Three Oscar films set DVD dates
•Juno arrives on DVD ($29.98) and Blu-ray ($39.98) on April 15 from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Juno is nominated for four Academy Awards: picture, director, original screenplay and actress for up-and-coming star Ellen Page.
•The Savages, nominated for two Oscars (actress for Laura Linney and original screenplay for writer/director Tamara Jenkins), arrives on DVD ($27.98) April 22 from Fox Home Entertainment.
•Lars and the Real Girl arrives on DVD ($27.98) April 15 from MGM Home Entertainment. Starring Ryan Gosling, it's up for original screenplay.
Johnny, Jude, Colin Sub for Heath
Hollywood's version of the three musketeers is riding to the rescue of fallen pal Heath Ledger's final film.
Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Judge Law are literally embracing the all-for-one ethos, tag-teaming as Heath Ledger's character in unfinished The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
The BBC quoted a spokesperson for Law confirming the actors' participation, "subject to negotiations."
No further details were immediately available. There was no further comment Monday from the actors or filmmakers.
The fate of the Terry Gilliam-helmed fantasy film had been in peril since Ledger's shocking death Jan. 22 due to an accidental drug overdose.
Because the film focuses on a magical acting troupe and alternate dimensions, it is believed Depp, Farrell and Law will each play a different incarnation of Ledger's character, known only as "Tony."
According to Variety, Ledger's name helped the independent production secure its $30 million budget. Without its biggest star, the movie has three options, the paper said: recast, shoot around Ledger's absence or call "cut."
Filming on Doctor Parnassus began in December. The 28-year-old Ledger, who died in New York, had been shooting in London the week before his death.
Following Ledger's demise, Gilliam and the producers said they "will be assessing how best to proceed."
Heath was a great actor, a great friend and a great spirit," the statement said. "We are still in a state of deep shock, saddened and numb with grief."
Depp, for one, probably felt an obligation to help out Gilliam.
The actor had been one of the stars of the director's ambitious The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which was scrapped midway through production in 2000 after the elderly actor playing the title role suffered a back injury and was unable to continue.
Ledger did complete work on The Dark Knight before he died. The Batman Begins sequel, featuring Ledger as the Joker, is due out July 18.
Oscar countdown begins in Hollywood
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It is Oscar week in Hollywood, and after three months in the dark winter of a bitter labor strike, the movie industry finally has something to celebrate -- itself.
This Sunday, the world's top film awards get under way with a full array of stars such as George Clooney and Cate Blanchett parading up the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre where Academy Award nominees hope to be named best actor or actress.
Some 5,800 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will anoint one film as their favorite among nominees that include crime drama "No Country for Old Men" and teen pregnancy comedy "Juno."
With a fresh crew of writers, Oscar host Jon Stewart hopes to keep audiences laughing through the three-hour live telecast.
"Here we are. After a long winter, comes the spring and now the summer," said Oscar producer Gil Cates. "It's been a terrible three months."
Some 10,500 members of the Writers Guild of America walked off the job on November 5, throwing into disarray the awards season that runs from December through the February 24 Oscars.
Gala dinners and ceremonies honoring films and their makers were canceled or changed drastically. January's glitzy Golden Globe Awards turned into a news conference watched by about a quarter of the typical audience of 20 million viewers.
But the strike ended one week ago, and Oscar organizers are promising a traditional ceremony for a global TV audience with big stars, dazzling fashion and, hopefully, memorable winners.
VYING FOR OSCAR GLORY
Oscar watchers expect some drama in key races, despite the fact many categories have clear front-runners. Academy Award voters, the experts said, enjoy defying the oddsmakers.
"Sometimes the Hollywood honchos vote with their heart just to remind us they have one," said Tom O'Neil, veteran Oscar watcher with awards Web site, TheEnvelope.com.
"No Country" heads into Sunday leading the race for best film because it earned top honors from the guilds of producers, directors, actors and writers -- four key indicators of Academy Award success.
But the pundits sense taut legal thriller "Michael Clayton" is surging due to the popularity of its star Clooney, and note the emergence of "Juno," which is the only nominated film to surpass the pivotal $100 million mark at U.S. box offices.
The other two nominees are oil drama "There Will Be Blood," a meditation on the corrupting power of money, and romance "Atonement," another drama with a dark ending.
Briton Daniel Day-Lewis playing a hard-charging oil man in "Blood" has earned front-runner status in the best actor race by virtue of several critics' and other awards this season, but the experts said Clooney is giving him a run for his money.
Among best actress nominees another Briton, Julie Christie, has been the darling of award season as an Alzheimer's sufferer in "Away From Her." But don't count out French actress Marion Cotillard as singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose" or Ellen Page as the defiantly pregnant teen in "Juno."
In other races, Spain's Javier Bardem is tipped to win supporting actor playing a killer in "No Country." Tilda Swinton leads supporting actresses in her role as a manipulative corporate lawyer in "Clayton."
Finally, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen look to be the team to beat in the race for best director with "No Country." And regardless of who wins or loses, Academy Award organizers are happy about one thing: this year, the Oscar goes on.