British Academy Film Awards… and the winners are
TrendPK.com: British Academy Film Awards… and the winners are…
“The Artist” was named the year’s best film at the Orange British Academy Film Awards, as it is expected to win again at the Academy Awards in two weeks.
WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The Artist wins seven BAFTAs including Best Film, Leading Actor for Jean Dujardin and Director and Original Screenplay for Michel Hazanavicius
Meryl Streep wins Leading Actress
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hugo, The Iron Lady and Senna win two BAFTAs each
The Artist was named Best Film at tonight?s Orange British Academy Film Awards hosted by Stephen Fry, held at London?s Royal Opera House. The film also won six other awards: Director, Original Screenplay, Original Music, Cinematography, Costume Design as well as a performance award for Jean Dujardin who won the Leading Actor BAFTA.
Meryl Streep was awarded the BAFTA for Leading Actress for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady; the film was also honoured in the Make-Up & Hair category.
The Help’s Octavia Spencer won the Supporting Actress category and Christopher Plummer won Supporting Actor for his performance in Beginners.
Outstanding British Film and Adapted Screenplay were awarded to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Senna won the Documentary and Editing BAFTAs. Hugo won two BAFTAs in Production Design and Sound. Pedro Almoldovar?s The Skin I Live in won the Film Not in the English Language category and Rango won the BAFTA for Animated Film. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ Part 2 was awarded the BAFTA for Special Visual Effects.
Director Paddy Considine and Producer Diarmid Scrimshaw received the award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for their first feature film Tyrannosaur, based upon the short film Dog Altogether that won them the Short Film BAFTA in 2008.
The Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award was presented to Adam Deacon, recently seen in Anuvahood and Kidulthood. This award, the only one voted for by the public, recognises an international actor or actress who has demonstrated exceptional talent and has begun to be recognised as a film star in the making. The award is now in its seventh year and was created in honour of Mary Selway, the highly respected casting director who passed away in 2004.
A Morning Stroll won the Short Animation award and the Short Film award was presented to Pitch Black Heist.
The award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema was received by John Hurt. The Fellowship, the highest accolade which the Academy can bestow, was presented to Martin Scorsese.
2012 WINNERS
BEST FILM
THE ARTIST Thomas Langmann
THE DESCENDANTS Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
DRIVE Marc Platt, Adam Siegel
THE HELP Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Simon Curtis, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, Adrian Hodges
SENNA Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Manish Pandey
SHAME Steve McQueen, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Abi Morgan
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo,
Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay, Luc Roeg, Jennifer Fox, Robert Salerno,
Rory Stewart Kinnear
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
ATTACK THE BLOCK Joe Cornish (Director/Writer)
BLACK POND Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director), Sarah Brocklehurst (Producer)
CORIOLANUS Ralph Fiennes (Director)
SUBMARINE Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer)
TYRANNOSAUR Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer)
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
INCENDIES Denis Villeneuve, Luc Déry, Kim McCraw
PINA Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel
POTICHE François Ozon, Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer
A SEPARATION Asghar Farhadi
THE SKIN I LIVE IN Pedro Almodóvar, Agustin Almodóvar
DOCUMENTARY
GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD Martin Scorsese, Olivia Harrison, Nigel Sinclair
PROJECT NIM James Marsh, Simon Chinn
SENNA Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Manish Pandey
ANIMATED FILM
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Steven Spielberg
ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Sarah Smith
RANGO Gore Verbinski
DIRECTOR
THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius
DRIVE Nicolas Winding Refn
HUGO Martin Scorsese
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius
BRIDESMAIDS Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig
THE GUARD John Michael McDonagh
THE IRON LADY Abi Morgan
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Woody Allen
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE DESCENDANTS Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
THE HELP Tate Taylor
THE IDES OF MARCH George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
MONEYBALL Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan
LEADING ACTOR
BRAD PITT Moneyball
GARY OLDMAN Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
GEORGE CLOONEY The Descendants
JEAN DUJARDIN The Artist
MICHAEL FASSBENDER Shame
LEADING ACTRESS
BÉRÉNICE BEJO The Artist
MERYL STREEP The Iron Lady
MICHELLE WILLIAMS My Week with Marilyn
TILDA SWINTON We Need to Talk About Kevin
VIOLA DAVIS The Help
SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER Beginners
JIM BROADBENT The Iron Lady
JONAH HILL Moneyball
KENNETH BRANAGH My Week with Marilyn
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN The Ides of March
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
CAREY MULLIGAN Drive
JESSICA CHASTAIN The Help
JUDI DENCH My Week with Marilyn
MELISSA MCCARTHY Bridesmaids
OCTAVIA SPENCER The Help
ORIGINAL MUSIC
THE ARTIST Ludovic Bource
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
HUGO Howard Shore
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Alberto Iglesias
WAR HORSE John Williams
CINEMATOGRAPHY
THE ARTIST Guillaume Schiffman
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Jeff Cronenweth
HUGO Robert Richardson
