Globes nominations to signal Oscar field
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Clear front-runners have yet to emerge in Hollywood's awards season, though Golden Globe voters have no shortage of fine films and performances to choose from with their nominations at hand.
Among big contenders for Thursday morning's nominations are the crime saga "No Country for Old Men" and the historical drama "There Will Be Blood," both films anointed by major critics groups as Hollywood's awards season starts to shape up.
The Golden Globes, the second-biggest film honors after the Academy Awards, has a category for best comedy or musical along with best drama, so Johnny Depp's bloody musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" also could get an Oscar boost Thursday.
Days before the Globe nominations, Joel and Ethan Coen's "No Country for Old Men" was picked by the New York Film Critics Circle as the year's best film, while Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" earned the same honor from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Both groups picked "There Will Be Blood" star Daniel Day-Lewis as best actor, while the New York critics gave their supporting-actor prize to Javier Bardem for "No Country for Old Men."
Other possible nominees for best drama at the Globes: Ridley Scott's crime tale "American Gangster"; Joe Wright's literary adaptation "Atonement"; Mike Nichols' foreign-policy romp "Charlie Wilson's War"; Sean Penn's road drama "Into the Wild"; and Julian Schnabel's French drama "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."
Along with Day-Lewis, Depp and Bardem, acting nominees could include Brad Pitt for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Julie Christie for "Away From Her," Marion Cotillard for "La Vie En Rose," Keira Knightley and James McAvoy for "Atonement" and Ellen Page for "Juno."
Ike Turner dies in San Diego at age 76
SAN DIEGO - Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.
Turner died at his San Marcos home, Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner's career, told The Associated Press.
There was no immediate word on the cause of death, which was first reported by celebrity Web site TMZ.com.
Turner managed to rehabilitate his image somewhat in later years, touring around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm and drawing critical acclaim for his work. He won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional blues album category for "Risin' With the Blues."
But his image is forever identified as the drug-addicted, wife-abusing husband of Tina Turner. He was hauntingly portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It," based on Tina Turner's autobiography.
In a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, Turner denied his ex-wife's claims of abuse and expressed frustration that he had been demonized in the media while his historic role in rock's beginnings had been ignored.
"You can go ask Snoop Dogg or Eminem, you can ask the Rolling Stones or (Eric) Clapton, or you can ask anybody — anybody, they all know my contribution to music, but it hasn't been in print about what I've done or what I've contributed until now," he said.
Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar.
But as would be the case for most of his career, Turner, a prolific session guitarist and piano player, was not the star on the record — it was recorded with Turner's band but credited to singer Jackie Brenston.
And it would be another singer — a young woman named Anna Mae Bullock — who would bring Turner his greatest fame, and infamy.
Turner met the 18-year-old Bullock, whom he would later marry, in 1959 and quickly made the husky-voiced woman the lead singer of his group, refashioning her into the sexy Tina Turner. Her stage persona was highlighted by short skirts and stiletto heels that made her legs her most visible asset. But despite the glamorous image, she still sang with the grit and fervor of a rock singer with a twist of soul.
The pair would have two sons. They also produced a string of hits. The first, "A Fool In Love," was a top R&B song in 1959, and others followed, including "I Idolize You" and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine."
But over the years their genre-defying sound would make them favorites on the rock 'n' roll scene, as they opened for acts like the Rolling Stones.
Their densely layered hit "River Deep, Mountain High" was one of producer Phil Spector's proudest creations. A rousing version of "Proud Mary," a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit, became their signature song and won them a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a group.
Still, their hits were often sporadic, and while their public life depicted a powerful, dynamic duo, Tina Turner would later charge that her husband was an overbearing wife abuser and cocaine addict.
In her 1987 autobiography, "I, Tina," she narrated a harrowing tale of abuse, including suffering a broken nose. She said that cycle ended after a vicious fight between the pair in the back seat of a car in Las Vegas, where they were scheduled to perform.
It was the only time she ever fought back against her husband, Turner said.
After the two broke up, both fell into obscurity and endured money woes for years before Tina Turner made a dramatic comeback in 1982 with the release of the album "Private Dancer," a multiplatinum success with hits such as "Let's Stay Together" and "What's Love Got To Do With It."
