the awards editions 2010-2011

the awards editions 2010-2011 

premiere issue

“ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST FILMS. 

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S FILM IS A STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS, 

TECHNICALLY FLAWLESS SYMPHONY OF IMAGES AND IDEAS.” 

- CHRISTY LEMIRE, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

W A R N E R B R O S 2 0 1 0 . C O M

F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N 

BEST PICTURE 

PRODUCED BY 

EMMA THOMAS 

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN 

BEST DIRECTOR 


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY 


BEST ACTOR 

LEONARDO DICAPRIO

— oscar overview — 

THe MosT wiDe–oPeN 

h 

By Pete Hammond 

ow rare that no movie has grabbed the mantle of first or even secondary frontrunner yet. High-profile contenders have been slowly emerging at this key early juncture. 

Which is why making an early, not-so-subtle bid for Academy attention pre-November can be a smart marketing strategy. It’s a way to be remembered if a movie was released 

before September (Inception, Shutter Island, Toy Story 3, How To Train Your Dragon, Alice In Wonderland, Get Low, The Kids Are All Right, Winter’s Bone), or to establish 

a new Fall film as a contender amid the endless glut of Oscar wannabes (The Town, The Social Network, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Hereafter, For Colored Girls, Fair 

Game, 127 Hours), or to prime the pump for the trickier proposition of forecasting the awards status of films that haven’t released into theaters yet (The King’s Speech, The 

Fighter, True Grit, Love And Other Drugs, How Do You Know, Blue Valentine, Black Swan, Rabbit Hole, Made In Dagenham, Another Year, The Way Back, Biutiful). With the 

field of potential winners wide open this year, the Best Picture Oscar has way more heat than, say, Documentary or Animation or Foreign Language races which are chosen 

by committee, their fates not as dependent on the all-important buzz. Right now, the List of 10 is looking like a knock-down, drag-out brawl between the indies and the majors. “I feel the 

majors are getting back into it. A number of these studios have big pictures they are putting out as contenders,” says Michael Barker, Co-President of Sony Pictures Classics. Barker’s longtime 

SPC partner and Co-President Tom Bernard adds: “But it is not simply that majors are coming back, it is who is motivated. On some of these films, if you spend it will pay off, if you 

don’t it won’t.” And if a pic doesn’t have major campaign backing, says Roadside Attractions Co-President Howard Cohen, “voters still have a tradition of rewarding great work from smaller 

films. You go in as an underdog and you play that up.” But Fox Searchlight Co-President Nancy Utley reminds that awards season isn’t just ego feed for all concerned. “For the major studios, 

Oscars are a nice prize. But for us, it’s business.” The films listed by alphabetical order below are in contention for multiple Oscar marquee categories. (Not included are motion pictures like 

Secretariat, hopeful for technical awards like sound and cinematography, or Burlesque for song, or Letters To Juliet for a singular performance like Vanessa Redgrave’s.) 

127 HOURS (Fox Searchlight) — Danny 

Boyle’s first effort since Oscar-winner 

Slumdog Millionaire has a strong bet in 

Best Actor for James Franco. But is that 

“Farewell to Arm” scene too much for the 

Academy for Best Picture? (People keep 

fainting at screenings.) 

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Walt Disney 

Pictures) — Tim Burton’s take on the 

classic tale is one of the biggest box office stories 

of the year. A natural bet for the Golden 

Globes Comedy/Musical categories and lots 

of technical nods at the Academy, too. 

ANIMAL KINGDOM (Sony Pictures 

Classics) — This tough Australian crime 

drama joined Mother and Child as the first 

DVD screener sent this season to Academy 

voters who will see a classic supporting turn 

from Jacki Weaver. She deserves recognition. 

ANOTHER YEAR (Sony Pictures Classics) 

— Mike Leigh’s best film since Secrets & 

Lies didn’t win anything on fest circuit. But 

those who like it love it. Leigh films usually go 

2 deadline.com 

race iN Years 

over well with the Academy but surest thing 

is the performance of Lesley Manville. 

BARNEY’S VERSION (Sony Pictures 

Classics) — SPC’s Toronto pickup of 

this Venice hit was a smart move and 

could result in some nominations. With 

a decent campaign, Paul Giamatti can 

make a Best Actor play and Dustin 

Hoffman is possible in support. 

BIUTIFUL (Roadside Attractions) — 

Javier Bardem’s Cannes Festival-winning 

performance lost none of its power in 

Telluride or Toronto. Mexico’s Foreign 

Language Film submission. Dark horse 

in Best Picture if voters turn off because 

it’s too “depressing”. 

BLACK SWAN (Fox Searchlight) — It 

took Venice by storm. Lots of awards 

talk followed Telluride and Toronto. Very 

much alive in key races, like actress categories 

for Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. 

Big question is how will older voters 

react to film’s kinkier aspects? 

BLUE VALENTINE (Weinstein Co) — 

Was on a marathon festival journey 

from Sundance to Cannes to Toronto. 

Its lead actors Ryan Gosling and Michelle 

Williams are still definite contenders. 

Their MPAA NC-17 ratings 

obstacle may generate sympathy. 

CASINO JACK (ATO) — Its on-again/ 

off-again release is now on again thanks 

to an ATO pickup at Toronto. Twotime 

winner Kevin Spacey could snag 

top honors as disgraced lobbyist Jack 

Abramoff. Director George Hickenlooper’s 

untimely death a factor. 

COUNTRY STRONG (Sony/Screen 

Gems) — This dramatic country musical 

shows off the considerable singing skills of 

Gwyneth Paltrow, showing a different side 

of her talents here. But this year has an overcrowded 

Best Actress race. 

CITY ISLAND (Anchor Bay) — Andy 

Garcia’s finely-honed comic turn could 

— and should — be remembered at 

Golden Globe time. The tiny distributor 

has hired a PR firm to make sure it’s not 

forgotten for Oscar. 

DESPICABLE ME (Universal) — Call it 

the toon that saved Universal this year. It 

had strong reviews and great box office. In a 

field of five animated nominees, it’s a given. 

But stiff competition could mean chances 

are one in a minion. 

FAIR GAME (Summit) — The Valerie 

Plame/CIA leak story received cinematic 

treatment and played well to critics. Its 

two stars Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are 

strong. But are the lead actor and actress 

races too competitive this year? 

FOR COLORED GIRLS (Lionsgate) — 

Exceptional actress performances for Tyler 

Perry’s adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 

play. Last year, Lionsgate scored Oscars with 

Precious (which Perry supported by lending 

his name). Can lightning strike twice? 

GET LOW (Sony Pictures Classics) —

Indie hit has special appeal for older voters. 

Robert Duvall is a good bet in the Best Actor 

race and Sissy Spacek might squeak into 

Best Supporting Actress. Original Screenplay 

is possible. A long shot for Picture. 

HEREAFTER (Warner Bros) — Clint Eastwood’s 

latest will play better with older-skewing 

Academy members than critics because of 

its themes of afterlife. Clint is still a force: you 

can never count him out at awards time. 

HOW DO YOU KNOW (Sony Pictures) 

— Writer/Director James Brooks delivers 

this relationship comedy with an all-star 

cast, but Paul Rudd is the standout here. Best 

chance for the movie is likely at the Globes 

for Best Comedy or Musical. 

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 

(DreamWorks Animation) — An animated 

feature nod is a given. But DreamWorks is aggressively 

going for the gold with this one and 

dreaming of a Best Picture nod. Is there room 

on that List of 10 for it and Toy Story 3? 

I AM LOVE (Magnolia Pictures) — A 

sumptuous showcase for Tilda Swinton who 

speaks Italian with a Russian accent. Italy 

killed its Foreign Language chance but Magnolia 

is putting it into Cinematography, Art 

Direction, Costumes, and Actress races. 

INCEPTION (Warner Bros/Legendary 

Pictures) — Christopher Nolan was 

snubbed for The Dark Knight so the Academy 

can make it up to him for this fever 

dream of a movie that has made big coin. 

Best Picture and loads of tech noms while 

iffier are the actor nods. 

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (Twentieth 

Century Fox) — Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne 

Hathaway in career-best performances should 

be high on any list. And director Ed Zwick’s 

film is different enough to become possible in 

Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay. 

LOVELY, STILL (Monterey Media) — A 

little gem of a drama about two old people 

who find romance near the end of their lives 

features brilliant performances from Martin 

Landau and Ellen Burstyn. They both 

deserve awards consideration. 

MADE IN DAGENHAM (Sony Pictures 

Classics) — British period piece about female 

factory workers fighting for equal pay 

is Academy friendly fare. SPC’s best shot 

for Best Picture. Acting noms possible for 

Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson and 

Bob Hoskins. 

MOTHER AND CHILD (Sony Pictures 

Classics) — Rodrigo Garcia’s multi-character 

drama came and went in theatres, so wisely 

SPC made sure the screener was the very 

first one Academy voters got this season. Annette 

Bening suggested for Best Actress. 

NEVER LET ME GO (Fox Searchlight) — 

The fact it lingers in the mind improves its 

awards prospects. If it were a weaker year for 

thesps, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield 

would likely be recognized. Rachel Portman’s 

haunting score a shoo-in nominee. 

PLEASE GIVE (Sony Pictures Classics) — 

Writer/Director Nicole Holofcener’s quirky 

comedy was well received and sparked buzz 

of an Original Screenplay nomination. Ann 

Morgan Guilbert gives a nifty supporting 

turn as the tenant who won’t die. 

RABBIT HOLE (Lionsgate) — Glowing 

reviews, especially for its three main actors 

— Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart and Dianne 

Wiest. Lionsgate did a quick pickup following 

its Toronto world premiere. Now it’s 

suddenly a player in the marquee categories. 

SHUTTER ISLAND (Paramount) — Paramount 

launched a high profile campaign 

for Leonardo DiCaprio with early screening 

notices to Guilds and Academy members and 

an American Cinematheque retrospective of 

Leo’s and Martin Scorsese’s collaborations. 

SOLITARY MAN (Anchor Bay) — Michael 

Douglas received some of the best reviews of 

his career in this highly unsympathetic role. 

There is a lot of good will for the cancerstricken 

star. Anchor Bay is making sure the 

DVD gets circulated to press and voters. 

SOMEWHERE (Focus Features) — Won 

the top prize in Venice despite mixed reviews. 

Jury president and Sofia Coppola 

intimate Quentin Tarantino denied play- 

ing favorites. Awards screenings close to 

its late December release. May be too soft 

to make a dent. 

STONE (Overture/Relativity) — Long 

shot even though Milla Jovovich is seductively 

appealing. But Robert De Niro turns 

in his best work in a while but probably has 

as much chance of a Best Actor nod for this 

as he does for Machete and Little Fockers. 

TANGLED (Walt Disney Pictures) — A 

throwback to Disney animated musicals of 

old but with a contemporary twist and new 

Alan Menken songs. Menken could go for a 

record–tying ninth Oscar with “I See The 

Light.” An animated feature nod is definitely 

possible. 

