Thompson On Hollywood

UA Pushes Back Cruise and Singer's Valkyrie

In retrospect, the MGM-UA idea is starting to look suspect.

When movie star Tom Cruise and partner Paula Wagner had a producing pact at Paramount, a studio controlled the purse strings, with the power to say no.

But put Cruise and Wagner in charge of a studio, and you have Wagner assembling a slate on the one hand, but who does she answer to? Cruise! And CAA (and husband Rick Nicita) are helping to package projects like Lions for Lambs, which was doomed to be a noble failure from the start. From Cruise/Wagner's perspective, coming from big-studio projects, at $35 million Lambs probably seemed like a modest effort. But it was still too expensive for what it was. Its $15 million domestic gross (of which less than half is returned to the studio) didn't cover its marketing costs. It also earned $42 million overseas. The just-launched DVD release will have to bring the movie into the black.

And Valkyrie is a perfect storm. I hear that director Bryan Singer, who has runaway director tendencies anyway, has run up a $90-million negative tab, which probably seemed reasonable to him, since he was coming off the $200-million Superman Returns. Because Cruise had to promote the opening of Lions for Lambs, Singer postponed three key scenes of the Valkyrie shoot, including one big battle sequence in North Africa. (That's when Cruise's Nazi officer loses his right hand, plus two fingers from his left hand, and an eye.)

But pushing the movie's release date back twice has made it look like tainted goods. Cruise and Wagner took a calculated risk pushing it back to February, knowing that an October date was facing off against the looming Presidential election. As soon as Wolfman and the Pink Panther sequel moved off of Presidents Day, UA jumped on the date. Their October weekend usually yields a b.o. of about $55 million, the thinking went, as opposed to Prexy Day, which usually generates about three times that. Singer and Cruise signed off on the promise of a possible Superbowl spot, Berlin Film Fest launch, and a bigger boxoffice bonanza.

They must have known how the town would react. When you say: "No, we don't have a summer movie, it's a fall movie," it really means: "we don't have a commercial movie that will stand up to the competition in wide release, but a quality smart film with possible Oscar potential that needs critics, so we'll go for fall." But push that same movie again into February, and it conjures up All the Kings Men, which was too weak to earn rave reviews and had no identifiable core audience.

The trouble with the whole MGM construct is that a decision about making or picking up a movie for release has to be based on a slew of market equations. Targeting your audience is crucial. Just because Hot Director Bryan Singer and Major Star Tom Cruise want to make a period movie about a Nazi hero doesn't make it worth $90-million (not to mention marketing costs). (Much as I loved it, Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men shouldn't have cost that much either. Who was the audience?)

MGM CEO Harry Sloan was smart to hire Mary Parent to run MGM. She will run studio production, marketing and distribution. (That's why Rick Sands is out.) She will be damn sure to pick movies she can market. That's half the battle. And Hollywood sat up and took notice of this move, because they know that Parent gets it.

Weekend Boxoffice: Semi-Pro Sports Spoof vs. Boleyn Bodice-Ripper

Despite achieving a miserable 23 % rotten ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, the R-rated sports spoof Semi-Pro, starring Will Ferrell, is expected to dominate the weekend boxoffice by drawing young males. Boasting femme appeal is the other Boleyn girl, which grabbed a 53% rotten rating. Unlikely to score much action this weekend is Summit Entertainment's freshman release Penelope, starring recent BAFTA nominee James McAvoy and Christina Ricci as a girl with a pig nose, which earned 56% rotten reviews.

BTW, for the still-Oscar-obsessed, Rotten Tomatoes compares the scores of all the films that have won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Here's the weekend forecast based on Fandango's advance ticket sales:

Movie Fandango User Rating % Fandango Sales

Semi-Pro “Go” 21%

The Other Boleyn Girl “Go” 17%

Vantage Point “Go” 10%

The Spiderwick Chronicles “Go” 6%

U2 3D “Must Go” 5%

This week's Fandango Weekly Poll (as of 2/29/08 9:00 a.m. PT):

Will Ferrell's latest, Semi-Pro, opens this week. What's your favorite Ferrell comedy?