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Hoyte van Hoytema
WAR HORSE Janusz Kaminski
EDITING
THE ARTIST Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
DRIVE Mat Newman
HUGO Thelma Schoonmaker
SENNA Gregers Sall, Chris King
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Dino Jonsäter
PRODUCTION DESIGN
THE ARTIST Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS ? PART 2 Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
HUGO Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
WAR HORSE Rick Carter, Lee Sandales
COSTUME DESIGN
THE ARTIST Mark Bridges
HUGO Sandy Powell
JANE EYRE Michael O’Connor
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Jill Taylor
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Jacqueline Durran
MAKE UP & HAIR
THE ARTIST Julie Hewett, Cydney Cornell
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS ? PART 2 Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin,
Nick Dudman
HUGO Morag Ross, Jan Archibald
THE IRON LADY Marese Langan, Mark Coulier, J. Roy Helland
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Jenny Shircore
SOUND
THE ARTIST Nadine Muse, Gérard Lamps, Michael Krikorian
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS ? PART 2 James Mather, Stuart Wilson, Stuart Hilliker, Mike Dowson, Adam Scrivener
HUGO Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman, John Midgley
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY John Casali, Howard Bargroff, Doug Cooper, Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley
WAR HORSE Stuart Wilson, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Richard Hymns
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Joe Letteri, Keith Miller,
Wayne Stables, Jamie Beard
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS ? PART 2 Tim Burke, John Richardson, Greg Butler, David Vickery
HUGO Rob Legato, Ben Grossmann, Joss Williams, Alex Henning
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, Daniel Barrett
WAR HORSE Ben Morris, Neil Corbould
SHORT ANIMATION
ABUELAS Afarin Eghbal, Kasia Malipan, Francesca Gardiner
BOBBY YEAH Robert Morgan
A MORNING STROLL Grant Orchard, Sue Goffe
SHORT FILM
CHALK Martina Amati, Gavin Emerson, James Bolton, Ilaria Bernardini
MWANSA THE GREAT Rungano Nyoni, Gabriel Gauchet
ONLY SOUND REMAINS Arash Ashtiani, Anshu Poddar
PITCH BLACK HEIST John Maclean, Gerardine O’Flynn
TWO AND TWO Babak Anvari, Kit Fraser, Gavin Cullen
THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
ADAM DEACON
CHRIS HEMSWORTH
CHRIS O?DOWD
EDDIE REDMAYNE
TOM HIDDLESTON
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‘The Vow’ breaks records, ‘Safe House’ opens huge
By Scott Mendelson
TrendPK.com: Wow. Just wow. Four major releases debuted this weekend and every single one of them opened with superb numbers. On one hand, that means that every respective demographic was ably served this weekend. On the other hand, one can only wonder how much cash was sacrificed by opening these four movies on the same weekend. Anyway, the top film of the weekend was the Rachel McAdams/Channing Tatum romantic drama The Vow. The $30 million Screen Gems drama, which by the way is NOT based on a Nicholas Sparks novel (it’s a true story), debuted with an eye-popping $41 million, a record for the studio. That’s well-over $10 million more than the $30.4 million debut of Dear John, which was the previous record-holder for an opening weekend for a pure romantic drama. The film played 55% under-25 years old and 72% female. Obviously everything clicked on the marketing for this one, and Channing Tatum is now the official king of the romantic drama, having headlined the first one to open with more than $30 million and now the first one to open with over $40 million, while Rachel McAdams is the queen, now holding the first and fourth-biggest opening weekend for an unfiltered romantic drama ($18 million for The Time Traveler’s Wife). Where it goes from here is an open question, as Dear John did not have the strongest legs, topping out at $80 million (or just below the $81 million gross of Rachel McAdam’s The Notebook). On the plus side, The Vow doesn’t have the same-demo blockbuster Valentine’s Day nipping on its heals like Dear John did. Plus, even if The Vow has the same quick-kill performance (2.6x weekend-to-final multiplier), it will become the first pure romantic drama (no explosions, no action scenes, no mass-disaster in the third act) to cross $100 million since Jerry McGuire in 1996.
The second major opener was the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds thriller Safe House. The R-rated film opened with $39 million, which is one of the biggest non-sequel/non-animated openings in Universal Studios history. This is Denzel Washington’s second-biggest opening, behind the $43 million debut of Universal’s American Gangster (which also starred Russell Crowe) while it’s Reynold’s third-biggest debut, behind Green Lantern ($52 million) and his glorified cameo as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($85 million). The ads sold this one as a CIA-ops variation on Training Day, with rogue and uber-cool special agent Washington ‘schooling’ rookie Reynolds while engaged in a painfully generic action/thriller narrative (this is not among Washington’s better thrillers, folks). Washington has made a string of old-school, adult-skewing thrillers over the last ten years or so, and this picture is right in his comfort zone. The biggest debut as a by-himself lead was The Book of Eli, which debuted with $31 million two years ago, so how much of that extra $8 million you want to credit Ryan Reynolds is up to you (I’d say enough to keep his agent’s phone ringing). Still, in an era when the modern movie star is an endangered species, Washington is among the last of his breed, a ‘put my face on the poster and they will flock’ box office draw. The picture played 62% over the age of 30 and 50% female. In terms of racial demos, it played 38% African American, 31% Caucasian, and 23% Hispanic. If it has even the relative legs of The Book of Eli (3x its opening weekend), it will end up with $118 million and become Washington’s second-biggest domestic grosser (American Gangster grossed $130 million).