THE FIGHTER (Paramount) — This 

long-time passion project for Mark Wahlberg 

is a strong Best Picture prospect with 

both Wahlberg and Christian Bale prime 

prospects for lead and supporting actor. 

Melissa Leo and Amy Adams rising to the 

top of supporting actress lists. 

THE GHOST WRITER (Summit) — 

Roman Polanski’s Hitchcock-style drama 

did well by indie film standards. Summit has 

special hopes for a Pierce Brosnan supporting 

bid as the former British prime minister 

“writing” his memoirs. 

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON 

TATTOO (Music Box) — The first in the 

Swedish trilogy became the most successful 

foreign language release of the year and has 

created Best Actress buzz for star Noomi 

Rapace. She needs valuable face time in 

front of voters. 

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Focus 

Features) — It’s the focus for Focus, hoping 

it’s that rare comedy to crack Best Picture. 

Oscar nomination for screenplay seems doable 

while acting nods for Annette Bening, 

Mark Ruffalo, and Julianne Moore likely. 

THE KING’S SPEECH (Weinstein Co) 

— Strong outstanding period piece puts 

Harvey Weinstein back in the Oscar game 

big-time. Triumphed over all comers in Telluride 

and Toronto. A slam dunk for major 

nominations across the board. 

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Sony) — It 

stole the thunder from Toronto with targeted 

screenings for influencers. Packed 

screening for Academy members got 

great response for Best Picture. Aaron 

Sorkin’s well-written adapted screenplay 

a lock for writing nod. 

THE TOWN (Warner Bros) — Ben Affleck’s 

Boston crime thriller could follow 

a similar trajectory as its producer Graham 

King’s Oscar-winning The Departed. 

But may be too much in the violent action 

genre. Jeremy Renner the most likely 

possibility in supporting. 

THE WAY BACK (Newmarket/Wrekin 

Hill) — Newmarket picked up this adventure 

just as it hit Telluride. Fellow directors 

could go for overdue four-time nominee Peter 

Weir. And the cinematography is right 

up there with anything released this year. 

TOY STORY 3 (Disney/Pixar) — A worldwide 

smash and, with 99% positive reviews 

on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s the second-highest 

rated movie of the year. A frontrunner 

for animated feature and a Best Picture 

nomination. Is three the charm? 

TRUE GRIT (Paramount) — Never underestimate 

the Coen brothers. This remake 

could be the rare Western to make Best Picture 

honor roll. A possible supporting for 

newcomer Hailee Steinfeld or vet Matt Damon 

and consideration Jeff Bridges again. 

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER 

SLEEPS (Twentieth Century Fox) — This 

23-years-later sequel isn’t generating much 

Best Picture buzz. But Michael Douglas’ 

Gekko remains its best chance, particularly 

with goodwill for the actor running high 

due to his cancer. 

WINTER’S BONE (Roadside Attractions) 

— A critical darling and indie hit, 

this could be the sleeper awards success 

of the season. Roadside needs to put it 

front and center with critics who could 

champion it. Newcomer Jennifer Lawrence 

could get nod. 

deadline.com 3


DEADLINE EDItorIAL tEAm 

FoUndeR, Gm, edItoR In CHIeF: nIkkI FInke 

vP, PUBLISHeR: Lynne SeGaLL 

FILm & ny edItoR: mIke FLemInG 

tv edItoR: neLLIe andReeva 

manaGInG edItoR: mICHaeL SPeIeR 

aWaRdS CoLUmnISt: Pete Hammond 

London edItoR: tIm adLeR 

tv ContRIBUtoR: Ray RICHmond 

edItoRIaL manaGeR: nanette StevenSon 

movIeLIne Gm & edItoRIaL dIReCtoR: CHaRLeS RUnnette 

movIeLIne edItoR: S.t. vanaIRSdaLe 

movIeLIne CHIeF CRItIC: StePHanIe ZaCHaRek 

movIeLIne SenIoR edItoR: CHRIStoPHeR RoSen 

movIeLIne SenIoR ContRIBUtoRS & WRIteRS: BRIan CLaRk, aLonSo dURaLde, 

dIxon GaIneS, JULIe mILLeR, mICHeLLe oRanGe, mIke Ryan, LoUIS vIRteL 

DEsIgN & ProDuctIoN tEAm 

aRt dIReCtoR: BenJamIn WaRd 

dePUty aRt dIReCtoR: eRIC PaUL 

deSIGneR: RICH RoBInSon 

tEchNoLogy 

vP teCHnoLoGy: nICHoLaS LonSInGeR 

SoFtWaRe deveLoPment: mUStanSIR GoLaWaLa, GaBRIeL koen 

PRoJeCt manaGement: deRek RamSay, JoHn BIGeLoW, ConG nGUyen 

SyStemS & netWoRk oPeRatIonS: HenRy tanG, CRaIG van GoRden 

FoUndeR, CHaIRman & Ceo: Jay PenSke 

CHIeF RevenUe oFFICeR: aLySon RaCeR 

CHIeF FInanCIaL oFFICeR: GeoRGe GRoBaR 

exeCUtIve vICe PReSIdent: PaUL WooLnoUGH 

vP ad SaLeS: SaSHa WoLFe 

vP PaRtneRSHIPS & PRodUCtS: CRaIG PeRReaULt 

ad oPeRatIonS: CHam kIm 

enteRtaInment SaLeS dIReCtoRS: CatHy GoePFeRt, nIC PaUL 

enteRtaInment SaLeS aSSoCIateS: JaCkIe GReen, SHannon HUtCHInSon 

For ALL ADvErtIsINg INquIrIEs 

EmAIL: sALEs@corP.mAIL.com 

EAst coAst: 646-524-2622 

wEst coAst: 310-484-2517 

mmC IS tHe PaRent ComPany and oWneR oF deadLIne|HoLLyWood, deadLIne.Com, movIeLIne.Com, and deadLIne aWaRdS edItIonS

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N I N A L L C A T E G O R I E S 

Please visit 

www.TWCAwards.com 

for more information 

“ACTING WITHOUT A NET, 

RYAN GOSLING and 

MICHELLE WILLIAMS 

sear, delight, and break your heart.” 

- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY 

“A shrewd, juicy, timely, & 

TERRIFICALLY 

ENGROSSING 

big-cast drama.” 

- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY 

Artwork © 2010 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved.

This year Hollywood types everywhere were discussing the Swedish 

films made from Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy The Girl With 

The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who 

Kicked The Hornet’s Nest and wondering if breakout star Noomi Rapace 

was eligible for an Academy Award. She is. (In fact, she’s already 

won the Swedish equivalency for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander.) 

The most recent actress to appear in a small foreign film, get an 

out–of–the–blue nomination, win the Best Actress Oscar, then land 

big roles in major studio tentpoles was Marion Cotillard. Noomi’s 

U.S. agents and managers have assured her: “You can have that same 

journey.” One thing making Rapace’s ride to the top noteworthy is that movie VIPs take 

meetings with her expecting the hard–ass on a Harley, but then are shocked seeing a sexy 

fresh–faced beauty. As one insider explains, “They go in asking, ‘Do I have a villain?’ And 

they leave saying, ‘Do I have a great female lead?’” 

DeaDline: What do you think of the American remake of these movies that David Fincher is 

directing in Sweden? 

noomi Rapace: That’s weird. They’re doing it with a Swedish accent as well. That’s also 

pretty weird. But I’m quite okay with it. I really knew in my heart that I totally loaned myself 

to her and she took over most of my life. When it was released and they started to talk about 

the remake, people asked me and I said. ‘No, I’m done with her.’ And then everybody came 

back to me and said, ‘But it’s David Fincher.’ There can’t be any reason to do it again. I don’t 

want to repeat myself. Hopefully they will do something far away from our films. 

DeaDline: Are you the kind of actor who can leave the set and forget about it? 

Rapace: No, never. That’s quite difficult for me. She stayed in me like non–stop for the 

whole time. The last scene was quite strange. All the producers came in with champagne as 

they wanted to celebrate, and I had to go to the bathroom because I started to throw up. I 

knew my whole body was just throwing Lisbeth away and cleaning itself from Lisbeth in a 

way. And the next day I remember standing at home looking at myself in the mirror with this 

Mohawk, and all those scars from the piercings, and I asked, ‘Who are you today?’, and I had 

no idea. It was actually one week and I was pretty lost and then I started to rehearse Medea. 


NoomI rAPAcE 

ReLInqUISHeS HeR HaRLey to RIde 

HoLLyWood’S aWaRdS SeaSon 

swede 

victory 


DeaDline: Was the role of Lisbeth Salander something you went after? 

Rapace: No, I’ve never actually called anyone to say, ‘I want to do this’ or ‘please consider 

me’. I’m not that kind of person. 

DeaDline: Did you think you were right for her? 

Rapace: I thought they would judge me for being too girlie because of the way I look 

in my private life. I look much more feminine. Sometimes people can’t really see that 

you can transform into something that is pretty far from the way you look today. But I 

knew that. So I was quite surprised when they called me and wanted me to come in for 

an interview. So I went and I said to myself, ‘don’t hope for anything, they won’t call you 

back,’ so when they did I borrowed clothes from my husband and I met the director, and I 

told him, ‘If you want me to do it I would like to do all my stunts. I want to really change 

myself into her, change my body, and pierce myself, and take a license for motorcycle, and 

do everything as far as is possible, as I think I know something about her. So if you trust 

me, I will give her to you.’ And he did. 

DeaDline: Was it an advantage as an actor having books to draw on instead of just the script? 

Rapace: I used it a lot. It’s like you have the whole background, you can dig, and you can 

take things that are useful, and find some clues to who she is today and all that. Lisbeth is 

something between Noomi and something in the script. 

DeaDline: Are you surprised at the strong reaction in America to you and the movies? 

Rapace: I’m very self critical. I always expect people not to hate me but to not like me. 

When they announced that I was the one who was going to play Lisbeth, it felt like a suicide 

mission because it’s not possible to satisfy everybody. And I thought they will probably 

hate me. I had to close my eyes and my ears and just create some kind of protecting bubble 

around me to be able to listen to my own voice and find her in me. 

DeaDline: There’s been Oscar buzz which I would think must mean something to you? 

Rapace: I want people to believe in what I am doing, and I want people to be able to see a 

character that I’m playing, and to think that she’s a real person. So when people do that, that 

makes me so warm inside. I don’t dare think about the Oscars and all that. It’s too far away. 

Photo: Sophie Dreijer/NewBloodAgency.com

“ EXTRAORDINARY! 

‘Winter’s Bone’ is what we’ve been waiting for: a work of art that grabs hold and won’t let go. 

It’s a revelation. The acting and the milieu are so closely joined that when the final shot 

goes to black, and the spell is broken, the audience gasps.” 

