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(09/13/07 2:42am)
LOS ANGELES – Paul Haggis jokes that after more than two decades of failing his way to success in television, he finally reached his true destination: the big screen.\nThere has been little resembling failure for him there.\nThe first two films Haggis wrote, “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash,” won back-to-back best-picture Academy Awards. He earned a best-director nomination for “Crash,” his first time as a filmmaker, and that ensemble drama became the upset winner for 2005’s top Oscar over the heavily favored “Brokeback Mountain.”\nHaggis earned a third-straight writing Oscar nomination for last year’s “Letters From Iwo Jima” – his third collaboration with director Clint Eastwood following “Million Dollar Baby” and “Flags of Our Fathers.”\nIt took longer than he liked, but at 54, Haggis has become one of Hollywood’s hottest new directors.\nHaggis’ “In the Valley of Elah,” a murder mystery set among U.S. soldiers recently home from Iraq, has powerful performances from Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon. And Haggis’ sharp, provocative dialogue could put him back in Oscar contention for the fourth year in a row.\nWhile building TV credits on such series as “Walker, Texas Ranger,” Haggis wrote furiously but futilely as he tried to move into theatrical films.\n“I just failed for 30 years. It’s no great secret. It wasn’t, ‘You know what? I’m going to wait until my late 40s to break into films,’” Haggis told The Associated Press. “I was writing spec scripts, I was pitching stories, but I was doing it all wrong. I was trying to do stories I thought people would want to make into movies. I was writing suspense thrillers, trying to do things I thought I could sell.\n“Finally, I got so fed up and got so frustrated, I thought, I’m just going to write things I feel passionately about. I know they won’t ever sell. I know they won’t ever get made.”\nSo he wrote “Crash” with collaborator Bobby Moresco, which earned them both Oscars for original screenplay, and he wrote “Million Dollar Baby,” which brought Haggis a nomination for best adapted screenplay.\n“Crash,” a culture-clash tale with a huge cast of characters colliding over a tumultuous day and a half in Los Angeles, emerged from the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival to become a surprise hit the next year.\n“Million Dollar Baby,” the gloomy saga of a female boxer and a gruff trainer forced to make an agonizing decision over assisted suicide, earned Eastwood his second best-directing Oscar along with acting awards for Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. It went on to become a $100 million hit.\nNot bad for a couple of scripts Haggis figured would never see the light of the projection booth.\n“I had them under my arm for four and a half years trying to get them made but knowing in my heart these were not commercial films,” Haggis said. “And if they did get made, they would get made for a buck and a half, and no one would see them.”\nSimilarly, Haggis struggled to line up financing for “In the Valley of Elah,” which stars Jones and Sarandon as parents of an American soldier slain near his military base. Theron plays a local police detective who helps Jones’ character look into the case.\nEven as they filmed, the writer in Haggis could not let the story rest, Theron said.\n“I don’t think there was one day that I showed up for work where there wasn’t new pages in my trailer,” Theron said. “He’s obsessive about it. He writes every single night, and he’ll go through every possible angle, which is great, to know you have somebody trying to see it from every angle.”\n“His ear for dialogue is pretty good and also quite original,” Jones said of Haggis. “He’s not afraid to write a real long speech, and he’s not afraid to take a short speech and cut it in half. Those are both good qualities.”\nThe movie was based on a true story, which Haggis combined with another real-life tale along with fictionalized elements.\nIt was not a film that studios were clamoring to make, given the disturbing themes it raises about the toll the Iraq war is taking on both Americans at home and the troops thrown into the chaos of urban warfare.\nWarner Independent, the studio’s art-house banner, wound up taking on “In the Valley of Elah.”\nDuring his decades in television, Haggis toiled on his own, gaining a co-creator credit for the briefest of work on “Walker, Texas Ranger” but seeing shows he poured his soul into vanish quickly.\n“I’m not resentful. I just didn’t figure out how to do it. It took me a long time. Some guys take longer than others. I wasn’t a very good writer or director in my 20s and 30s, so I would have made bad movies and be gone and having a second career in real estate or something. Thank God, it worked out well for me in the end.”
(11/09/06 4:23am)
TORONTO -- From page one of the script, Emma Thompson knew she wanted the part in "Stranger Than Fiction," the Will Ferrell tale about a meek man suddenly able to hear an unseen narrator's voice chronicling his life -- and impending death.\n"One immediately flicks to the page where it says `an incredibly beautiful woman walks into the room,' which of course, I can't do that," Thompson said in an interview at September's Toronto International Film Festival, where "Stranger Than Fiction" premiered.\n"Luckily, this one said, `completely destroyed, suicidal writer.' I thought, 'Oh, no acting required.'"\nThompson, 47, said she's never had thoughts of ending her life, but she's often been caught up in the agony of the writer's lonesome life. A best-actress Academy Award winner for 1992's "Howards End," Thompson won a second Oscar three years later for her screenplay adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," which also earned her a best-actress nomination.\nHer writing credits include last year's family hit "Nanny McPhee," in which Thompson played a frumpy, grumpy, wart-covered caretaker whose appearance magically improves as she slowly succeeds in bringing order and joy to a home of unruly children.\nIn "Stranger Than Fiction," Thompson plays Kay Eiffel, a disconsolate author who has struggled for a decade over her darkly tragic novel "Death and Taxes," about meek Internal Revenue Service auditor Harold Crick.\nKay is unaware that Crick (Ferrell) actually exists in the real world and can hear in his head her narration as she hurtles him toward doom, setting her protagonist on a scramble to track down the author and change the ending of her story.\nSo how close was Kay's distraught character to Thompson's own?\n"Oh, very close. I've never been suicidal, but I've certainly been depressed. Clinically depressed," Thompson said. "I don't ever feel like I'm playing myself. I think that's a terribly difficult thing to do, and unhealthful, because you're not that person. ...\n"But of course, there are parallels, and as for writing, we all know what that's like. It's solitary and lonely and often quite miserable. I've written all my life, all my adult life. And a lot of the time I have spent under desks weeping because it is hard, especially when you're writing comedy. Kay's lucky because she's writing really tragic things that end in violent death. I think as with acting, writing serious things is much easier than writing funny things."\nDirected by Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball," "Finding Neverland"), "Stranger Than Fiction" co-stars Dustin Hoffman as a literature professor who guides Crick, Maggie Gyllenhaal as a bakery owner being audited by the IRS and Queen Latifah as Kay's no-nonsense assistant.\nThough a comedy, "Stranger Than Fiction" is far more sober and subdued than Ferrell's usual broad hijinks. He got a lesson in serious acting as he and Thompson prepared for the big scene where Harold confronts Kay in person for the first time.\n"That night we were talking about, I don't know, just the stupidest stuff, non-sequiturs, whatever, joking about this and that," Ferrell said. "I was like, wait, I've got to focus here. And Emma would just turn her back and be right in the scene, tears welling up in her eyes. I would be like, my God, she's a witch. She is insane."\nThompson, who also had acting Oscar nominations for "The Remains of the Day" and "In the Name of the Father," could be in line for another, co-star Hoffman said.\n"It's rare for me to say what I'm going to say, but I think it's a brilliant performance, and I think she's going to get rewarded for it," Hoffman said. "I think she'll certainly get nominated. I don't want to jinx it. Granted, it's a supporting part, but it's a heavyweight piece of work. The comedy is there, but I thought that the internal, desperate aspect of it was really personalized and naked."\nThe daughter of British theater director Eric Thompson and actress Phyllida Law, Thompson got her start in comedy, though she later became known for serious drama.