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy 24%

Old School 22%

Elf 21%

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby 17%

Blades of Glory 10%

Zoolander 6%

Trailer Watch: John Woo's Period Epic Red Cliff

John Woo's bid to deliver his own epic period adventure on a Kurosawa-scale is the $75-million Red Cliff, his first Asia-shot film since 1992's Hardboiled. Set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, the epic was filmed over four months in mainland China.

This trailer took my breath away. My only regret: that Chow Yun-Fat, fresh from working on a Jerry Bruckheimer-scale Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, couldn't work things out with his former director. (Woo and producer Terence Chang weren't willing to meet his sky high perk demands.) Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Gengyi star in this pan-Asian production which has backers from Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Woo filmed two two-hour films to be released separately in Asia in July and December 2008, with a two and a half hour cut going out in the rest of the world. (I wonder what will show in Cannes?) Summit is selling international rights at Berlin.

The Orphanage handled the VFX.

Check out Woo's trademark white dove.

Atonement Leads BAFTA Noms

OK, so it doesn't look good for Atonement for a best picture Oscar slot. What about McAvoy, Knightley and Wright, pictured here? It's such a competitive year. I'm still scratching my head about why so many folks haven't responded to this wonderful movie the way the British Academy of Film & Television Arts did. Of course, the Brits are rewarding their own. Atonement led the BAFTA pack with 14 noms.

Was the structure too strange? The central figures not likable enough? The Academy usually loves the Brits, the period, the scale and scope of a movie like this. I come back to the same thing. Despite Focus Features' best efforts not to let this happen, the early fest raves in the fall, combined with the withholding of screenings, led to the film finally not meeting expectations. It's doing some business. But this film did not perform with the Guilds the way I expected it to. One other culprit: the high end reviews that knocked it, led by A.O. Scott in the NYT.

The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, February 10 at the Royal Opera House in London; stateside it's on BBC America on Feb 10 at 6 PM Eastern.

Oscar Watch: National Society Picks There Will Be Blood

We knew the various critics groups would go for No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, as the National Society of Film Critics did Saturday. This means each film gets a boost during this all important ballot-filling season. What fascinates me is whether the Academy goes the same way as the critics. (Tom O'Neill goes underground with the NSFC voting.)

Remember, each segment of the Academy has different sensibilities. The directors and writers are more likely to go the way the critics do. The actors tend to be more mainstream, more inclined toward sentiment and emotion. (I listened to some actors tear apart No Country, intelligently.) But No Country is in good shape. So is Juno. And Michael Clayton. These are movies that everyone--including the more mainstream Academy groups, like the actors, execs, producers and publicists--can get behind. (Time's Richard Corliss thinks the Academy voters aren't mainstream enough.)

This year there are many, many movies actually vying for slots. Which means there will be votes all over the place, and the Top Five Best Picture slots will be hotly contested. The margin of difference between slots five, six and seven will be very slim.

The Academy's biggest branch, the actors, love George Clooney, Sean Penn, and Denzel Washington. That could push Into the Wild or The Great Debaters into best picture, my fellow Oscar-watcher Pete Hammond insists. But I think that neither movie movie will get enough votes from writers, editors, directors, and craftspeople. Penn has played rough on movie sets with various crews over the years, which could come back to bite him. There is a popularity contest aspect to the Oscar race. (Check out Edward Copeland's Oscar Best/Worst Actor Survey; it's fascinating to see how many great actors won career prizes for movies that that they aren't necessarily remembered by. I had forgotten that Richard Dreyfuss won for The Goodbye Girl.)

I suspect Into the Wild will land a nom for Hal Holbrook, who has factored in many Emmy races over the years, but not the Oscars.

Charlie Wilson's War is playing well with the Academy; it should get noms for supporting actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, maybe writer Aaron Sorkin.

