THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES has opened to $49.5m in China which is just about as much as the first Hobbit movie made during it's entire run in the country! Goes to show the recognition that the movie brings now to the Chinese as well as the further development of the theater industry there - especially 3D. With FIVE ARMIES being made in native 3D with world leading 3ality Technica rigs, these box office results underscore what great movie making can achieve. Peter Jackson's finale to the Hobbit trilogy has raked in $866 million worldwide as of now and as China is it's last major market the echos of the release may be enough to push it to the magic billion dollar mark despite being obviously snubbed by the Academy for Oscars this year. The movie only managed to be nominated for Sound Editing. How it is not at least nominated for Visual Effects is beyond me.
Will THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES hit $1 billion? Will we ever return to Middle-earth again any time soon? I'd dearly love to see some spin offs from these movies - character origins stories, adventures and the like. I doubt the Tolkien estate would allow it, but there would definitely be a huge market for it. Even a bridge movie bringing Legolas together with Strider as described at the end of the movie would be huge.
Can't wait to get the extended trilogy versions on Blu-ray! All the behind the scenes action is what I really enjoy in these boxed sets. Stay tuned for further box office updates!
Alfonso Cuaron has orbited Oscar before, most notably with 2007's CHILDREN OF MEN where he received nods for writing and editing but he didn't manage to land them. That all is set to change once more as his magnificent force of GRAVITY pulled in audiences around the world and is being lauded as one of the best of year officially now.
GRAVITY has made $675 million worldwide and counting and if you haven't seen it yet do yourself a favor and check it out while it's still in theaters! It's a must see on the big screen and in 3D. So how is GRAVITY being recognized?10 nominations! Here they are:
- Best Picture
- Best Director (Alfonso Cuaron)
- Best Actress (Sandra Bullock)
- Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki)
- Best Original Score (Steven Price)
- Best Production Design
- Best Film Editing
- Best Visual Effects
- Best Sound Editing
- Best Sound Mixing
My sincerest hope is that GRAVITY sweeps. Yes there are important movies this year that have also gotten nods, but GRAVITY I think is a masterpiece and a defining moment in cinematic history. Further I think that the movie brings together the world's audiences in such a unique way that it almost HAS to win Oscar. And not just for visual effects which is all but a sure thing for the movie.
For all of our GRAVITY coverage, click here. The 86th Oscars air on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollwood, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.
Very cool development here with the release of Jonas Cuaron's short film entitled ANINGAAQ and its tie-in with his father's amazing movie GRAVITY which is still in theaters. The rest of the post has minor spoilers in it as well as the short film, so don't read ahead unless you've seen GRAVITY or worst case scenario, you don't plan to see it (but please do - highly recommended).
ANINGAAQ tells the story of what happens on the other end of the radio transmissions that Sandra Bullock's character is able to initiate in GRAVITY. Until now, no one new who she was speaking to and under what terms. Now we know!
The 7 minute short was short entirely in Greenland at a cost of $100,000 (mainly transportation costs of equipment and crew). Moreover, Warner Bros. has decided to submit the film as an entry to the Academy for Best Short Film Oscar. This will mark the first time that a movie and a short film that have a tie-in have both been nominated for an Academy Award (assuming they both get the nod), and the first time that this has happened as father / son duo.
A good friend of mine, Steve Schklair is a co-producer on STALINGRAD which was shot in amazing native 3D. I've seen segments of the movie and was not only moved by the attention to detail, authenticity of the war and acting - but also the 3D.Director Fedor Bondarchuk’s budget was $30 million and it's all on the screen and then some. It was shot on a massive set built outside St. Petersburg and painstakingly brought back to the horror of World War II in Russia.
3ality Technica supplied the 3D systems and technology behind the movie using the TS-5 rigs. I've seen these rigs up close and personal and they are impressive pieces of technology.
I love how artistically the visuals are done, mimicking film stock of the period that has been subsequently colorized. Brilliant. The visual effects are Hollywood class as well, no doubt.