(08/28/06 2:54am)
LOS ANGELES -- Football season started early as Mark Wahlberg's "Invincible," a Walt Disney tale about a real-life walk-on who signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1970s, debuted as the top weekend movie with $17 million.\nThe previous No. 1 flick, New Line Cinema's "Snakes on a Plane," lost altitude in its second weekend, falling to sixth place with $6.4 million, a steep 58 percent drop, according to studio estimates Sunday.\n"Snakes on a Plane" had been preceded by a whirlwind of Internet buzz that the movie failed to live up to, opening with a modest $15.2 million. Starring Samuel L. Jackson as a federal agent battling killer snakes on a redeye flight, the movie had taken in $26.5 million in 10 days.\n"Invincible" stars Wahlberg as Vince Papale, a substitute teacher who made the Eagles' special-teams squad in open tryouts. The movie was the latest success among Disney's inspirational sports tales, which include the baseball flick "The Rookie" and the hockey saga "Miracle."\n"They make people feel good, and they can relate to the underdog," said Chris LeRoy, general sales manager at Disney. "They are sports-related stories, but I think these movies transcend the sport and get right to characters that people relate to."\nThe Warner Bros. drinking comedy "Beerfest" opened in fourth place with $6.5 million. Universal Pictures' musical drama "Idlewild," starring Andre Benjamin and Antwan A. Patton of OutKast, premiered at No. 9 with $5.9 million.\n"Idlewild" scored the best per-theater numbers among new wide releases, averaging $6,064 in 973 cinemas, about one-third the locations for "Invincible," which averaged $5,838 in 2,917 theaters, and "Beerfest," which did $2,193 in 2,964 sites.\nNew Line's family comedy "How to Eat Fried Worms," about a boy goaded into devouring worms, opened at No. 11 with $4.05 million, averaging $2,166 in 1,870 theaters.\n"Idlewild," set in the 1930s but blending swing and jazz with modern rap and R&B, stars Benjamin and Patton as players at a small-town speakeasy in Georgia. "Beerfest," featuring the comedy troupe Broken Lizard ("Super Troopers"), follows a team of Americans training for a secret drinking competition in Germany.\nExpanding to its widest release yet, Fox Searchlight's independent hit "Little Miss Sunshine" climbed to No. 3 with $7.5 million, averaging $5,245 in 1,430 theaters. A black comedy starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell in the tale of a family's calamitous trip to a child's beauty pageant, it had taken in $23 million since opening in a handful of theaters a month ago.\nAlso playing strongly in narrow release was the Yari Film Group's "The Illusionist," which took in $1.8 million in 144 theaters for a $12,688 average, bringing its 10-day total to $3.2 million. Starring Edward Norton as a magician hounded by a police detective (Paul Giamatti) out to debunk him in early 1900s Vienna, "The Illusionist" expands to about 700 theaters Friday.\n"Movie-goers do not live by blockbusters alone," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "They want to see these more interesting character studies and quirky, offbeat movies. That's reflected in the grosses for both of these movies"
(08/24/06 4:00am)
The Internet buzz over "Snakes on a Plane" turned out to be nothing to hiss about.\nThe high-flying thriller preceded by months of unprecedented Web buildup technically debuted as the No. 1 movie, but with a modest $13.8 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.\nWith its campy, tell-it-like-it-is title and the star power of lead actor Samuel L. Jackson, "Snakes on a Plane" became an online phenomenon, prompting endless Web chat and parodies long before anyone saw the movie.\nThat buzz proved fairly hollow when it came to showtime, with the debut weekend a respectable but unremarkable return for a movie with a production budget of a little more than $30 million.\nNew Line's David Tuckerman, head of distribution, said "Snakes on a Plane" would turn in a solid profit but that he did not know why the movie failed to live up to its Internet hype.\n"I think people were more excited about the marketing than the actual movie," said New Line President of Exhibitor Relations Paul Dergarabedian. "New Line did not set out to create this Internet buzz. That's actually a marketer's dream, but when marketing translates into awareness but does not inspire people to get out from behind their computers and into the theater, that's a problem."\nThe movie stars Jackson as an FBI agent battling killer snakes that have been put on a red-eye flight to do away with a witness about to testify in a murder trial.\nBox-office tracker Exhibitor Relations ranks movies according to numbers provided by studios, putting "Snakes on a Plane" in first place based on New Line's figures, Dergarabedian said.\nStarring Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver obsessed with winning, the comedy "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" was No. 1 at the box office the previous two weekends and raised its three-week total to $114.7 million.\nNew Line Cinema included $1.4 million that "Snakes on a Plane" raked in during 10 p.m. screenings Thursday to get a head start on the weekend. Without those revenues, the movie's weekend total would be $12.4 million, putting it just behind "Talladega Nights," which took in $13.76 million in its third weekend.\nTuckerman said it was customary for studios to include late-night previews in a movie's opening-weekend total.\n"It's an industry standard to do that, to roll that in," Tuckerman said. "Also, with this kind of picture, I would tell you unequivocally that at least 90 percent of that business would have gone to see it Friday night if not Thursday."\nRory Bruer, head of distribution at "Talladega Nights" studio Sony, declined to comment.\nUniversal Pictures' comedy "Accepted," about slackers who start their own college, had the next-best showing among new movies, debuting at No. 4 with $10.1 million. MGM's "Material Girls," starring Hilary and Haylie Duff as cosmetics heiresses, opened at No. 9 with $4.6 million.\nThe year's biggest hit, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," was No. 8 with $5 million, lifting its domestic total to $401 million.\nEstimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. The AP did not provide these box office tallies.
(08/24/06 2:59am)
The Internet buzz over "Snakes on a Plane" turned out to be nothing to hiss about.\nThe high-flying thriller preceded by months of unprecedented Web buildup technically debuted as the No. 1 movie, but with a modest $13.8 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.\nWith its campy, tell-it-like-it-is title and the star power of lead actor Samuel L. Jackson, "Snakes on a Plane" became an online phenomenon, prompting endless Web chat and parodies long before anyone saw the movie.\nThat buzz proved fairly hollow when it came to showtime, with the debut weekend a respectable but unremarkable return for a movie with a production budget of a little more than $30 million.\nNew Line's David Tuckerman, head of distribution, said "Snakes on a Plane" would turn in a solid profit but that he did not know why the movie failed to live up to its Internet hype.\n"I think people were more excited about the marketing than the actual movie," said New Line President of Exhibitor Relations Paul Dergarabedian. "New Line did not set out to create this Internet buzz. That's actually a marketer's dream, but when marketing translates into awareness but does not inspire people to get out from behind their computers and into the theater, that's a problem."\nThe movie stars Jackson as an FBI agent battling killer snakes that have been put on a red-eye flight to do away with a witness about to testify in a murder trial.\nBox-office tracker Exhibitor Relations ranks movies according to numbers provided by studios, putting "Snakes on a Plane" in first place based on New Line's figures, Dergarabedian said.\nStarring Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver obsessed with winning, the comedy "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" was No. 1 at the box office the previous two weekends and raised its three-week total to $114.7 million.\nNew Line Cinema included $1.4 million that "Snakes on a Plane" raked in during 10 p.m. screenings Thursday to get a head start on the weekend. Without those revenues, the movie's weekend total would be $12.4 million, putting it just behind "Talladega Nights," which took in $13.76 million in its third weekend.\nTuckerman said it was customary for studios to include late-night previews in a movie's opening-weekend total.\n"It's an industry standard to do that, to roll that in," Tuckerman said. "Also, with this kind of picture, I would tell you unequivocally that at least 90 percent of that business would have gone to see it Friday night if not Thursday."\nRory Bruer, head of distribution at "Talladega Nights" studio Sony, declined to comment.\nUniversal Pictures' comedy "Accepted," about slackers who start their own college, had the next-best showing among new movies, debuting at No. 4 with $10.1 million. MGM's "Material Girls," starring Hilary and Haylie Duff as cosmetics heiresses, opened at No. 9 with $4.6 million.\nThe year's biggest hit, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," was No. 8 with $5 million, lifting its domestic total to $401 million.\nEstimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. The AP did not provide these box office tallies.
(06/12/06 1:54am)
"A Prairie Home Companion" is Robert Altman at his most Altmanesque. Any desire to see it should be gauged by your tolerance for meandering tracking shots, big, bizarre ensembles and a story that seems to drift on the winds of the hot air blown from the characters' overlapping dialogue.\nThis review comes courtesy of someone who's a sucker for all of the above, which Altman applies with his masterfully ironic and curmudgeonly eye to a whimsy-filled fantasy about the last night of Garrison Keillor's venerable program.\nOn the radio airwaves, "A Prairie Home Companion" is still going strong after 30 years. For the big screen, though, Altman and screenwriter and co-star Keillor have imagined a mirror universe, blending real people behind the show with fictional characters who are part of the "Prairie Home" universe -- and even weaving in a trippy supernatural element.\nThe result is an ambling, rambling, folksy yarn that nicely captures the radio-show-that-time-forgot spirit of Keillor's music and comedy revue. It's a suitable companion piece to past Altman forays into the arts such as "Nashville" and "The Player," though lightweight by comparison.\nThe tremendous cast, including Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly and Virginia Madsen mixes with an easy camaraderie. It's no stretch to believe that Streep and Tomlin are sisters who have been singing together all their lives or that Harrelson and Reilly are cowboy pranksters who have shared a musical act for years.\nAnd Keillor proves as ideal a master of ceremonies on film as he is on radio.\nIn Keillor's cinematic take on things, "A Prairie Home Companion" is not a public radio staple nationwide but an old-fashioned show aired locally in St. Paul, Minn. Except for an epilogue, the film takes place all in a single evening as the show's performers and crew go through crises big and small while putting on a heck of a live broadcast.\nKeillor's the host, simply known as GK, a languid gabber who's like a human weather vane, his attention and tall-tale telling switching directions at the slightest provocation.\nThe other inhabitants of GK's little world are in a tizzy because their radio station has been sold, it's their last broadcast and the building is slated for demolition. But GK shrugs it off and treats it like any other show, fatalistically declaring that every performance is the last.\nKeillor's screenplay makes room for a delightful roster of quirky characters.\nStreep is Yolanda Johnson, an old flame of GK's who sings sweet, old-timey tunes with sister Rhonda (Tomlin), the siblings sharing happy-sad memories of their departed relations, including two other sisters they once performed with.\nYolanda's daughter (Lohan) hangs out during the show, witnessing the sometimes surreal backstage antics while writing poetry about suicide.\nHarrelson and Reilly are Dusty and Lefty singing cowpokes with a bawdy flair, and Kline plays Guy Noir, an old Hollywood gumshoe who works as the show's head of security (Noir is a fictional character Keillor created on the radio show).\nMadsen drifts in and out as an angelic beauty who wanders among the show's cast and crew with a mysterious task to perform, while Tommy Lee Jones pops up as the hatchet man dispatched by the radio station's new owner.\nThe characters' exchanges are strange, ethereal, heartwarmnand often quietly moving; the on-stage theatrics are energetic, mellifluous, corny and often hilarious.\nThe film uses the radio show's actual setting and house band, while many of the songs originated on the show itself.\nTypical for Altman's improvisational style of shooting, the actors hurl themselves into their characters with such fervor that it's almost impossible to pick any standouts. They're all terrific.\nThe epilogue feels awkwardly tacked on, as though Keillor and Altman didn't really know how to end the film. They might have dispensed with the postscript, since the point of the circuitous film, if it has one, is that endings are always upon us, even when they don't seem like endings.\n"A Prairie Home Companion," a Picturehouse release, is rated PG-13 for risque humorRunning time: 105 minutes Three stars out of four.
