DVD That Might Interest You Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5! Actually, do you want a free Blu-Ray copy? Just drop me an @message on the old Twitter and I'll mail you one. Supplies are limited, act fast and all that. (Update: All of the BSG discs are spoken for. Thanks to all who entered!)
Oscar Thought of the Day James Cameron already has a Best Director and Best Picture win for Titanic, but with ten films now guaranteed a Best Picture Nomination Avatar seems like a mortal lock for one of those too. Actually, here's my super-early take on the ten Best Picture Nominees:
Five Mortal Locks
Invictus: 99 percent Bonafides: A Clint Eastwood film about Nelson Mandela.
Avatar: 90 percent Bonafides: As mentioned before, James Cameron brings a $250 million CGI world to life.
Nine: 85 percent Bonafides: Rob Marshall, director of Chicago, brings another star-laden musical to the screen. Plus it's produced by the Weinstein brothers.
Amelia: 80 percent Bonafides: A biopic about Amelia Earhart directed by Mira Nair. On that note, only three times in history has a woman been nominated for Best Director. Mira Nair and Jane Campion (Bright Star) look to make that number five this year.
Where the Wild Things Are: 75 percent Bonafides: The footage and reaction I saw at Comic-Con leads me to believe that this film is going to receive soft and glowing reviews. That will be enough to get it in.
Fourteen Bubble Picks
Bright Star: 65 percent Bonafides: Oscar loves history. This one is about poet John Keats.
Up: 60 percent Bonafides: Beauty and the Beast remains the only animation ever nominated for Best Picture. This Up nomination might be a sort of lifetime achievement nod to Pixar.
Up in the Air: 50 percent Bonafides: Jason Reitman (Juno) directs George Clooney in what looks to be corporate satire.
The Road: 50 percent Bonafides: A post-apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy adaptation (the same guy who wrote No Country for Old Men) starring Oscar Nominated Viggo Mortensen.
The Lovely Bones: 50 percent Bonafides: Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) helms this incredibly sad drama.
Biutiful: 40 percent Bonafides: An Oscar-nominated director (Iñárritu) directing an Oscar winner (Bardem) in a drama releasing in December.
Shutter Island: 30 percent Bonafides: Scorsese and DiCaprio bring another Lehane novel (Mystic River) to life.
Precious: Based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire: 25 percent Bonafides: A Sundance darling about an illiterate Harlem teenager.
Funny People: 25 percent Bonafides: Getting surprisingly good buzz, and Apatow and Sandler would bring in ratings.
A Serious Man: 20 percent Bonafides: Another black comedy from the Coen brothers.
The Hurt Locker: 15 percent Bonafides: Iraq war actioner that avoids politics.
The Informant!: 15 percent Bonafides: Steven Soderbergh and Matt Damon bring a dark comedy about an informant to the screen in early October.
Tree of Life: 10 percent Bonafides: It's Terrence Malick, but his "loss of innocence" tale doesn't currently have a 2009 release date ... or a distributor.
An Education: 5 percent Bonafides: "It" girl Carey Mulligan in a coming-of-age story with Peter Sarsgaard and Alfred Molina.
Press Releases of Note The director and actors behind the sweetly comic Paper Heart (the film opens on August 7) took a few minutes of their time to sit down with me at Comic-Con. From left to right we've got Jake M. Johnson, Charlyne Yi, and Director Nicholas Jasenovec. Here's what transpired:
Sequel Rumor of the Day There doesn't seem to be a juicy one, so I'll just point out that Jon Favreau mentioned an Avengers movie is still the goal. He also mentioned, later on in the panel, that he wasn't currently slated to direct. And I heard through the grapevine that he wants Norton's version of Hulk involved.
Deep Thought of the Day Many of the press folk I talked to at the 2009 Comic-Con were excited about the films and shows they saw panels on ... but not thrilled with the prospect of attending the convention again in 2010. The popularity and buzz the studios have brought to the event are making it problematic to cover in any real sense. You can't get in anywhere without waiting in line a couple of hours. The Internet is flaky. 500 outlets are breathlessly reporting every slightly compelling story. It's interesting, but the San Diego gathering could become a victim of its own success. I'm not complaining, I had a ton of fun, it's just interesting to see how much the event has changed in even the last three years.
Videos For You This trailer for Stuntmen looks simply delightful. I hadn't heard of it until my friend Molly "Molls" McAleer brought it to my attention.
Warning: Language, adult themes, general debauchery
Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Love the Hard Way." Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna star in this drama about a thief who falls for a curious, beautiful young woman. As their intimacy grows, a slick cop (Pam Greer) is closing in.
