Academy Awards

On the top of the heap this year is “The King’s Speech”. The saga of the stammering King of England grabbed 12 nominations including best picture and acting honors for the three main actors, Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush.

The biggest contender in the the best picture category is “The Social Network”. The Facebook drama won best drama at the Golden Globes, but “The King’s Speech” won the Producers Guild of America Awards top prize last weekend.

There are other movies nominated, but it is unlikely any of those will win. This author does tip her hat to the Academy for nominating “Toy Story 3″ for best picture. While animated movies do have their own category, some are good enough to break from their constraints and rise above the pack. It also makes “Toy Story 3″ the top grossing best picture nominee of the year. By a lot.

What’s an Oscar article without listing the snubs? Christopher Nolan was ignored for best director for “Inception”, though he did get a nod for best screenplay.

In a transparent appeal to a younger audience, Anne Hathaway and James Franco are set to host.

Microsoft still considers Halo movie

Variety published quotes from Franchise Development Director Frank O’Connor about whether we’ll ever see a “Halo” movie. The trade says that Microsoft is still developing scripts by Alex Garland, Stuart Beattie, D.B. Weiss and Josh Olson as potential blueprints.

“We’re still interested in making an excellent ‘Halo’ movie,” O’Connor said. “We’ve created an awful lot of documentation and materials to support a feature film. We have a good idea of what kind of story we want to tell, but won’t move on it until there’s a great reason to do it. We’re in no particular hurry.”

The film would likely be a standalone story and not “a verbatim retelling of the game,” O’Connor added.

Microsoft is also “intently watching” the TV landscape as a potential outlet for a “Halo” series.

The next game in the franchise, “Halo Reach,” hits stores on September 14.

Read more: Microsoft Still Interested in Making Halo Movie – ComingSoon.net http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=69564#ixzz0yrIwelXY

“Train Your Dragon” kicks off Oscar race

DreamWorks Animation has officially launched the Oscar race for 2011.

This week, the company took the unusual move of mailing out For Your Consideration fliers of its highly-regarded “How to Train You Dragon,” throwing the movie in contention for not only best animated feature but also for best picture of the year (among other categories).

The fact that it’s supporting the movie isn’t the unusual part — the movie is easily one the best films of the year so far — but it’s not even Labor Day yet! Many awards voters aren’t even in town to receive the mailing.

But the move does put DWA in pole position for the animation race which will likely turn out to be one of the hotly contested categories this year.

Original story from Hollywood Reporter

The economy of acting

For the second straight year, Shia LaBeouf is the actor offering the biggest bang for the buck, according to a Forbes list released Monday. Forbes calculated that for every $1 LaBeouf was paid, the movie in which he appeared earned $81 in profit.

LaBeouf’s top ranking is owed to blockbusters like ”Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” good for $787 million worldwide, and ”Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” which brought in $836 million worldwide.

Anne Hathaway landed in second place thanks to the $1 billion that ”Alice in Wonderland” took in worldwide and, to an obviously lesser degree, ”Bride Wars,” which brought in $115 million. Hathaway’s movies generate $64 in profit for each $1 she earns.

Forbes looked at the top 36 earners in Hollywood who made at least three films in five years that opened wide. They calculated box office, DVD and TV sales and subtracted a movie’s budget, stripping out marketing costs, “which are susceptible to accounting chicanery.”

Rounding out the Top 5 were Daniel Radcliffe ($61 in profit for each $1 paid), Robert Downey Jr. ($33) and Cate Blanchett ($27).

Probably the most surprising actor cracking the Top 10 is Johnny Depp, given the massive salary he is usually paid. He was paid $1 for every $18 in profit his movies earned.

Still to come is Forbes’ list of actors who offer the least bang for the buck. That dubious honor a year ago went to”Land of the Lost” star Will Ferrell, who was paid $1 for every $3.29 his movies made.

Is it really much of surprise, though? Will Ferrell’s movies simply don’t do well. Is that really his fault? The Harry Potter series would be just as successful without Daniel Radcliffe.

Blockbuster ready to file for bankruptcy

Video rental giant Blockbuster is planning to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-September to restructure its nearly $1 billion in debt and escape leases on several hundred stores.

The company, which has been trying to get rid of its crippling debt load, has told Hollywood studios that it plans a pre-planned bankruptcy filing, according to the LA Times.

Unlike a Chapter 7 liquidation, a Chapter 11 filing allows a company to work out its debt issues via a restructuring plan. Pre-planned filings get most creditors of a company – in this case that includes content suppliers – on board with the plan ahead of time.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes held meetings with studio heads in LA last week as a continued supply of movies is key for the Dallas-based company. After emergence from Chapter 11, Blockbuster’s senior debt holders are expected to own a big stake in the firm.

Earlier this month, Blockbuster got an extension on debt payments, but Wall Street analysts said even back then that a bankruptcy filing was a distinct possibility.

Coppola to receive lifetime achievement Oscar

Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola is to receive a lifetime achievement Oscar later this year. It will be the sixth Academy Award for the 71-year-old – four of them were for his films about the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family.

Honorary awards will also be given to French director Jean-Luc Godard, actor Eli Wallach and film historian Kevin Brownlow. The awards will be given out at a ceremony in Los Angeles in November. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science said Coppola’s Irving Thalberg Memorial Award was given to “a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production”.

