In case I missed 'ems: PGA, WGA and more from the first week of 2013
Taking a week of vacation near the height of awards season — and doubling down by leaving the Variety awards blog silent — might well be selfish, but you know, the kids only grow up once. So belated thanks to you readers for understanding, and thanks to my colleagues for picking up the slack with stories such as these:
The Producers Guild Awards nominations
... Sony-MGM's "Skyfall" crashed the kudos season Wednesday, becoming the first Bondpic to garner a nod from the Producers Guild of America, whose 10 nominees included an otherwise unsurprising mix of studio and specialty titles including Warner Bros.' "Argo"; DreamWorks' "Lincoln"; Focus' "Moonrise Kingdom"; Universal's "Les Miserables"; the Weinstein Co.'s "Django Unchained" and "Silver Linings Playbook"; Fox's "Life of Pi" and Fox Searchlight's "Beasts of the Southern Wild"; and "Zero Dark Thirty," also from Sony. ...
The PGA award has become a strong indicator of Oscar sentiment in recent years, matching the Oscar for best picture in 16 of the last 23 -- including the last five, with "The Artist," "The King's Speech," "The Hurt Locker," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "No Country for Old Men." The PGA winner last diverged from the Oscar best picture for the 2006 award when "Little Miss Sunshine" won while the Academy opted for "The Departed."
The match between the PGA's nominations and the Oscar best picture noms is generally about 80%. Last year, seven films were nominated for both; "Bridesmaids," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "Ides of March" scored only PGA mentions, while "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and "Tree of Life" received Academy noms but were spurned by the PGA.
Notable omissions from the PGA nominations included "Amour," "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," "The Dark Knight Rises," "The Master" and "Rust and Bone." ...
It should also be noted that PGA nominations for animation went to "Brave," "Frankenweenie," "ParaNorman," "Rise of the Guardians" and "Wreck-It Ralph."
The Writers Guild Award nominations
Opting for a mix of mainstream and specialty titles, members of the Writers Guild of America have nominated John Gatins for "Flight," Rian Johnson for "Looper," Paul Thomas Anderson for "The Master," Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for "Moonrise Kingdom" and Mark Boal for "Zero Dark Thirty" for the guild's original screenplay award.Noms for adaptations include Chris Terrio's "Argo," David Magee's "Life of Pi," Tony Kushner's "Lincoln," David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" and Stephen Chbosky for "Perks of Being a Wallflower." ....
... Unlike other guilds, the WGA excludes scripts that were not produced under its jurisdiction or that of a foreign guild such as Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" and William Nicholson's "Les Miserables."Other notable WGA exclusions include "The Impossible," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Anna Karenina" and "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." ...
... Three of the six docs nominated — Kirby Dick's "The Invisible War," Alex Gibney's "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," and Malik Bendejelloul's "Searching for Sugar Man" — have been shortlisted for the Oscar, Ken Burns' "Central Park Five" also received a WGA nod as did "We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists"by Brian Knappenberger and "West of Memphis," written by Amy Berg & Billy McMillin.
Warner Bros.' "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," Disney-Marvel's "The Avengers" and Fox's "Life of Pi" led the feature noms for the Visual Effects Society's 11th annual VES Awards."The Hobbit," helmed by Peter Jackson and boasting a vfx team led by Joe Letteri, garnered a total of seven nods, including one for outstanding vfx in a visual effects-driven feature. Joss Whedon's "Avengers" and Ang Lee's "Life of Pi," also nommed in that category, each received five additional nods.
Two more pics -- "Battleship" and "Prometheus" -- got nods in the effect-driven feature category, with "Battleship" receiving one other nom and "Prometheus" two.
VES also chose "Argo," "Flight," "The Impossible," "Rust and Bone" and "Zero Dark Thirty" for outstanding supporting vfx in a feature. "The Impossible" got one additional nod.
Film animation noms went to "Brave," "Hotel Transylvania," "ParaNorman," "Rise of the Guardians" and "Wreck-It Ralph." "ParaNorman" got four other noms, "Brave" and "Guardians" three, "Transylvania" two and "Ralph" one. ...
"Anna Karenina," "Argo," "Django Unchained," "Lincoln" and "Les Miserables" have scored nominations for production design in a period film from the Art Directors Guild.The guild announced the nominations Wednesday night as part of 15 feature nods in three categories for its Excellence in Production Design Awards.
"Cloud Atlas," "Life of Pi," "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," "Prometheus" and "The Dark Knight Rises" were selected in fantasy category. The guild tapped "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," "Flight," "The Impossible," "Skyfall" and "Zero Dark Thirty" for the contemporary film category.
Notable absences in the noms included "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "The Master," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Rust and Bone" and "Silver Linings Playbook."...
"Life of Pi" star Suraj Sharma will compete with actresses Elizabeth Olsen, Andrea Riseborough, Juno Temple and Alicia Vikander for the BAFTA EE Rising Star award ...
A native of Los Angeles raised by two parents and "Hill Street Blues," Jon Weisman ankled his scriptwriting career and began working for Variety in 2004, subsequently serving as associate editor of features and television reporter before becoming awards editor. He promises not to use this platform to retroactively campaign for Oscars for “The Misfits,” though he’d feel justified in doing so.
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