'Benjamin Button' leads Oscar nominations with 13
'Benjamin Button' leads Oscar nominations with 13
Oscar statuettes displayed on Times Square Studios in New York. The Bollywood rags-to-riches movie "Slumdog Millionaire" could fight for Oscars' best picture against the Batman hit "Dark Knight" when nominees for the 81st Academy Awards are revealed Thursday.(Agencies)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – The romantic fantasy "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" led Academy Awards contenders Thursday with 13 nominations, among them best picture and acting honors for Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson, and a directing slot for David Fincher.
Other best-picture nominees are "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader" and "Slumdog Millionaire."
As expected, Heath Ledger had a supporting-actor nomination for "The Dark Knight" on the one-year anniversary of his death from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. But the Batman blockbuster was shut out for other top categories such as best picture and director.
"Slumdog Millionaire" lived up to its rags-to-riches theme, coming in second with 10 nominations, including a directing spot for Danny Boyle and two of the three song slots.
Real-life couple Pitt and Angelina Jolie both will be going to the Oscars as nominees. Jolie had a best-actress nomination for the missing-child drama "Changeling."
The acting categories were loaded with surprises. Kate Winslet won two Golden Globes, best dramatic actress for "Revolutionary Road" and supporting actress for "The Reader." But she was nominated for lead actress at the Oscars for "The Reader" and shut out for "Revolutionary Road."
Actors considered longshots also sneaked in, among lead-actor nominee Richard Jenkins for "The Visitor," best-actress contender Melissa Leo for "Frozen River" and supporting-actor pick Michael Shannon for "Revolutionary Road."
Winslet reunited with "Titanic" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio for "Revolutionary Road," but he also was shut out for a nomination on that film.
Other best-actress nominees were Anne Hathaway for "Rachel Getting Married" and Meryl Streep for "Doubt."
Joining Pitt and Jenkins in the best-actor category were Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; and Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler."
Other acting snubs included Clint Eastwood for "Gran Torino," Sally Hawkins for "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Kristin Scott Thomas for "I've Loved You So Long."
But perhaps the biggest surprise overall was the so-so results for "The Dark Knight," which had been picking up momentum as one Hollywood trade guild after another picked it as one of the year's best films.
The largest blockbuster in years, "The Dark Knight" had eight nominations, but other than Ledger's honor, its scored only in technical categories such as cinematography, visual effects and editing.
Performances that are too intense for Oscar
Performances that are too intense for Oscar
Great acting may be passed over because it makes Academy uncomfortable
 | Will Robert Downey Jr. garner an Oscar nomination for his role as a method actor who dyes his skin to play an African-American role in a film? The Academy may not be ready for racial satire. |
Will Smith's 'crazy' fans
Will Smith's 'crazy' fans
U.S. actor Will Smith waves during a photocall to promote his film "Siete Almas" ("Seven Pounds") in Madrid, Spain, January 13, 2009. [Agencies]
Will Smith thinks it's "crazy" that people like his movies.
The actor - who was in London for the UK premiere of his new movie 'Seven Pounds' last night (14.01.09) - confessed he was overwhelmed by the response from his fans.
He told BANG Showbiz: "To me, that's how I judge the quality of the material by how people are responding to it. People work hard for their money and then on a Friday night they go to the movie theatre and decide where they're going to put it, and a lot of the time they choose my movies over a lot of other movies. So I think that's very, very crazy."
Will - who was named Hollywood's top earner in June after he earned $40 million in the previous year - spent almost an hour talking to the thousands of screaming fans who braved icy temperatures to see him.
Giant lettering which spelt out 'Will Smith' also impressed the married actor.
The 'Men in Black' star - who was so cold his eyes were streaming with tears - said: "Oh this is so fantastic. You see that - it's beautiful you know - I told them I wanted my name 40 metres high!"
In his new movie, Will plays a man with a haunting secret who sets out to redeem himself by changing the lives of seven strangers - but unexpectedly falls in love with one of them.
