Making Oscar History?

After last nights Broadcast Film Critic's Choice Awards (which the show as a whole felt a touch lifeless to me, as if everyone just saw this as a speed bump to the more exciting award's shows, but getting back on track), is it possible for this years Academy Awards to make some Oscar history?

Last night, the usual worthless awards were handed out first. Avatar brought home Best Action Movie and The Hangover Best Comedy Movie. As a matter of fact, Avatar cleaned up in the Critic's Choice Awards first ever Tech Categories, winning pretty much everything save for Costume Design, Original Score (which rightfully went to Michael Giacchino), and Original Song. I just wondered, why Avatar won Best Cinematography? 90% of the cinematography was animated, not real, so how can it win, or for that matter, even be nominated for an award such as this? But then again, there is some skepticism, even amongst critics themselves as to how much critics know about the technical aspects of filmmaking and how they can rightfully decide such a list.

Rounding out the night, the three-horse race between Up in the Air, Avatar, and The Hurt Locker got a lot more interesting. Up in the Air only managed to bring home one award for Best Adapted Screenplay, while Inglorious Bas***ds brought home three trophies for Best Ensemble, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor; could it be more of a threat in the Best Picture Oscar race than Jason Reitman's film? Though I wasn't surprised when The Hurt Locker managed to win Best Picture last night, purely because so many critics have placed it at the top of their Best Films of '09 list, not to mention it's won the most Critic's Awards this award's season of any other movie; then again, the critics don't always line up with the Oscars, so I think we'll have to wait and see how the Golden Globes pan out before a real justification on The Hurt Locker's chances at the Best Picture Oscar can be made. Though, the real surprise came in The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow's win for Best Director. This is where things get interesting in terms of Oscar.

In the 82 year history of the Academy Awards, never has a woman ever brought home the statue for Best Director. Over the years, some have been nominated, but still a woman has never won. Kathryn Bigelow has presented an extremely strong case here as to why she deserves the Oscar, not to mention, after last night she is the frontrunner in this category for the Oscars. Seeing as how a woman has never won the Critic's Choice Award for Directing either, it is entirely possible also for the Academy to get political, much how they did for Dustin Lance Black last year and Milk, and finally give it to a woman. I think what might benefit Bigelow in terms of the Academy is that she has already received so many accolades for her film that it is almost impossible at this moment in time not seeing her making Oscar history come time for March, but I still wouldn't say it's a lock till the Golden Globes and Director's Guild Awards weigh in, but if they go with Bigelow, I think it's safe to say that this year's Oscarcast is one not to miss.

The rest of last night was pretty dull, going as anticipated. Mo'Nique brought home Best Supporting Actress for Precious, and Jeff Bridges deservedly won for Best Actor, but the critics need to break their love affair with Meryl Streep, because that makes two years in a row that she has split the vote for Best Actress and the award resulted in a tie between her and Sandra Bullock. Seriously, while I haven't seen Julie & Julia, the only reason Streep continues to win these awards is because the critics are on autopilot and don't want to have to step out of their comfort zone to award the actress truly deserving of this award (cough!--Carey Mulligan--cough!). As for Bullock, it's similar to when John Wayne won the Oscar for True Grit, they were awarding him for all the performances that he'd never won for or been nominated for and not the performance that he actually won it for, which is the case with Bullock here. As Perry White says, "Pulitzers are like Academy Awards. No one remembers what you won it for, just that you got one."

I will say, I am now really pumped for the Golden Globes which air tomorrow night on NBC with host Ricky Gervais!

How To Do Batman & Robin Justice

It seems a constant argument amongst fanboys about what to do with Robin when it comes to the Batman film franchise. Many fans have this deep-felt hatred for the character, and I can't help but wonder why? Sure, when handled wrong he can be annoying and just flat-out ridiculous, but then again, why fault him for something like the 1960's Batman TV Show or Batman & Robin, for problems that were all over the place and had nothing to do with the Boy Wonder. When Robin is handled well and dealt with utmost respect, his character surprisingly works and can add a fascinating dynamic to the Caped Crusader and his adventures.