Opening in third place was the second entry in the ongoing series of ‘add The Rock to your ongoing franchise and watch your grosses go up!’ (following Fast Five and proceeding this summer’s GI Joe: Retribution). Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is a very loose sequel to the 2008 3D-ground breaker Journey to the Center of the Earth, which Brendan Fraser powered to $101 million domestic off a $21 million debut and $140 million overseas. Journey 2 opened with a robust $27 million, as it played like an old-fashioned family film (IE – it went WAY up on Saturday). The film had already grossed just under $50 million overseas prior to this debut, so it’s well on its way to eclipsing the $241 million worldwide total of the first film. Still, the idea of a live-action 3D fantasy film isn’t quite as novel as it was in the summer of 2008 (Journey to the Center of the Earth was literary the first modern live-action 3D picture, although Spy Kids 3 did the old-school red/blue 3D back in 2003). Also, Journey 2 cost $79 million, versus the first film’s relatively meager $45 million budget, so it will have to perform better if it wants a similar profit margin. Nonetheless, a win is a win. If G.I. Joe: Retaliation significantly improves on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra this summer, expect Dwayne Johnson to be shoe-horned into every ailing/rebooted franchise around. Coming soon – The Rock in Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair, Saw 8, and Bridget Jones’s Diary 3!
The last major opener was the 3D-converted re-release of Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, which debuted with a solid $23 million, bringing the overall domestic total to $454 million. This is the first of what is to be annual re-releases of George Lucas’s six Star Wars films starting this year (the 35th anniversary of Star Wars) and ending with Return of the Jedi in 2017 (the 40th anniversary). Whether you like the prequels or not, this was a chance for the generation who grew up with Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith to see those films again on the big screen, just as our generation feasted on the now-infamous ‘special editions’ of the original trilogy back in 1997. No one should have been expecting anything approaching the $35 million debut of Star Wars: Special Edition back in 1997 (about $47 million adjusted for inflation), as the marketplace has changed in the last 15 years. In a pre-DVD era, that was the first-ever opportunity for many younger fans to see the films in widescreen or on a screen larger than 25″. In today’s DVD/Blu-Ray and 60″ LCD world, it’s actually pretty impressive that this 3D-converted version actually opened larger than the 1997 releases of The Empire Strikes Back ($22 million) and Return of the Jedi ($16 million). At the very least, it’s good to see technical pros like Lucas and Cameron (Titanic 3D drops in early April) showing us how a real 3D-conversion is supposed to look. Even if the six movies top out at $50 million respectively, that’s still $300 million domestic and at least that overseas over the next six years. And since Lucas has signed that ‘Giving Pledge’, at least 1/4 of that money (depending on the studio/distributor/theater chain split) will be going to various charities.
There isn’t much holdover news, as the massive influx of new releases caused some large drops across the board, spurred both by the appeal of new product and inevitable screen losses to compensate for the four new films. Even The Artist ($24 million), on the verge of several major Oscar wins, is losing 200 screens as even popular films like The Grey ($42 million) loses 400 screens in just its third weekend and Underworld: Awakenings ($58 million) and Red Tails ($45 million) lose nearly 1,000 and 800 screens in their respective fourth weekends. Point being, there is a cost for the sheer volume of new product week-in and week-out. There is almost no opportunity for real legs and casual/general moviegoers no longer have the option of seeing new releases at their convenience, fostering a ‘see it now or don’t see it at all’ environment. So when I say that Chronicle (now with $40 million), The Woman In Black ($35 million), and Big Miracle ($13 million) dropped 44%, 50%, and 49% respectively in their second weekends, it’s as much to due with the flood of new product as it is with the respective popularity of last weekend’s openers. Thus, the three drops are even more impressive when you factor in the competition (although Miracle is a tank by virtue of its small numbers overall). It will be interesting to see how leggy the late-February/early-March releases are when you realize that there are only nine new wide releases in the entire month of March (21 Jump Street and likely juggernaut The Hunger Games open unopposed on the 16th and 23rd).
That’s it for this weekend. Join us over Presidents’ Day weekend when Fox unveils the Reese Witherspoon/Chris Pine/Tom Hardy action-romcom This Means War, Sony attempts to revive Nicholas Cage’s Ghost Rider franchise with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and Disney releases an English-dubbed animated fable from Studio Ghibli (founded by, among others, Hayao Miyazaki) onto an uncommonly wide 1,300 theaters with The Secret World of Arrietty. Until then, take care, keep reading, and share your thoughts below.