- David Denby, THE NEW YORKER 

“A classic! Spectacular for its humanity, austere beauty and heart-stopping urgency.” 

- Joe Morgenstern, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 

Best Supporting actor 

John Hawkes 

www.roadsideattractionsawards.com 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION 

Best Picture 

Producers: Anne Rosellini, 

Alix Madigan-Yorkin 

Best Director 

Debra Granik 

Best actress 

Jennifer Lawrence 

Best adapted Screenplay 

Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini

hE’s A 

FIghtEr 

After A long production roAd, 

mArk wAhLbErg’s boxing fAmily 

sAgA finAlly enters the ring 

By mIke FLemInG 

i 

n this year’s stirring Oscar race, many of the contenders 

are films that traveled long and hard roads just 

to get made. By that measure, few put in more work 

than Mark Wahlberg did for The Fighter, the David 

O. Russell-directed drama in which he plays Irish 

Micky Ward, the welterweight who fought his way to 

an unlikely world championship. Christian Bale lost 

30 pounds to play half-brother crack addict Dicky 

Eklund, but Wahlberg’s commitment was even more 

dramatic. The moment he learned nearly five years ago that 

he’d be starring in the movie alongside Matt Damon for dir– 

ector Darren Aronofsky, Wahlberg built a boxing ring in his 

backyard, hired two trainers on his own dime, and worked 

hours each day to hone his boxing skills. Wahlberg never 

stopped, not when Damon dropped out and Brad Pitt came 

in, not when Aronofsky dropped out, Pitt left, and the project 

was nearly knocked out. Wahlberg joined David Hoberman 

and Todd Lieberman as producers so, when the project 

was on the ropes, Wahlberg helped rework the picture from 

a $50 million studio film into a scrappy $20 million indie. 

DeaDline: Micky and Dicky were the pride of Lowell, Massachusetts. 

You came out of Dorchester. How far away were you 

from these guys and how aware were you of their story? 


maRk WahlbeRg: Lowell was 30 minutes away from 

Dorchester. We were on different sides of Boston. Lowell 

is more like a suburb, but not a rich one. These guys 

were big time legends. Dicky is older than me, so I wasn’t 

as aware of him as I was of Micky, who was considered a superhero 

where I came from. I knew Dicky was supposed to 

be the great fighter but that he had his battles with drugs, 

and I’d seen the documentary High On Crack Street filmed 

in Lowell about him. 

DeaDline: How did you become involved? 

WahlbeRg: I wanted to make a boxing movie. I talked 

about a movie where I’d play Vinnie Curto and Bob De 

Niro would play his trainer Angelo Dundee. I tried to make 

The Black Dahlia with Brian De Palma because there was an 

element of boxing in it. I’d already built a ring in my backyard 

by then. I first met Micky when I was 18 years old, and 

was a huge fan. I thought, this is the movie I should make. 

John Herzfeld and I went to Lowell to see Micky and Dicky 

and found they’d already sold the rights ten times over and 

it had become such a cluster fuck that it seemed there was 

no way we’d be able to sort it out. Then, five years ago, Brad 

Weston called me and said he had a script to send me about 

Irish Micky Ward the boxer and did I know him? I was 

blown away by the script, and thought, we’re getting this 

done. I started training the day I got back from vacation. 

That’s how this whole thing began. 

DeaDline: You grew up on the streets in a tough neighborhood 

like they did. How did their story speak to your own experiences? 

WahlbeRg: There were so many comparisons to my life, 

my story, my upbringing. I am the youngest of nine kids. 

My brother was much more successful and was looked at as 

the chosen one, while I was the one in trouble. I had to play 

Micky. Dicky was a flashier role, but it wasn’t about that for 

me. It was about being believable as a guy who could win 

the welterweight title, and not look like an actor who could 

maybe box a little bit. Those four and a half years turned 

out to be the best thing for me. I never stopped training, 

even when I was making other movies. 

DeaDline: How helpful was having a genuine Boston guy as 

producer and star for gaining the trust of a family that obviously 

didn’t know what was coming when they participated in that 

documentary High on Crack Street? 

WahlbeRg: I assured them that they would be portrayed 

in the light they deserved, and that I cared about them. 

That’s the only way I know how to do things. When I was

doing The Perfect Storm, portraying Bobby Shatford, I went 

to his family, and stayed with them. I wanted them to feel 

like we were going to protect him. 

DeaDline: It’s still a pretty raw portrayal of the family. What 

was the reaction of Micky and Dicky to the film? 

WahlbeRg: I showed it to them twice. First time, it was 

me and David, Christian, and a couple other people at Paramount. 

I realized how difficult it must be to see your life 

up there on the big screen, condensed to under two hours. 

So then I said, come see it with an audience. We did that 

in New Jersey and that was an experience. This movie is so 

down and dirty and real, but it has a lot of humor and emotion, 

and an amazing payoff at the end. To see the crowd’s 

reaction, I really felt proud. Micky got it the first time he 

saw it. For Dicky, it was harder to swallow. 

DeaDline: It’s easy to see why Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and 

then Christian Bale would spark to playing Dicky. By comparison, 

Micky is subtle and understated. Wasn’t there a moment 

when you thought, ‘I should play Dicky’? 

WahlbeRg: No. There was always one role for me to play, 

and that was the champ. I wasn’t giving up the belt. And 

look, who else was going to play that part and be as believable? 

What I wanted to do was to create the most realistic 

boxing in the movie and look like I could win that title. 

DeaDline: Which fight performances inspired you? 

WahlbeRg: There are so many. Raging Bull is so different 

than Rocky. Daniel Day-Lewis was very good in a lot of ways 

in The Boxer. Body and Soul. Robert Ryan, Kirk Douglas. 

We wanted to make one that was our own, but there was a 

little bit of the dark side of Raging Bull, and some Rocky. You 

see Micky Ward in any of his great fights, and they play like 

Rocky because of his style of fighting. And let’s not forget 

Hilary Swank. She looked good in there, starting out with 

no knowledge about a boxing ring. She’d never hit a speed 

bag, but she had heart and desire. 

DeaDline: When you first signed on, Darren Aronofsky was 

directing you and Matt Damon. Then Matt stepped out but 

no problem, you’ve got Brad Pitt negotiating. Then Aronofsky 

left to make The Wrestler, and Pitt left to make Inglourious 

Basterds. And you’re left behind. Did you fear that this movie 

wasn’t going to happen? 

WahlbeRg: I really couldn’t look at it like that. I’d already 

told Micky that we were going to get it done, and I 

was getting three or four phone calls a week from him. So, 

I had to figure it out. At Paramount, they had a certain 

idea of how they wanted the movie to be made, the filmmaker, 

the costar, and the budget. I went to the studio 

and said, I think I can figure out a way to get this movie 

done. Can you let me take it for a little while, and then 

bring it back to you? I was able to get David O. Russell. 

After spending a lot of time with David, I just thought 

he could make a version of this movie we hadn’t been 

looking to make before. It would still be very real, but it 

would have more heart, humor and emotion. 

DeaDline: Thanks to the Internet, we all know how intense 

Russell can be, as well as Christian Bale. How was the intensity 

level and how did that affect your performance? 

WahlbeRg: People expected all kinds of fireworks, but you 

know what? That wasn’t going to go down. Christian felt 

like David had a really good take on the film and on his part, 

and we all felt that less was more when it came to the drugs 

and the addiction thing. I tried to set the tone early on and 

the vibe was good all the way through. 

DeaDline: I’ve heard you gambled most of your salary on 

the upside. When you work hard to establish a quote, what 

goes through your mind when you consider taking a big cut to 

get a picture made? 

WahlbeRg: This wasn’t hard at all. If you make those 

kinds of sacrifices for a good movie, all that other stuff 

will continue to be there for you. I’m more nervous 

about taking a big salary on a big-budget movie where, if 

it doesn’t succeed, you’re in big trouble because you take 

all that weight for its failure. 

DeaDline: Was this the most adversity you’d experienced in 

getting a movie to happen? 

WahlbeRg: By far. I hope I never have to go through anything 

like this again, even though the results were extremely 

positive. It was nerve-racking, physically and mentally exhausting, 

right down to the final hours. But that’s symbolic 

of who Micky was, the guy who never gave up, who never 

quit. Playing him, I literally got into that head space. I’m 

like that anyway. I’m not one of those guys where they just 

opened the gate and said, come in and do whatever you 

want. 

DeaDline: Amy Adams isn’t the first actress you think 

of to play a scrappy Lowell barmaid. When did you know 

she could nail this? 

WahlbeRg: I’d met her a long time ago on another movie. 

I knew she looked the part, that Irish Catholic girl from 

Dorchester, Southie or Charlestown or any of those areas. 

It was more a matter of her wanting to do it, as opposed 

to any doubt she could. The role was actually very small, 

but David really wanted to beef that part up to make the 

movie more appealing to women. We thought all along that 

guys would love this movie, but how were we going to get 

women? Boy, did we get lucky there. 

DeaDline: You suggested Melissa Leo to play Alice Ward, the 

mother of Micky and Dicky. And Micky’s actual trainer Mickey 

O’Keefe to play himself. And Sugar Ray Leonard to play himself. 

WahlbeRg: Whatever needed to be done. I’ve always 

thought of myself as someone with street smarts to make 

stuff happen. When it came to Mickey O’Keefe and Melissa 

Leo, there were a lot of other big names being talked about 

who’d come in and think this is a chance to chew it up. But 

that would have taken away from the authenticity of the 

piece. With Mickey O’Keefe, I needed the real guy. Even if 

he wasn’t going to be good in the performance, he would be 

believable working in the ring with me during the training. 

He ended up being so good. 

DeaDline: Did using fight guys speed up the process? 

WahlbeRg: Some directors we talked to about doing the 

movie said there’s no way you can do this in 33 days. You’ll 

need 30 days just to shoot the fights. I’m like, what are we 

going to do for 30 days? Rub oil on each other, put the dolly 

in the ring, and all this craziness? We were using real fighters 

who weren’t messing around. I thought we could do those 

fights in a day or two but added a day to be safe. We got it 

done in those three days. 

DeaDline: What about The Fighter made you most proud? 

WahlbeRg: Just getting it made, in what I think is 

the best possible version of the movie. Getting David 

to direct, getting Christian on board. The first time I 

screened the movie, I was just looking but not really 

watching. I was just so shocked we’d actually gotten 

it done. I needed to see it again, right away, because I 

hadn’t paid attention to whether it was any good or not. 