I initially became a Batman fan because of Robin. He was my favorite character for all of my childhood, so from a pure nostalgia standpoint, I hate it when I see other Batman fans treat him as if he was garbage that has no point in even being associated with the Batman mythos. There is a deep-seated prejudice against the character of Robin, especially whenever talked about in regards to film. Let's face it, all of the films that have ever featured Robin were pretty bad, with the small exception of Batman Forever, but then again, as I mentioned earlier, George Clooney nor Adam West made a good Batman. My point is, if you're gonna condemn Robin purely because he was in a few bad movies, then why don't you condemn Batman as well? Batman finally got his shot for redemption, and until someone decides to stop blaming the mistakes of the past on Robin, he can never be given his shot for redemption. So this is where I'm taking my stand and presenting my case as to how I think Robin can be done in live-action, and be done the proper justice the character deserves onscreen.

It all starts with the comics. Like Batman, Robin has had his ups-and-downs in regards to the comic book realm. Most Batman fans still have the bad taste of the campy-Dick Grayson-Robin from the '50s and '60s, and many are still celebrating the end of the second-Robin, Jason Todd, at the hands of the Joker, not to mention the current Robin, Bruce Wayne's son, Damien, who is just so lifeless and annoying. But look at Batman, does anyone still let DC live down the Azrael monstrosity of Knightfall, and what about the '50s and '60s Batman as well.

Regardless, Robin has had his shining moments in the comic books. Tim Drake, who resided over the identity of Robin in the comics from the late '80s to 2009 was the most worthy successor to Dick Grayson of all the Robins, I'd actually even venture to say he was better than Dick, and who doesn't love the original Dick Grayson-Robin from the early '40s and the edgier, older portrayal of Robin in the '70s (which is where the Batman: Animated Series got its inspiration for their awesome version of Robin from).

The common complaint from fans, is that Robin can't be done in a dark and satisfying way on film without it being stupid and cheesy. Part of me does agree, the concept of a ten-year-old child going out at night and fighting crime is a horrendous possibility that will have mothers all around the world in outcry. That is why Robin shouldn't be introduced as a ten-year-old child, but rather as a fourteen-year-old Dick Grayson.

Think about it, the reason as to why Robin has never been done justice in film before is because no one has ever really tried to take the time and figure out how to properly do it because no one has ever seen a good live-action interpretation of the character. Here's my thought, introduce the character of Dick Grayson, aged 14, in one film, have his parents be murdered and him be taken in by Bruce, and then in the sequel, have an eighteen-year-old Dick assume the mantle of Robin. It could work.

In the first film, after Dick's parents are murdered and he is taken in by Bruce, he's just at that ripe age where it would be believable, that if he was athletic enough, he could hold his own in a fight against an adult male; plus, he's still a teenager so he needs a legal guardian, thus he must accept Bruce's offer to live at Wayne Manor. Then, in the 2nd Act of the film have Dick discover Bruce's secret identity of Batman as Dick is trying to exact revenge on his parent's killer, and Bruce manages to calm Dick down and takes him under his wing, beginning to train him up as his sidekick, under the provision that once he comes of age, 18, he can start fighting alongside Bruce as Robin, which happens in the sequel.

As for his personality, maybe tone him down a bit. He can still be spry, optimistic, and energetic, but make him less of comedic relief and more of a guy bent on revenge, but understands the line and will not cross it. As for costume, mute the red and green colors, plate it similar to Batman's costume from The Dark Knight, and voilà, you just got the perfect screen Robin.

Ta'da! That's it! See how simple it is, and see how marvelous it could work out and weave into the dark tapestry of a grittier version of Batman? I should get paid for this idea. Maybe I will someday.

Old School Fridays: Casablanca

It's that time again, time for another new edition of Old School Fridays! This Friday we're checking out the original theatrical trailer for the 1942 classic, Casablanca.



This trailer essentially tells you the whole movie in a nutshell, detailing some of the finer scenes of the movie, but in so doing they kind of give away crucial moments that could create some tension or genuine emotion upon first viewing. But I did love how cheesy this trailer was. Trailers from this period often utilized these awful, over-the-top voice-overs, along with adjective-filled-text, and really it just makes the film look like a cornballer fest, but then again nostalgic at the same time.

That does it for this Friday! Tune in next week for another exciting edition of Old School Fridays!

Production Diaries: Time To Start Editing

It's a real exciting time for me, it's time to start seeing whether or not any of the footage I've shot for my latest film, Lost & Found, will actually even work. I finally bought an external hardrive the other day, and I was quite surprised, because I did not expect it to arrive that quickly, it said it would take 2-3 days to get here and it arrived in a little over 1. Regardless, now that my first external hardrive has arrived, it's time to get down to business and begin editing the film.