Russia has selected STALINGRAD as their Best Foreign Language contender for the Academy Awards for many reasons, one of which is obviously box office: The movie broke records in opening number one in Russia (1400 screens) and the Ukraine, raking in $17.3 million. I honestly believe it is deserving of the Oscar for its technical and creative triumphs. Sony distributed overseas.
Here's the movie's storyline: Written by Ilya Tilkin and Sergey Snezhkin and directed by Fedor Bondarchuk, STALINGRAD is set in 1942, when invading German troops were in control of the Volga River. A group of Soviet soldiers finds a young woman trapped behind enemy lines and works to protect her. Thomas Kretschmann and Yanina Studilina star.
Here's what MarketSaw reader 'Katusha' had to say about his experience with the director and his movie: "This is the best director in russia right now and I highly recommend his other movies which commonly share personal stories against a military historical backdrop. Fedor Bondarchuk's father, Sergei Bondarchuk also directed "War and Peace" in 1960's. His films do have patriotic notes - and there is much to be proud of for the efforts of Russian people to defend their land and families from German invasion, and this film's goal is to show their heroism and sacrifice. Germans were the aggressors, so I wouldn't expect a Russian director to side with them too much." You've got to see the trailer for this movie if you haven't seen it yet.
If you know your history, then you know that the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. To brush up on the details, click here. Impressively, STALINGRAD is the first IMAX movie that is non-American and is Russia's first 3D movie. More details when I get it - I working on something special for this...
Well to say I'm not disappointed would be lying, but there are many things that happened last night that was good for stereoscopic 3D. Yes HUGO did not win for Best Picture or for Director, two awards that I thought it had very legitimate odds to win. Certainly Scorsese deserved it as did the entire movie - but that has been the way with the Oscars of late.
The good news is HUGO won a bunch of technical awards, including Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Art Direction and Cinematography. The Visual Effects award was a surprise to me as I thought that TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (another 3D movie) was the clear winner. In fact I had RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES in second!
Here's why these awards are important to the S3D industry: There is no category or award for stereoscopic 3D excellence. The closest thing to a potential future S3D award is the current Cinematography and/or Visual Effects awards. Why both? Well a conversion (and most native 3D productions require SOME conversion too) is a post production workflow. Yes, 3D must be considered while shooting a conversion too of course (if it is going to be good that is) which means cinematography. And a native 3D production is heavier on the cinematography side for 3D, but still has elements of it in post (conversion). So for an innovative 3D movie like HUGO to dominate the technicals is effectively a broad pat on the back for the 3D accomplishments of the movie. Well done!
A let out a huge sigh when Dreamworks Animation lost out to RANGO in the animation award. Big mistake in my books. I liked PUSS IN BOOTS here. Definitely.
I was further disappointed that the 3D documentary PINA did not capture Oscar either. Oh well. The doc has won worldwide acclaim already.
No need to comment in any depth on the acting awards for me. Yes I believe Viola Davis should have won for THE HELP, but other than that I was happy with the other results, especially Christopher Plummer's win (though Nick Nolte did a bang up job - any other year Nick!).
So while there were some typical surprises and disappointments with the awards, it was still a HUGE victory for S3D with the technical dominance of HUGO. My hats off to all those involved! Keep up the hard work. It pays off!!
I've stripped away the 2D nominations to highlight which S3D features have been nominated. Clearly there are some huge disappointments in the announcement, not the least of which is the complete snub of THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN save for John William's score.
On the other hand, Martin Scorsese's HUGO is getting the recognition it deserves being nominated in 11 different categories - that, my friends, is tops this year.
If you want to the complete list of all nominees, check out the list at the official website.
Here are the various categories for which 3D movies have been nominated for Oscar:
Best Picture: HUGO
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, HUGO
Animated Feature Film: KUNG FU PANDA 2 PUSS IN BOOTS
Cinematography: HUGO,Robert Richardson
Writing: HUGO, Screenplay by John Logan
Art Direction: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2: Stuart Craig - Production Design; Stephenie McMillan - Set Decoration HUGO: Dante Ferretti - Production Design; Francesca Lo Schiavo - Set Decoration
Costume Design: HUGO, Sandy Powell
Documentary Feature: PINA
Film Editing: HUGO, Thelma Schoonmaker
Makeup: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2: Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Losa Tomblin
Music: THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN, John Williams
Sound Editing: HUGO: Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON: Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
Sound Mixing: HUGO: Tom Fleischman and John Midgley TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON: Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
Visual Effects: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2: Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson HUGO: Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON: Dan Glass, Brad Friedman, Douglas Trumbull and Michael Fink
The 84th Academy Awards will air February 26 with host Billy Crystal.