There Will be Blood gets Daniel Day Lewis and directing, at least, if not much more.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly gets writing and maybe, veteran Max Von Sydow. The directors should go for Julian Schnabel but he hasn't endeared himself to anyone as he makes his PA rounds. He's a NY outsider who is not a member of the club. But the movie is much admired.

There are often splits between picture and director. So we may see Diving Bell in picture but not director, American Gangster not in picture but Ridley Scott in director, Atonement in picture but not Joe Wright, Juno in picture but not Jason Reitman, PTA in director but TWBB not in picture, etc. (My votes are tallied every week at MCN's Gurus 'O Gold and the LAT's The Buzzmeter.)

Tamara Jenkins is doing well enough with The Savages to make me wonder if Laura Linney, who has been sadly overlooked so far, might not creep into best actress over Angelina Jolie or Keira Knightley, who aren't necessarily sure things.

The critics groups aren't paying much heed to Atonement, Sweeney Todd or American Gangster, but they played well for many Academy voters. Atonement gets a big boost from its 17 entries on the long list of the BAFTAs, the British Academy Awards. It needs a lift: while it's doing well at the boxoffice, I sense some Academy resistance.

The full National Society voting is on the jump:

Trailer Watch: The Duchess

Back in bodice and corset is Atonement's Keira Knightley as The Duchess (of Devonshire), coming this fall from Paramount Vantage. It looks sexy. This will be a test of her stardom. Here's the trailer link.

There Will Be Blood: Interviews

There Will be Blood opens December 26. Its Tomatometer rating off 32 reviews so far is 91%.

Paul Thomas Anderson talks candidly to Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Here's a feature on the movie in The London Times; Judith Lewis's LA Weekly cover story on Daniel Day Lewis; he also does the LAT and the AP. And in case you missed it, Lynn Hirschberg's cover profile in the NYT Magazine.

Here's a clip:

Oscar Watch: Scandal Cheat Sheet

LAT.com is running a photo gallery with deep captions on the provocative subject of Oscar movies tainted by scandal. While it's a sure way to grab online traffic, the stories are attention-grabbing without offering any substance. Is discussion of Keira Knightley's skinniness really going to change her chances of getting an Oscar nom?

As for Kite Runner, distrib Paramount Vantage is still fighting the good fight on the basis of strong exit polls indicating that like the book, The Kite Runner movie plays better to regular folks than to the intelligentsia. Here's some info:

Exit polls last Sunday were 94% top two boxes and 85% definite recommend at a wide sampling from six markets. An avalanche of blowback comments hit the NYT website responding to Manohla Dargis's review. The movie is trying to recover from tough reviews; its rankings on Rottentomatoes are climbing to 69% in the "cream of the crop" group.

The filmmakers are crossing their fingers that the movie expands well into middle markets this weekend.

The Great Debaters: Early Review

Here's Variety's review of Denzel Washington's late Oscar-race entry The Great Debaters.

Golden Globe Nominations: Atonement Leads Pack with Seven

With seven nominations, Joe Wright's Atonement led the field of Golden Globe nominations Thursday morning. It was a good day for Denzel Washington, who stars in two films out of seven in the motion picture drama category: American Gangster, in which he stars as a Harlem kingpin, and The Great Debaters, a heart-tugging period drama about an upstart debate team at a black college who take on Harvard, which he also directed. He was also nominated for best actor for American Gangster.

The 80 or so Hollywood Foreign press voters wound up with three ties for fifth place, they say; hence the seven drama slots.

Michael Clayton earned five noms, including George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson. Cate Blanchett landed two noms, for dramatic actress in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and for her supporting role as one of six Bob Dylans in I'm Not There. And Philip Seymour Hoffman won two comedy side noms, as best actor in The Savages and supporting actor in Charlie Wilson's War.

While considered a bellwether for the Oscars, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association generously breaks its best picture and actor candidates into two categories: drama and musical/comedy, while the Motion Picture Academy does not. Thus, on January 22 the Academy may not find room to reward all the musical/comedy Globe entries: Across the Universe, Hairspray, Juno, Sweeney Todd and Charlie Wilson's War, which landed five noms.