(05/14/06 11:39pm)
LOS ANGELES -- Forget busy summers. Ian McKellen has more big-screen action packed into the month of May than most British stage actors could hope for in a career.\nIn the adaptation of Dan Brown's best seller "The Da Vinci Code," McKellen plays Sir Leigh Teabing, the sinfully wealthy, polio-afflicted aristocrat who joins Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou's characters on their quest for the Holy Grail.\nA week later, McKellen reprises his role as Magneto, a villainous mutant who uses his ability to control metals to take on his heroic fellow freaks of nature in "X-Men: The Last Stand," the third film in the franchise.\nThis from an actor who's already got a monumental film project behind him as Gandalf, the sagacious wizard from "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, a role that earned him his second Academy Awards nomination after 1998's "Gods and Monsters."\nMcKellen -- who turns 67 the day before the May 26 U.S. debut of "X-Men: The Last Stand" -- is a latecomer to Hollywood after decades as one of England's leading theatrical performers.\nAn outspoken gay-rights activist since declaring his homosexuality in the late 1980s, McKellen likens fear of mutants in "X-Men" with societal homophobia.\nAP: Your early career was largely on stage, with roles here and there in film or television. How odd was it to suddenly become a movie star in your 60s?\nMcKellen: I can't really believe it, nor can anyone else, actually. It is an unusual thing to happen, because I'm not yet as old as people perhaps think I am. Gandalf was 7,000 years old. And I've got another 10 years in me, probably, of capering. So I'm just extremely lucky and grateful, and if it hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have missed it, to tell you the truth.\nAP: What's Magneto up to this time in "X-Men."\nMcKellen: I do like this story, because this begins in the Oval Office with the president having just appointed a minister for mutants. It's Kelsey Grammer painted blue, as it turns out. And then they discover a cure for mutancy. Think of the dilemma that minister is put in, at the heart of the establishment and the heart of the capitalist world. We've got to peddle the lie that we're all the same so we all buy the same products. That's why they don't like openly gay people on TV. We upset the view that we're all the same. What is Magneto going to say about that? Well, what everybody should say. Not on your life! There are people who think you can cure homosexuality. Scientologists will tell you they can cure you. They can CURE you! Well, Magneto suddenly became an easy part to play.
(03/21/06 4:46am)
LOS ANGELES -- Audiences were in a rebellious mood, lifting the action tale "V for Vendetta" to the top spot at the weekend box office with a $26.1 million debut.\nThe Warner Bros. film, which stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving in a story of revolution against a totalitarian British government, bumped off the previous weekend's box-office leaders.\nParamount's romantic comedy "Failure to Launch," which debuted at No. 1, slipped to \nsecond place with $15.8 million, raising its 10-day domestic total to $48.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.\nDisney's family remake "The Shaggy Dog," which premiered at No. 2, fell to third with $13.6 million, lifting its 10-day total to $35.9 million.\nThis weekend's other new wide release, Paramount's "She's the Man," opened in fourth with $11 million. The romance stars Amanda Bynes as a teen disguising herself as a male to play on a boys' soccer team in a modern update of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."\nFox Searchlight's tobacco-industry satire "Thank You for Smoking" opened to huge numbers in limited release, grossing $260,066 at five theaters for a whopping $52,013 average a cinema. By comparison, "V for Vendetta" averaged $7,767 in 3,365 theaters.\nStarring Aaron Eckhart as a spin doctor for cigarette companies, "Thank You for Smoking" gradually expands into nationwide release through April 7. The film was directed by Jason Reitman, son of filmmaker Ivan Reitman ("Ghostbusters").\nOverall box office revenue continued a monthlong decline, with the top 12 movies taking in $93.8 million, down 11 percent from the same weekend last year, when "The Ring Two" opened with $35.1 million.\n"V for Vendetta" was adapted by Andy and Larry Wachowski, creators of "The Matrix" franchise, from a graphic novel about a masked freedom fighter battling British fascism in the near future. The film was produced by Joel Silver, who also made "The Matrix" flicks, and directed by James McTeigue, a protege of the Wachowski brothers.\nCritics generally gave thumbs up to "V for Vendetta," calling it a smarter-than-average, visually impressive action thriller. The movie touches on disturbing notions in a post-Sept. 11 world, raising questions about when violence is justified and examining definitions of freedom-fighting vs. terrorism.\n"Here we have a movie about a guy who wears a mask the whole picture, with controversial subjects, some hot-button issues. Not the standard-fare movie, and we did a strong opening and attracted a huge amount of people," Silver said.
(03/06/06 5:11am)
LOS ANGELES - The ensemble drama "Crash" pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Academy Awards history, winning best picture Sunday over the cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain," which had been the front-runner.\n"Crash," featuring a huge cast in crisscrossing story lines over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles, rode a late surge of praise that lifted it past "Brokeback Mountain," a film that had won most other key Hollywood honors.\n"We are humbled by the other nominees in this category. You have made this year one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American cinema," said "Crash" producer Cathy Schulman.\nLead-acting prizes went to Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote in "Capote" and Reese Witherspoon as country singer June Carter in "Walk the Line," while corporate thrillers earned supporting-performer Oscars for George Clooney in "Syriana" and Rachel Weisz in "The Constant Gardener."\n"Brokeback Mountain" filmmaker Ang Lee did win the best-director prize for the tale of two old sheepherding pals who carry on a love affair they conceal from their families for years.\nLee, whose martial-arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won the foreign-language Oscar five years ago, became the first Asian filmmaker to win Hollywood's main filmmaking honor.\n"I wish I knew how to quit you," Lee told the audience crowd, reiterating the film's most-quoted line.\nWitherspoon won a close race over Felicity Huffman in a gender-bending performance as a transsexual in "Transamerica."\n"Oh, my goodness I never thought I'd be here in my whole life growing up in Tennessee," said Witherspoon, who like co-star Joaquin Phoenix as Carter's soul mate, country legend Johnny Cash, handled her own singing in "Walk the Line."\n"People used to ask June how she was doing, and she would say I'm just trying to matter. I know what she means," said Witherspoon, who told the audience the Oscar made her feel she was doing work that matters.\nHoffman's performance nimbly straddles the magnetic qualities of raconteur Capote and the effete, off-putting egoism of the gay author.\n"Wow, I'm in a category with some great, great, great actors, fantastic actors, and I'm overwhelmed. Really overwhelmed," said Hoffman, who asked the Oscar audience to congratulate his mother for bringing up four children alone.\n"We're at the party, mom," Hoffman said. "Be proud mom, because I'm proud of you."\nClooney's win capped a remarkable year, during which he made Oscar history by becoming the first person nominated for acting in one movie and directing another.\nAlong with performing in "Syriana," Clooney directed the Edward R. Murrow tale "Good Night, and Good Luck," which earned him directing and writing nominations and was among the best-picture contenders.\nIn "Syriana," Clooney effaced his glamour-boy looks behind the bearded, heavyset facade of a CIA patriot who grows jaded over U.S. oil policy in the Middle East.\n"All right, so I'm not winning director," the first-time winner joked, adding that an Oscar always would be synonymous with his name from then on, including in his obituary. "Oscar winner George Clooney, sexiest man alive 1997, `Batman,' died today in a freak accident."\nClooney also lauded Oscar voters for their daring.\n"This group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the back of theaters," Clooney said, referring to the supporting-actress winner from "Gone With the Wind," the first black performer to receive an Oscar.\nIn "The Constant Gardener," adapted from John le Carre's novel, Weisz played a humanitarian-aid worker whose fearless efforts against questionable pharmaceutical practices makes her a target for government and corporate interests in Africa.\nWeisz thanked co-star Ralph Fiennes and director Fernando Meirelles, "and of course, John le Carre, who wrote this unflinching, angry story. And he really paid tribute to the people who are willing to risk their own lives to fight injustice. They're greater men and women than I."\n"Brokeback Mountain," which led contenders with eight nominations, lost in three acting categories (Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams and Jake Gyllenhaal) but picked up the Oscar for adapted screenplay by Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove") and Diana Ossana and for Gustavo Santaolalla's musical score as well as for Lee as director.\nThe Oscar for original screenplay went to the ensemble drama "Crash," written by the film's director, Paul Haggis, and Bobby Moresco.\nThe raucous hip-hop tune "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow," whose expletive-laden lyrics had to be toned down for performance at the Oscars, won the prize for best song. The song was written by the rap group Three 6 Mafia, aka Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard.\nFeaturing dancers dressed as hookers and pimps gyrating on stage, the song's performance stood in sharp contrast to the other nominated tunes and the general stateliness of the Oscars.\n"You know what? I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp," joked Oscar host Jon Stewart.\nThe stop-motion family tale "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" won the Oscar for best animated feature film.\nCo-director Nick Park, who also made the hit stop-motion film "Chicken Run," thanked voice stars Helena Bonham Carter and Peter Sallis, who has done the voice of cheese-loving Brit Wallace for 23 years, since the filmmaker came up with the character in his student days.\n"You've been an absolute gem, Peter, and you've sparkled all the way," Park said.\nThe Antarctic nature tale "March of the Penguins," a surprise smash at the box office, was honored as best documentary.\n"King Kong," from "Lord of the Rings" creator Peter Jackson, won three Oscars, for visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing. The Japan drama "Memoirs of a Geisha" also earned three, for cinematography, costume design and art direction, while the fantasy epic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" was picked for best makeup.\nSouth Africa's drama "Tsotsi," based on Athol Fugard's novel about a young hoodlum reclaiming his own humanity, won for foreign-language film, beating the controversial Palestinian terrorism saga "Paradise Now."\nClooney was one of the marquee names among a lineup of acting nominees heavy on lesser-known performers. And with a best-picture field of lower-budgeted films that drew smaller audiences than the commercial flicks that often dominate the Oscars, the question was whether Hollywood's big awards night could lure TV viewers.\nOscar organizers hoped new host Stewart and the cultural buzz over front-runner "Brokeback Mountain" would beef up viewership.\nThe Oscars generally lure their biggest audiences in years when blockbusters such as "Titanic" or "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" are favored to win.\n"Brokeback Mountain," though, has become a phenomenon far beyond those who have actually seen it, entering the pop-culture psyche with its tale of cowboys in love (acting nominees Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal).\nStewart used best-picture nominee "Capote" to set up a "Brokeback Mountain" wisecrack, saying the film "showed America not all gay people are virile cowboys. Some are actually effete New York intellectuals. It's true"
