The Mel Tackles Vikings

Mel Gibson loves making these lavish epics. He's done medieval Scotland, biblical times, and ancient Indian civilizations in South America, so why not make a film about the Nordic masters of the sea, Vikings.

Word is, is that Mel Gibson is set to direct a film about vikings starring Leonardo Dicaprio, with a script by The Departed-scribe William Monahan.

I have no clue what the story is about, but my interest is peaked. There is a ton of talent behind this one, and as far as my knowledge, no one has ever truly done a convincing portrayal of Viking culture on film. My only reservation with this one is seeing whether the Mel can keep the film cool and intriguing rather than cheesy like pretty much every other Viking movie ever made.

Oscar Watch: The Actors

Another week closer to the Oscars, can only mean one thing, a new edition of Oscar Watch is due. This week we're gonna be taking a look at the male acting races of Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

These two categories are pretty hot this year, there are so many names in contention that it's hard to make a good guess as to who will show up come time for nominations to be announced in January. There are a few that I think are strong frontrunners, but I do not think anyone is safe at this point. But let's kick things off with the Best Supporting Actor category.

One of the bigger frontrunners in contention is Christoph Waltz for Quentin Tarrantino's latest. While I have not seen the film, many pundits are calling the performance the best thing about it, and see the case for his Oscar campaign similar to that of Heath Ledger's last year for portraying the Joker. Another solid frontrunner is Alfred Molina for his work in An Education, which I plan on seeing later this week. While some might provide a case for Molina's An Education co-star Peter Sarsgaard, I think Molina holds more weight with the Academy, and thus if either gets the nom it will be him.

As for the other frontrunners, at the moment I see Christopher Plummer and Stanley Tucci. Plummer wowed critics with his portrayal in The Last Station, plus he's a legacy, and Tucci, just take a number, but critics are hailing his portrayal as the twisted murderer in The Lovely Bones one of the best things about Peter Jackson's latest, so I think he'll get the push from that film.

Filling out the Best Supporting Actor race are the likes of Woody Harrelson for The Messenger, Stephen Lang for Avatar, Robert Duvall for both The Road and Crazy Heart, Christian McKay for portraying the legend in Me and Orson Welles, Alec Baldwin for It's Complicated, and Matt Damon for Invictus. Out of all of these, Duvall has the best shot with probably The Road, I mean the Academy loves nominating old dudes, but I wouldn't count Damon out of the race either, and McKay might be that dark horse that no one sees coming.

Shifting gears a bit, we're moving onto Best Actor. There are so many frontrunners for this one, I don't even truly know where to start. Morgan Freeman shines as the heart-and-soul inInvictus, portraying Nelson Mandella with such charm, this is the type of role that the Academy tends to love. Another candidate is George Clooney for Up in the Air. This one is shaping up to be the critic's darling of the year and George Clooney is getting much praise for the performance, some are even saying it's the finest of his career.

Then there is Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, Michael Stuhlbarg for A Serious Man, Colin Firth for A Single Man, Daniel Day-Lewis for Nine, Viggo Mortensen for The Road, Matt Damon forThe Informant!, and Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker. Out of all these guys, I think Day-Lewis will get the shaft this year, Nine just doesn't offer enough for the Academy to chomp on, and as for Mortensen, I think the film will wind up being overlooked at year's end with the exception being Robert Duvall, so I think Mortensen's out. Stuhlbarg is the dark horse here for the Coens' latest, I'm just afraid he'll be eclipsed by the two brothers Coen to get a nomination.

Colin Firth and Jeremy Renner are the two biggest threats out of the six listed above, both of which have given what many are calling the performance of their careers, though Matt Damon's remarkable transformation in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! might be enough to catapult him into the five come time for the nominations. While I'd love to throw someone like Joseph Gordon-Levitt in for (500) Days of Summer, I just don't see it happening.

So what do I see these two categories looking like at the moment? Well, first up, Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Alfred Molina, An Education
Robert Duvall, The Road
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station

As for Best Actor:

Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

I know, no real big surprises here, but it's just shaping up like one of those years, but as I have alluded to, nothing is locked down and as you can see there are many in the wings just chomping at the bit to get in there.

That does it for this week, till next week where we take a look at the Actresses in contention.

Is Avatar the Real Deal?

Avatar's day is fast approaching. It hits theaters this Friday December the 18th, and I've gotta say that I'm excited. While I've expressed my skepticism over the past few weeks, I don't want it to be misinterpreted that I did not want to see this film and that I didn't wish it was as good as it was hyped up to be.

Currently reviews are pouring in, some from a few of the bigger critics out there; in particular, Roger Ebert gave it a perfect four out of four stars. At the moment while I'm writing this, Avatar sits at 91% on RottenTomatoes with 44 reviews already clocked in, 40 positive, and 4 negative. By doing the simple math, this trend means that we can expect Avatar to be one of the best reviewed wide releases of the year.

My biggest skepticism up to this point has mainly been the story. I've come to grips that the CG is what it is, I can't change the fact that I still am not as blown away with it as I was with the CG in say Star Trek, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, or District 9. While I don't think Avatar's CG is shabby, it was just so hyped, I was expecting a touch more, but the facial recognition of the motion captured characters is astonishing, even if the CG masking them looks just like the CG that I know from other films.

Regardless, I kept on saying that as long as Avatar had a good story, the CG didn't matter to me. Peter Jackson's King Kong from a few years back, I personally felt the CG was a touch lackluster, but the story made me completely forget about the technical side of things and just embrace the magnificence of the story. Perhaps Avatar is the same way.