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Oscars: Could Glenn Close’s Irish win boost her Oscar profile? – AWARDS ALLEY
By Sean O’Connell
TrendPK.com: Best Actress nominee Glenn Close could be in for a big Oscar telecast IF there are a large number of Irish voters in the Academy.
The Irish certainly took to Close’s performance as a Dublin manservant in “Albert Nobbs,” rewarding the actress with the Irish Film And Television Academy’s best international actress award Saturday evening. THR reports that she topped fellow Oscar nominee Meryl Streep (“The Iron Lady”) as well as Tilda Swinton (“We Need To Talk About Kevin”) and Kirsten Wiig (“Bridesmaids”) for the top prize.
In addition to Close, the Irish recognized Ryan Gosling (“Drive”) for best international actor; Michael Fassbender (“Shame”) for leading actor; Chris O’Down (“Bridesmaids” for best supporting actor; Saoirse Ronan (“Hanna”) for lead performance in film; “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” for best international film; and “The Guard” for virtually every other prize, including Best Director (John Michael McDonagh), best screenwriter and the Irish Film Board Rising Star.
But given that Close is the one with Oscar dreams, lets’ focus on her for a minute as the Oscars fast approach.
Close first played the character of Albert Nobbs in an off-Broadway production in 1982. Ever since, she has been fighting to bring the sympathetically tragic character to the silver screen.
I caught up with the film at the Toronto International Film Festival and found it to be a wonderful story of self-discovery, of finding love and loving oneself. I want to repost a portion of a lengthy discussion I had with Close at TIFF, as well as the actress’s acceptance speech from the Hollywood Film Awards, where we honored Close with the Hollywood Career Achievement Award.
Close hasn’t won the Best Actress Oscar … yet. Could this be her year?
TrendPK.com: You first played Albert on stage decades ago. How had your thought process changed over the years in terms of approaching her as a character?
I think the essence of the character is probably them same. It’s me! I’ve aged 30 years. And that’s bound to make for a deeper impact. And also, on film, film is such a much more intimate medium than the stage. It was very difficult. There were some scenes where I didn’t know how much to show in my face. I was always going to Rodrigo, “Am I saying too much?” The first time she really looks somebody in the eye is after telling Hubert her story. That’s kind of her release. Before that … servants were not supposed to look people in the eye. She was an invisible person doing an invisible job.
TrendPK.com: How common was this practice of pretending to be a different gender to maintain a job?
It was much more common than people expect. You can find many, many stories about people who had to do this. Some of them were rich women, and this was a way for them to get out of the house. Today, in Afghanistan, little girls are dressed as boys in order to get out of the house. It’s not an uncommon thing right now. In a repressive society, where women have no rights, it happens.
TrendPK.com: I also think it’s interesting that in films where characters play a different gender, it’s often to deceive, to reach another end. But for Albert, she does it to survive.
Exactly. She’s not going, “Hey! Ho! Look at me!” in a deep and masculine voice. She’s not like putting on a mustache and a beard. She’s just disappeared into that disguise.
TrendPK.com: She almost forgets how to be a woman. Speaking to that, on a surface level, when did you feel comfortable enough that the make up, the hair and the surface elements were convincing enough that you wouldn’t distract the audience with a woman playing a man?
Oh, well, the voice was challenging because I often concentrated in scenes about how much was showing on my face. So I did re-voice some of the dialogue. My voice was too high in some of the takes, and we had to lower it later. I was probably distracted by five other things. And that was very useful, to be able to do that. As for the look, when it became evident that we really were going to go for it, and that it might be a possible, I said to my contacts that I’ve got to convince myself that I can actually do this. I’m 20 years older. So I went out and I did a screen test. Rodrigo got a studio and I went and got Matthew Mungle, who went on to do our makeup on the film, and he helped. It wasn’t the final work that you see on screen. But I had to convince myself. I didn’t want it to be a movie where the audience thinks, “Oh, how do they not know? She’s a woman! Everybody in the hotel must be stupid!” I also felt that my face being highly recognizable would be a burden, and that really was a concern. But we did a screen test, and they did a couple of things to my face, and I looked up … and it wasn’t me. And I started crying. Because it was possible. Because we could do this.
TrendPK.com: That’s fantastic. Rodrigo has done some impressive television work on films like “Six Feet Under” and “Big Love.”
He has a great sensitivity toward women. He likes women. He writes beautiful parts for women. And also, he comes from that tradition of magic realism, which initially the script had much more of her imagining what her bedroom would be like. So you saw hr arranging things. We just couldn’t afford all of that.
TrendPK.com: But the scenes where we see her looking in on the broken down space and seeing her dream shop are wonderful.
Initially, in the script, when she imagined something, you’d see it appear. But the piece of equipment that we needed to do that was 80,000 Euros laughs and we had to say, “OK, we’ll do it without it!” laughs But this story has a real delicate touch because it’s funny and sad, and I just though Rodrigo came from this tradition. He just gets it.