The movie based on her life, "What's Love Got To Do With It," was also a hit, earning Angela Bassett an Oscar nomination.
But Fishburne's glowering depiction of Ike Turner also furthered Turner's reputation as a rock villain.
Meanwhile, Turner never again had the success he enjoyed with his former wife.
After years of drug abuse, he was jailed in 1989 and served 17 months.
Turner told the AP he originally began using drugs to stay awake and handle the rigors of nonstop touring during his glory years.
"My experience, man, with drugs — I can't say that I'm proud that I did drugs, but I'm glad I'm still alive to convey how I came through," he said. "I'm a good example that you can go to the bottom. ... I used to pray, `God, if you let me get three days clean, I will never look back.' But I never did get to three days. You know why? Because I would lie to myself. And then only when I went to jail, man, did I get those three days. And man, I haven't looked back since then."
But while he would readily admit to drug abuse, Turner always denied abusing his ex-wife.
After years out of the spotlight his career finally began to revive in 2001 when he released the album "Here and Now." The recording won rave reviews and a Grammy nomination and finally helped shift some of the public's attention away from his troubled past and onto his musical legacy.
"His last chapter in life shouldn't be drug abuse and the problems he had with Tina," said Rob Johnson, the producer of "Here and Now."
Turner spent his later years making more music and touring, even while he battled emphysema.
Robbie Montgomery — one of the "Ikettes," backup singers who worked with Ike and Tina Turner — said Turner's death was "devastating" to her.
"He gave me my start. He gave a million people their start," Montgomery said.
Accolades for Turner's early and later work continued to come in as he grew older, and the once-broke musician managed to garner a comfortable income as his songs were sampled by a variety of rap acts.
In interviews toward the end of his life, Turner would acknowledge having made many mistakes, but maintained he was still able to carry himself with pride.
"I know what I am in my heart. And I know regardless of what I've done, good and bad, it took it all to make me what I am today," he once told the AP.
Fox delays Cameron 3-D movie until end of 2009
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - James Cameron's 3-D feature "Avatar," which was scheduled for Memorial Day 2009, has been pushed back seven months to December 18 -- almost 12 years to the day since the director's "Titanic" set sail.
Fox announced the change Tuesday in a revamp of its 2009 tentpole lineup. The Ben Stiller sequel "Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian" will take over the May 22 spot that originally was reserved for "Avatar."
The studio also said that "Ice Age 3," opening July 1, will be released in 3-D. Rounding out the slate is the May 1 release of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the fourth installment in the successful "X-Men" franchise.
The "Avatar" move comes about four months after DreamWorks Animation said that it was moving Paramount's 2009 release of the 3-D animated feature "Monsters vs. Aliens" from May 15 to March 27 to avoid a head-on-collision with "Avatar," which would have had the films fighting over the nation's 3-D screens.
By waiting until December, "Avatar" could take advantage of a steadily growing number of 3-D screens. Current estimates suggest that 4,000 3-D-ready screens will be in place in the U.S. by May 2009. Although deals are in the works for 3-D screens in Europe and Asia, there's no firm estimate on how many will be in place internationally by then.
The move also is reminiscent of Cameron's experience in 1997 when "Titanic," facing production delays, moved from July to December 19, though the studio said in this case it's not a sign of duress.
"This is a win-win for us," said Hutch Parker, vice chairman of Fox Film Group. "'Avatar' goes to the 'Titanic' date in December, which was obviously auspicious for Jim and us, and by the time of the release, there will be more worldwide 3-D screens available."
"Avatar" is about an ex-Marine who is sent to an exotic planet where he leads an uprising by its indigenous race. Cameron wrote the story.
Live-action principal photography for "Avatar" is almost completed in New Zealand, where Peter Jackson's visual effects house Weta Digital is incorporating new CGI techniques to transform environments and characters into photorealistic 3-D imagery. The new date is expected to allow Weta more time to convert its software to the new technology without rushing the postproduction process.
Alvin, Chipmunks stay in the family
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The house that the Chipmunks built sits atop a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Ross Bagdasarian Jr. lives here in the wealthy Montecito area with his wife Janice Karman. Both work in a separate office building off a downhill path, which houses four Apple iMacs, gold Chipmunks records, Grammys, branded bubble gum, toothbrush holders, caps, at least one eight-track tape, and dozens of CDs.