Personally, my bet is that HUGO will clean up. Further I'll go out on a limb and call PUSS IN BOOTS (animation), HARRY POTTER (makeup) and TRANSFORMERS (sound editing, mixing and visual effects) victorious.
This year's crop of nominations for best visual effects from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has 3D very well represented. In fact half of the nods have been given to S3D movies!
Here is the list of nominations for Oscar in VFX:
- CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (3D) - HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 (3D) - HUGO (3D) - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES (3D) - TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (3D) - MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL - REAL STEEL - RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - THE TREE OF LIFE - X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
Academy members in VFX will be able to watch 10 minute clips of all these movies on January 19 where they will select the final five movies to compete for the actual Oscar. These five final nominations will be announced on January 24 for the big Oscar show on February 26, which is a big day in itself as it's yours truly's birthday. :-)
Could we have an all 3D final for VFX Oscar? It's possible of course, but PLANET OF THE APES, REAL STEEL and X-MEN look pretty darn good.
So which one do you think will win? For me, it's TRANSFORMERS. Let's face it, the whole movie is one big Michael Bay dissertation on effects. And for what it is, it doesn't get much better. Some of those 3D scenes had my mouth agape!
Hey guys - have something special for you! If you watched the Oscars then you may have seen Shaun Tan win an Oscarfor his short film LOST & FOUND which is based on his book of the same name. Very cool indeed! Any time you can add the golden fellow to your mantle is quite an achievement.
Well, I have 3 copies of LOST & FOUND to give away! These books are simply GORGEOUS. The artwork is amazing as you can see in the images.
Here is what is in the book:
A collection of three jaw-dropping stories: THE RED TREE, THE LOST THING, and THE RABBITS, by New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Shaun Tan.
A girl finds a bright spot in a dark world. A boy leads a strange, lost creature home. And a group of peaceful creatures loses their home to cruel invaders. Three stories, written and illustrated by Shaun Tan, about how we lose and find what matters most to us.
Never widely available in the U.S., these tales are presented in their entirety with new artwork and author's notes.
It's a wonderful read - I have a copy myself. Kids will love it too.
If you want to win a copy, be one of the first three commenters on this thread to correctly tell me what number is on his house in the video trailer (hint: it's on the roof). Be sure to have your email included in the post info section so I can contact you if you win.
That's it! Your new book will be shipped to you asap. Open to readers in the US and Canada only - sorry for all you other readers!
And here is the trailer for the Oscar winning short film! Check it out...
Jim here. To say I am disappointed with the Academy is an understatement. THE HURT LOCKER is an ok movie. Just ok. Could have and should have one an award or two, sure. But BEST PICTURE? C'mon. It is a political joke. THL made 2% of the gross of AVATAR. Think about that. 2%. It is the lowest grossing movie to ever win the Best Picture.
Bigelow is a great director, sure. Given another year and I could see myself leaning toward THL as Best Picture. But NOT 2009.
Yes, Chartier's email was wrong and yes it probably did swing some votes, but it was not the deciding factor here. It was good old fashioned politics. THL is NOT the best movie of the year - by any means you wish to measure it. AVATAR introduced new technology, and heck, a new paradigm in acting! A revolution was created with this project and further than that - it launched the S3D era with such a huge force of nature that we will never look back again to wonder how long 3D is here for. The answer is it is staying. AVATAR cemented that.
So now our children and our children's children will look back at 2009 and see THE HURT LOCKER as the crème de la crème of the entire year. They will wonder why AVATAR wasn't honored by the Academy because it will be AVATAR that will be in more trivia questions. It will be AVATAR that is viewed more often by future generations. It is AVATAR that will have spawned a franchise. They will see that other movies from previous generations that were nominated and then did not win too - like THE WIZARD OF OZ in 1939. Of course it lost to GONE WITH THE WIND. Wait a minute... Both of those were starting a new era of Hollywood too - COLOR.