The director category reveals the strongest five Globe candidates: Sweeney Todd, No Country for Old Men, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, American Gangster and Atonement. I would not be surprised if those five also wound up as Oscar's best on January 22. While its youthful director Jason Reitman did not land a director Globe mention, Juno, which got nods for comedy, actress (Ellen Page) and screenplay (Diablo Cody) is gaining momentum in the Oscar race.

There's no question that Hairspray got a significant boost from the Globe nominations, especially John Travolta in the supporting actor category, who had been overlooked by critics' groups. Also getting much-needed recognition was Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Among the Globe surprises that may not be mirrored on the Oscar side of the ledger:

David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises and star Viggo Mortenson earned drama nods.

Angelina Jolie landed a dramatic actress nom for A Mighty Heart.

Jodie Foster was recognized for her role as a Manhattan vigilante in The Brave One.

On the musical/comedy side:

Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky and Sweeney Todd's Helena Bonham Carter landed noms.

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts won noms for Charlie Wilson's War.

John C. Reilly landed a nod for the musical comedy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Ryan Gosling got a much-needed boost for the indie flick Lars and the Real Girl.

Of the musical/comedy actor nods, the likeliest one to score with the Academy voters is Sweeney Todd's Johnny Depp.

Because the Globes have less stringent criteria for inclusion in its foreign film category, several films that are not eligible for the Oscars made the cut: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Lust, Caution and The Kite Runner. Nominees 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Romania) and Persepolis (France) are considered strong contenders in the foreign Oscar race.

While many would-be awards-season contenders are crying in their beer today, all is not lost. It is possible to forge ahead without Globe noms, as Half-Nelson star Gosling did last year.

The full list of movie nominations is on the jump.

Atonement: Wright and Hampton Talk

Atonement screened for my last UCLA class Monday night, and they went for it, although you can always tell when a movie has left some folks behind when they ask questions about why the characters behaved the way they did. About a third of the class had read the book. Director Joe Wright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton explained why the movie was such a difficult challenge.

The structure: when Hampton first wrote the script for Richard Eyre, he fashioned a more conventional framing device with the grown-up Briony Tallis explaining the set-up and then moving into the past. When Wright stepped in, he asked Hampton to redo it from scratch and follow the structure of the book, which leaves the revelations of the adult Briony to the end, as a surprise. This forces the audience to reexamine what they've already learned in a new light, which is always a risky thing to do in a film. Wright and Hampton admitted that they spent more time debating the ending than anything else. Hampton also worked closely with McEwan, who gave notes.

The casting: Wright made the call to cast three different actresses as the 13-year-old, 18-year-old and dying Briony. And he insisted on casting the youngest one first--he wanted a pre-pubescent who could act to establish the character. Then he realized that Redgrave would work perfectly for the elderly Briony; Romula Garai modeled her performance on Saorise Ronan. (All three actresses were stuck with the same short bob.) At first, Wright considered Keira Knightley, who starred in his Pride & Prejudice, for the middle Briony, but when he saw her in her designer duds at the Toronto Fest, he changed his mind and cast her as the sexy ingenue Cecilia. James McAvoy was perfect for the young gardener who attends Cambridge with Cecilia, partly because he's believably working class. The last thing Wright wanted was "a posh actor playing common."

The long shot: As some of you suspected, the 5 1/2-minute long shot on the beach at Dunkirk came about from necessity--Wright would have had to do 40 set-ups in one day--it was written as a montage. The director usually gets about 15 setups a day. The beach had a huge tide, which would be coming in as the day progressed. They planned an elaborate steadicam shot and rehearsed for a day, then did three takes. When Wright looked at the video playback, it was all fuzz. He tried to get another take but lost the light. It wasn't until the actual dailies arrived in film cans that they saw how the shot came out.

