It’s official: 2012 is the year we all learn to pronounce ‘Hazanavicius.’ That’s because Michel Hazanavicius, director of The Artist, is one of the five people nominated for the Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film by the Directors Guild of America (DGA). The DGA award nominees almost always mirror the Oscar ballot for Best Director, so between this and the PGA nominations announced last week we’ve basically got the final Oscar contention list locked down.
The full nomination list for the DGA awards is Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris), David Fincher (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), Alexander Payne (The Descendants), and Martin Scorsese (Hugo). Read More »
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Briefly: 2011 was a great year for Woody Allen. His playful, entertaining film Midnight in Paris turned into the year’s runaway arthouse hit, taking in $60m to become Allen’s greatest domestic success. Sony Classics has distributed the director’s last few films and after their stellar success with Midnight in Paris, I think it has been pretty much a foregone conclusion that his next movie, Nero Fiddled, would go out via the company as well.
Variety reports that deal has been set, with Sony Classics picking up North American and UK rights to the film, which stars Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. As is typically the case with a new Allen film we don’t know much about the plot — all we’ve got is that the Rome-set film “consists of four separate vignettes — two with American characters, two with Italian characters — but the vignettes never intersect.”
The film will get a summer 2012 release, and is a likely bet for a Cannes debut.
Gerard Butler, Woody Harrelson, Rashida Jones, and Sofia Vergara got up extra early this morning to announce the nominations for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 69th Golden Globes Awards, which will be televised on January 15, 2012.
Returning host Ricky Gervais (called a “naughty, naughty schoolboy” this morning by Aida Takla-O’ Reilly, the president of the HFPA) will likely be the main attraction of that broadcast, but the Globes do get attention for the awards doled out each year, if only for the way that the organization targets films with big stars to show up at the ceremony. How else to explain multiple nominations for Madonna‘s W.E.? Sure, her Best Song nomination could have gone to a tune from The Muppets, but why would the HFPA want anyone from that film at the ceremony?
The Artist, Midnight in Paris and The Help are the big nominees. Check out the full list below. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 by Angie Han
Thanks to a career that spans all the way back to the ’50s and includes nearly four dozen directorial efforts — more than a few of which are well-loved classics — Woody Allen is one of those all-American icons everyone’s familiar with. But since he’s almost as private as he is prolific, he’s also a figure that retains a surprising amount of mystery. While he’s hardly a hermit on the order of J.D. Salinger, Allen has tended to stay quiet about his personal life and creative process throughout the years.
Happily, the allure of becoming part of PBS’ American Masters series was apparently too much for even Allen to resist. The legendary writer-filmmaker has revealed himself like never before for Woody Allen: A Documentary, directed by Robert Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and produced by Brett Ratner (seriously!). The two-part, three-and-a-half-hour film follows Allen’s tale from his Brooklyn childhood all the way through his current work. Check out the trailer after the jump.
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This past summer, Woody Allen enjoyed the unexpected success of his film Midnight in Paris, which has been going strong in arthouses since May with over $100m earned worldwide. He also shot a new film in Rome, and for quite some time he was planning to call the movie Bop Decameron. There’s a lot to like about that title — it’s very Woody Allen, and even a good bit more jaunty than most of his titles. But it isn’t the sort of title that will keep a movie on screens for six months. Midnight in Paris sounds romantic and enticing. Bop Decameron sounds like… well, I imagine Woody realized a lot of people might not know what it sounds like.
So the film is now called Nero Fiddled. Not as jaunty or romantic, but at least people will know what he’s talking about. I hope. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 by Angie Han
Woody Allen famously has a habit of casting a stand-in for himelf in his comedies, and you can usually tell which one it is — while neuroses and Judaism aren’t requirements, they’re often indications that you’re looking in the right direction. But in case there’s any doubt, Film Drunk‘s Oliver Noble has Woody Allen surrogatism (which is not a real word, but you know what I mean) down to a science. He’s put together a supercut of the director’s stand-ins over the years, from John Cusack in 1994′s Bullets Over Broadway to Owen Wilson in this year’s delightful Midnight in Paris, and pinpointed the essential qualities that mark these characters as Woody Allen surrogates. Jesse Eisenberg*, I hope you’re taking notes. Watch the compilation after the jump.
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Coming off Midnight in Paris, his biggest financial success in decades, Woody Allen is ready to shoot his 2012 film. It’s called The Bop Decameron and he’s just finalized the very impressive cast, many of which we were already aware of. The most exciting news is the confirmation that Allen himself will return to the screen after a few films off (his last one was 2006′s Scoop). He’ll star along with Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. It’ll start filming in Rome next month. No word on the plot, as Allen likes to keep those under wraps, but we try and decipher the title and announce more cast members after the jump. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 by Angie Han
Al Pacino is in talks to star in Imagine, playing an aging rocker who “decides to change his life after discovering a letter written to him by John Lennon.” The note inspires him to reach out to his biological son, whom he’s never met. Imagine will be the directorial debut of Dan Fogelman, the screenwriter behind Tangled and the upcoming Crazy Stupid Love. Fogelman has written the script for Imagine as well.
At one point, Steve Carrell was attached to play the son. He’s since dropped out of the role, though he remains involved as a producer. Which means we get to talk about who might be a good fit to fill the part — who do you think could play Pacino’s son? [Variety]
After the jump, Olivia Munn shacks up with Paul Schneider and a trio of Italians join Woody Allen’s Italian movie.
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