Trouble is THL was not starting anything in Hollywood. It is an average film. I have no interest in seeing it a second time - even at home. Heck I would have chosen INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS over THL. There was nothing that excited me about the movie. It is not even a truly accurate representation of the effort being made overseas by the troops.
I saw THL in the theater. It was good. Enough said.
I think what happened Oscar night was ridiculous. Giving Bigelow the Best Director was about as far as I would go without wanting to throw up in my mouth a bit. And don't get me wrong - If Bigelow could have directed AVATAR to the same glorious outcome as Cameron than I would have backed her just as ardently.
Further, AVATAR clearly had the best editing in 2009 because it has the best editing for the whole decade put together. They were editing together live action, CG characters, CG environments and all on a scale UNHEARD of in Hollywood history. What they did was not even possible before they actually did it! I ask this question in all sincerity: How DARE the Academy NOT give AVATAR Best Editing? Heck Cameron was even editing the movie while he was shooting it with his Simulcam and Virtualcam.
Best Picture. Is it too much to ask that the most embraced movie of all time WORLD WIDE be recognized as Best Picture? I am not going to spend anymore time describing why AVATAR should have prevailed. Suffice to say the Academy messed up yet again.
Which brings me to my final point. The only thing that the Academy has done (other than make the Bigelow team VERY happy) is that they have lit a fire under James Cameron. In a similar vein to what Peter Jackson went through with his LOTR trilogy, Cameron is now facing with his AVATAR trilogy.
Some ask if Cameron will be coming back to direct the sequels for AVATAR. Get real. Of course he will be. He wants to hold those reins when it wins Oscar. Will he have to wait for the final part of the trilogy to do that? I don't think he will have to. I think AVATAR 2 will be everything that the original was - but amplified 10 fold.
The saddest thing of the entire night (yes even sadder than seeing Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin work together) was the fact that James Cameron did not set ONE foot on that stage. I was almost sick to my stomach. Almost like a slap in the face to Cameron. All that work. 10 years. Innovation and genius up the wazoo. At least the fans pay him homage. And in the end, they are the only ones that really count. And James Cameron? He's ok. He knows that the tricks he has up his sleeve will make it impossible for the Academy to ignore future AVATAR efforts... and of course, he still has f*ck you money.
Jim here. If you are not aware of Nicolas Chartier's enormous Oscar blunder here is your chance to catch up. Chartier is a producer of THE HURT LOCKER and he took it upon himself to mass email many if not all his contacts (not sure which) in an effort to sway their votes - and their friends of friends' votes.
Trouble is, this is all very illegal activity with the Academy. You simply cannot ask for votes, let alone mass spam everyone in your network. Further, you can't ask your network to ask THEIR network to do the same! The Oscars are all about which movie is generally voted as being the best and is not a social networking driven affair - despite the politics that are involved. I see "For Your Consideration" ads everywhere, but I suppose they are regulated and treated much as political election campaigns are run.
I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Hurt Locker and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a $500M film, we need independent movies to win like the movies you and I do, so if you believe The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2010, help us!
I'm sure you know plenty of people you've worked with who are academy members whethere a publicist, a writer, a sound engineer, please take 5 minutes and contact them. Please call one or two persons, everything will help!
best regards,
Nicolas Chartier Voltage Pictures
Of course once this hit the LA Times it was game over and he quickly "apologized":
Last week I emailed you regarding the Oscars next week, generally, and "The Hurt Locker," in particular.
My email to you was out of line and not in the spirit of the celebration of cinema that this acknowledgement is. I was even more wrong, both personally and professionally, to ask for your help in encouraging others to vote for the film and to comment on another movie. As passionate as I am about the film we made, this was an extremely inappropriate email to send, and something that the Academy strongly disapproves of in the rules.
My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first time nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it. Being nominated for an Academy Award is the ultimate honor and I should have taken the time to read the rules.
I am emailing each person this very same statement asking to retract my previous email and requesting that you please disregard it.