Through his American Zoetrope studio, which he established in 1969, Coppola has produced more than 30 films, including The Black Stallion, The Outsiders and Lost in Translation, which earned his daughter Sofia an Academy Award nomination for best director. Godard, 79, a key figure in the French New Wave movement, started out writing about cinema before impressing audiences and filmmakers with his influential first feature, Breathless.

Long-time character actor Wallach, 94, appeared in The Magnificent Seven, The Misfits and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He is also in Oliver Stone’s upcoming Wall Street sequel.

“Each of these honourees has touched movie audiences worldwide and influenced the motion picture industry through their work,” said Academy President Tom Sherak. ”It will be an honour to celebrate their extraordinary achievements and contributions at the Governors Awards.”

David Goyer sells rights to Sci-Fi series

David Goyer, scribe of Batman Begins fame, has sold Warner Bros. the rights to his upcoming literary debut, Heaven’s Shadow, the first in a new sci-fi trilogy.

David S. Goyer wrote the novel with Michael Cassutt and will also write the screenplay adaptation as well. The first book will be published by Ace Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing, and will be released in July 2011. The other titles in the trilogy - Heaven’s War and Heaven’s Fall will hit bookstores in the summer of 2012 and 2013.

The story centers around a large object that looks to be headed towards Earth. The widespread panic leads to governments competing with each other to be the first to intercept the object, believed to be a meteor, before anyone else, which then leads to the discovery of an alien race that puts the human race in jeopardy.

Hollywood moves overseas

In a stunning display of outsourcing, several Hollywood names have gone to France to make their films.

France’s 20% tax rebate for foreign productions, capped at €4 million, has sparked a filming frenzy in Paris with such major directors as Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan, Woody Allen and Scorsese plus U.S. studios including Paramount and Universal taking advantage of both the country’s technical savvy and the lower cost of shooting.

“Production has been more concentrated on Paris this year than other regions of France, it’s true,” said Franck Priot, deputy director of Film France, the country’s film commission. “Hollywood is coming to Paris not just to shoot in studios like in other territories but really to film Paris for Paris’ sake.”

The goal of the rebate is not only to bring foreign filmmakers to French soil but to stimulate the French economy. So far, so good. Since the law took effect Jan. 1, 2009, France’s film industry has seen an economic boost from visiting productions, and paparazzi photos of visiting stars have served as free ads for the City of Lights. As of this summer, 22 projects have received aid representing 330 days of shooting and more than €100 million in spending in the territory.

“Paris is the world capital of romantic comedies and costume dramas,” Priot said. “Now we’ve moved on to Selena Gomez and the 21st century — there’s a real rejuvenation happening.”

Of course, there’s more to France than Paris and the Eiffel Tower. The country offers some pretty amazing sites. Perhaps the real question is how do we get Hollywood back to America?

Abrams plans “7 minutes in Heaven”

J.J. Abrams and “Lost” director Jack Bender are developing a movie based on the teen make-out game.

While plot details are being suppressed, it is known to focus on two teens who go into a closet as part of the titular game and find all their friends dead when they come back out. Which is really not at all surprising for Abrams.

The Abrams- and Bryan Burk-led Bad Robot factory is running strong for Paramount, with numerous projects in development. While the company keeps most of them in stealth mode, some are known, including the recently set up “Boilerplate,” a graphic novel-picture book hybrid by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett about the development of the first robot.

Not all of Bad Robot’s material is genre-oriented. The company next has “Morning Glory,” starring Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams, coming out in November from Paramount. The shingle and studio also are working on a remake of “Little Darlings.” This isn’t the first Abrams/Ford collaboration, either.

For someone who has risen to lord of the geek status, Abrams has written some pretty solid normal films. Remember Regarding Henry? Him. And, what about Forever Young? Well, I can see where he started to let the crazy out of the box with that one. And, he was also the writer on a little movie called Armageddon, but I can understand if you’ve never heard of that one.

Scott Pilgrim falls flat

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World targets a very specific audience (Michael Cera fans). Some have said that the plot is “too hipstery”. And, you know the thing about hipsters. They only watch movies that are obscure and in a foreign language.

The fact remains that Pilgrim was handily trounced by both The Expendables and Eat, Pray, Love. For those of you that didn’t see a movie this weekend, for shame!

Universal’s Pilgrim traveled to just $10.6 million in a fifth-place launch. The studio puts the pic’s negative cost at $60 million after accounting for $25 million in tax credits.

“If that film had been made for $15 milion-$20 million, nobody would be crying,” an executive at a rival studio said Monday. “But you have an offbeat movie with an offbeat title starring somebody who is sort of a niche-targeted guy to begin with.”

Michael Cera’s topline turn in the comics-spawned Pilgrim followed his roles in indie fare including this year’s “Youth in Revolt,” a $15.3 million domestic performer for Dimension, and “Paper Heart,” which took in less than $2 million for Overture after unspooling in August 2009.

Even Cera’s pairing with Jack Black in Sony’s $43 million grosser Year One last summer represents mere chump change compared with his $144 million and $122 million outings among the ensemble casts of Fox Searchlight’s Juno and Sony’s Superbad, respectively, in 2007. By contrast, Love boasts the marquee magic of Julia Roberts and is based on a best-seller.

I feel like there’s some kind of irony in here, but I just can’t put my finger on it.