The critics: After its stunning launch in Venice, Atonement became a critical and boxoffice smash in Britain. Hampton thinks that sometimes when a lauded movie arrives on these shores, some posh critics feel the need to go after it, he said.

Hampton's next: Stephen Frears (who directed Hampton's adaptation of his play Dangerous Liaisons) is shooting Hampton's script of Colette's Cherie, to star a 50ish actress as an aging woman of the night.

And Wright is working on a local L.A. story, The Soloist, from the LAT's Steve Lopez, about a homeless musician. Jamie Foxx is now starving himself for the role, and practicing the violin.

Atonement: Dueling Reviews

There's no question Atonement played well at the L.A. premiere at the Academy last night, which drew director Joe Wright, supporting actress candidates Saorise Ronan and Vanessa Redgrave (stunning in form-fitting black and gold), and stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. Just after the screening, Redgrave was still recovering from seeing the film again, which moved her deeply. Knightley recalled how they all had to listen to Johnny Depp's deep baritone as he practiced Sweeney Todd songs in his trailer during the last Pirates filming; she can't wait to see Sweeney. [Here's her LAT profile.] With a Scottish lilt, McAvoy marveled at how Knightley handles the paparazzi that tend to accumulate around her, and plans to follow Clive Owen's advice when celebrity hits: stay polite, courteous and extremely dull. He said he and his wife "don't get around much."

Tony Scott's Atonement pan in the NYT was also a topic of conversation:

Unlike Mr. Wright’s brisk, romantic film version of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” “Atonement” fails to be anything more than a decorous, heavily decorated and ultimately superficial reading of the book on which it is based. Mr. McEwan’s prose pulls you in immediately and drags you through an intricate, unsettling story, releasing you in a shaken, wrung-out state. The film, after a tantalizing start, sputters to a halt in a welter of grandiose imagery and hurtling montage

.

As rain leaked through the plastic tent on Wilshire Boulevard, Universal's David Linde was confident that the movie could overcome a few negative reviews, even though Scott will also berate the pic on ABC's Ebert & Roeper show. The movie earned an encouraging 85% fresh reviews on rottentomatoes.com.

Luckily for its Academy campaign, Atonement won a rave from the LAT's Ken Turan, who also read his review on NPR:

An assured and deeply moving work, "Atonement" is at once one of the most affecting of contemporary love stories and a potent meditation on the power of fiction to destroy and create, to divide and possibly heal. It is the kind of novel that doesn't get written very often or, if it does, rarely gets transferred to the screen with the kind of intensity and fidelity we find here.

UPDATE: Newsweek's David Ansen comes close to my take on the movie (see comment below).

Here are some clips:

Sweeney Todd Reactions

DreamWorks has been holding Sweeney Todd back. Well, they finally screened it last week, and elicited "non-reviews" from the Internet folks. The two trades are sufficiently alarmed by all this activity to consider running their reviews sooner rather than later, I hear.

I saw the movie Sunday. I now understand why DreamWorks has been treading so carefully on the marketing. This is not your every day movie musical. Stephen Sondheim is filtered through the sensibilities of Tim Burton and his muse and alter-ego, Johnny Depp. It worked for me. I already love this musical; it was fascinating to see the narrative that I'd seen on stage so many times unfolding in a more literal close-up space. The story is the same, but intimate close-ups bring emotion and wells of feeling (and blood and gruesome gore). The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is not exactly a warm and cuddly fellow. And yet Depp (pictured here with Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett) makes him human.

Sweeney Todd will likely earn a rash of Oscar nominations, including cinematography, production design, makeup, costumes, sound categories, and Depp. But even if Depp is long overdue, Daniel Day Lewis remains a formidable opponent. And a best picture slot is not a sure thing. It never is.

Check out these tip-toed Internet reports about Sweeney: Newsweek blogger Ramin Setoodeh, In Contention, Fox News, Hollywood Elsewhere, The Hot Blog, The Carpetbagger, and Sweeney champion Tom O'Neill at The Envelope.