Awards Alley brings you the best Oscar coverage. Click below to read our exclusive interviews with:
– Harvey Weinstein
– The cast of “The Artist.”
– Kenneth Branagh for “My Week With Marilyn.”
– Bennett Miller talks “Moneyball.”
– Producer Jim Burke for “The Descendants.”
– Sir Ben Kingsley and Chloe Grace Moretz for “Hugo.”
– Tilda Swinton for “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”
– David Fincher, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara on “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
– Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer for “The Help.”
– Tate Taylor for “The Help.”
– Woody Harrelson for “Rampart.”
– Gavin O’Connor for “Warrior.”
– Gary Oldman and Colin Firth for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”
– Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody for “Young Adult.”
– Steve McQueen for “Shame.”
– Glenn Close for “Albert Nobbs.”
– Seth Rogen and Will Reiser for “50/50.”
– Producer Grant Heslov for “The Ides of March.”
For complete Oscar and Film Festival coverage, visit our Awards Alley for the latest news items, reviews and interviews all season long.
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Defending Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
By Scott Mendelson
TrendPK.com: Like so many who read and write about movies, I saw Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace on Wednesday, May 19th, at 12:01am. Like many who read and write about movies, I did not think it was the greatest film of all time. But like the majority of the movie-going public, I also did not think it was the worst film of all time, nor did I find it to be some kind of glorious affront to cinema as an art form. And 13 years later, it is what it always was: a Star Wars movie through-and-through. It has problems unique to itself, unique to the prequel trilogy, and even some problems that have existed in the series right at the start. Taking away the fact that one film was a cinematic breakthrough an launched the fandom of a hundred-million would-be movie lovers and the other was released under the crushing expectations of two generations of film fans, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is really no better or worse than Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
One is overly revered because it was the first film in the series and had the benefit that comes with discovery. The other was crushed by the weight of impossible expectations. Objectively speaking, they are both fine introductions to their respective trilogies which pave the way for arguably superior sequels (you may prefer Star Wars to Return of the Jedi, I happen to prefer The Phantom Menace to the somewhat pandering but admittedly more entertaining Attack of the Clones). They both suffer from campy acting, stilted dialogue and inconsistent pacing. The Phantom Menace lacks a rouge-ish Han Solo character, even if the film (by virtue of being the fourth entry in a long-running series) doesn’t need a cynical ‘audience surrogate’ this time around. Natalie Portman was always unfairly derided for not playing Queen Amadala as a clone of Carrie Fisher’s Princess Lea. Her somewhat cold, Elizabethan portrayal is both her best performance in the prequel trilogy and a prime example of fans objecting primarily because it wasn’t identical to the previous Star Wars universe (Lucas’s apparent cave in Attack of the Clones, making Padme ‘sexier’, is one reason Episode II is the weakest of the series). That The Phantom Menace (and by proxy the prequel trilogy) operates differently than the first three Star Wars films does not automatically make them inferior, merely different.
Taken as an individual film or the start of a three-film saga, it has eye-popping visuals, at least three terrific performances (Liam Neeson, Ian McDiarmid, and Pernilla August), a fine (if famously compromised) score by John Williams, and a politically wonky story that took hits for being overly complicated while serving was a chilling modern-day parable (a ‘good’ politician brought down by “baseless accusations of scandal” – remind you of anyone who was president in 1999?). Yes, the original Star Wars had a simple narrative, basically following the Joseph Campbell heroic journey. But Phantom Menace (and the prequel trilogy overall) compensates for its admittedly inferior characters with a more complicated and morally grey plot. Critics and pundits always complain about the simplicity and spoon-fed narratives of mainstream films. Yet when one comes along that actually requires audience to pay attention (Mission: Impossible, Quantum Of Solace, etc), they all complain that “It’s too confusing!” or “It’s too complicated and muddled!”. You won’t get me to admit that Jake Lloyd is cooler (or a better actor) than Mark Hamill, but I have always appreciated the intricate plotting of the more ambitious prequel trilogy. And for a film that’s been knocked as ‘kid-friendly’ (more on that later), it always struck me as darkly ironic that the entire journey in The Phantom Menace is basically a trick in order to pull off a Senatorial coup, replacing the decent Chancellor Valorum (Terence Stamp) with Palpatine (who is, of course, not so decent). Maybe kids didn’t realize it at the time, but every single character, be they good or evil, was working for the villain to further his authoritarian goals (this is actually the running subtext behind the fantastic Clone Wars cartoon series that premiered in late 2008).