I watched it and thought, wow, we’ve really got something 

here. Keeping my word with Mickey was great, 

and having Paramount say, you were right, we love the 

way you did it. It’s as much their movie as mine. We all 

went down this road, along with David Hoberman and 

Todd Lieberman. And Relativity was willing to step up 

to the plate and believe in it and me. To go through all 

that and then see people respond to the drama and the 

fights, and feel that buzz build. This doesn’t happen 

that often and I’ve been on the other side, where you 

had the best intentions going in and things just don’t 

work out the way you want. 

tHe SoCIaL netWoRk 

Mike De Luca, one of the producers with Scott 

Rudin and Dana Brunetti of The Social Network: 

“Dana had a relationship with author Ben 

Mezrich and got the proposal for The Accidental 

Billionaires, and it suggested a great story of how 

Facebook came together and changed the lives of 

these guys. Dana brought me in, we brought it 

to Sony, and they went for it. At the same time, 

Scott was tracking it and had Aaron Sorkin, and 

Amy suggested we all team up.” 

“The film traffics in a human condition that 

could apply to any young person being told, ‘Stay 

in this box, do it our way.’ There’s an inclination 

to rebel. There are other underlying things powering 

the story, like the basic human need to belong, 

how painful it is to feel alienated, and the 

jealousy that erupts among close friends when it 

looks like one is pulling away.” 

“I’ve never thought intelligence was age-related. 

Here, the issues of alienation and jealousy speak to 

a generation of Facebook-ing kids. There is cyberbullying, 

having your life play out online, and seeing 

instantly what people say and think of you. Social 

Network is a good story with human experience 

connective tissue that makes it ageless.” 

deadline.com 9

campaign 

promise 

halle berry returns to the 

rAce with frAnkie & Alice 

S 

he hopes to duplicate what Jeff Bridges pulled off 

last year when he became a surprise last–minute 

entry into the Oscar race with Crazy Heart and won 

his first Academy Award. Halle Berry is trying for 

her second, launching a similar 11th–hour awards 

season qualifying run for her indie effort Frankie 

& Alice. It opens December 17th in New York and 

Los Angeles before its regular theatrical release in 

the top 20 markets on February 4th, shortly after 

nominations are announced. Freestyle Releasing is 

handling distribution with P&A provided by funding 

raised by the producers (of which Berry is one). 

A true story, it’s a 1970s–set psychological drama in which Berry 

plays a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder. It’s exactly the 

kind of Oscar bait that actors covet, but Berry’s motives are purer. “Her 

struggles with mental illness came at a time when the medical community 

and the public were still grappling with the veracity of multiple personality 

disorder, and I approached this role with feelings of humility, yet great 

responsibility,” Berry explains to me. “Bringing this story to the big screen 

has been a challenging, yet very satisfying, filmmaking experience.” 

The Oscar winner for Monster’s Ball (2001) has personally shepherded 

this “passion project” — hence the awards push which will include 

10,000 DVD screeners going out to the entire Academy, critics 

groups, SAG Nominating Committee members, and others. But the 

Best Actress race is already overcrowded this year with contenders all 

jockeying for attention, including Jennifer Lawrence, Annette Bening, 

Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, Diane Lane, Hilary Swank, Sally Hawkins, 

Noomi Rapace, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, 

Lesley Manville, and Michelle Williams — to name a few. Whether it 

might have been wiser for Berry to wait until next year remains to be 

seen. (Her entry will be vying for attention with Kidman’s Rabbit Hole 

opening on the same day and also entering the fray late. Like Berry, 

Kidman is also a producer on her film.) 

Geoffrey Sax directed from a script by writing teams Cheryl 

Edwards and Marko King & Mary King & Jonathan Watters and Joe 

Shrapnel & Anna Waterhouse (story by Edwards and Oscar Janiger 

and Phillip Goldberg). Producers also include Berry’s partner Vincent 

Cirrincione, Hassain Zaidi and Simon DeKaric. Tom Ortenberg’s One 

Way Out Media is consulting on marketing plans since he worked with 

Berry on the successful Monster’s Ball campaign when he was at Lionsgate. 

Frankie & Alice further enhances Berry’s resumé of diverse films 

since winning an Academy Award — from the Bond entry Die Another 

Day, to the X–Men films, to Catwoman, Perfect Stranger and Things We 

Lost In The Fire. For that, and because of her admirable lack of fear, she 

deserves yet another shot at Oscar. 


By Pete Hammond

For your consideration 

Best Animated Feature and Best Picture 

and In All Categories 

“When Hiccup fi rst climbs on Toothless’s back and 

urges the dragon to take wing, the hearts of the audience soar 

with a primitive and durable delight. The techniques that enabled 

this feeling may be dauntingly complicated, but the feeling 

could not be simpler.” 

A. O. Scott, The New York Times 

dwaawards.com

WItH HIS LateSt dIReCtoRIaL eFFoRt Ben aFFLeCk HaS BeCome 

an aCtoR and WRIteR WHo Can do It aLL 

oN thE towN 

By mIke FLemInG 

ben Affleck’s career trajectory rarely 

happens in Hollywood much less all 

by age 38: from unknown actor (Mallrats, 

Chasing Amy) to Oscar–winning 

co–writer (Good Will Hunting) to 

leading man (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, 

Changing Lanes, The Sum of All 

Fears, Daredevil) to tabloid fixture 

(“Bennifer”) to washed–up star (after 

Gigli) to budding director (adapting Dennis Lehane’s novel 

Gone Baby Gone) to hot actor/helmer with the #1 opening 

movie September 17–19. For The Town, Affleck once again 

leaves rarefied Tinseltown and returns to his Boston roots 

and blue collar crime to adapt Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince 

Of Thieves for the big screen. The result: an adult–pleasing 

hit that has entered the Best Picture discussion. 

DeaDline: So you wrote yourself a second career as a director in 

Gone Baby Gone. Now you’ve written yourself the edgiest role of 

your acting career since Good Will Hunting. How much of this 

was about you wanting to reinvigorate your onscreen career? 

ben affleck: A huge part of this was wanting to play the 

role. I hadn’t had the chance to play a character as interesting 

as the one Chuck wrote in the book in a long time. In that 

sense, it did feel like Good Will Hunting because I was trying 

to make the movie, in part, as a step in my acting career. 

DeaDline: These R–rated crime dramas with action sometimes 

get marginalized in Oscar season, but this one has stayed in the 

conversation. Gone Baby Gone, though lauded, grossed only $35 

million worldwide. The Town so far has done more than $122 

million worldwide. What has most surprised you about the way it 

played and the reaction? 

affleck: Relative to my first movie, it didn’t have to do 

that well to be a step forward, so I was set up well. I think 

people caught up to that movie on DVD, but when you 

come out and do $20 million at the box office, nobody 

calls to congratulate you. In terms of pure commercial success, 

the thing that struck me was, our opening weekend 

on The Town was bigger than the whole number on Gone 

Baby Gone. This time, I had very modest expectations and 

I was really surprised the movie did as well as it did. It’s 

not a juggernaut, but my big goal was seeing it turn a profit 

for the studio. I use that as my metric for whether or not 

they’ll let me direct another movie. I remember calling up 

and saying, ‘So have you broken even yet? Are you going to 

make money on this? Are you happy?’ I’m a little embarrassed 

I’d done that, but it was what I set out to do. And it 

made me be sure I kept the costs down to under $40 million. 

This way I could make a movie that dealt with themes 

that interested me, at a pace I like dramatically. 

12 deadline.com

DeaDline: What went through your mind as you were deciding 

whether or not to do this? 

affleck: My first thought was, I really wanted to play 

the role. But I was concerned that the overlap between 

this and the other movie I directed would be too much, 

and that I ran the risk of getting pigeonholed for making 

crime movies in Boston. When I really want to tell stories 

that take place all over. That made me pause. But there 

were a couple things that ultimately persuaded me to take 

on directing it as well. There were a ton of great parts, and 

I thought the material gave me a shot to work with really 

good actors. And there was a big challenge in trying to 

synthesize the two elements of the movie. There was the 

traditional genre element — the robbery, heist, chase and 

all that stuff — which had to be done in an interesting and 

unique way in order to work. That needed to fuse with the 

character drama on the other side. I felt intimidated and 

daunted by that challenge, but felt, if I could execute it 

right, I’d put myself in a position to be able to make movies 

that I am really interested and attracted to. That is a rare 

thing in Hollywood. Mostly we’re just schmucks limited by 

our options. 

DeaDline: What did you do better this time? 

affleck: As director, this definitely had a broader scope 

than my first movie. On a basic level, movies are defined 

by performances and writing and it’s up to the director 

to bring those together or screw it up. To some directors, 

this was a small film, but to me it was a big step forward 

in budget, scale and the attempt to cross–pollinate these 

two kinds of movies. 

DeaDline: Ho w d i f f i c u l t wa s i t w h e n t h e d i re c t o r i s 

also the star? 

affleck: Because I was directing myself, I got to make 

my own determination about what was most interesting 

about my performance. That’s a double–edged sword. 

People know it is you making those decisions, so they probably 

judge it more closely. And it calls into question your 

perspective on yourself. You put your taste on the line. If 

you can’t be good in a movie you direct and write, when is 

it going to happen for you? You can’t make the argument, I 

didn’t have the opportunity to succeed. The question became, 

was I sophisticated enough as a director and an actor 

to capitalize on those opportunities and to understand how 

to use them? I shot a lot of film on myself, trying different 

things and basically directing myself in the editing room 

when I put the performance together. I read somewhere 

that De Niro did the same thing on The Good Shepherd. I 

don’t know if it was true or not but the idea was reassuring. 

If I was going to fail, at least I would fail emulating De 

Niro. The approach proved to be, for me, really smart. You 

gain much more perspective on yourself in the cold dark of 

the editing room than you do on the set, trying to modulate 

your own performance along with everything else. 

DeaDline: You’ve hit the highs as an actor, been in gigantic 

blockbusters like Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, but you hit 

some low lows in your career, too. Instead of blaming your agent 

and getting a new one, or feeling sorry for yourself, you literally 

scripted a resurgence as a writer and director. What gave you the 

courage to say, I can do this? 

affleck: I don’t know. Maybe it’s not being smart enough 

to know better and say to yourself, what do you think you’re 

doing? For me, there was a lesson in Good Will Hunting, and 

even earlier in the things we were taught in the acting school 

we went to. Generating your own material is the only thing 

you can rely on. Opportunities come and go, things go well 

and dry up. But ultimately you have to be responsible for 

yourself, your life and your career. This wasn’t necessarily a 

question of nerve or drive, because a lot of people in Hollywood 

have that. It’s really a question, will you get the break? 

I’d felt for some time that I wanted to direct and I’d done 

some writing, and I wanted to continue down that road. I 

just didn’t know if I would get hold of the right material, or 

come up with the right idea, and, if I did, would people be 

receptive to it? The only reason Gone Baby Gone got made 

was that Dick Cook was willing to pick it up in turnaround. 

