Best Actor / Supporting Actor - Chart Updates!

by Nathaniel R

Netflix would like to have 80% of the BEST ACTOR field (Driver, Murphy, Pryce, DeNiro) but that will prove impossible.

The new predictions are in. Best Actor is more exciting and competitive than Best Actress this year which is a strange and unusual development... and we don't like it! We kid. The male actors deserve their moment in the sun occassionally, even if they're not as fun to shine light on. The strangest thing about the leading actor competition is, at least at the moment, Netflix literally appears to have about 1/3rd of the entire competitive field. But since their can be only 5, we think that this shotgun approach will only result in two nominees at best. Right now we're going with Adam Driver (who feels like the ultimate winner... though let's not pretend anything's locked up yet in late September) and Eddie Murphy (who could easily not happen given Netflix's other horses in the race).

As for Supporting Actor. It isn't that much different than Best Actor this year. This year has been fairly heavy with duet films for men (The Lighthouse, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Ford v Ferrari, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Two Popes) so naturally a few of the co-leads will definitely block out supporting players for the coveted nominations. We're mostly giving the side-eye to Willem Dafoe. He's the most egregious category frauder this year since you can't be a supporting actor in a cast of two! (There are technically a few other actors that appear in The Lighthouse but they're non-speaking cameos. It's a duet film from start to finish). It's a shame that Dafoe is competing supporting because we think he'd still be competitive for a nomination in lead despite the strong year. The only traditional-sized supporting role that we think won't be hurt by the co-leads muscling in is Alan Alda's divorce attorney in Marriage Story. In some ways he's the film's most loveable character, and Alda has been nominated for less (The Aviator). At 83 he'll have sentiment on his side, too.

UPDATED CHARTS
PICTURE | DIRECTOR | ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTOR | INTERNATIONAL FEATURE | ALL INTERNATIONAL FEATURE SUBMISSIONS 

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The Furniture: Fame Flattens Your Dreamgirls, Boys

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber...

 This probably goes without saying, but movie musicals tend not to take place in the real world. Gene Kelly doesn’t just serenade French children in An American in Paris, he leads the cast through a dream ballet of wild abstraction. The oddness of public singing is often just the door to an even more fantastical world. Even those about actual musicians, who need no special excuse to croon, often break free from realism.

In this context, Dreamgirls is a bit of an odd duck. Director Bill Condon tries to split the difference. Some of the songs are entirely within the context of a real performance, while others incorporate non-musician characters and non-realistic settings. The back and forth can be a bit confounding...

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The Pryor Life

JA from MNPP here again, taking a look at the news that no less than Lee Daniels is about to sign on to directthe long-gestating bio-pic of the comedian and actor and genius Richard Pryor.

Apparently Bill Condon almost made it a couple of years ago, but I guess that's fallen through since here we are. I was really looking forward to Daniels making his interracial gay action movie, possibly to star Alex Pettyfer, but I'm not exactly surprised that producers aren't throwing money at that.

And not only do we have a director, but we have a trio of names that're rumored to be up to play the troubled, brilliant comedian. Eddie Murphy, who's been considered for the role for as long as they've been thinking about making the movie really, is still in the mix, although if they want to focus on Pryor's life in his 20s and 30s that seems a bit of a stretch, doesn't it? Eddie Murphy is 52 years old.

Of course also in the mix is Damon Wayans, who's actually a year older than Murphy so what do I know. (Condon was considering using Damon's brother Marlon, and he makes more sense to me.) But I guess they've got that CG they used in the third X-Men movie to make Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen look young, they can just spend millions and millions of dollars using that. (I hesitate to even mention make-up since I thought the make-up Daniels used to age people in The Butler was just awful.)

I personally find the third name in contention the most appealing - Michael B. Jordan, hot off a great performance in Fruitvale Station, and buzzy as all get out. I don't see why Daniels doesn't consider David Oyelowo too though - he was my favorite thing in The Butler (granted, I didn't like The Butler).

So who would you cast? And what do you think about Daniels tackling not just Pryor but another bio-pic largely set in the Sixties and Seventies so soon?

Eddie Murphy Resigns. Academy Voter Tells Us "Told You!"

True story: I just got back from a luncheon celebrating Martha Marcy May Marlene. I happened to be seated between three Academy members. One woman, a documentary filmmaker, brought up the Brett Ratner scandal and she and I co-miserated, jokingly, that if only he hadn't resigned so quickly there probably would have been much more drama to enjoy since he can't control his mouth. 'Who doesn't love juicy drama?' we argued. The wise producer on the left of me, retorted that the Academy doesn't. "They're very conservative and they don't like a scandal," she said emphatically. (Amusing that even Academy members talk about the Academy in monolithic "they" terms just as we do; as if they, too, are outside of it looking in).

The whole Ratner fiasco had happened so fast (gay slurs on Friday, apologies on Monday but also Howard Stern on Monday with more offensive comments, resignation on Tuesday) that we had to fill one of the other voters at our table in on the details. The discussion quickly turned to last year's telecast which was deemed "unwatchable" ("Franco is spread too thin" "Poor Anne Hathaway -- you could just see the panic.") The producer leans in to me and says "I bet Eddie Murphy resigns". 

CUT TO: 20 minutes later. I've just returned from talking to Lizzy Olsen (more on that tomorrow) and the producer says "Told you." She holds up her phone to show me the Breaking News bulletin: EDDIE MURPHY EXITS AS OSCAR HOST. The holy name of "Billy Crystal" is instantly invoked as if he would save them all. 

Murphy's public statement: 

First and foremost I want to say that I completely understand and support each party's decision with regard to a change of producers for this year's Academy Awards ceremony. I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I'm sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.

Interesting that he makes it sound like a mutual decision (the implication there is that Rattner was asked to resign, isn't it?).

I know I didn't write about the choice of Eddie Murphy much at the time but I actually thought it somewhat inspired as he is a born showman. No matter what you think of Dreamgirls, can't we all agree that Eddie nailed the performative electricity of James 'Thunder' Early?

Ideally in his absence I'd have Hugh Jackman back since I need musical numbers, I just do. (I realize my dream of Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson hosting and just yanking every other hilarious-in-real-life actress on stage to banter with them as if the Kodak is their mutual playground is only going to happen in my own brain.)

Statler & Waldorf are just like the media. They'll hate it whoever does the hosting!I also heartily endorse the Muppets should host the Oscars campaign though that feels only slightly more likely than Streep & Thompson on account of the Academy being too self-serious to become the greatest episode of The Muppet Show ever made for one night.

A more believeable suggestion...

Wouldn't Jim Carrey be two tons o' fun as a host: what do they have against him anyway? Who would you have host the event and are you sad to see Eddie go?

UPDATE 7:27 PM Brian Grazer (famous producer and Ron Howard partner) has stepped in to replace Brett Ratner as producer of the telecast. Since Brian has always kind of reminded us of a Muppet himself, we are quite pleased. Brian, think hard about those felt bundles of joy. CONSIDER... 

UPDATE 11/10/11: Now it's Billy Crystal as Host.