(03/06/06 4:08am)
LOS ANGELES - George Clooney won the supporting-actor Academy Award on Sunday for the oil-industry thriller "Syriana," and Rachel Weisz took the supporting-actress prize for another corporate thriller, "The Constant Gardener."\nThe win capped a remarkable year for Clooney, who made Oscar history by becoming the first person nominated for acting in one movie and directing another.\nAlong with performing in "Syriana," Clooney directed the Edward R. Murrow tale "Good Night, and Good Luck," which earned him directing and writing nominations and was among the best-picture contenders.\nIn "Syriana," Clooney effaced his glamour-boy looks behind the bearded, heavyset facade of a CIA patriot who grows jaded over U.S. oil policy in the Middle East.\n"All right, so I'm not winning director," the first-time winner joked, adding that an Oscar always would be synonymous with his name from then on, including in his obituary. "Oscar winner George Clooney, sexiest man alive 1997, `Batman,' died today in a freak accident."\nClooney also lauded Oscar voters for their daring.\n"This group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the back of theaters," Clooney said, referring to the supporting-actress winner from "Gone With the Wind," the first black performer to receive an Oscar.\nIn "The Constant Gardener," adapted from John le Carre's novel, Weisz played a humanitarian-aid worker whose fearless efforts against questionable pharmaceutical practices makes her a target for government and corporate interests in Africa.\nWeisz thanked co-star Ralph Fiennes and director Fernando Meirelles, "and of course, John le Carre, who wrote this unflinching, angry story. And he really paid tribute to the people who are willing to risk their own lives to fight injustice. They're greater men and women than I."\nBest-picture favorite "Brokeback Mountain," which led contenders with eight nominations, lost in both supporting-actor categories for Michelle Williams and Jake Gyllenhaal but picked up the Oscar for Gustavo Santaolalla's musical score.\nThe raucous hip-hop tune "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow," whose expletive-laden lyrics had to be toned down for performance at the Oscars, won the prize for best song. The song was written by the rap group Three 6 Mafia, aka Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard.\nFeaturing dancers dressed as hookers and pimps gyrating on stage, the song's performance stood in sharp contrast to the other nominated tunes and the general stateliness of the Oscars.\n"You know what? I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp," joked Oscar host Jon Stewart.\nThe stop-motion family tale "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" won the Oscar for best animated feature film.\nCo-director Nick Park, who also made the hit stop-motion film "Chicken Run," thanked voice stars Helena Bonham Carter and Peter Sallis, who has done the voice of cheese-loving Brit Wallace for 23 years, since the filmmaker came up with the character in his student days.\n"You've been an absolute gem, Peter, and you've sparkled all the way," Park said.\nThe Antarctic nature tale "March of the Penguins," a surprise smash at the box office, was honored as best documentary.\n"King Kong," from "Lord of the Rings" creator Peter Jackson, won three Oscars, for visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing. The Japan drama "Memoirs of a Geisha" earned Oscars for costume design and art direction, while the fantasy epic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" was picked for best makeup.\nSouth Africa's drama "Tsotsi," based on Athol Fugard's novel about a young hoodlum reclaiming his own humanity, won for foreign-language film, beating the controversial Palestinian terrorism saga "Paradise Now."\nClooney was one of the marquee names among a lineup of acting nominees heavy on lesser-known performers. And with a best-picture field of lower-budgeted films that drew smaller audiences than the commercial flicks that often dominate the Oscars, the question was whether Hollywood's big awards night could lure TV viewers.\nOscar organizers hoped new host Stewart and the cultural buzz over front-runner "Brokeback Mountain" would beef up viewership.\nThe Oscars generally lure their biggest audiences in years when blockbusters such as "Titanic" or "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" are favored to win.\n"Brokeback Mountain," though, has become a phenomenon far beyond those who have actually seen it, entering the pop-culture psyche with its tale of cowboys in love (best-actor nominee Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, who had been among supporting-actor nominees).\nThe show began with reprise visits from former Oscar hosts Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin and David Letterman, in which they all turn down offers to do the show again. Crystal and Rock did a "Brokeback Mountain" spoof, the two sharing a mountainside tent like the cowboys in the film and begging off as hosts, saying they were too busy.\nStewart used best-picture nominee "Capote," about gay author Truman Capote, to set up a "Brokeback Mountain" wisecrack, saying the film "showed America not all gay people are virile cowboys. Some are actually effete New York intellectuals. It's true."\nWhether the "Brokeback Mountain" factor would boost ratings was uncertain. ABC, which airs the show, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences assembled an A-list collection of Oscar presenters to help offset a relatively unknown cast of nominees that included David Strathairn for "Good Night, and Good Luck," Terrence Howard for "Hustle & Flow" and Amy Adams for "Junebug."\n"Brokeback Mountain" won top prizes at earlier Hollywood honors including the Golden Globes and was expected to earn best picture at the Oscars and the directing trophy for Ang Lee, who would be the first Asian filmmaker to receive that award.\nYet the ensemble drama "Crash," featuring a huge cast of characters in multiple story lines playing out over a chaotic 36-hour period, was a strong dark-horse contender to pull a best-picture upset.\nAlong with "Crash," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Capote," the other best-picture nominees were "Good Night, and Good Luck" and the assassination thriller "Munich"
(03/06/06 4:07am)
LOS ANGELES - Philip Seymour Hoffman won the best-actor Academy Award on Sunday for "Capote," in which he gives a remarkable embodiment of "In Cold Blood" author Truman Capote.\n"Wow, I'm in a category with some great, great, great actors, fantastic actors, and I'm overwhelmed. Really overwhelmed," said Hoffman, whose performance nimbly straddles the magnetic qualities of raconteur Capote and the effete, off-putting egoism of the gay author.\nHoffman asked the Oscar audience to congratulate his mother for bringing up four children alone.\n"We're at the party, mom," Hoffman said. "Be proud mom, because I'm proud of you."\nCorporate thrillers earned the supporting-performer Oscars for George Clooney in "Syriana" and Rachel Weisz in "The Constant Gardener."\nThe win capped a remarkable year for Clooney, who made Oscar history by becoming the first person nominated for acting in one movie and directing another.\nAlong with performing in "Syriana," Clooney directed the Edward R. Murrow tale "Good Night, and Good Luck," which earned him directing and writing nominations and was among the best-picture contenders.\nIn "Syriana," Clooney effaced his glamour-boy looks behind the bearded, heavyset facade of a CIA patriot who grows jaded over U.S. oil policy in the Middle East.\n"All right, so I'm not winning director," the first-time winner joked, adding that an Oscar always would be synonymous with his name from then on, including in his obituary. "Oscar winner George Clooney, sexiest man alive 1997, `Batman,' died today in a freak accident."\nClooney also lauded Oscar voters for their daring.\n"This group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the back of theaters," Clooney said, referring to the supporting-actress winner from "Gone With the Wind," the first black performer to receive an Oscar.\nIn "The Constant Gardener," adapted from John le Carre's novel, Weisz played a humanitarian-aid worker whose fearless efforts against questionable pharmaceutical practices makes her a target for government and corporate interests in Africa.\nWeisz thanked co-star Ralph Fiennes and director Fernando Meirelles, "and of course, John le Carre, who wrote this unflinching, angry story. And he really paid tribute to the people who are willing to risk their own lives to fight injustice. They're greater men and women than I."\nBest-picture favorite "Brokeback Mountain," which led contenders with eight nominations, lost in both supporting-actor categories for Michelle Williams and Jake Gyllenhaal but picked up the Oscar for Gustavo Santaolalla's musical score.\nThe raucous hip-hop tune "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow," whose expletive-laden lyrics had to be toned down for performance at the Oscars, won the prize for best song. The song was written by the rap group Three 6 Mafia, aka Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard.\nFeaturing dancers dressed as hookers and pimps gyrating on stage, the song's performance stood in sharp contrast to the other nominated tunes and the general stateliness of the Oscars.\n"You know what? I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp," joked Oscar host Jon Stewart.\nThe stop-motion family tale "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" won the Oscar for best animated feature film.\nCo-director Nick Park, who also made the hit stop-motion film "Chicken Run," thanked voice stars Helena Bonham Carter and Peter Sallis, who has done the voice of cheese-loving Brit Wallace for 23 years, since the filmmaker came up with the character in his student days.