But I’d done a lap around the track at this point, seen the 

highs and lows, and seen various versions of how things can 

turn out. If I’ve learned anything through that, it’s that a lot 

of what you get caught up in doesn’t mean anything. What 

you really have to be concerned about is your own work, 

and working hard. And that’s it. Here, I was grateful to have 

Jeff Robinov really believe in me, and Sue Kroll who I think 

is the reason why the movie was successful, and Alan Horn 

green lighting it. Robinov said, ‘I want to hire you, I believe 

in you, you’re going to have this much money to do it, cast 

who you want’. I just kept thinking, has he mistaken me for 

some proven filmmaker? But I do believe in myself. Any artistic 

endeavor has got risk in it and they’re not all going to 

fall the right way, no matter how hard you work. A big part 

of it for me was not getting discouraged, and believing that, 

if I just had the chance to keep taking swings, I could be successful 

at some point. 

DeaDline: Your films display an understanding of the underclass, 

and the working class and through that you’ve established 

your wheelhouse. Then there were rumors you considered directing 

Superman, which went to Zack Snyder. What factors do you 

consider in where to go next? Do you need to do a mega–budget 

film as a director? 

affleck: The one benefit of having done all kinds of 

movies as an actor is, you learn the pros and cons of being 

tempted to do a really big movie because it costs a 

lot of money. With Superman, I think they’re going to 

do a great version. Chris Nolan is brilliant and they’ve 

got a great director for it. I’ve love to do something like 

Blade Runner, but a lesson I’ve learned is to not look 

at movies based on budget, how much they’ll spend on 

effects, or where they will shoot. Story is what’s important. 

Also, there are a lot of guys ahead of me on the list 

to do epic effects movies. 

DeaDline: If there is an Oscar nomination for The Town, 

how much does the film owe The Departed for making it okay 

to consider an R–rated crime drama? Should this genre get more 

respect during awards season? 

affleck: It’s easy to lump movies like these together. My 

movie owes a lot to The Departed, it owes a lot to Mystic River, 

and it owes a lot to Heat. Also The Friends of Eddie Coyle. 

All are R–rated movies in that same vein, and the movies I 

used as the gold standard of success here. 

DeaDline: You’ve been part of two films that had magical Oscar 

night results, in Good Will Hunting and Shakespeare in 

Love. What are your best memories? 

affleck: The great memory of Good Will Hunting was 

going to the Oscars with Matt, and it all being really new. 

Then we sat down and we were mentioned in Billy Crystal’s 

opening monologue. That was the biggest deal to us, this 

iconic guy, in his iconic role as host of the Oscars, mentioning 

us. It felt like stepping through the looking glass, where 

you are sitting at home watching television and all of a sudden 

the television starts talking to you. And then we won 

and that was a great highlight, something that was hard for 

us to even absorb at that age. I was 25. 

DeaDline: How about Shakespeare in Love? 

affleck: Wonderful, just being part of that large group, 

like a football team. I felt like the guy on the end of the 

bench of a championship team. It was just fun to be included. 

The fact it won stunned me. 

DeaDline: Many still can’t believe it bested Saving 

Private Ryan. 

affleck: Saving Private Ryan is an astounding movie. 

That opening sequence really changed forever how people 

shot action sequences. It redefined the genre of intense, 

powerful filmmaking. That debate is emblematic of what 

I like about movies. It’s just a matter of what touches you, 

and that’s what makes movies so wonderful. 

deadline.com 13

fter Tilda Swinton won the 2007 

Best Supporting Actress award 

for Michael Clayton, she decided 

to give the Oscar to her Hollywood 

agent Brian Swardstrom in 

order to calm him down for every 

time “I am on the speakerphone 

telling him I am going to do another art film in Europe.” 

Once again there is Oscar buzz for Swinton for another 

art film in Europe, but the odds are longer this time for 

her small Italian melodrama I Am Love (Io Sono L’Amore) 

which opened in June. That’s because the film was snubbed 

for Oscar contention by Italy even though it was one of the 

year’s higher profile foreign language films grossing nearly 

$5 million in the U.S. alone. Despite this setback, U.S. distributor 

Magnolia is aggressively campaigning I Am Love for 

Best Actress and even Best Picture as well as Art Direction, 

Cinematography, Costumes, and Music. The Best Actress 

campaign will remind voters of the challenges the Scottish 

Swinton, had making a film in Italian with a Russian accent. 

Other than Robert De Niro playing the Sicilian young 

Don Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974), no one has 

grabbed the gold working in a language not their own. 

DeaDline: I was cruising the Internet and saw a post that 

says ‘ Will Oscar love Tilda Swinton?’ Is it important for 

you to get that kind of attention in order for people to see a 

movie like I Am Love? 

TilDa SWinTon: Yes, I was involved in a film once in my 


life that went on a certain treadmill and ended up at a certain 

Governors Ball. But even then I wasn’t really aware of 

what was going on because it was all Greek to me. All I can 

say is, having worked on this film for 11 years and made it in 

Italy with my best friend, I’ve been astonished that it got 

any distribution at all let alone widely in the States and very 

well reviewed in the States. It’s wonderful to us that people 

are even still talking about the film, let alone still seeing it. 

DeaDline: You produced the film. Is that becoming increasingly 

necessary to get these movies made that offer such 

a great role like this? 

SWinTon: I’ve always been closely attached to filmmakers 

in getting films made. I mean Orlando which was re– 

released this year was something Sally Potter and I pushed 

up a hill for five years before we were able to shoot it. It’s 

really good news for women to see that, if they really want 

to get films made, then they’re going to have to get together 

with their friends and make them — and not sit around 

waiting to be asked. 

DeaDline: You have said the film took you 11 years to get made. 

You stuck with this. Why? 

SWinTon: We grew it from scratch. It’s like, why do you 

stick with your children? And actually, when I think about 

it, yes, this film took 11 years but I’ve been attached to a 

number of films and produced them and they’ve taken that 

long. It’s pretty regular for a personal project. Most films in 

my experience take a decade at least. A film like this takes a 

long time to even get the nerve to dream about it, let alone 

to develop a script and to get a group together to make it. 

And then, of course, there’s the question of raising the finance. 

It gets easier and easier if that decade you’re working 

together also involves some members of the team going out 

and making reputations for themselves. Which means people 

are prepared to put money into the project. That helps. 

DeaDline: Did you think your film would become one of the 

more indie success stories here? 

SWinTon: It’s strange because on the one hand “expect” 

is not really the word. I mean, we dreamed. We were always 

clear we were making an international film, even though it’s 

an Italian film made in Italian and Russian. One of the things 

that I’ve been really gratified to notice is that American and 

all Anglophile critics have not really been going on about 

the fact that it’s not in English. And I think that was the 

real hurdle for us to get it out of the small field that meant 

it was only going to be a foreign language film. Getting the 

film into Italy was hard enough. It’s a film that’s probably 

appreciated less in Italy than anywhere. It was barely shown 

in Italy. And if your film is not made with a production company 

title above it, then it can be tricky to get into cinemas. 

DeaDline: The Italians did not choose this for their entry into 

the Foreign Language race. 

SWinTon: In a funny way, we the producers were not surprised. 

We were disappointed, but we were not surprised. I 

had no idea what the criteria were that the selection committee 

were going by. We thought the Oscars is an American 

affair, and it’s an American prize, and we thought that 

maybe it would be a good idea to choose a film that had gone 

well and at least been distributed in America, let alone been 

well received. Again, another portion of Greek for me. 

DeaDline: Was it a challenge for you speaking Italian 

with the Russian accent? 

SWinTon: That she wasn’t going to speak my language was 

a relief in many ways. I quite like being outside my own language, 

particularly someone so silent. But beyond that, no. 

She just came from so many books we discussed, and she 

came from films we discussed, and she came from people 

that we knew, and she came from someone I hadn’t seen for 

a couple of years. She just felt very easy and that’s the way 

I like it: to feel you’re going towards something that feels 

actually very familiar and very comfortable. 

DeaDline: Did winning the Oscar for Michael Clayton open 

up new doors for you? 

SWinTon: It is possible that I Am Love would not have 

had the distribution it had, and would not have had the 

welcome that it had, without the imprimatur of that. If 

it helped, I’m really grateful. It then feels to me like a 

fantastic use of a prize.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION 

BEST PICTURE 

BEST DIRECTOR 

Alejandro González Iñárritu 

BEST ACTOR 

Javier Bardem 

BEST ORIGINAL 

SCREENPLAY 

Alejandro González Iñárritu, 

Armando Bo, Nicolás Giacobone 

www.roadsideattractionsawards.com 

“A near 

perfect fi lm.” 

-Chris Jones, ESQUIRE 

WINNER 

BEST ACTOR 

JAVIER BARDEM 

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 

BEST FOREIGN 

LANGUAGE FILM 

Offi cial Entry – Mexico 

“AN AMAZING MOVIE. 

Its beauty can’t be denied. Javier Bardem in one of his best performances yet.” 

- Sasha Stone, AWARDS DAILY 

“The best fi lm Iñárritu has ever made.” 

- Michael Giltz, THE HUFFINGTON POST

i 

n a career now spanning more than 20 years, Peter Morgan has become one of the film 

industry’s most reliable writers, best known for crafting screenplays based on real–life 

people and events. In 2006 his original screenplay for The Queen was Oscar nominated, 

winning numerous other awards including a Golden Globe. The same year he 

won a BAFTA award for The Last King Of Scotland. Then he won an Oscar nod for 

adapting Frost/Nixon (2008) based on his own play. This year, he is writer and executive 

producer of his latest film Hereafter, directed by Clint Eastwood. A complete 

departure from his previous scripts, it’s a mult–character study telling three distinct 

stories about people affected by death or near death. It’s also the most personal of all 

Morgan’s work and something he wrote on spec not knowing if it would ever be made. 

DeaDline: What was your reaction when you saw the movie? 

peTeR moRgan: I spent most of the time when I watched for the first time loathing my 

work, wishing I had done more here or there. And then the second time, at the New York 

Film Festival, I really enjoyed it — not my work but the pace, of being allowed in. There are 

extremely honest things about it. I can assure 

you this is the most honest piece of writing I 

have ever done. I wrote it in a hut on a mountain 

for nobody because I wanted to. I don’t 

know, it just came to me. 

DeaDline: What drew you to this material? 

moRgan: The stuff that I have perhaps become 

known for that’s based on fact, and English 

statesmen shouting at each other all the 

time, doesn’t entirely represent who I am. I am 

not a politics wonk. I like the idea of my writing 

reflecting more about who I am or other 

people. I wrote this not thinking for a minute 

that it would get made. I mean, the tsunami sequence 

— anyone in England would know if you 

write something like that, it’s just going to get 

taken out. You can’t afford anything like that. I 

wrote the first draft on my own in between assignments 

where I was being paid. I wasn’t paid 

to write this. I wrote it for myself and wrote it 

quite quickly and left it in a drawer. 

DeaDline: How did Clint Eastwood become 

involved in the film? 

moRgan: I sent it to my agent and he then 

sent it to producer Kathleen Kennedy and she 

sent it to Steven Spielberg. He rang me up. 