Oscar Watch: Atonement Picks Up Steam

Yes, Focus has been keeping quiet about Atonement. But believe me--even though it plays somewhat better for women than for men--think great wartime epics like The English Patient, Reds, Dr. Zhivago--this one is going to stick.

Oscar Watch: Weinstein May Not Push Blanchett into Best Actress Race

Over the weekend, David Poland at Movie City News reported that Harvey Weinstein was planning to push Cate Blanchett as best actress for I'm Not There, rather than supporting. Which didn't necessarily mean that the Golden Globes, SAG and the Academy would go along with it. UPDATE: And it doesn't mean Weinstein will take this route, either, it turns out. "Nothing is changing," said one Weinstein Co. spokeswoman. These games are often played. In this case, some of the
I'm Not There folks are pushing for TWC to make this change. Blanchett is off Down Under doing a play, but apparently has no intention of backing off her support for Elizabeth, which Universal has been backing handsomely via "for your consideration" ads. If Blanchett were to withdraw her support for an Elizabeth push, she might land best actress, but she's weaker in that category. She was a surefire winner in supporting.

Poland didn't check with TWC to verify the assertion of his good source, he admits. And his weekly memo to his Gurus of Gold voters told them to place Blanchett in the best actress category.

So why take the chance? Economics. Even a nomination in the lead categories means more in global boxoffice and DVD sales than supporting does. Think Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda. That movie did far better than it would have done otherwise. And I'm Not There is strictly an art-house play without some Oscar attention.

Here's a Blanchett clip that's been on YouTube for a while:

And the real-life limo video of John Lennon and Bob Dylan that may have inspired it:

Love in the Time of Cholera Title Could be Problem

When you don't have room to spell out on the entire Love in the Time of Cholera title on a theatre marquee, the shortened version tends to be "Cholera," which is not exactly a boxoffice lure. Directed by Mike Newell from Ronald Harwood's adaptation of the romantic Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, Cholera didn't pull in too many moviegoers this weekend, grossing an estimated $1.9 million from 852 theaters.

Beowulf: Hybrid Animation VFX

Beowulf is good cheesy fun. Bob Zemeckis and Sony Imageworks and the hundreds of folks who labored to make this movie have delivered a must-see event, especially in IMAX 3-D. But it's not nearly as good as it could have been, nor did it need to be so labor intensive. I would happily watch the blue-screen/live-action/300 version of this movie, which would have cost half as much. Or I would eagerly see the entirely animated version. Why not shoot live-action and animate the non-human creatures? This performance capture/imagemotion process remains clunky and stiff.

Here's the deal: the best stuff in Beowulf is the most stylized, the most liberated from the motion-capture process--Angelina Jolie's spike-heeled demon, the monster Grendel, the golden dragon and Beowulf himself. Beowulf is an idealized Adonis-version of Ray Winstone, and the most magnificently rendered human character ever put on-screen. But the other humans, from Robin Wright Penn to Anthony Hopkins, with their plastic eyes and murky teeth, are still strange and weird. They are stiff, robotic, less human than if they had been animated. The human eye is rigged to pick out anything wrong. The closer to reality you get, the easier it is to miss it.

As for the whole Academy debate about animation vs. visual effects, Zemeckis remains hung up on being taken seriously as a live-action director who works with actors and props etc. Well, as long as this movie is 100% rendered, the Academy considers it animation, even if the process used to make the movie is the same one that created Gollum or King Kong. Those characters are considered VFX. But the VFX committee will never budge on this.

The Beowulf myth is a deep and powerful one; it goes back to the old tales that J.R.R. Tolkein was inspired by when he wrote The Lord of the Rings. I highly recommend the Seamus Heaney translation, which doesn't take long to read. But Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman have gussied up the story, complicating it with sex and honor and guilt and all sorts of modern emotions that the original myth had nothing to do with. Finally, I prefer the old-fashioned action-adventure Beowulf & Grendel, starring 300's Gerard Butler.

Here's the Variety review.