Even though we dealt with bitterly cold weather, and our set continued to get blown over by the vile wind, the second day of shooting for the film last week went extremely well, I felt as if everyone involved had kind of finally hit their stride and delivered better work than on the first day of filming. Of course, I wont know if it's much better until I'm trying to piece everything together in editing, but of course at the moment I'm satisfied, primarily with my actors; Mr.'s Nick Recio and Aaron Alford, both delivered fine performances for actors with no previous acting experience, and I'd just like to thank them once more for their effort in helping make this film a reality, especially since they didn't get paid for this. Not to mention my Director of Photography, Paul Sholly, who helped this color deficient director a great deal.

Overall, I can't wait to sit down at the computer and start editing. Wish me luck that everything will turn out well.

Spider-man, Caught In His Own Web

I don't know what to think about the future of the Spider-man film franchise. It all started 2 1/2 years ago when Spider-man 3 hit theaters and was quite possibly the greatest disappointment I've ever had upon viewing a film, and I wasn't alone in this thought, many fans were outraged at how horribly handled the characters and the situations were.

The first two Spider-man films were fantastic, I even thought the 2nd one in particular was one of the best movies of this past decade, but alas certain things happen, such as unwanted studio interference and the desire to always try going bigger, even if that doesn't mean better. What us fans were stuck with was a film that we wished they would remove the wallcrawler's name from the title so that the shutterbug could avoid humiliation. Regardless, the cast and crew moved on and decided they'd like to give it another shot to rectify all the things they did wrong with the third outing.

Stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, alongside director of the first three films, Sam Raimi, all signed on to do a Spider-man 4. I was skeptical, but I remembered that these were the same guys that delivered the first two, so I shouldn't condemn them for their lackluster "three-quel" as it was so annoyingly called. Though, word got out recently that Spider-man 4 was in trouble, many concerns were being flagged about the script and it was like a revolving door of writers coming in to do rewrite after rewrite, but then again, I thought, how is that any different than any other big budget movie made in Hollywood?

But, perhaps the troubles were deeper than I thought, because this past Monday afternoon, it was officially announced by Variety that Spider-man 4 was no longer happening, but rather Columbia Pictures and Sony were going to reboot the franchise with an entirely new cast and crew. They plan to release this new Spider-man film in the summer of 2012. The studios claim to be basing this new direction off of a spec script they received from Pulitzer-winning playwright, James Vanderbilt, who actually did a draft of the now dead Spider-man 4 script.

So now you're caught up, and can understand where I am with my skepticism for the future of this franchise, and this is all assuming that this Spider-man reboot can come together and get made at all. The goal this time around, according to the studios, is to make Spider-man more hip, or in other words, in keeping with the times. Their plan is to return the character back to high school and have him "battle today's issues" as a teenager. Their claim is to make it more gritty and contemporary.

Am I the only one that finds this all a bunch of crock!?! Weren't the first three Spider-man films all modern day films? And for that matter, why do we need to see Peter Parker have to battle with drugs or alcohol?

Personally, I don't. That isn't the reason as to why I adore this character, or for that matter, the reason as to why I go to see these films. I go to see these kind of films to see my childhood dreams realized on the big screen. To see the likes of Spider-man fighting Doc Ock or the Green Goblin, that is what I want, an emotionally resonant story about the challenges Spidey faces in saving the day, I'm not paying ten bucks to go see Peter Parker become an irresponsible teenager. Plus, if I want to see a gritty superhero film, I'll watch Batman, grittiness doesn't have a place in the pop art world of Spider-man. Not to mention, are they planning on retelling the origin, when it was already told to near perfection in the original Raimi outing?

Even still, I'm trying to remain level headed on this whole shindig. Currently, the rumor mill is trying to come up with a director, and the word has been everywhere from longtime Spider-man fan, Gary Ross (who directed Seabiscuit), to Michael Bay (Transformers). I'll go ahead and say it now, if Michael Bay directs a Spider-man film, I will boycott and try to rally as many nerds behind me to do the same, I will not sit and watch the travesty that was Spider-man 3 all over again.

Though, there is one suggestion I was actually kind of satisfied with. The word is the studio has been looking at director Marc Webb, who directed the fantastic film, (500) Days of Summer. The more I think about it, the more I realize that Webb's sensibilities are perfect for the character, granted that the only film he has ever made is (500) Days, but if that is any indication of what he could bring to Spider-man, I'd actually calm down a bit and get excited like my inner fanboy wants me to about this.

I'll just wrap this impassioned rant up here and just bring it back to how I started, I'm very skeptical as to where Spider-man on film is going at the moment, so Spidey, you'd better prove me wrong.