Having a phone call from him was just a fantastic rite of passage. I loved it, and he was 

very focused, very likable, strictly business, and really sharp. The phone call lasted about 

three hours and I loved his ideas. I then changed the script based on the notes he’d given 

me and was thrilled with it. I then got a phone call saying, “Would you please come out 

to California as soon as possible.” So I jumped on a plane, went to the Universal lot for 

a meeting at 1 o’clock, went into the boardroom, an assistant came in and drew the curtains 

and said Mr. Spielberg has taken to having his meetings in the dark. She turned all 

the lights off, and then she left and I thought, “Well, he’s really not here. It must be an 

imposter. But soon there he was, and we had a really long lovely meeting in which he said 

the notes he had given me had harmed the script and I said, “No, it was good,” and he said, 

“No, no, it isn’t good and I damaged your work, and I don’t want to touch it again, and I 

want to go back to the original script that you sent me, and I want to give it to my friend 



THE SURPRISING HEREAFTER 

PEtEr morgAN IS a maSteR oF manIPULatInG CHaRaCteRS, 

BUt not In tHIS SCReenPLay tHat manIPULated HIm 

Clint Eastwood.” Then I got this phone call saying Clint Eastwood wants to do it, and I 

said, “Wow, I can’t wait to start working.” But I not only didn’t have to do any rewrites, I 

wasn’t allowed to. I wondered why not since it was my material and I wanted to change it. 

But Clint said, “Don’t touch it. Don’t change it. I like it as it is. I want to make it as it is.” 

DeaDline: Was that reaction a surprise to you? 

moRgan: I’m not accustomed to that at all, I am accustomed to pain and self–destruction 

and draft after draft. On the one hand, you might think for a writer this was a 

dream come true. We finally came to this rather profound difference in our approaches. 

He likes the mess, the imperfection, the instinct. And it is full of bumpiness: it’s full of 

things that don’t quite add up or work that could be honed a bit more. But his view is 

the looseness and the imperfection allows an audience in. And it’s sort of the antithesis 

of overworked controlled freakery that so much of the entertainment process is. There 

was something about the rawness of the first impulse that he wanted to preserve and 

protect. It’s a very different way of working than I’ve come across before. 

DeaDline: What kind of tone were you trying 

to achieve? 

moRgan: Writing this was in part an effort 

to help medicate the ever–present fear of death 

that you sort of live with. But it isn’t all about 

that. It feels to me like it’s a real correlation 

between grief and romance. And so somehow 

there’s the blur between loneliness and grief in 

the story. The story needs to be harsh but it can 

be quite sweet or a sweet melancholy, and I think 

that was the tone I was after. I love how simple it 

is, and it’s not that emotionally manipulative. 

DeaDline: Do you feel the film was faithful 

to your script and were there any scenes that 

weren’t shot? 

moRgan: No. I’ve never known anything like 

this before. For example, Clint told me the scenes 

with the Matt Damon character were shot in San 

Francisco. I originally wrote them for Chicago. 

And Clint rang me up to say, “I hope you don’t 

mind, but we are going to actually change the 

heading of the scene to say ‘San Francisco’ on the 

script.” I said, “I think that’s very appropriate.” 

DeaDline: What is your motivation to write? 

moRgan: Sometimes you are lucky enough 

to get offered things and there is no rhyme or reason. I am very lucky because I come from 

England and you have a whole range of things offered to you from television plays and shows 

and theatre so much more to explore, so it’s never really money. But it’s always what it is that 

interests you, although I’m not interested in Tony Blair so I don’t know why I keep writing 

about him. I am drawn to characters so full of internal contradictions. Idi Amin was one. I 

loved writing him. 

DeaDline: Do you want to direct? 

moRgan: The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations 

with filmmakers. I don’t want to direct. I have no directing ambition whatsoever. And 

as long as I meet filmmakers like Tom Hooper, Stephen Frears and others who allow that collaboration, 

I can’t see why I would ever want to direct.

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N 

MATT BOMER 

Best Performance by an Actor 

In A Television Series - Drama 

“ Bomer gives White Collar the charm, wit 

WHITECOLLAR.USANETWORK.COM 

and sex appeal...” 

USA TODAY 

“ Terrific acting...” “Sparkling, snappy, 

bursting with energy...” 

LOS ANGELES TIMES 

“Slick and smart.” “...charming escapism.” 

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY 

“ Mr. Bomer makes it seem entirely plausible that someone 

who looks like a Brioni model could have 

an I.Q. as high as a physicist’s.” 

NEW YORK TIMES 

“...White Collar takes off in its own refreshing directions, 

with enough wit and sparkle to make the time fly by.” 

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 

WHITE COLLAR 

Best Television Series - 

Drama

DOWN 

FROM THE 

MOUNTAIN 

Photo: Jeff Vespa/ContourPhotos.com

JJAMEs FRANcO ON THE pERFORMANcE OF HIs lIFE 

By mike ryan 

ames Franco describes his purpose on a movie 

set as “serving the director’s vision.” Considering 

his performance in Danny Boyle’s 

latest film, 127 Hours, the actor deserves a 

robust tip. Franco stars as Aron Ralston, 

the mountain climber who famously severed 

his right arm to escape a boulder that 

pinned him in a canyon for five days in 2003. 

But this is no standard biopic: It’s virtually 

a one–man show of survival, humor and surreal grace that 

has put both Franco and Boyle on this year’s Oscar shortlist. 

Movieline spoke with Franco about acting alone, the audience 

reaction to 127 Hours and why his personal life is not 

the performance art piece you might have heard. 

MOVIELINE: In 127 Hours there’s a scene where Aron is recording 

a goodbye of sorts because he’s accepted that he’s going to die. He 

thinks he hears someone above and screams maniacally for help. 

Later, he watches himself scream back on the video and says to 

himself, “Don’t lose it.” When you’re filming that scene, did you 

mean ‘don’t lose your sanity’ or ‘don’t lose your will to live?’ 

JaMEs FraNcO: I guess a bit of both. You know, you might 

say that they kind of go hand in hand. I would imagine if I 

was in that situation there is a real pull to just get desperate. 

There are moments when he’s first trapped and he tries 

to pull his hand out with brute strength — you would try 

and do that! And it leads to some foolish acts. He drinks too 

much water. Or even when he basically says, “Screw it,” and 

drinks the rest of the water. I can relate to moments like 

that. I was just — ugh, I don’t care, just do it. And then you 

have to face the consequences. So I think in the moment 

where he says, “Don’t lose it, Aron,” he has another side of 

himself that was an engineer [and] has been in dangerous 

situations. So I think he’s calling on that side of himself to 

help him think his way out. 

MOVIELINE: In 127 Hours there are a lot of scenes that break 

the tension, like the talk show scene. You had fun during that 

scene, didn’t you? 

FraNcO: I like that scene. I like when that scene comes on 

[laughs]. And that was a late addition because Danny wrote 

the original script and then he brought Simon [Beaufoy] on 

and I think that was Simon’s idea. Because I saw the original 

videos and Aron does not do that. Some of the videos in our 

film are verbatim, but that one is not. But Aron, you can also 

say, can be a very goofy guy and likes to have fun. Just the 

humor in general, I knew and Danny knew, were essential to 

this movie. You needed that balance and you needed it early 

on. You know, you get a lot of it at the top because humor 

is so powerful and it really brings the audience toward the 

character and it gets the audience on the character’s side. 

And you really need a little bit of that goofiness because 

it’s just disarming. But most people who come in to see this 

movie know what’s going to happen — right? 

MOVIELINE: I’d say that’s true. 

FraNcO: So as funny as you get, it’s also always tempered by 

this knowledge. So it’s great! We actually get our cake and 

eat it, too! You can be goofy, but it’s almost like, in inverse 

proportions, the goofier you are the weightier it gets. So in 

the false video, the faux talk show, the goofier that I am ... 

the more poignant it’s going to be. Because it’s a guy using 

humor to face himself and to also try and escape a situation 

but also face a situation. 

MOVIELINE: The arm–severing scene obviously gets quite a 

squirm from viewers, but somehow nothing like the scene of you 

removing, moistening and replacing your contact lens. 

FraNcO: Really? I did [the scene], but I don’t think it was 

in that shot. There was a different part where — and I 

don’t even know if it ended up in the movie, it might be 

there for a second — where they shot another guy because 

I don’t have contacts. And I tried and I tried and you don’t 

want it to be ruined because somebody is saying, “Looks 

like somebody doesn’t really have contacts.” So I think he 

got an extreme close— 

up with somebody’s eye 

doing it — but I did it as 

well. 

MOVIELINE: Where did so 

much bizarre imagery come 

from? There’s Scooby–Doo, 

the beverage scene... 

FraNcO: [Laughs] That’s 

all right, because that’s 

part of Danny’s taste. 

I actually always laugh 

when it’s the Bill Withers 

song playing and it cuts 

to these old commercials 

of [laughing] people on 

the beach with the waves 

hitting them. It’s Aron’s 

thirst, but that’s Danny’s style bringing in that kind of 

thing. I think one of the things that Danny wants to do 

is challenge himself. He wants to use stories and material 

that hasn’t been tackled or use old genres — let’s just say 28 

Days Later, the old zombie genre — and make it fresh and 

he wants to entertain. He’d challenge himself by saying, 

“Here’s something that maybe can’t be done: A guy alone, 

but how do I make that entertaining?” He wants to challenge 

audience but he also wants to entertain audiences. 

MOVIELINE: Do you feel that the media is fair to you? I mean, 

between the coverage of General Hospital and the pictures of 

you online sleeping at a lecture, is that fair? 

FraNcO: I think a lot of things about this. I got to a point 

with my career — we’re talking five or six years ago now — 

where I was doing projects that I didn’t want to be doing, 

and I didn’t have faith in myself that I could do stuff that 

I’m interested in: Work with people that I admire. I take 

full responsibility, but I looked for advice from people and 

I listened to advice too much instead of listening to my own 

taste and looking for things that just interested me. So now 

that’s what I do. And a big part of that is understanding ... 

I’m sorry, this is such a big answer. As an actor, I now understand 

my part, my role, in a movie is to serve a director’s 

vision. That’s what I believe. 

So, I think it’s my job to serve a director’s vision. I 

didn’t understand that before, as an actor. I was, in a way, 

trying to direct movies from an actor’s standpoint — and 

that’s just craziness. It can’t be done and it makes the process 

really unpleasant and it doesn’t lead to the best work. 

Because I have that understanding now, I only want to work 

with people who I look up to or whose work I respect. Or! 