I truly apologize to anyone I have offended.
Sincerely yours,
best regards,
Nicolas Chartier Voltage Pictures, LLC
Chartier pleads ignorance. I say that is a load of you know what. I think they were trying to bend the rules with today's social networking technology. I suspect even using Facebook would lead you to trouble with the Academy - which THE HURT LOCKER team has done apparently.
Chartier goes even further than begging for votes: He denounces AVATAR as a $500m movie and that indie films should get more attention. Right. This is coming from a producer no less. Not a grip from the film. My opinion is if a movie warrants attention, it will get it. Head(s) should roll for this clear violation.
For the year 2009, there is only one movie that has captured the world's attention like NONE other in history. No other movie that has revolutionized Hollywood for not only stereoscopic 3D, but for performance capture and crossing the "uncanny valley". We all know it is AVATAR.
So what would you think Cameron's reaction would be to this? I don't really know (other than the mutual admiration of work between Cameron & Bigelow) - but we DO KNOW what Jon Landau's (Producer - AVATAR, TITANIC) reaction is:
I fall squarely on AVATAR's side here of course. But really that is beside the point. $2.5 billion in box office essentially forgives practically ANY cost the film incurred in its making, not that he should be denouncing anything that any other movie has done. And $500m has not even been proven. He doesn't even mention Bigelow or the others who are up for awards here. It is as if it is his own movie.
I find the whole thing very, VERY ugly.The only positive coming out of this is the class act response from Jon Landau.
Thanks to Jo for sending in the heads-up of the Jon Landau comments on the situation!
Jim here. As we all assumed it would, AVATAR is up for Best Picture for the 82nd annual Academy Awards! Other nominees are THE HURT LOCKER, PRECIOUS, UP IN THE AIR, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, THE BLIND SIDE, DISTRICT 9, AN EDUCATION, A SERIOUS MAN and UP.
This is the first year that there are 10 nominations for Best Picture.
Best Director sees five nominees: James Cameron (AVATAR), Kathryn Bigelow (THE HURT LOCKER), Lee Daniels (PRECIOUS), Quentin Tarantino (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) and Jason Reitman (UP IN THE AIR).
My wager is on Cameron and AVATAR. I suppose that isn't a surprise though is it? :-)
Jim here.I am talking the big one: Oscar's Best Picture. Apparently the tide has changed dramatically since AVATAR's release last week!HitFix has the inside track on what is happening in the minds of the Academy: UP IN THE AIR has a lot less altitude and AVATAR is out of this world. This is based on the recent Movie City News "The Gurus o' Gold" which include entertainment writers from some of the world's top media outlets.
Very interesting indeed. Of course AVATAR would be number one in my books too - a revolutionary film that clearly marks the beginning of S3D as well as photo real motion capture. While it is evident that Zoe Saldana cannot be up for Best Actress yet as it will take some time for the Academy members to appreciate what she (and others) will have accomplished with capturing performances - that will not hold back AVATAR. If you have seen the movie, you know how gripping and real Pandora feels and how emotionally attached you are to the characters. This is all taking place in the most visually stunning movie ever made.
Even Steven Spielberg said AVATAR is"the most evocative and amazing science-fiction movie since 'Star Wars.'"
Now that is an endorsement. Take it to the bank I say. Thanks for the heads up m4st4!
This is great news for 3D fans everywhere: JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH has just made it to the semi-finals of the Academy's visual effects bakeoff!
According to Variety, the Walden, New Line and Warner sci-fi family movie surpassed the efforts of other well known and lucrative blockbusters "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", "Cloverfield" and "Hancock" to be considered for the covented award.
Joining JOURNEY for the Oscar consideration are "Australia," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Hellboy II," "Iron Man," and "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor."
Apparently the Academy will have to set up a digital 3D projector in the main Goldwyn Theater as it has not been updated yet.
Variety reports: "At the bakeoff, the seven semi-finalists for the Oscar will present 15-minute reels of visual effects highlights and have a few minutes to answer questions from the Acad's visual effects branch. Immediately afterward the members cast their votes for the three nominees."
If you are interested, the bake off is open to the public and being held Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. - no admission charge.