\n"You've been an absolute gem, Peter, and you've sparkled all the way," Park said.\nThe Antarctic nature tale "March of the Penguins," a surprise smash at the box office, was honored as best documentary.\n"King Kong," from "Lord of the Rings" creator Peter Jackson, won three Oscars, for visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing. The Japan drama "Memoirs of a Geisha" earned Oscars for costume design and art direction, while the fantasy epic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" was picked for best makeup.\nSouth Africa's drama "Tsotsi," based on Athol Fugard's novel about a young hoodlum reclaiming his own humanity, won for foreign-language film, beating the controversial Palestinian terrorism saga "Paradise Now."\nClooney was one of the marquee names among a lineup of acting nominees heavy on lesser-known performers. And with a best-picture field of lower-budgeted films that drew smaller audiences than the commercial flicks that often dominate the Oscars, the question was whether Hollywood's big awards night could lure TV viewers.\nOscar organizers hoped new host Stewart and the cultural buzz over front-runner "Brokeback Mountain" would beef up viewership.\nThe Oscars generally lure their biggest audiences in years when blockbusters such as "Titanic" or "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" are favored to win.\n"Brokeback Mountain," though, has become a phenomenon far beyond those who have actually seen it, entering the pop-culture psyche with its tale of cowboys in love (best-actor nominee Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, who had been among supporting-actor nominees).\nThe show began with reprise visits from former Oscar hosts Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin and David Letterman, in which they all turn down offers to do the show again. Crystal and Rock did a "Brokeback Mountain" spoof, the two sharing a mountainside tent like the cowboys in the film and begging off as hosts, saying they were too busy.\nStewart used best-picture nominee "Capote" to set up a "Brokeback Mountain" wisecrack, saying the film "showed America not all gay people are virile cowboys. Some are actually effete New York intellectuals. It's true."\n"Brokeback Mountain" won top prizes at earlier Hollywood honors including the Golden Globes and was expected to earn best picture at the Oscars and the directing trophy for Ang Lee, who would be the first Asian filmmaker to receive that award.\nYet the ensemble drama "Crash," featuring a huge cast of characters in multiple story lines playing out over a chaotic 36-hour period, was a strong dark-horse contender to pull a best-picture upset.\nAlong with "Crash," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Capote," the other best-picture nominees were "Good Night, and Good Luck" and the assassination thriller "Munich"
(02/13/06 4:42am)
LOS ANGELES -- Inspector Clouseau bumbled his way to the top of the box office as Steve Martin's "The Pink Panther" debuted with $21.7 million to lead a rush of new releases.\nNew Line's horror sequel "Final Destination 3" ran a close second with $20.1 million, followed by Universal's animated "Curious George" at No. 3 with $15.3 million and the Warner Bros. thriller "Firewall" starring Harrison Ford in fourth with $13.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.\nThe overall box office rose slightly despite the Winter Olympics and a Northeast snowstorm, both of which kept many movie-goers at home. The top 12 movies took in $106.8 million, up 3 percent over the same weekend last year, when "Hitch" opened as the No. 1 movie with $43.2 million.\nAfter a slump in which attendance dropped 7 percent in 2005, Hollywood is off to a better start this year. Revenues are at a little more than $1 billion, up 8 percent from last year's. Factoring in higher ticket prices, attendance has risen 5 percent, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.\nSony's "The Pink Panther" stars Martin in the role defined by Peter Sellers, whose French detective Clouseau was the idiot-savant hero of a string of 1960s and '70s comedy hits by Blake Edwards, who continued the franchise into the '80s and '90s after Sellers' death.\nThe remake drew a broad audience, with parents and their children accounting for 51 percent of the crowds and viewers evenly divided between those older and younger than 25.
(01/18/06 4:41am)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- "Brokeback Mountain" is moseying along the Academy Awards trail, its four Golden Globe wins -- best drama among them -- positioning the cowboy love story for Oscar glory.\nHomosexual and transsexual themes dominated Monday's Golden Globes with key wins by "Brokeback Mountain," plus acting honors for the film biography "Capote" and the gender-bending "Transamerica."\nBut politics and music ran close behind at the Globes, second only to the Oscars in the hierarchy of Hollywood film honors.\nTop prizes went to the corporate and government corruption thrillers "Syriana" and "The Constant Gardener," the terrorism drama "Paradise Now" and the White House series "Commander In Chief," while the Johnny Cash film biography "Walk the Line" won three honors.\nThe four Globes for "Brokeback Mountain," the story of old ranch hand buddies who conceal an ongoing homosexual affair from their families, included the directing award for Ang Lee.\nThe fact that "Brokeback Mountain" has found eager audiences across the country, including the conservative heartland, shows that Americans are willing to embrace stories of love in all forms, Lee said.\n"It has proven you can never categorize a region or place or stereotype them," Lee said.\nThe Globes position "Brokeback Mountain" as a solid front-runner for the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 31, with the Oscars handed out March 5. The film also won Globes for best screenplay and song.\nLikewise, acting winners Felicity Huffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, George Clooney and Rachel Weisz solidified their Oscar prospects.\nHuffman won the best dramatic actress award for her remarkable transformation in the road-trip tale "Transamerica," in which she plays a man preparing for sex-change surgery.\n"I know as actors our job is usually to shed our skins, but I think as people our job is to become who we really are, and so I would like to salute the men and women who brave ostracism, alienation and a life lived on the margins to become who they really are," Huffman said.\nHoffman was honored as best dramatic actor for his role as gay author Truman Capote in "Capote." Phoenix as country legend Cash and Witherspoon as the singer's soul mate, June Carter, earned the lead-acting prizes in a musical or comedy for "Walk the Line."\nThe film also won for best musical or comedy.\nA Southerner, Witherspoon said she was excited to do a film paying tribute to the region's music and to play a woman she greatly respected.\n"I also believe in really strong women, and I think she's the ultimate strong female character," Witherspoon said. "And I just really related to her as a mother and as a wife and also as an entertainer."\nPolitical thrillers picked up both supporting-acting Globes, Clooney winning for the oil-industry saga "Syriana" and Weisz for "The Constant Gardener," a tale of government and corporate corruption centered in Africa.\nWith other Globe-nominated tales such as "Munich" and "Good Night, and Good Luck," the latter directed by Clooney, 2005 proved practically a throwback to Hollywood's golden age of political films in the 1970s.\nBoth of Clooney's films, "Syriana" and "Good Night, and Good Luck," have been viewed as critiques on the current state of U.S. policy domestically and overseas. Backstage, Clooney said the films were just dealing with issues he felt were important.\n"Syriana" was not an attack on the Bush administration," Clooney said. "This was an attack on 60 years of failed policies in the Middle East."\nThe Palestinian film "Paradise Now," a dark tale of two Arab friends enlisted to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, won the Globe for foreign-language film.\nAmong television winners, Mary-Louise Parker of "Weeds" beat out the four lead actresses of "Desperate Housewives," Emmy winner Huffman included, for best actress in a comedy series. But "Desperate Housewives" did win for best musical or comedy series.\n"Lost" won for best TV drama series, while the White House saga "Commander In Chief" won the dramatic actress TV honor for Geena Davis, who plays the first female president.\nWhile Davis noted the United States lags far behind other countries that have installed women in their top leadership posts, she said a woman in the Oval Office is inevitable.\n"I'd like to think that it would be sooner than later," Davis said. "Because if you think about it, that is the only direction that we're headed in is to have a female president eventually. ... Whether it will take 100 years or 10 years, I really don't know"
(09/08/05 4:24am)
BRISTOL, England -- Inside a cavernous office-park building in this southwest English city, dozens of grown-ups are moving goofy clay figures around like kids playing with their Barbies or GI Joes.\nA hundred miles away at a similar space in East London, more adults are doing the same with lanky, big-eyed puppets that speak in the voices of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.\nIt's not a mass epidemic of people relapsing to childhood. These are the movie sets for Hollywood's latest animated extravaganzas, "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," a big-screen version of the TV cartoons starring a cheese-obsessed Brit and his faithful dog, and "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride," about a jittery bridegroom yanked into the underworld to wed a decomposing babe.\nAmid an onslaught of computer-generated films such as "Shrek" and "The Incredibles" that has virtually suffocated hand-drawn cartoon features, the makers of "Wallace & Gromit" and "Corpse Bride" have reverted to one of the oldest forms of movie animation: Meticulously moving inanimate objects around and photographing them, frame by frame.\n"It's great. I get to play with all these toys. Really expensive toys," said animator Teresa Drilling during a break from work on a "Wallace & Gromit" action sequence, in which lovable pooch Gromit and a rival canine engage in a dogfight in small airplanes.\nGiven the time involved - it can take a week to shoot a sequence lasting just five or six seconds - the form known as stop-motion animation has been a rare breed. Just three notable feature-length films have been made in stop-motion in the past 12 years: 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas," produced by "Corpse Bride" co-director Burton, 1996's "James and the Giant Peach," and 2000's "Chicken Run," from "Wallace & Gromit" creator Nick Park.\nProduction wrapped early this summer on "Wallace & Gromit" and "Corpse Bride," and both movies premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, which begins Thursday. "Corpse Bride" opens in limited release Sept. 16 and expands nationwide Sept. 23. "Wallace & Gromit" follows on Oct. 7.