Or if it’s a situation that interests me for some reason or 

another. Seth Rogen taught me, “Don’t do any movie that 

you wouldn’t go and watch if you weren’t in it.” That’s what 

he believes. That’s really good advice — I follow that to an 

extent. But there will be some movies that I’ll do where I 

may get something else out of it. Like Eat Pray Love. You 

know what? If I get to work with Julia Roberts in a romantic 

kind of movie that’s based on a book that a bunch of women 

readers have just loved — that’s kind of like the pinnacle 

of that kind of thing. I just want to experience that and if I 

only have to work a week on it. Why not? You know? Why 

not? Just go and do that. But, also, because I’ve come to the 

understanding that my role as an actor is to serve somebody 

else’s vision, I want to have other outlets. I want to have 

situations where it can be my vision. It’s just another way 

of being involved in films or writing or whatever, it’s just a 

different kind of orientations. I’m collaborative. I love collaborating. 

It’s just taking a different position in the collaboration. 

I can’t even remember what your question was. 

MOVIELINE: Do you feel that the media is fair to you? 

FraNcO: Things like a picture of me sleeping in class? 

What am I going to do? It actually wasn’t class; William 

Kentridge was giving a talk that I didn’t need to be at. 

It’s kind of OK with me because I think it’s very hard 

for people. People don’t want the guy from Pineapple 

Express to be going to Yale and getting a PH.D. They 

don’t like it. I think people just want to ... If they can’t 

get pictures of me drunk coming out of a club, the worst 

they can get of me is sleeping in a lecture. OK. If they 

want to paint the picture of the stoner going to school, 

it’s kind of okay with me because it actually takes a lot 

of pressure off. If that’s the way they want to depict me, 

it’s fine because my schoolwork isn’t a performance. I’m 

going there because I’m getting so much out of it and 

I’m getting to work with all of my favorite writers or 

professors. So, if that’s how they want to depict it, it’s 

not taking away from why I’m there. You kind of have 

to roll with it. 

movieline.com 19

the low CoUNtRY 

Low’s FeLix Bush is one oF those once—in—a—LiFetime roLes 

Get 

to hear Robert Duvall tell it, he almost missed 

out on the part for “other stuff ” — an unspecified 

bit of work that could just as easily turned 

out to be another one of his genius exercises extending 

out from his big–screen breakthrough 

in To Kill a Mockingbird through The Godfather 

I & II, Network, Apocalypse Now, his Oscar–winning Tender 

Mercies, Lonesome Dove, The Apostle… and now Get Low. 

MOVIELINE: Get Low was in development for what feels like forever; 

When did it come to you? 

rOBErT DUVaLL: Oh, it was in the early stages — four, five, 

six years ago, I think. It’s the same old thing we’re doing for 

other projects right now, which is just to find the money. It’s 

extremely difficult. I figure if the Zanuck dynasty can’t get 

money, who can, right? They came to my farm in Virginia, 

and then there was a time when nothing was happening. 

There was a rewrite that wasn’t very good. And then they 

brought this guy in from Alabama — Charlie Mitchell — 

who rewrote it beautifully, and they came to my farm again 

with him, and that really sold me on it. But they still couldn’t 

get the money. Then I saw [co–producer] Dean Zanuck and 

his father — I wasn’t even thinking about it, and all of a sudden, 

a year ago last December, they said, “We got the money! 

We’ve got to go!” I said, “Well, I’m not ready. I can’t.” I 

thought I had other stuff. But then I thought, “Maybe I’d 

better go do this. It’s such a good project.” The other things 

didn’t materialize anyway. 

MOVIELINE: What do you think your character, Felix, was doing 

out in the woods — in seclusion — for 40 years? 

rOBErT DUVaLL: For 40 years! I know. I’ve often thought 

of that. He must have had a lot of filler time. I guess they 

couldn’t put in the movie how he learned to love the land, 

where he lived, and learned with solitude. The hermits I’ve 

come in contact with sometimes, all they want to do is talk. 

All they want to do is socialize. It’s not that they’re like this 

when they come out. 

MOVIELINE: I get the impression that despite his regrets and guilt, 

he really does appreciate that there’s a mythology around him. 

rOBErT DUVaLL: He gets a kick out of it. “You boys come and 

throw rocks at my window for 25 years?” It kind of reminds 

me of some of my uncles in Virginia — my dad’s people from 

way back. They’d tell little stories about the past and what’s 

going on. But once again, I wouldn’t be sitting with you today 

if it hadn’t have been for Mitchell — the guy who came 

in to rewrite. Just had beautiful touches. Beautiful touches. 

MOVIELINE: Like what? 

rOBErT DUVaLL: Well, like the girl at the end — with the 

white. Finding the thing to give to Sissy [Spacek] in the 

graveyard, with the dogs. The names. The little touches 

20 movieline.com 

that aLL actors crave. even roBert DuvaLL 

By S.T. vanairSdale 

about how [she] played piano in the past. He put these 

things in there that just made it live. Because he’s a wonderful 

writer from Alabama — and it’s a Southern tale, so to 

speak. I mean, it could happen in… Vermont. I remember 

when I was in the Army, I bunked over a guy from Virginia. 

Then two weeks later I switched to another place, and I 

bunked with a potato farmer from Maine. And he was more 

country than the other guy! So there’s a kinship from South 

to North, probably an Anglican thing that runs through 

from England on down. 

MOVIELINE: I recognized certain traits of Felix’s from The Apostle. 

How did those characters interrelate to you, if at all? 

DUVaLL: I never really thought about it that much, really. 

They just had something to atone for. Actually... Get Low 

reminds me of a Horton Foote project, and I always wish 

he’d lived to see it. The day I came to deliver the speech to 

the people — I only did it once — the mule’s coming with 

the casket I built for myself for when I really die, and they 

said “Action.” And my wife’s off–camera, and she gets a phone 

call from the son–in–law saying Horton Foote had just died. 

It was like full–circle from To Kill a Mockingbird — it was like 

one of his pieces. I always told Horton, “If I ever do this movie, 

I want you to see it.” And then he passed away. 

MOVIELINE: People always talk about the ‘valedictory role’ — that 

one big role that an actor takes on before retiring. And some actors 

don’t even recognize the concept. Have you thought about that? 

DUVaLL: Lonesome Dove. I said, “Now I can retire. Let the English 

have Hamlet and King Lear; I’ll play Augustus McCray.” A 

great, great character. And we had time to develop it. 

MOVIELINE: Did you contemplate retiring? 

DUVaLL: No. No, I just made that statement to myself; I felt 

I’d done something that made me 

feel complete — that you don’t 

feel very often. 

MOVIELINE: Some of your most 

memorable film roles have come out 

of working with younger directors 

— going all the way back to Robert 

Mulligan, who was 35 when he directed 

To Kill a Mockingbird. 

DUVaLL: Was Mulligan younger? 

Wow. Well, he had done television. 

Yeah, well… It’s so hard to 

raise money. The same guy who 

wrote the adaptation of Lonesome 

Dove had written a part 25 

years ago of a character who is 

very much like the guy in Lonesome 

Dove. It’s a great, great part. 

And now this top young French director [Xavier Giannoli] 

is obsessed with it. 

MOVIELINE: What is it about these guys — from Lucas and Coppola 

to Get Low director Aaron Schneider and Crazy Heart 

director Scott Cooper — that drives you? 

DUVaLL: Well, I mean, if they’re young and talented, why not 

get a break, you know? Or — better a talented guy from 

Paris, France, than a hack from Dallas. You know? Because 

you get a different perspective. But young people — and I 

hate to use the word ‘passion’ — but if they have passion or 

feeling for something they’re connected with or that they’ve 

written, why not? Why not? Maybe a young director isn’t 

jaded as much. They’re fresher. 

MOVIELINE: Do you want to direct again? 

DUVaLL: Yeah... I would like to. They say to direct is 

tough, to [act and direct] is tougher. When I did both, 

it was easier then if I was acting. You just do it; it’s fun. I 

know it’s good; I see it on the day, you don’t have to keep 

poring over it until the time comes to edit. I did it twice, 

and I loved it. 

MOVIELINE: The Apostle wouldn’t even work had you not 

directed it. 

DUVaLL: I agree. I made a joke that I wanted to put up 

a full–length mirror so I could yell at the director anytime 

I wanted to. 

MOVIELINE: The scenes just go on. You never cut! 

DUVaLL: You know, you work with a director and say, “OK, 

that was good. What do you think?” And he says, “That’s 

good, OK.” I don’t need the guy there to check with to 

know that it’s time to move on.

BAFFLING BAFTA 

Extravagant film producer Alexander Korda first 

broached the idea of establishing a British equivalent 

of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and 

Sciences over a suitably lavish dinner he was hosting 

for his fellow film swells at swank Claridge’s Hotel on 

May 13, 1947. Those sitting round the table included 

directors David Lean and Carol Reed and Ealing 

Comedies creator Michael Balcon. Having worked 

their way through sole with Liebfraumilch followed 

by steak and kidney pie, Korda compared their dessert 

of hot whipped meringue concealing a frozen ice 

cream heart to Russian women of his acquaintance. 

That’s when the conversation abruptly turned to 

why didn’t Britain have its own film academy giving 

awards? There had never been a British equivalent of 

the Oscars, so Lean was appointed the first chairman 

and donated his royalties. At the inaugural awards on 

May 29, 1949, Laurence Olivier presented just four 

categories. Now the British Academy Of Film & Television 

Arts presents 22 at its televised film–only awards show. 

If you think the Oscars are overly complicated, 

then the BAFTAs will positively baffle. That’s because 

the current push is for their increasing democratization. 

Only the 6,350 film members are allowed to vote 

for the motion picture awards. They used to wade 

“ROBERT DUVALL HAS GONE NEARLY 50 YEARS 

IN MOVIES VIRTUALLY WITHOUT A FALSE NOTE 

AND ‘GET LOW’ GIVES HIM TIME AND ROOM TO 

EXPLORE THE CREVICES OF A WILY, WOUNDED SOUL.” 

-A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES 

“THIS FILM RELAYS AN INTRIGUING STORY 

BROUGHT TO LIFE BY SOME BEAUTIFUL ACTORS. 

A PITCH PERFECT PORTRAYAL FROM SISSY SPACEK. 

BILL MURRAY’S SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE 

SHOULD BE REMEMBERED COME 

AWARDS TIME- AS SHOULD DUVALL’S.” 

-Michael Phillips, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE 

VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.GETLOWTHEFILM.COM 

Tim Adler in london 

explAins The BriTish oscArs 

through every film released in Britain but that changed 

in 2005 when it became the responsibility of each pic’s 

producer and distributor to decide submissions which 

close on November 18 for the 2011 BAFTAs. The longlist 

will be published on December 3. 

BAFTA’s management has long debated whether to 

have just two voting rounds like the Academy Awards. 