All wrought from a single kooky musical idea, "The Christmas Song," dreamed up by Bagdasarian's father, Ross Sr. — and the stubborn, hard-nosed business sense that's kept Alvin, Simon and Theodore in the family.
The Chipmunks enter theaters Friday for the first time, in the live action-CG holiday comedy "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Jason Lee of "My Name is Earl" stars as David Seville, a struggling Los Angeles songwriter who discovers the 'munks and later rescues them from an evil music executive.
In real life, Seville was the stage moniker for Bagdasarian, who became a Hollywood songwriter after previous jobs as an off-Broadway director and actor (he's the piano player in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window").
He wrote tunes for Rosemary Clooney and Dean Martin before hitting it big on his own with "Witch Doctor" in 1958. That song's catchy, sped-up "oh ee oh ah ah" chorus, combined with Christmas pleadings from Ross' youngest son Adam, inspired the Chipmunks' first song, an instant hit.
In several months, it sold over four million records and spawned a massive merchandise trade. So was born a one-hit wonder that would endure for nearly 50 years.
Evil music executives, take note: Bagdasarian says the key to his father's success was his insistence on owning his own master recordings and copyrighting the Chipmunks characters. Bagdasarian rejected Walt Disney's advances, the son says, and got busy doing Chipmunk versions of everything from the Twist to Beatles hits.
By the mid-60s, though, Bagdasarian was over the Chipmunks. He bought a winery, Sierra Wine Corp., that supplied product to Gallo and other brands. "He was a person certainly of short attention span," his son says, "but also incredibly focused, really really smart, and very funny."
Bagdasarian, a lifelong smoker, was found dead of a heart attack on Super Bowl Sunday in 1972. His will passed the winery and the Chipmunks franchise to his wife and three children.
Ross Bagdasarian Jr. helped to run the winery for several years, and decided with his future wife in 1978 to try to revive the 'munks. There were no takers until, as family lore goes, a bored radio DJ on the East Coast sped up a Blondie song and called it the Chipmunks version.
The furry creatures hit record stores again with "Chipmunk Punk," followed by country songs in "Urban Chipmunk," and then by a Saturday morning animated series.
(Take note, fans: No helium has ever been used to create the distinctive high-pitched voices. At first it was a sped-up tape player, and now computers do the work.)
Bagdasarian and Karman held tight creative and financial control, voicing nearly all the characters themselves, and using family money to pay for production. Bagdasarian, a law school graduate, pored over each contract.
"You don't protect what you've created unless you know the business side of it," he said. "We've all heard these horror stories of these really talented people having their work stolen out from under them. I wasn't willing to be one of those people."
Indeed, there has been no equivalent for Bagdasarian to Disney's 13-year legal dispute over Winnie the Pooh merchandising rights. The closest: a deal with Universal for a Chipmunks movie went sour, leading to a legal fight over the contract. Bagdasarian and Karman won out.
"For us, it was a custody battle," Karman said. "They finally realized 'OK, these two are really fighting for their kids.'"
In the mid-90s, Bagdasarian bought the Chipmunk rights from his brother, a writer, and sister, a stay-at-home mom, to take complete control.
Bagdasarian was surprised to find himself following in his father's footsteps. "I revered my dad, but I didn't want to do what he had done," he said. "That was his creation. Had he remained alive, I never would have done this. But when he passed away suddenly, it was a way of keeping my dad alive, and keeping what he created alive."
Which leads to the new movie, an origin story and features new hip-hop flavored Chipmunks tunes. Making a guest appearance is the actual piano Ross Sr. used when writing "Christmas Song." Bagdasarian and Karman say they voiced the animated Chipmunks throughout, before studio marketing executives made the decision to have younger actors play the voice roles for publicity reasons.
Next for the 'munks? Karman is developing a puppet show called "Little Alvin," aimed at preschoolers. "And we have lots of ideas," Bagdasarian said. They'll simply approach each potential partner with extreme caution.
"The business world is not getting kinder by the year," he said. "So you have to be mindful that if it doesn't work out, how do you make sure you still have your underwear at the end of the day?"