Whether you like the pod-race or not (admission – I don’t and usually skip it when I watch the film), it is a triumph of technical action film-making. Of course, it’s also the scene where Lucas’s tilt toward ‘juvenility’, also represented by Jar Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd’s performance as Anakin Skywalker, hits hardest, as the use of comedic announcers with cartoon-ish vocals stands out as something that just doesn’t fit within the Star Wars universe. Whether or not the god-awful narration is evened-out by darkly comic relief (where Tusken Raiders murder the other pod racers purely for kicks… I always laughed at that) is a judgment call. But one bad scene, which sits awkwardly in tone with the rest of the six film-saga, does not a movie make. And if one centerpiece action scene doesn’t quite hold up to repeat viewings, the other one does. Even the most virulent detractors of the picture openly admit that the climactic light-saber fight between Darth Maul and the two Jedi warriors (Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Kenobi) is exactly what we nerds waited sixteen years to see. It’s not as emotionally engaging as the high-water mark duels in The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi, (my wife and I affectionately call it ‘Duel of the Red-Shirts’) but it is the most technically perfect light-saber fight in the entire six-film series and it beats the living crap out of the downright pathetic ‘old man vs. asthmatic robot’ slap-fight in Star Wars.
Of course the film does have its issues, some of which were noted above. Perhaps because Lucas knew that he was going to get to make the next two chapters, The Phantom Menace lacks any real character arc for any of its major players. The dialogue is occasionally stilted and delivered in a relatively rigid fashion, as if most of the cast was directed to ‘do what Guinness did in A New Hope’. In terms of plot, it is quite self-contained, but as a character piece it is clearly just part one of a three (or six) part story. The four-part action climax, a clear attempt by Lucas to top the three-pronged finale of Return of the Jedi, suffers from a lack of engagement in three of those action sequences. The space dog-fight, the Padme blaster shoot-out, and the large-scale battle of Naboo feel more perfunctory, which is ironic since they are the sequences that resolve the prime conflict, while the light-saber battle is basically two Jedis dealing with unrelated Jedi business. Slight digression, but I love that the two Jedi stumble upon the first Sith warrior seen in centuries and they immediately set out to kill him as quickly as possible. Simple questions like “Who are you? What do you want? Who are you working for?” never come up.
Arguably the biggest story problem is that Anakin saves the day completely by accident, while the biggest character issues is that Jake Lloyd is pretty terrible as Anakin Skywalker (if you watch the terrific documentary on the Phantom Menace DVD, titled “The Beginning”, you can literally watch Lucas pick the wrong kid to play young Skywalker). That the Jedi are cold, unfeeling bastards basically sets up their downfall in the next two films. That Anakin is such a naive and wide-eyed innocent actually makes his final destiny that much more heartbreaking. Lucas didn’t want an obviously troubled and disturbed Anakin turning into Darth Vader. He wanted a completely good young child to slowly morph into a person capable of complete evil. Just as, over the course of the prequel trilogy, the seemingly good Republic allows itself to become a tyrannical dictatorship out of fear, so too does Anakin’s fear allow him to be undone. Point being, especially if you know what’s coming, this is all pretty heavy stuff for a ‘kids’ film’.
But in the end, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace *is* a kids’ film. It is a sci-fi outer-space fantasy adventure designed to appeal to kids who are about as young as you were when you first saw Star Wars. We may cringe at Jar Jar Binks (even as we ignore that he’s barely in the film after his introductory moments), but younger audiences do find him funny and charming. We may wish that Jake Lloyd was a bit darker and introspective as the boy who would be Darth Vader, but younger boys see themselves in him and his wish-fulfillment fantasy adventure. Come what may, warts and all, The Phantom Menace was always intended as a gateway drug, a kid-friendly space opera designed to snag young audiences into the world of Star Wars just as it was being reborn. In the 13 years since it was first released, an entire generation of moviegoers grown up loving or liking The Phantom Menace in the same way we fell for Star Wars all those decades ago. If Lucas had given us the Star Wars prequel that was tailored-made for the now-adult audience that grew up on the franchise, if he had made Anakin quasi-evil right from the start, had he filled the film with unrelentingly graphic violence and characters that lacked any real kid-appeal, there is little chance that kids today would still be playing Star Wars on playgrounds all across America.
In all objectivity, I wish The Phantom Menace was a better movie. I wish it was a tighter picture, that the all-important pod race sequence wasn’t overlong and relatively suspense-less. I wish Lucas didn’t feel the need to make the enemy robot army into chit-chatting clowns and that he had cast a better actor as Anakin. But The Phantom Menace is still a good fantasy adventure picture, arguably better plotted and more visually imaginative than any number of would-be blockbusters that have followed its path over the last decade. And it is absolutely a Star Wars movie that holds its own against pretty much any entry in the series with the arguable exception of The Empire Strikes Back (which, with its scaled-back and character-driven intimacy, is the odd-man out in the six film saga). And as a gateway drug that successfully ensnared an entire generation of young kids and turned them into Star Wars junkies as well, it is an unqualified success.
You can still find kids playing Star Wars adventures on the playground this very day. They pretend to be Anakin Skywalker, Padme, Obi-Wan Kenobi and any number of characters from both trilogies. You don’t hear them complaining that “Jar Jar sucks!”. You don’t hear them protesting that “George Lucas raped my childhood!”. For a generation of kids who came of age 13 years ago, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith ARE their childhood.