The early reviews are making me want to see it more and more. From the sounds of it, the story might actually be up to snuff, and Avatar could possibly be the big event film that we have all been hoping for. While I have never been an obsessive James Cameron fanboy, I do like pretty much his entire filmography and I think he is a very talented filmmaker. You can say what you want about Titanic, but the first two Terminator films are still two of the finer action movies ever made, and it looks as if Avatar could join their ranks and possibly even beat the epicness of Titanic. The only negative reviews for Avatar at the moment have complained about the storytelling and the dialogue, saying it was just like the rest of Cameron's movies, so I guess if you're a fan of Cameron's work, there is nothing to fear here, which I have no problem with it personally.

While some are already predicting Avatar being big news at the box office, at the moment it's gonna need a huge surge in word of mouth to make the type of money it needs to make to possibly even reach Titanic's haul; they need a huge surge just to recooperate their costs on this film which is rumored to have been the most expensive film ever produced. Cameron just loves doing that, doesn't he?

At the end of the day, there's nothing I can really do except sit here and wait for Friday to roll around, then I will finally get to see Avatar. I hope it will deliver and be the film of the decade like I deep down want it to be.

Production Diaries: Getting Ready, Guerrilla-Style

Getting ready for start of production on my latest film, Lost and Found, in which I've written and I am going to both produce and direct. It's a short drama starring Nick Recio and Aaron Alford, and that's all that I'm willing to say on it right now. The goal is to make something that actually looks professional and is sophisticated enough to submit it to film festivals, in particular Sidewalk Film Festival here in Birmingham, AL.

I'm currently busy playing producer, making sure everything is ready to start filming this week. I think I've devised an ingenious way to get a few smooth dolly-esque shots in there with a hand-dolly, and I'm busy at the moment searching for a cardboard box big enough for an adult person about 5'6" to sit down in Indian-style.

I've just gotta say, I hate being a producer. I love writing, and I really love directing, if that was all I had to do and I had someone else I could trust to handle all the other stuff, like making sure we have locations locked down and have allocated all our props, then I'm a happy camper. I'm just too much of a procrastinator to be an effective producer.

Regardless, everything seems to be a go other than a few loose ends that I've gotta tie up before Tuesday morning rolls around. The main thing I'm concerned about at this point isn't getting the rest of the props or checking base with all the cast and crew to see if shooting times are good, the main thing I'm worried about is one of the more crucial scenes of the film where we have to shoot outside an Alabama ABC Store.

Now, I called the ABC Store in question, but they told me I'd have to call down to Montgomery, AL and ask for permission, which then I'd probably have to end up getting a permit and whatnot and I just don't wanna have to deal with a bunch of legal junk on a film this small in scale. Also, the person that answered the phone at the ABC Store sounded like they didn't even want to talk to me or hear me out and hung up on me all within 20-seconds without saying goodbye.

I've decided that since we just have to film the exterior of the store, cause the whole scene takes place in the parking lot, we're gonna show up before the store opens and shoot the scene and get out of there before any of the workers show up, essentially shoot it guerrilla-style. I asked my Dad, who is a producer himself, if he thought this would be cool to do, and he said the worst that could happen to us is we'd get run off if anyone was there and actually cared about us filming out there. So we're going ahead with this plan of doing it guerrilla-style, I'm just such a worry-wort that I wont be fully relaxed till that scene is done.

Anyways, I just wanted to keep everyone up to date. Wish us luck as we start production.

Movie Review: Invictus

I'll be honest, I didn't really know who Nelson Mandella was before this film came out, but when I saw Invictus, I saw the story of a man that is unlike any other in modern history.

The film, directed by Clint Eastwood, refuses to be your typical biopic, and that is where it is most charming. Rather than giving you the typical play-by-play analysis of Mandella's life, like pretty much every single biopic ever made, Eastwood simply took a small slice of Mandella's long and illustrious career, and put it to the big screen.

The film picks up right when Mandella is elected President of South Africa. The film essentially follows his first year or two in office as he rallies together with the Captain of the South African Rugby team to try and unite the country, which is split between black and white, by winning the Rugby World Cup. But how can the Rugby team win, when they're utterly horrendous? That is all one needs to know to see Invictus, and if you have any knowledge of modern history (which unfortunately mine is very limited), then you probably know what is going to happen, but it's the journey there that makes Invictus worth watching.

Eastwood and screenwriter Anthony Peckham should be applauded for giving the audience a full summation of who Mandella is and what he's like, all without doing this long and boring backstory, they just jump straight into the meat of the story and capture the audience from the very beginning. Though, this film isn't just a biopic, it's a sports film as well.

Eastwood and Peckham have managed to craft a sports film unlike any other I think I've ever seen, tossing aside all of the typical sports movie conventions. They do not overplay any of the rugby matches, they simply show them as if you were a player running on the field along with the two opposing teams, which in the end is more naturalistic, but I can't help but feel it keeps the film from reaching the emotional heights of some other sports films. Plus, it's the first film I've ever seen to feature rugby, and I just wonder, does anyone in America truly understand this sport?

With all that said, the film features terrific performances from all the stars. Matt Damon shines as the Captain of the South African Rugby team. Damon disappears into this role, and while I don't know if it has enough meat to garner him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod, he should not be forgotten. Speaking of Oscars, Morgan Freeman is the heart-and-soul of this film as Nelson Mandella. Freeman is, in my opinion, a shoe-in for Best Actor, he simply disappears into this role and he comes across as confident, wise, and charming all at the same time.

At the end of Invictus, you leave feeling satisfied and uplifted, but the only thing this movie lacked was that big emotional moment of catharsis. Perhaps I'm too sentimental to enjoy a movie that denies the audience that big, weeper moment? Even without it, Invictus shines as a beautiful piece of filmmaking, being an entertaining film that defies convention and manages to uplift the soul while doing it.

I give Invictus an 8 out of 10!