But, fearful that worthy films would be overlooked, the 

leadership believes the first round establishes the broad 

universe of films from which nominees and winners can be 

selected. Second round voting opens on December 8 and 

closes on January 5. The actual BAFTA nominations will 

ALL CATEGORIES 

including 

BEST PICTURE 

BEST ACTOR 

Robert Duvall 

BEST SUPPORTING 

ACTOR 

Bill Murray 

BEST SUPPORTING 

ACTRESS 

Sissy Spacek 

WINNER 

BEST ACTOR 

Hollywood Film Festival 

GOTHAM AWARDS 

CAREER TRIBUTE 

BEST ACTRESS 

Sally Hawkins 

be announced on January 18. Final voting for the February 

13 award winners begins later that same day. For this third 

and final round, BAFTA members only vote for Best Film, 

and the four performance categories, and Film Not In the 

English Language (which can include UK films made in 

Welsh, Scots Gaelic, even Cornish, as well as French, 

Italian, and so on). 

All the technical categories are voted by specialized 

chapters each made up of at least 80 film 

craft members. Some categories are then thrown out 

again for all BAFTA members, with a few decided 

by juries. Then there is the “Super Jury” made up 

of non–conflicted committee members, filmmakers, 

and other industry types who decide the winner 

of Outstanding British Film. By contrast, the most 

democratic process is for the Orange Rising Star 

Award. This year a jury will pick a longlist of eight 

before mobile phone customers who buy a midweek 

cinema ticket cut it to five. That shortlist then goes out to 

the general public again. 

Despite their different procedures, how amusing that 

BAFTA and AMPAS have picked the same best motion 

picture winner five times in the past 11 years: Hurt Locker, 

Slumdog Millionaire, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the 

King, Gladiator, and American Beauty. 

“A FUNNY, TOUCHING AND VITAL SALUTE TO WOMEN.” 

-Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE 

“SALLY HAWKINS IS IS SUPERB. 

MIRANDA RICHARDSON ELECTRIFIES.” 

-Liz Smith 

BEST PICTURE 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

Miranda Richardson Rosamund Pike 

MADE IN DAGENHAM 

VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.MADEINDAGENHAMMOVIE.COM 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 

Bob Hoskins

T 

By Pete hammond 

IN THE TRENCHES WITH OSCAR 

four Past show Producers reflect on how to recaPture viewers 

he Oscars are such a big show that no matter what 

you do there are going to be people who like it, and 

people who don’t,” muses Gil Cates, producer of a 

record 14 Oscar telecasts. The Academy’s Board of 

Governors has been discussing how to improve their telecast, 

even suggesting a January date change to make it the 

first major awards shows (that idea is now on hold), on 

top of expanding the list of Best Picture nominees from 

five to ten to make room for popcorn films among the 

elitist indies (that idea was implemented). Here, I pick 

the brains of four past Oscar show producers: 

GIL CATES 

Produced 14 telecasts sPanning 1990 to 2008 

“Now you see stars everywhere, so the show has to aspire 

to something bigger and better than simply seeing 

stars. It’s an important element. But the most important 

thing is to do a show you like. There’s no way to get 

out totally alive, so do a show that’s unique and fun and 

special. That’s a victory. I hope the Academy considers 

perhaps alternating some of the awards. I hope they 

can come up with a way to streamline because that’s in 

the best interest of the show. There are always going to 

be branches upset by that, and it’s a big political issue 

for the AMPAS President and Board to tackle. But as 

long as they keep their eyes open to the possibilities of 

change, they are in great shape. One year I gave many 

of the awards from where the audience was sitting. I 

thought it was novel. A lot of folks thought it was too 

“Astonishing. Mike Leigh has long been a great director, 

but now he is surely at the top of his form.” 

-Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 

“Lesley Manville achieves greatness.” 

-Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY 

all categories 

including 

best picture 

best director 

mike leigh 

best original screenplay 

mike leigh 

best actress 

lesley manville 

best supporting actress 

ruth sheen 

best supporting actor 

jim broadbent 

another year 

WWW.ANOTHERYEARMOVIE.COM 

novel. I didn’t do it the next year. You have to respect 

the Academy and respect the purpose of the awards and 

then do something that has your own unique feel to it. I 

always love producing the show. I’d love to do it another 

five or six times. How can anyone get tired producing 

the Academy Awards?” 

RICHARD ZANUCK 

Produced with wife lili fini Zanuck the 

72nd awards in 2000 

“I think it’s about revising the show, not the date. They 

always say the problem is all these other awards shows, 

but that’s because you’re thinking of the show as it’s always 

been. Let’s put on a different kind of show. Let’s 

compact the show within 90 minutes and have a whole 

different concept. Of course that would unfortunately 

mean eliminating certain technical categories. So you 

would have to fight those battles with the various guilds 

and have another event like the Academy has done with 

the Governors Awards. Ultimately, the answer is doing a 

better and more ingenious show.” 

JOE ROTH 

Produced the 76th awards in 2004 

“I wanted to move the date earlier. When I produced the 

show six years ago. I felt the Academy had ceded its specialness 

to all the other award shows by going so late, and 

I felt there were only two ways to get it back. One way 

was to say to performers, ‘if you’re on any other awards 

show, you can’t do the Oscars’. I think that would have 

worked 15 years ago, but not now. The second way is you 

keep pushing the date earlier and just make it impossible 

for others to compete with it. I think the Academy may 

have spent too long thinking they were the only game in 

town only to watch some of the other awards shows steal 

their thunder. The earlier they go, the better off they are. 

It may be too little too late, but it’s the right idea.” 

LAURENCE MARK 

Produced with Bill condon the 81st 

awards in 2009 

“One of the biggest challenges is that this is a television 

show, a theater piece, and a celebration of filmmaking all 

in one. So in a sense you are serving three masters. It’s 

also a show for the TV audience, and the audience in the 

theater, so you need to pay attention to both. If the audience 

in the theater is not enjoying themselves, chances 

are the TV audience won’t be having a good time, either. 

One of the things you learn is that the host does indeed 

set the tone for the show. And that there are certain givens. 

If you try to cut categories out, then all you’re doing 

is a TV show and not celebrating the motion picture 

arts and sciences the way in which the Academy would 

like. We chose to group categories. At the same time, we 

were not afraid to take risks and shake things up while 

also paying tribute to Oscar history.” 

“After watching Charles Ferguson’s powerhouse documentary about the global 

economic crisis, you will more than understand what went down — you will 

be thunderstruck and boiling with rage. This smart and confident film, 

thick with useful information conveyed with cinematic verve, lays out in 

comprehensive but always understandable detail the argument that 

the meltdown of 2008 was no unfortunate accident.” 

-Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES 

BEST PICTURE 

BEST DOCUMENTARY 

FEATURE 

A FILM BY CHARLES FERGUSON 

VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.INSIDEJOBFILM.COM 

BEST FILM EDITING 

Chad Beck & Adam Bolt

tHe GoLden GLoBeS’ 

tv CateGoRIeS need FReSH meat 

What’s NeW? 

By Ray RICHmond 

When it comes to the Golden Globes, people tune in to 

see Hollywood press the flesh, TV stars mingle with 

movie stars, and a much–hyped award show from the 

insular Hollywood Foreign Press Association. But 

studios and networks see the 68th annual Golden 

Globe Awards as a night–long marketing opportunity 

and lavishly lobby the HFPA to score nominations. 

That’s especially true in television. The problem is 

that this year’s freshman class of fall primetime shows is lacking the “wow” factor of last 

year’s Glee (Fox) and Modern Family (ABC). Sure, HBO’s high–pricetag drama Boardwalk 

Empire comes complete with big screen character actor Steve Buscemi and indieprod regular 

Michael Pitt and legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese and Sopranos writing alum Terence 

Winter. But will that satisfy the HFPA’s penchant for putting star wattage above other 

factors? When Globe nominations are announced on December 14, expect the usual TV 

awards season suspects like Mad Men’s Jon Hamm (AMC) and The Closer’s Kyra Sedgwick 

and Nurse Jackie’s Edie Falco (Showtime), as well as 30 Rock’s Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin 

(NBC), and The Office’s Steve Carell (NBC). But the HFPA may also embrace other famous 

faces like Sopranos fave Michael Imperioli for Detroit 1–8–7 (ABC) or The Shield’s 

Michael Chiklis (ABC) and Dexter’s Julie Benz for No Ordinary Family (ABC), or big and 

small screen starlet Piper Perabo for Covert Affairs (USA). 

HeRe IS an eaRLy Look at WHat and WHo mIGHt Be In GoLden GLoBe ContentIon: 

dRama 

The class is obviously Boardwalk Empire (HBO) given its production pedigree and sizeable 

buzz. That said, there is always the chance that HFPA members will heed the decidedly mixed 

critical reception that’s greeted the Prohibition–period series. Despite his modest awards 

nomination history that includes a Globe nod for Ghost World in 2002, Buscemi has to be seen 

as a strong contender since he’s a movie guy doing television. That isn’t the case with Chiklis, 

but he’s got nice history with the HFPA (three nominations for The Shield, including a win in 

2003). Rubicon (AMC) and relative unknown James Badge Dale had the best chance to bust 

through until the show was recently cancelled. No matter: AMC’s Mad Men may make it four 

wins in a row. The first seasons of HBO’s kudo–ed Treme with Melissa Leo (an Oscar nominee 

for Frozen River in 2009) and Justified (FX) with Timothy Olyphant (as crime novelist 

Elmore Leonard’s macho 21st century U.S. Marshal) could get attention. 


Comedy oR mUSICaL 

Both Glee and Modern Family could sweep since no performer from either show won last 

year. But, with so many quality contenders, The Big C (Showtime) may debut a nomination 

due to the cancer victim performance of awards magnet Laura Linney. Plus, the HFPA 

seems on a Showtime high of late. Then there’s Californication’s David Duchovny (Showtime) 

who has been nominated seven times. Louie (FX) starring Louis C.K. has the single 

camera favored by the HFPA which hasn’t honored a multi–camera series in years. Sophomore 

HBO comedy Bored to Death also has a shot with its star power (Jason Schwartzman, 

Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis) even though it’s received lukewarm reviews. Working 

in its favor is a recent third season renewal. Of course, the HFPA could honor quirky, like 

David Cross in The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margret (IFC), William Shatner in 

$#*! My Dad Says (CBS), and Betty White in Hot in Cleveland (TV Land). 

the 68 th aNNual GoldeN Globe aWards Will be held JaNuary 16 at the beverly hiltoN aNd be broadcast live oN Nbc.

COVERTAFFAIRS.USANETWORK.COM 

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N 

PIPER PERABO 

Best Performance by an Actress 

In A Television Series - Drama 

“Meet the female Jason Bourne...” 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 

“...fun and clever…” 

NEW YORK TIMES 

“… Perabo is a winning, watchable actress…” 

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 

“…steadily absorbing plots and skilled writing…” 

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 

“...fast-paced, fun and every bit as charming.” 

LOS ANGELES TIMES 

COVERT AFFAIRS 

Best Television Series - 

Drama

the awards editions 2010-2011

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?