\n"How often do you get a stop-motion feature film? Every five or 10 years? Now you get two of them, and both starring Helena Bonham Carter," said Mike Johnson, Burton's directing partner on "Corpse Bride."\nAlong with providing the voice of the dead chick pursuing Depp's character in "Corpse Bride," Bonham Carter does the vocals for the female lead in "Wallace & Gromit," a high society dame who captures Wallace's heart.\nIt's a coincidence that two stop-motion features are coming at the same time, though the filmmakers hope the movies succeed well enough to encourage more use of the process.\n"There's just something visceral about moving a puppet frame by frame," Burton said. "There's a magical quality about it. Maybe you can get smoother animation with computers, but there's a dimension and emotional quality to this kind of animation that fits these characters and this story."\n"Corpse Bride" was created using slender puppets made of rubber, with metal skeletons so intricate the filmmakers hired jewelers to help craft the tiny gears and joints. Miniature cranks in the puppets' ears control their facial movements, enabling animators to create remarkably lifelike smiles, frowns and other expressions\nThe "Wallace & Gromit" characters were sculpted of clay, with metal skeletons beneath. Animators had a variety of mouths they would swap on to the characters to mimic speech, each simulating the shape of the lips for different phonetic sounds.\n"Wallace & Gromit" comes from Aardman Animations, which introduced the characters in three TV shorts from 1989 to 1995 and also made "Chicken Run." In their big-screen adventure, Wallace and Gromit run a pest-control outfit and encounter a monstrous mutant rabbit whose appetite threatens to ruin the town's annual giant-vegetable contest.\nJeffrey Katzenberg -- co-founder of DreamWorks, which is releasing "Wallace & Gromit" -- notes that glossy, cutting-edge computer animation is a nice fit for the hip, sarcastic tone of the studio's "Shrek" films.\nLikewise, lower-tech clay animation fits the droll British humor pervading "Wallace & Gromit" and other Aardman films.\n"The humor is slightly chunky and slightly naive," said Steve Box, Park's co-director on "Wallace & Gromit." "There's a kind of innocence, a handmade quality to it, and it's really reflected in the puppets.\n"It's like an ongoing joke we the filmmakers share with the audience, which isn't dissimilar to Jim Henson and the Muppets. You know they're puppets. They are made from clay, and yet you allow yourself to enter into this drama, like a live film full of tension, and you treat them seriously all the time, though you know they're made of clay. I think that lets people really have fun with it."\nStop-motion animation dates back at least to 1907, when J. Stuart Blackton used the technique to show a dinner being prepared by invisible hands in his short film "The Haunted Hotel."\nThe technique has a venerable history in live-action films, used to create dinosaurs in the silent classic "The Lost World," the giant ape in the original "King Kong," the beasts in films by special-effects master Ray Harryhausen and the giant robots in "RoboCop."\nStop-motion has had a varied life on television with such shows as "Gumby," "Davey and Goliath," Rankin-Bass productions like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the California Raisins commercials.\nAardman gave stop-motion a modern makeover in the mid-1980s with its ultra-cool animation for Peter Gabriel's music video "Sledgehammer."\nAdvances in realistic computer effects in the last decade have largely choked off stop-motion animation in live-action films. And despite the timing of "Corpse Bride" and "Wallace & Gromit" along with Aardman's "Creature Comforts" TV series, stop-motion's future looks spotty.\n"I think we're either going to die on the vine, become a buggy-whip factory, or we're going to be discovered as a folk-art craft," said "Corpse Bride" cinematographer Pete Kozachik, who worked on "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach."\nWhile Aardman is using computer animation for its next film, "Flushed Away," the company has other clay-animated films on the drawing board, ensuring that the form likely will have periodic revivals on the big screen.\n"When computer animation came in, they thought it would be the death of 3-D stop-motion, but it has a particular life of its own," said Dan McLaughlin, who teaches animation at the University of California at Los Angeles. "It's hand-crafted and has a spontaneity. It can feel more alive. The hand of the individual is right there. Sometimes, you even see the thumbprints in the clay."\nAs they wound down on production of "Corpse Bride" and "Wallace & Gromit" this summer, neither team of filmmakers was devoting much thought to the future of stop-motion animation.\nThey had enough to do just getting their playthings to do what they wanted.\n"At the end of the day, we get paid to play with toys," "Corpse Bride" co-director Johnson said. "So how bad can it be"
(09/06/05 4:50am)
LOS ANGELES -- Americans' love affair with movies is far from over. Yet like many relationships, it seems to be suffering from a case of familiarity breeds contempt.\nSummer 2005 was the worst since 1997 for movie attendance, which dropped sharply and rattled the complacency of studios.\nFor the 18 weeks from early May through Labor Day, domestic movie grosses are expected to total $3.6 billion, down 9 percent from summer revenues of $3.96 billion last year, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. Attendance figures are even bleaker. Factoring in higher admission prices, the number of movie tickets sold should come in around 562.5 million, down 12 percent from summer 2004.\nWhat went wrong?\n"What didn't go wrong? That's the question," said Paul Dergarabedian, Exhibitor Relations president. "This was a summer that really could be characterized as under a cloud from the beginning. Usually, the first weekend in May, you have a big film that kind of kicks off the summer. It didn't happen that way this time, and that was sort of an indicator of things to come."\nSome movies did score big, but the overall downturn lingered and then worsened, prompting gloom-and-doom predictions that audiences were growing tired of rising ticket prices, concession stand costs, pre-show advertising and other movie theater hassles.\nIn an Associated Press-AOL News poll in June, nearly three-fourths of adults said they would prefer to stay home and watch movies on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view rather than traipse to a theater. Almost half said they think movies are getting worse.\nSummer 2005 did produce its share of big hits, led by "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" at almost $380 million. Films at or near the $200 million mark included "War of the Worlds," "Batman Begins," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Wedding Crashers" and "Madagascar."\nThere also were a few independent hits, such as the ensemble drama "Crash" and the surprise documentary smash "March of the Penguins."\nIt's unclear whether such breakout hits or the success of character-driven comedies such as "Wedding Crashers" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" will prompt studio executives to seek fresh ideas, or whether they will fall back on the safe old summer formulas.
(06/13/05 12:28am)
LOS ANGELES - He was the cruel taskmaster who made Harrison Ford hang with snakes and rats, required Robert Duvall to shave his head and turned Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill into Pez dispensers.\nGeorge Lucas was presented with The American Film Institute's annual lifetime achievement award Thursday night. He was hailed as an innovator whose "American Graffiti" created a 1950s and early '60s nostalgia craze and ushered in a new era of special effects with his "Star Wars" films.\nLucas, 61, said he was "honored and a bit bewildered" considering that by his count he has made only three movies -- "THX 1138," "American Graffiti" and the six "Star Wars" flicks, which he views as one long film.\nLucas said he was hesitant when approached about the prestigious award. Previous recipients include Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Meryl Streep and Lucas' pal, Steven Spielberg.\nWith odd humility for a filmmaker whose movies helped shape the modern blockbuster age, Lucas said he wondered, "Who would come" to the ceremony?\n"I halfway expected to have a room full of stormtroopers and Princess Leias," he said.\nInstead, he had a roomful of adoring colleagues and fans.\n"THX 1138" star Duvall recalled for the crowd how he had to shave his head for Lucas' first film, a cult sci-fi satire of consumerism and dehumanization.\nFisher and Hamill -- Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker of the first three "Star Wars" movies -- ribbed Lucas for the merchandising empire the films created, including Pez dispensers, shampoo bottles and electric toothbrushes based on their characters.\n"People are still asking me if I knew it was going to be that big of a hit," Fisher said of the first "Star Wars" movie in 1977. "Yes, we all knew. The only one who didn't know was George."\nLucas' final "Star Wars" film, "Revenge of the Sith," opened in May and is climbing toward a $400 million domestic gross.\nLucas took some roasting for his occasional failures, notably the 1986 flop "Howard the Duck," on which he was executive producer.\nWilliam Shatner -- Capt. Kirk from another great space saga, "Star Trek" -- offered a musical number "from one star voyager to another." He performed a variation of "My Way," telling Lucas "you did it your way" while dancers in "Star Wars" stormtrooper costumes did a chorus line routine.\n"Live long," Shatner told Lucas. "You've already prospered enough."\nLucas poked fun at himself over his reputation for clunky dialogue, thanking mentor Francis Ford Coppola for helping him to hone his writing skills.\n"He took me from not being able to write a word in terms of writing screenplays to being the king of wooden dialogue," Lucas said.\nFord mentioned the snakes, bugs and rats he performed with on the three "Indiana Jones" movies Lucas produced and Spielberg directed.\nLucas and Spielberg have been developing a fourth installment in the adventures of globe-trotting archaeologist Indy, which they hope to shoot next year.\n"I do love Indiana Jones, and if you guys can dream up more ways to torture me, I'll be there for `Indiana Jones 4,'" said Ford, also a past recipient of the AFI life-achievement prize.\nSpielberg, who presented the award to Lucas, said his friend and collaborator stood alongside H.G. Wells and Jules Verne as an emissary who brought science fiction to the masses.\n"You have many years ahead of you to create the dreams that we can't even imagine dreaming," Spielberg said. "You have done more for the collective unconscious of this planet than you will ever know."\nLucas offered thanks to Spielberg, Coppola and other colleagues and said that if he had not gone into filmmaking, he had no idea what he would have done with his life.\n"I'm also extremely grateful that I discovered my passion. I love movies," Lucas said. "I love to watch them, I love to make them."\nThe AFI show honoring Lucas will air June 20 on the USA Network.