To read more go to Mendelson’s Memos
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Oscars: Emma Stone to present at the 84th Academy Awards® ceremony
TrendPK.com: Emma Stone will present at the 84th Academy Awards® ceremony, telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced today. It will be her first time presenting on the show.
Stone appears in the Best Picture nominee “The Help.” Her other film credits include “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” “Friends with Benefits,” “Easy A” and “Superbad.” She will be seen next in “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “Gangster Squad.”
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.
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54th Annual GRAMMY Awards® to Serve Only Wines Sealed with Natural Cork
TrendPK.com: For the second consecutive year, natural cork will be in the spotlight at the GRAMMY Awards.® Maintaining its commitment to sustainability, the 54th GRAMMY Awards will host two events featuring wines sealed exclusively with natural cork and will recycle the closures. Natural cork is biodegradable, recyclable and sustainable, and its use encourages the stewardship of cork oak forests that offset carbon pollution.
The awards show will take place at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will air on CBS at 8/7 p.m. CT on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012. The Recording Academy®, internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards®, continues its ongoing effort to reduce the environmental impact of its annual awards ceremony, telecast, and associated GRAMMY Week events.
Wines sealed with cork will be served at the MusiCares® Person of The Year tribute dinner and concert honoring Paul McCartney two days prior to the awards ceremony and at the official GRAMMY Celebration® following the awards show.
The events will be equipped with recycling bins provided by ReCORK, a cork recycling organization that will collect the stoppers and provide them to SOLE, a company that manufactures shoes and sandals from recycled cork.
“We are honored that The Recording Academy has made natural cork a component of its sustainability program,” said Peter Weber, executive director of the Cork Quality Council. “The Academy joins a growing list of organizations, including the Major League Baseball Association and the National Basketball Association, that has recognized the environmental benefits of natural cork.”
Natural cork is one of the world’s most sustainable products. Biodegradable and recyclable, its use provides an economic incentive to preserve vast cork oak forests in the Mediterranean Basin that trap greenhouse gases, prevent desertification and provide habitat for hundreds of plant and animal species. There is no shortage of cork, and cork oaks are not cut down to make cork. A portion of their bark is removed every nine years during a 250-year lifespan.
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Oscars: Penélope Cruz will present at the 84th Academy Awards® ceremony
TrendPK.com: Academy Award® winner Penélope Cruz will present at the 84th Academy Awards® ceremony, telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced today.
Cruz won an Oscar in 2008 for her supporting role in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” She was also nominated for her lead performance in “Volver” (2006) and for her supporting role in “Nine” (2009). Her other film credits include “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Sex and the City 2,” “Sahara,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” and “Blow.”
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.
“Dark Eden” by Bestselling Transmedia Author Patrick Carman Optioned by The Hatchery
TrendPK.com: Dan Angel, a partner in the LA-based production company, The Hatchery LLC, has optioned Dark Eden (Katherine Tegen Books), the newest multimedia young adult novel by Patrick Carman, a leader in marrying digital content with printed and electronic books.
Dark Eden is a psychological thriller about seven teens sent to a remote institution to be cured of their crippling phobias. Sequestered in mysterious fear chambers, they are forced to confront their worst nightmares. A recent winner of the QED award for quality, excellence and design in ebooks from Digital Book World, Dark Eden was recognized as a ?revolutionary idea in ebook publishing.? The novel is enhanced by a downloadable app that enriches all the elements of the traditional narrative. The digital components are delivered through a mobile application that transmits new episodes sequentially as the story unfolds. Designed to engage wired readers, complete episodes include innovative story artifacts such as still images, audio recordings, videos, scans, and text entries.
?As the Hatchery moves into new digital platforms, we could not be more excited to be working with Pat on Dark Eden, said Angel. ?He is not only a master of the teen fantasy, horror and science fiction genres, he is one of the inventors of interactive storytelling and at the forefront of understanding how kids consume media today.?
Susan Carpenter of the LA Times said, in her review of Dark Eden, ?All of the characters in the app are Hollywood-slick. And so are the video and audio production values, which amplify, rather than detract from, Carman’s inventive storytelling. Dark Eden is a fast-paced thrill ride.?
Patrick Carman is the New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed series as the Land of Elyon and Atherton and the teen superhero novel Thirteen Days to Midnight. A multimedia pioneer, Patrick authored The Black Circle, the fifth title in the 39 Clues series, and the groundbreaking Skeleton Creek and Tracker books.
Writer and producer Dan Angel is currently executive producing two new hit shows on The Hub Network, R. L. Stine?s The Haunting Hour and Dan Vs. Angel was the executive producer of the event television movies The Ben Carson Story, Gifted Hands, and Door to Door, which received 2 Golden Globe nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award, multiple Emmys and the prestigious Peabody Award.
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Milla Jovovich will host the Academy’s Sci-Tech Awards
TrendPK.com: Actress Milla Jovovich will host the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards on Saturday, February 11, at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. Jovovich will present 10 awards to 30 individual recipients during the evening.