Terminator makes it to US film registry
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One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous one-liners will be back for generations to come, now that 1984's The Terminator has been selected for preservation in the US national film archive. |
One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous one-liners will be back for generations to come, now that 1984's The Terminator has been selected for preservation in the US national film archive.
The low-budget film directed by James Cameron set a new standard for science-fiction and made Schwarzenegger, now California's governor, a star. The Library of Congress announced yesterday that it is one of 25 films being added to the National Film Registry.
The move will guard Schwarzenegger's deadpan, "I'll be back," against deterioration, along with the sounds and images of the other culturally significant picks. Other titles being added to the registry include the groundbreaking all-black-cast film Hallelujah from 1929, Richard Brooks' 1967 film adaptation of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and the 1972 John Boorman film Deliverance based on James Dickey's novel about four businessmen on a nightmarish canoe trip through the remote Georgia wilderness.
"The registry helps this nation understand the diversity of America's film heritage and, just as importantly, the need for its preservation," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in announcing his 2008 selections. "The nation has lost about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920."
As time passes, older nitrate- and acetate-based films begin to deteriorate, Billington said. The Library of Congress is working to digitize and preserve endangered film and audio files at its new Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, an approximately $250 million facility built in a bunker in the hills near Culpeper, Virginia.
With yesterday's additions, the total number of films in the registry will reach 500.
The registry, established by Congress in 1989, works with film archives and movie studios that own the rights to the selected films to ensure original copies are kept safe. It also acquires a copy for preservation in its own vaults among millions of other recordings.
Curators select films based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic significance, saying their picks would not necessarily overlap with those of a movie critic. And some are not feature films at all: This year's list includes a family's home movie, Disneyland Dream, which documented a trip to the newly opened park in Anaheim, California, in 1956.
"The selection of a title for the registry is not meant to duplicate the Academy Awards or anything like that," said Patrick Loughney, head of the library's audio-visual center.
The library accepted public nominations for the film registry selections online and issued a specific call for lesser-known films, including amateur and home-movie footage.
Some films were selected for their historical value, such as Hallelujah, the tale of a cotton sharecropper made by MGM as the studio was transitioning from silent to sound films. The 1910 film White Fawn's Devotion, the oldest film selected this year, was made by James Young Deer. He was the first documented American Indian movie director, a member of the Winnebago tribe.
Other movies inspired the nation during times of trouble, such as Sergeant York starring Gary Cooper, which told the story of a Tennessee pacifist who captured 130 German soldiers in World War I. The film was released just months before the United States entered World War II.
Mickey Rourke wrestling with Iron Man 2
Mickey Rourke wrestling with Iron Man 2
The rebuzzworthy actor is in talks to play one of the villians in the upcoming Iron Man 2
Fresh from the The Wrestler's ring, Mickey Rourke might next be putting the hurt on Robert Downey Jr.
The rebuzzworthy actor is in talks to play one of the villians in the upcoming Iron Man 2, which is scheduled to start shooting this spring, studio sources confirm to E! News.
Tony Stark's new nemesis is another techno-mad arms dealer, this time a Russian who battles our hero in a nuclear-powered suit of armor. Early speculation about the heavily guarded, Justin Theroux-penned script suggests that the character will be Crimson Dynamo, of Marvel Comics fame.
Also in line to play a foe, according to the Hollywood Reporter, is Charlie's Angels baddie Sam Rockwell, who might be suiting up as Justin Hammer, a rival billionaire industrialist.
The already anticipated sequel is slated for a summer 2010 release, with Gwyneth Paltrow back as Pepper Potts and Don Cheadle taking over for Terrence Howard as Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes. Jon Favreau is once again directing.
Meanwhile, Rourke is certainly a hot commodity as we roll into red-carpet season, having been nominated for a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Independent Spirit Award for his role as a washed-up wrestler looking to make amends for a life ill-lived in the aptly titled The Wrestler.
(Agencies)