(05/19/05 1:33am)
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- So who is this Scottish despot Ian McDiarmid, and why does he have it in for the Skywalker boys?\nFor 22 years, McDiarmid has been the man behind the curtain, the real cloaked villain of George Lucas' "Star Wars" saga.\nNow, the esteemed veteran of British theater steps to center stage with "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" as he pitilessly manipulates young malcontent Anakin Skywalker to become the strong arm of galactic oppression, Darth Vader.\nMcDiarmid originated the role of the prune-faced emperor in 1983's "Return of the Jedi" and has been re-creating the character with the current prequel trilogy. After presenting the character as a seemingly honorable politician with a hidden agenda in "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," McDiarmid moves him into the full stink of evil in "Revenge of the Sith."\n"What's intriguing about it is I get to do more as the character moves toward the center of the movie," McDiarmid, 60, told The Associated Press in an interview at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. "And it's bright of George to keep him in the background for the first two, really. And also, that's the way man operates. He's on the periphery, and then when the time's right, he makes his bid."\nThat also could describe McDiarmid's slow advance to the forefront of Hollywood's biggest science-fiction franchise. With only a few film and TV credits at the time, McDiarmid landed the small but critical role as the emperor, who is heartlessly ready to sacrifice Vader to turn his son, Luke Skywalker, into an even more powerful henchman.\nAfter "Return of the Jedi" was over, McDiarmid figured his "Star Wars" career was also finished. He returned to the theater, with occasional roles in such movies as "Gorky Park" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."\nThen Lucas began the prequel trilogy and brought McDiarmid back as Palpatine, a political opportunist who gradually reveals his darker side. Along with chronicling Anakin's transformation, "Revenge of the Sith" explains how Palpatine took on the emperor's gnarly face and froggy voice, which McDiarmid developed while rehearsing for "Return of the Jedi."\n"He did look like a terrible little toad, and he needed a voice to match the face," McDiarmid said. "So I thought it should be somewhere half in the glottal, like toads, but deeper as well. I thought of Japanese acting. As it happens, they produce quite a lot of their words from the stomach, and I thought, that's pretty good. It should come from somewhere deep down inside him. And before I knew it, I was doing it, George liked it, and so we were off."\nThe new "Star Wars" movie also puts McDiarmid in the thick of the light-saber action. The emperor proves he's not just the idea man; he occasionally zaps enemies with blue lightning that shoots from his fingertips, showing he's not above getting his hands dirty in a brawl.\n"When I saw the expression 'fight training' on the initial schedule, I assumed I was going to go and be taught a few falls and things, which I enjoy," McDiarmid said. "I like falling on stage, to keep the insurance people happy."\nInstead, McDiarmid had to learn intricate dueling moves so he could duke it out with the Jedi masters the emperor seeks to topple.\nDiscouraged by family and friends who told him acting was an unwise career choice, McDiarmid started out studying psychology in college. Classes did not sit well with him, and he found that in being the dutiful student, he already was putting on an act.\n"It wasn't that I wanted to be an actor. I think I always was an actor," said McDiarmid, who grew up in eastern Scotland. "I think it's sort of something you are rather than something you decide and something you want to become. But frankly, I was too scared to do anything about it.\n"But I got to the point when I was doing psychology in a sort of so-so, halfhearted way. I felt, this is mad, I've got to have a go at this thing. Otherwise, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."\nA veteran of many Royal Shakespeare Company productions, McDiarmid's honors include a London's Critics' Circle award for "Faith Healer" in 2001. He spent 11 years as joint artistic director of London's Almeida Theater, stepping down in 2002.\nHe works under the principle that guides the careers of many actors in Britain, where stage work takes precedence over film: Movies are something you do in between plays.\n"The thing about acting on stage is, when the show's over, it stops, and when the run stops, you're on to something else. It disappears," McDiarmid said. "It's not like other art forms like the movies or paintings. It doesn't sort of exist independent of your performance, and I love that.\n"I've never had any interest from a personal point of view in posterity. I like the fact that things disappear all the time, and then new things occur. These movies are there forever, and they're big, and so many people will see them. But I'm 60. I've done a lot. I hope I'll do a lot more."\nAn actor who loves his privacy, McDiarmid went blissfully unrecognized by "Star Wars" fans until he came out from under his emperor makeup for the prequel trilogy. He said he does get approached by fans but that many keep their distance, wondering if the actor might be as malevolent as the emperor he plays.\n"And of course, I'm much worse," McDiarmid said.\nThough he does evince a paternal moment or two toward Anakin, the emperor has no redeeming qualities that McDiarmid can see, other than that he may be a culture lover since he attends the opera in "Revenge of the Sith."\nIf the emperor is a patron of the arts, McDiarmid is not above a little "Star Wars" manipulation himself if it will help interest people in live theater.\n"The best thing about it is when I'm doing a play and people are at the stage door with photographs of me in 'Star Wars,' and I say, 'I won't sign it unless you've seen the play. So prove you've seen the play by showing me a ticket stub, or come tomorrow night and bring the program, and then I'll sign it,'" McDiarmid said.\n"So I've been using 'Star Wars' mercilessly to sell tickets for the theater, and I'll continue to do so"
(02/28/05 6:51am)
LOS ANGELES -- Tough was enough in Clint Eastwood's strong-and-silent early days as a scruffy Old West gunslinger or a modern vigilante cop.\nWith 2003's "Mystic River" and now "Million Dollar Baby," Eastwood has shown that tough doesn't begin to scratch the surface of his filmmaking talents.\nThe boxing tale "Million Dollar Baby," his raw mix of soaring sentiment and harsh fate, was the heavyweight at Sunday's Oscars, winning best picture and three other awards, among them the directing prize for Eastwood and acting honors for Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.\nSwank became a double Oscar winner, previously winning best actress for "Boys Don't Cry."\nThe other acting awards went to performers in real-life roles, Jamie Foxx for lead actor for his uncanny emulation of Ray Charles in "Ray" and Cate Blanchett for supporting actress as Katharine Hepburn, the love of Howard Hughes life, in "The Aviator."\nEastwood, who at 74 became the oldest directing winner ever, noted his mother was with him when his Western "Unforgiven" won the 1992 best-picture and directing Oscars.\n"She's here with me again tonight, so at 96, I'm thanking her for her genes," Eastwood said. "I figure I'm just a kid. I've got a lot of stuff to do yet."\nThe 77th Oscars were another heartbreak for Martin Scorsese, whose Howard Hughes epic "The Aviator" won the most awards with five but failed to bring him the directing Oscar that has eluded him throughout his distinguished career. A five-time loser, Scorsese matched the record of Oscar futility held by a handful of legendary filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Altman, who also went 0-for-5 in the directing category.\nEastwood, whose first credited screen role came in the 1955 Francis the Talking Mule flick "Francis in the Navy," has climbed in the ensuing half-century to the ranks of Billy Wilder, David Lean, Robert Wise and Steven Spielberg, other filmmakers who have won two or more directing Oscars.\nCritics say Scorsese's best work is decades behind him, noting that recent epics such as "The Aviator" and "Gangs of New York" do not measure up to earlier masterpieces such as "Mean Streets" and "Raging Bull."\nOn the other hand, Eastwood has entered a late-career zenith, delivering complex character studies two years in a row that rank toward the top of his long resume as actor and director, which includes the "Dirty Harry" series and such Spaghetti Westerns as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."\n"Tough ain't enough," says his character in "Million Dollar Baby," a role that also earned Eastwood a best-actor nomination.\nA last-minute addition to the Oscar race, "Million Dollar Baby" did not even begin shooting until June and had been scheduled for release in 2005 until distributor Warner Bros. took a look at an early cut and scrambled to release it in December.\n"To make a picture in 37 days takes a well-oiled machine. That well-oiled machine is the crew _ the cast, you've met a lot of them," Eastwood said.\nHe went on to mention several longtime collaborators, including art director Henry Bumstead, 89, whom he called "the head of our crack geriatric team."\nIt was the second straight year an Eastwood film won two of the four acting Oscars, Swank named best-actress as a tenacious fighter who rises to champion status before her life takes a cruel twist, Freeman picked for supporting actor as an ex-boxer with wisdom.\nLast year, Eastwood's dark morality play "Mystic River" earned the lead-actor prize for Sean Penn and the supporting-actor award for Tim Robbins.\nSwank once again beat out main rival Annette Bening, nominated for the theater farce "Being Julia." Bening had been the front-runner for "American Beauty" five years ago but lost to underdog Swank.\n"I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream," said Swank, who played an indomitable boxer.\nSwank joined Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field and Luise Rainer as the only actresses with a perfect track record at the Oscars: Two nominations and two wins.\nAs he had at earlier awards triumphs, Foxx led the Oscar audience in a rendition of the call-and-response chant from Charles' 1959 hit "What'd I Say," whose funky electric-piano grooves play over the opening credits of "Ray."\n"Give it up for Ray Charles and his beautiful legacy. And thank you, Ray Charles, for living," said Foxx, who climbed to Oscar glory after an early career built mainly on comedy, including his TV series "The Jamie Foxx Show."\nFoxx had been a double Oscar nominee, also picked in the supporting category for the hit man thriller "Collateral."\nPlaying Hepburn in "The Aviator," Blanchett had the spirit of the Oscars' most-honored actress on her side. Hepburn, the love of Hughes' life in the 1930s before she began her long romance with Spencer Tracy, earned 12 nominations and won a record four Oscars.\n"Thank you, of course, to Miss Hepburn. The longevity of her career I think is inspiring to everyone," said Blanchett. She added thanks to "Aviator" director Scorsese, saying, "I hope my son will marry your daughter."\nOscar host Chris Rock said Blanchett was so convincing that Sidney Poitier, Hepburn's co-star in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," showed up at Blanchett's house for supper.\nThe wins by Freeman and Foxx followed Denzel Washington and Halle Berry's triumph three years ago for "Training Day" and "Monster's Ball," the only other time blacks claimed two acting Oscars.\n"It means that Hollywood is continuing to make history," Freeman said backstage. "We're evolving with the rest of the world."\nThe superhero action comedy "The Incredibles" won the animated-feature prize, beating 2004's biggest box-office hit, the fairy-tale sequel "Shrek 2." It was the second-straight animated Oscar for Pixar Animation, which won a year ago for "Finding Nemo."\n"I don't know what's more frightening, being watched by millions of people, or the hundreds of people that are going to be annoyed with me tomorrow for not mentioning them," said Brad Bird, writer-director of the "The Incredibles."\nThe latest win dabs salt on the Walt Disney Co.'s wounds over the looming expiration of its distribution deal for Pixar films, which ends after next year's "Cars." The back-to-back Oscars underscore Pixar's growing ascendance and the weakening position of animation pioneer Disney, which has yet to win the animated-feature Oscar with any of its homegrown films and whose biggest recent cartoon hits have all been made by Pixar.\nWith no huge hits among best-picture nominees, Oscar organizers worried that TV ratings could dwindle for the live ABC broadcast. The Oscars tend to draw their biggest audiences when blockbusters such as "Titanic" or "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" are in the mix, stoking viewer interest.\nProducers of the show hoped the presence of first-time host Rock might boost ratings, particularly among younger viewers who may view the Oscars as too staid an affair.\nRock chided some celebrities by name, but his routine was fairly clean for the comedian known for a foul mouth in his standup act.\nOrganizers also tried to spice up the show with new presentation tactics, including herding all nominees on stage at the same time, beauty-pageant style, for some awards.\nThe first prize of the night, for art direction, was awarded that way, with a total of nine nominees from five films spread across stage behind presenter Berry. The Oscar went to "The Aviator," whose awards also included cinematography, film editing and costume design.\n"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" took the original-screenplay award for Charlie Kaufman. "Sideways" won the adapted-screenplay prize for director Alexander Payne and his writing partner, Jim Taylor.\n"My mother taught me to write, and she died before she could see any of this, so this is for you, mom," Taylor said.\n"The Sea Inside," the Spanish film based on the true story of a bedridden euthanasia lobbyist, won as best foreign-language film, while "Born Into Brothels," which examines the lives of children of prostitutes in Calcutta, India, received the Oscar for feature-length documentary.