Atonement's Keira Knightley Gets Hot

Planet Gossip feels the love for Atonement star and Elle cover girl Keira Knightley.

Love in the Time of Cholera Trailer

Here's the new trailer for Love in the Time of Cholera, adapted by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ romantic novel about a man who waits 50 years to be reunited with the love of his life. Directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and starring Javier Bardem (The Sea Inside, No Country for Old Men), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge), Benjamin Bratt and Giovanna Mezzogiorno, the movie opens November 16th.

Working Title Likes Oscars

While Brit producer Working Title's sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age got off to a rocky start, the movie should still have a fighting chance in such Oscar tech categories as art direction and costume (not score, though). It is not widely known that Working Title has enjoyed a long and illustrious relationship with Oscar: since 1986 their films have landed 38 noms and four wins. (See chart.) Here's a taste of my column on Working Title:

Working Title co-heads Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner have the best of both worlds.

They're the big fish at the top of the British film pond, drawing top scripts and directors. At the same time, they boast a rich seven-year first-look deal with Universal Pictures, which finances and releases their films Stateside via the studio or Focus Features, and overseas, where their films earn the lion's share of their grosses. This fall they're back in the Oscar race with Focus Features' World War II romantic epic "Atonement," starring Keira Knightley and Vanessa Redgrave, which is shaping up to be the award season's early front runner.

Because Working Title is so profitable for Universal, they have earned rare autonomy within the studio -- they even control their own international marketing. Bevan and Fellner nurture edgy American fare from the likes of the Coen brothers and "United 93" helmer Paul Greengrass alongside comedies like the "Mr. Bean" films, which have vastly more appeal to global auds than they do to Americans.

While they still wince at their biggest box office debacle, the $55-million bigscreen version of Brit kid fave "The Thunderbirds," Bevan and Fellner are enjoying the fruits of maturity, churning out such global sequels as "Mr. Bean's Holiday," starring Rowan Atkinson, alongside the ambitious $55-million sequel "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," in which Cate Blanchett reprises her role as the British monarch. "Golden Age" did not woo critics and crowds at September's Toronto Fest as well as "Atonement," which is steadily building Oscar buzz.

Working Title has enjoyed a long and fruitful dance with the Oscars. Since 1986's "My Beautiful Laundrette," which earned a writing nom for Hanif Kureishi, Working Title has earned 38 Oscar nominations and four wins: best actress for Susan Sarandon for "Dead Man Walking" and Frances McDormand for "Fargo," which also scored for original screenplay, and a makeup prize for "Elizabeth."

Here's Bevan and Fellner's Toronto Fest interview on Shootout:

Oscar Watch: Kite Runner, Diving Bell and Butterfly Won't Enter Foreign Race

There's no question that Khaled Hosseini's Afghanistan novel The Kite Runner, a bestseller and book group favorite, is a natural for the cinema. For some reason Paramount Vantage is not taking the conventional fall festival route with this DreamWorks movie directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland). However, Vantage insists they will launch it in a cool and special way.

This trailer confirms the early word I have on the father-son (melo)drama: that it is a crowd-pleaser/tearjerker, even in a foreign language (Dari). A critics' picture? That's another question, and Kite Runner's Oscar hopes will hang on that.

That's because it won't be submitted by any country for foreign Oscar consideration. Nor, by the way, will Cannes best-director winner Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which should fare better with stateside critics and cinephiles than it did in France, where Schnabel had the temerity to direct a beloved French book in French. Granted, no matter how artfully done, a story about a paralyzed man who can't speak is going to be a tough sell.

In France, Diving Bell grossed some $2.4 million (according to EDI, 302,487 admissions) as compared to La Vie En Rose, a huge hit at $41 million. France's official Oscar submission will be something homegrown like the period romance Moliere, which grossed $9 million.

In any case, both Kite Runner and Diving Bell are ineligible because they are considered American productions with foreign elements. The Academy rules dictate that two out of three categories-- writer, director and producer--must be from the submitting country. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association does not have such a rule, which is how Mel Gibson's Apocalypto and Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima were foreign-language nominees; Iwo Jima actually won.