Jovovich is the star of “The Fifth Element” and the “Resident Evil” franchise. She will next be seen in the feature “Resident Evil: Retribution.”
Portions of the Scientific and Technical Awards presentation will be included in the Oscar® ceremony.
Academy Awards® for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.
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Diet Coke® and Minka Kelly Celebrate The Heart Truth® With Lucky Fans
TrendPK.com: “Showing a little heart” never goes out of style. That’s why actress Minka Kelly and iconic fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg are teaming up with Diet Coke and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) The Heart Truth ® campaign. The goal: to raise awareness of women’s heart health educational programs. Five lucky Diet Coke fans will join these women for the star-studded Red Dress Collection Fashion Show on February 8, which kicks-off New York Fashion Week.
This year marks the fifth year Diet Coke will play an active role in The Heart Truth ® campaign. Diet Coke is taking its efforts online, on packaging and on the runway to call attention to women’s heart health educational programs. Minka Kelly will join Diet Coke and walk the Red Dress runway in a custom Diane von Furstenberg dress.
Diet Coke fans walked their own virtual runway by using their social networks to “show their hearts” for the cause and entering to win a chance to attend the annual Red Dress Collection Fashion Show. Using the hashtag “#ShowYourHeart,” people shared photos of themselves wearing red via Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. The entries were judged, and the five best photos were selected. Minka Kelly then judged the five winning photos to choose one grand prize winner, who received a shopping spree with a style expert. All five winners will be attending this week’s event.
“I loved the creativity the winners showed in their photos, and now I can’t wait to show off Ms. von Furstenberg’s creation and raise awareness at the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show,” said Minka Kelly. “Heart health is important for women of every age, and it’s up to each of us to help spread the word to the women we love.”
In addition to the dress Minka Kelly will be wearing in the Fashion Show, Diane von Furstenberg created a limited-edition collection of Diet Coke aluminum bottles featuring her iconic prints. The bottles will be sold in select Diane von Furstenberg stores in New York and on DVF.com during the month of February. Proceeds from the bottle sales will benefit the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), in support of The Heart Truth ® and women’s heart health research and educational programs.
The Heart Truth ® supporters can also help raise funds for the cause by “donating a tweet.” For each person who re-tweets Diet Coke’s The Heart Truth ® post on February 8, Diet Coke will donate $1 to the FNIH, up to $100,000.
Throughout the month of February, Diet Coke drinkers also will be treated to special packaging featuring the now familiar stick figure painting a large, red heart. Additionally, more than six billion packages of Diet Coke will feature The Heart Truth ® logo throughout the year.
“For five years, Diet Coke has been a passionate supporter of The Heart Truth ® and its efforts to raise awareness about the importance of heart health,” said William White, Brand Director, Diet Coke North America. “While we’ve shared this vital message with millions of people through our partnership with the NHLBI, we’ll reach even more this year with creative online programs, in-store activations and eye-catching packaging.”
Through successful heart health educational programs and with the support of scores of people dedicated to the cause, including Diet Coke fans, awareness of heart disease among women has nearly doubled in the last 12 years. More than half (54%) of women recognize that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, up from 30 percent in 1997.*
Promotions and Advertising
Diet Coke is activating national heart health programs with key retail and restaurant customers across the nation, including SUBWAY ® Restaurants. Together with Diet Coke, SUBWAY® will donate $50,000 toward heart health education and research programs. SUBWAY® fans can also help trigger an additional $50,000 for the cause. For every fan who uploads their own photo using the hashtag “#SUBWAYHeartTruth” from now until February 29, a $1 donation will be made to the FNIH, up to $50,000. The SUBWAY® restaurant chain, is ranked “number one” by consumers in the Zagat® Fast Food Survey in the “Healthy Options” category and their FRESH FIT® menu options include sandwiches and salads containing 6 grams of fat or less and “better for you” sides and drinks, such as yogurt, apple slices, low-fat milk, bottled water and sparkling beverages.
The Heart Truth ® is also supported by advertising and digital initiatives. Diet Coke’s support of The Heart Truth ® is another expression of Coca-Cola’s Live Positively commitment to encourage active, healthy lifestyles in the lives of people and communities.
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, the world’s most valuable brand, our Company’s portfolio features 15 billion dollar brands including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Georgia and Del Valle. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juices and juice drinks. Through the world’s largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy our beverages at a rate of 1.7 billion servings a day. With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint, support active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for our associates, and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we rank among the world’s top 10 private employers with more than 700,000 system employees. For more information, please visit www.thecoca-colacompany.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/CocaColaCo.
The Heart Truth® Campaign
The Heart Truth ® is a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease and is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Through the campaign, the NHLBI leads the nation in a landmark heart health awareness movement that is being embraced by millions who share the common goal of better heart health for all women.
The centerpiece of The Heart Truth ® is the Red Dress, which was introduced as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 by the NHLBI. The Red Dress ® reminds women of the need to protect their heart health, and inspires them to take action.
To learn more, visit www.hearttruth.gov.
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