(01/26/05 4:37am)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- The Howard Hughes epic "The Aviator" led Academy Awards contenders with 11 nominations Tuesday, including best picture, plus acting honors for Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Alan Alda and a directing slot for Martin Scorsese.\nThe boxing saga "Million Dollar Baby" and the J.M. Barrie tale "Finding Neverland" followed with seven nominations each, among them best picture and acting nominations for Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank and Johnny Depp.\nEastwood also received a directing nomination for "Million Dollar Baby."\nThe other best-picture nominees were the Ray Charles portrait, "Ray," and the buddy comedy "Sideways."\nAlong with Eastwood, Jamie Foxx scored two nominations as best actor for his title role in "Ray" and supporting actor as a taxi driver whose cab is hijacked by a hit man in "Collateral."\nFoxx's dead-on emulation of Charles has made him the front-runner in the lead-actor category.\nStarring as aviation trailblazer and Hollywood rebel Hughes, DiCaprio also was nominated for best actor. He and Foxx will compete against Depp as "Peter Pan" playwright Barrie in "Finding Neverland;" Eastwood as a cantankerous boxing trainer in "Million Dollar Baby;" and Don Cheadle for "Hotel Rwanda," starring as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered refugees from the Rwandan genocide.\nThe best-actress category presents a rematch of the 1999 showdown, when underdog Swank won the Oscar for "Boys Don't Cry" over Annette Bening, who had been the front-runner for "American Beauty."\nThis time, Swank was nominated as a bullheaded boxing champ whose life takes a cruel twist in "Million Dollar Baby." Bening was chosen for "Being Julia," in which she plays an aging 1930s stage diva exacting wickedly comic revenge on the men in her life and a young rival.\nBoth actresses won Golden Globes for the roles, Swank for best dramatic actress, Bening for actress in a musical or comedy.\n"I knew when I read the script that it was special. It was a rare find," said Swank, whose career had languished somewhat since her Oscar win for "Boys Don't Cry." "It was the best experience I've had in my career to date."\nAlso nominated for the best-actress Oscar: Catalina Sandino Moreno as a Colombian woman imperiled when she signs on to smuggle heroin in "Maria Full of Grace;" Imelda Staunton as a saintly housekeeper in 1950s Britain who performs illegal abortions on the side in "Vera Drake;" and Kate Winslet as a woman whose memories of her ex-boyfriend have been erased in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."\nJoining Eastwood and Scorsese among directing nominees were Taylor Hackford for "Ray;" Mike Leigh for "Vera Drake;" and Alexander Payne for "Sideways."\nScorsese, arguably the most prominent modern filmmaker who has never won an Oscar, also has never delivered a best-picture winner. Considered a nominal best-picture favorite, "The Aviator" offers him a shot to finally triumph on Oscar night, though Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a formidable competitor.\n"The Aviator" won the Golden Globe for best dramatic film, but Eastwood beat Scorsese for the directing prize at the Globes. Eastwood is a past Oscar winner for best picture and director with 1992's "Unforgiven."\nAlong with Foxx in "Collateral," Alda was nominated for best supporting actor as a senator tussling with Hughes in "The Aviator," while Freeman was picked as a worldly, wise ex-boxer in "Million Dollar Baby." The other nominees: Thomas Haden Church as a bridegroom out for a final fling in "Sideways" and Clive Owen as a coarse lover in the sex drama "Closer."\nLiam Neeson, who had the title role in "Kinsey," also missed out, as did the movie, which had been considered a best-picture contender.\nABC will broadcast the Oscars live Feb. 27 from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. Chris Rock is the show's host, the first time since 1996 that either Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg or Steve Martin has not been master of ceremonies.
(01/18/05 5:30pm)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- The Golden Globes set up an Academy Awards rematch between Hilary Swank and Annette Bening, while Jamie Foxx firmed up his Oscar front-runner status. And a win for "The Aviator" gave Martin Scorsese the edge for finally coming away with a best-picture win at the Oscars.\nThe Howard Hughes epic "The Aviator" was the big winner with three Globes, including best dramatic picture, but Sunday night's ceremony was a split decision for Scorsese, who lost the directing prize to Clint Eastwood for the boxing saga "Million Dollar Baby."\nThe road-trip comedy "Sideways" was named best musical or comedy film, while lead-acting honors went to Swank for "Million Dollar Baby," Bening for the theater farce "Being Julia," Foxx for the Ray Charles film biography "Ray" and Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes in "The Aviator."\nClive Owen and Natalie Portman won supporting-acting honors for the sex drama "Closer." Their wins were a bit surprising given that Morgan Freeman for "Million Dollar Baby" and Cate Blanchett for "The Aviator" had been viewed as more likely favorites.\nFoxx, considered the best-actor favorite for the Oscars Feb. 27, said backstage it was the best night of his life, winning the prize for his uncanny re-creation of singer Charles, who died last year.\n"It's a beautiful thing for Ray and everything he leaves us," said Foxx, who won for best actor in a musical or comedy. Foxx had a record three Globe nominations going into Sunday but lost the other two, supporting movie actor for "Collateral" and TV movie or miniseries actor for "Redemption."\nBening won the musical or comedy actress prize for "Being Julia," playing a conniving 1930s stage diva exacting vengeance on the duplicitous men in her life. It was the first awards-worthy role Bening has had since "American Beauty" five years ago, when she was the front-runner but lost the Golden Globe dramatic prize and the best-actress Oscar to underdog Swank for "Boys Don't Cry."\nNot wanting to jinx her Oscar chances, Bening sidestepped a question backstage at the Globes about what she would wear to the Oscars. "Trick question," Bening quipped.\nSwank, playing a fighter whose life turns tragic, won the dramatic-actress Globe for "Million Dollar Baby." She downplayed the potential Oscar rematch with Bening.\n"I don't really see it as competition," Swank said. "Annette's amazing, and she was so gracious to me five years ago when we were both nominated. She gave me good advice and she was gracious, and she's an inspiration.\n"I think it's just unfortunate that things are seen as winners and losers because in the end, the performances all speak for themselves and make everyone, I think, a winner. I'm just honored to have my name mentioned with her."\nThe Globes serve as the most prominent ceremony in Hollywood's pre-game show leading up to the Academy Awards. Globes are presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, whose small membership of about 90 people pales compared to the nearly 6,000 film professionals eligible to vote for the Oscars.\nYet the Globes historically serve as a solid forecast that helps set the odds for subsequent film honors.\nGolden Globe winners gain attention that can put them on the inside track for prizes from acting, directing and other filmmaking guilds -- and momentum often sticks with them right through Oscar night.\n"Million Dollar Baby" filmmaker Eastwood already has delivered a best-picture Oscar winner and won the academy's directing honor for "Unforgiven." But Scorsese is arguably the most prominent contemporary director without a best-picture or directing Oscar to his credit.\nDiCaprio, who also starred in Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," gushed praise for the director.\n"Growing up in this business and truly wanting to be a part of the world of film, I'm a truly privileged person standing here today," DiCaprio said. "But I must say, the pinnacle, the pinnacle of all that has been to work alongside one of the greatest contributors to the world of cinema of our time, and that is the great Martin Scorsese."\n"The Aviator" also earned Howard Shore the Globe for musical score. The award for best screenplay went to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for "Sideways."\nIn the TV categories, "Desperate Housewives" won for best musical or comedy series, and "Nip/Tuck" was honored as dramatic series, beating "The Sopranos," "24" and "Lost."\nTeri Hatcher beat her show's co-stars Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman for best actress in a TV musical or comedy. Hatcher thanked ABC for giving "me a second chance at a career when I couldn't have been a bigger has-been."\nWilliam Shatner won for best supporting actor in "Boston Legal" and Jason Bateman for lead comic actor in "Arrested Development." Mariska Hargitay won lead drama actress honors for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"