Becoming Jane: Austen Manque

Moliere uses the same tactic: take a famous writer and use their writing as the source for a movie about them. Shakespeare in Love did it more successfully. Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen, doesn't ring true at all. For once I completely agree with Richard Schickel. But this femme blogger, on the other hand, adores the movie, which earned a 55 ranking on Metacritic.

I'm of the school that thou shalt not Americanize and make contemporary period Brit subjects. Let the Brits do their own thing. Yes, Gwenyth Paltrow can do a British accent. So can Renee Zellweger. But Anne Hathaway seems athletically feminist, and not at all period. On the other hand, it opened well in limited release...Miramax, at least, seems to know how to market it. As usual, women are starving for summer pictures geared to them.

Lust, Caution: New Trailer

Ang Lee's period drama Lust, Caution looks sexy and dangerous. Adapted from a 1950 short story by Chinese author Eileen Chang, the movie is loosely based on an event that took place in Shanghai in 1939-1940. The film will open, after its fall fest debuts, on September 28.

It was brave to make it as a Chinese-language film. Will American audiences be willing to expand their horizons? When a movie is accessible and engaging enough, language is not an issue. Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth had genre elements that made it a hybrid crossover, more than a period art film. Pan's Labyrinth expanded its boxoffice by riding the award season waves, which Focus is banking on, needless to say.

Cruise Watch: Valkyrie Nazi Shots

While it's true that Tom Cruise is playing a Nazi who was out to assassinate Adolf Hitler, it's still a tad discomforting to see Cruise in full Nazi regalia.

Lust Caution: Poster Art and Trailer

Here's a gorgeous poster for the new Ang Lee film in Chinese, Lust Caution.

LAFF: Moliere at The Landmark

I have a weakness for French costume epics, especially the light-hearted bodice-ripping variety. So I couldn't resist checking out the new The Landmark in Westwood where Laurent Tirard's Moliere was showing, starring the divine Romain Duris (The Beat My Heart Skipped) in the title role as a womanizing comedy actor/playwright and the equally luscious Laura Morante as the object of his affections. As always, Fabrice Lucchini is hilarious and never dull.

Although it took me a while to find the poorly marked theaters, which are west of Westwood Boulevard, I settled into my seat to enjoy the well-mounted escapist romp which Sony Pictures Classics will release here on July 27. I had read that the theaters were designed so badly that when people come and go, the doors flood the screen with light. It's true, and far worse than I expected. That's something you learn in Theater-Building 101!

Otherwise, the new Landmark complex seems pleasant enough, with a Barnes & Noble bookstore and an inviting (empty) cafe. It's The Arclight Light.

Luke Y. Thompson's review

Foster To Play Riefenstahl

Jodie Foster has been threatening to play legendary Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (The Triumph of the Will) for some seven years. Before her death in 2003, Riefenstahl wasn't thrilled; Foster didn't proceed at the time because the German filmmaker was demanding too much control over her own story. Now it looks like the project is gaining steam, as Foster has found a script she likes and is seeking a director. Riefenstahl is a fascinating woman, at once a brilliant filmmaker and propagandist as well as a Nazi collaborator. How much did she really sympathize? That is the question.

Foster picks her roles carefully. This summer she stars in the thriller The Brave One; she's going off to Australia to film the family film Nim's Island with Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin for Fox-Walden. That will be finished by early fall. Another long-in-the-works project based on a Marie Brenner article, Sugarland, is still in development.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age Trailer

I know, I've already watched the Helen Mirren version, not to mention Bette Davis and Erroll Flynn's Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. But I can't get enough of Queen Elizabeth, obviously. Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen? I am so there. We'll have to wait til the fall season.

Luhrmann's Australia Prepping for May Start

Production is gearing up for a May start for Baz Luhrmann's Australia, reports Cinematical. The 30s romantic epic stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in a cattle western set in the Australian town of Darwin. Australia is scheduled for 2008 release.