Thoughts I Had While Staring at this Elvis & Nixon Poster

Manuel here. Maybe it’s the whole “grass is always greener” thing, but I’ve always loved the UK quad posters. That’s certainly the case with this one for the upcoming comedy/drama Elvis & Nixon. If the title hasn’t clued you in, the film is about the random one time meeting between the King and the President which led to one of the most famous photographs in American history. You may have seen the trailer for this Liza Johnson film and here are 5 thoughts had while staring at this playful poster...

1. Spacey as Nixon makes sense to me but that Shannon as Elvis is some left field casting, no? He does brooding and complex and crazy and worried aren't you curious about how he'll fare here. (Also, unplanned, but I just realized Shannon made TFE's latest banner up top!)

2. This 60s sketch comedy design seems much better tailored for the film than the more serious-minded US poster. (I mean, you don’t cast Johnny Knoxville if you’re going for straight drama.)

3. So much hand-acting in this poster! Then again, both outsized icons are known for their all too often parodied mannerisms. (Can this really move beyond an SNL skit?)

4. Nixon lends himself so easily to crazy comedy (Yes, I’m talking about Dick)

5. Who do you think Spacey called up first for tips on playing Nixon: John Cusack (Lee Daniels’ The Butler), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) or Anthony Hopkins (Nixon)? I hope he talked to Dan Aykroyd, actually

Elvis & Nixon opens in theaters on April 22nd, so you have until then to convince yourself that maybe the cheeky tone and bonkers casting means the film has a peculiar sense of humor worth indulging.  

Podcast Season Finale: 88th Oscars

Nathaniel, Nick, Joe and Katey close this season of the podcast with their final "it's all sunk in now" feelings

42 minutes 
00:01 "So Spotlight won..."
02:15 Katey's Party / Nick's House Rules 
05:25 Stallone's Loss / Compton Moviegoing
09:30 How much changes if Idris Elba had been nominated?
15:00 Sam Smith, The Gays, and Original Song
20:00 What wins will age well and much randomness
37:54 That moment when we thought George Miller was possible...
40:00 Girl Scout Cookies and Goodbyes

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Related Reading: Index of Oscar Ceremony Coverage

Oscar Wrap Up

Zootopia Reigns

Animated films for the family remain the safest of original story bets, no pre-branding required. Disney's Zootopia was very strong out of the gate. The best Disney animated opening weekend strong, in fact. Meanwhile Deadpool crossed the $300 million mark. The Oscar Best Picture win helped Spotlight re-expand again adding 500 screens and nearly another $2 million (total gross $41.6) despite already being out on DVD.

I went to The Witch again and while leaving the theater this young guy with his date was like "that is the worst movie I've ever seen!" He doesn't get out much apparently!

What did you see this weekend?

WIDE BOX OFFICE
01 Zootopia $73.7 new
02 London Has Fallen $21.7 new
03 Deadpool $16.4 (cum. $311.1) Reviewish
04 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot $7.6 new Review
05 Gods of Egypt $5 (cum. $22.8) Review 
06 Risen $3.8 (cum. $28.6)
07 Kung Fu Panda 3 $3.5 (cum. $133.8) Dreamworks
08 The Revenant $3.3 (cum. $175.9) Cinematography
09 Eddie the Eagle $3.1 (cum. $10.8) Review
10 The Witch $2.5 (cum. $20.9) Michael's, Nathaniel's, and Eric's Reviews

LIMITED RELEASE
excluding previously wide
01 Other Side of the Door $1.2 new 546 screens
02 Lady in The Van  $.7 (cum. $7.1) 429 screens Review
03 The Mermaid $.3 (cum. $2.6) 106 screens
04 Where to Invade Next $.2 (cum. $2.9) 150 screens  Review & 2nd Opinion 
05 Neerja $.1 (cum. $1.5) 100 screens 
06 Son of Saul  $.1 (cum. $1.5) 180 screens Podcast, Interview, Review
07 45 Years  $.1 (cum. $3.9) 100 screens Podcast
08 Busco Novio Para Mi Mujer $.07 (cum. $1.6) 79 screens
09 Embrace of the Serpent $.06 (cum. $.3) 23 screens Interview, Review
10 Knight of Cups $.05 new 4 screens Reviewish

What's Next for this Past Season's Actors - Part 2

Murtada here to continue the conversation about upcoming projects from actors who've just walked red carpets and absorbed whatever limelight got past the Leo coronation. We've dealt with the winners and the actresses, let's turn our attention to the men.

Christian Bale: Coming up first is The Promise with Oscar Isaac and Charlotte Le Bon (The Walk), a love triangle set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire. He recently signed on to star in Scott Cooper’s Western drama Hostiles.

Click to read more ...

Ghosts of Ceremonies of Years Past

Manuel here. Love them (guilty!) or hate them (okay, sometimes I do), you have to admit that the Academy Awards are an institution, one with a long storied history. And while we've come down from last weekend's highs and lows and will soon wearily brace ourselves for what next year’s season might look like (first predictions April 1st as TFE does), whenever you need to scratch that Oscar itch take some time to look back on Oscar history before you start looking forward again.

Thankfully, the Academy is here to help. Finally embracing the 21st century they have slowly been building quite the digital archive over at oscars.org.

They now have video and photo highlights for ALL of their ceremonies. I’m sure Nathaniel and many others will cringe at the fact that they refer to this most recent ceremony as the “2016 Oscars” which as you know can sometimes get tricky. (This despite the Academy previously citing the film years (you can still see this at the tourist friendly Dolby Theater where each year the new Best Picture plaque goes up with the correct year noted (Spotlight is probably already up where the placeholder "2015" once was.)

Shouldn’t clicking 1950 give me access to the ceremony that awarded George Sanders his Best Supporting Actor win? It’s become common -- it's possibly IMDB's fault (and Jeopardy! now does it too possibly sabotaging Oscar purist trivia experts) to list by the ceremony year rather than the film year. We understand it (the 88th Academy Awards took place in 2016) but that doesn’t mean we have to like it; tying Spotlight to 2016 seems odd. 

It’s a small quibble but trust that there’s a smorgasbord of images and videos to keep you entertained should you want to leave dissecting the 2015 2016 Oscars for another day. So take a look and help us find the best/most amazing/randomest photo from ceremonies past you can find.