. Sony Pictures Classics is distributing.

Also notching a solid opening this weekend is Focus Features’ World War II drama Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. Playing in four locations, it’s on pace for about $176,000 Friday-Sunday, for a per-theater average of $44,005. (Its five-day opening is estimated at $248,000.)

Meanwhile, the Denzel Washington legal drama Roman J. Israel Esq. expanded from four theaters to 1,669 but failed to connect with audiences, who gave it a soft B CinemaScore. The Sony release on track to gross about $6.2 million over five days and $4.5 million Friday-Sunday, good for ninth place.

According to ComScore, overall box office is down 4 percent year-to-date. Check out the Nov. 24-26 figures below.

1. Coco — $49 million ($71.2 million five-day)
2. Justice League — $40.7 million ($63 million five-day)
3. Wonder — $22.3 million ($32.3 million five-day)
4. Thor: Ragnarok — $16.8 million ($24.3 million five-day)
5. Daddy’s Home 2 — $13.3 million ($18.6 million five-day)
6. Murder on the Orient Express — $13 million ($18.6 million five-day)
7. The Star — $6.9 million ($9.5 million five-day)
8. A Bad Moms Christmas — $5 million ($6.8 million five-day)
9. Roman J. Israel Esq. — $4.5 million ($6.2 million five-day)
10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri — $4.4 million ($$5.9 million five-day)