Link Roundup and a "Trumbo" Shout-out on the Hill

David Poland on why certain films overperform or underperform come Oscar time. Much of this is both true and frustrating. Why couldn't Warner Bros see what they had in Creed for example?  
Comics Alliance on the fan campaign to make Iron Fist an Asian hero in the new tv eries. So far Marvel/Netflix has rejected the idea which is just maddening since the origin story is pretty racist in modern context.
The Envelope interviews Julianne Nicholson who was so so good in Black Mass
Word and Film An interview with actress Ileanna Douglas (we've missed her) about her new memoir "I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories From a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies"

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw picks his favorite films in multiple categories
Variety Guy Lodge's top ten list. It won't surprise you to hear that it's a good read. And Joy and Magic Mike XXL are on it keeping things provocative.
Pajiba John Krasinski is on his way to a Chris Pratt like reinvention. Trying to keep up with wife Emily Blunt perhaps?
Variety Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette reprised their famous roles at Jason Reitman's live reading of True Romance. How fun.
The Playlist says Jennifer Lawrence is going to play Robert De Niro's dad in the next David O. Russell film. Now they're just purposefully antagonizing us now, right? 
Awards Daily Spotlight takes the Las Vegas Film Critics prize for Best Picture
Daily Herald Mad Max Fury Road takes Best Picture from the Chicago Film Critics Association 
AV Club Sean Penn to play Andrew Jackson in an HBO miniseries. Sadly it is not a remake of the Broadway musical "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" but we'd rather see that! ...albeit with its original Jackson, Benjamin Walker in the lead role

Off Cinema
Rolling Stone Readers Poll of the 10 best songs of the year: Adele, Madonna, Drake and more 
Boing Boing Matt Haughey is a genius -- he started photoshopping dildos where guns were in photos of GOP candidates and it's both funny and satirically pointed 
The Daily Beast best TV shows of 2015: UnReal, The Knick, Empire and more...

Star Wars ♫  give me more Star Wars...Nothing but Star Wars ♬  don't let them end...
Thrillist unearths a time capsule of photos from the premiere of The Phantom Menace (1999). Dakota Johnson is just a baby!
Pajiba "a serious discussion of which original trilogy Star Wars character is best in bed" Hilarious. The gif game is strong with this one. (I agree with the rankings pretty much but I'd still do Luke.)
Screen Crush on the diversity of casting in The Force Awakens 

Today's Watch
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) honored Kirk Douglas on the floor for his 99th birthday! It's always shocking when someone in Congress does something cool but apparently this Cohen fellow is a good guy with a strong civil rights record so there you go. But mentioning a screening of Trumbo in DC? That movie's reach has been such a surprise this month.

ICYMI we sang the praises of New Zealand actor Dean O'Gorman who plays Kirk Douglas in the movie here. 

In the Heart of the Box Office

Ron Howard's new adventure on the high seas (based on the story that inspired Moby Dick) In the Heart of the Sea didn't manage to beat The Hunger Games, due mostly to the latter's much higher screen count. But regardless it's the final week of Katniss's reign. Next weekend the jedis, generals, droids, and wookies arrive surely stealing all the screens in our multiplex world.

If Chris & Tom survive this whaling adventure they get to play Marvel superheroes next

In Oscar-seeking land, Spotlight was off only 10% after a final expansion to 1089 screens so word of mouth is strong and the run will surely be leggy as it nabs more prizes at award ceremonies. The Big Short, inexplicably on only 8 screens despite multiplex-appeal (this is not a highbrow movie!) and tons of stars, packed its houses. Carol and The Danish Girl with tiny expansions are also doing solid if unspectacular business. If you've been dragging your feet on Bridge of Spies, Suffragette, Sicario, The Asssassin (and maybe even Room, Brooklyn, and Trumbo) get there this week -- they're likely to lose screens soon and unless Oscar curiousity catches on with the general public most of them won't be around much longer.

BOX OFFICE WIDE
(Dec 11th-13th)
01 Hunger Games 4 $11.3 (cum. $244.4)  Hunger Games & Oscar
02 In the Heart of the Sea $11 *new* 
03 The Good Dinosaur $10.4 (cum. $89.6) Review
04 Creed $10.1 (cum $79.3) Review & Oscar Chances
05 Krampus  $8 (cum. $28.1)
06 Spectre $4 (cum. $190.7) Review
07 The Night Before $3.9 (cum. $38.2)
08 The Peanuts Movie $2.6 (cum. $124.9) Peanuts Films
09 Spotlight $2.5 (cum. $20.3)  Podcast, From TIFF, SAG Ensemble
10 Brooklyn $1.9 (cum. $14.3)  Review, Ensemble, Podcast, Saoirse & Oscar

BOX OFFICE LIMITED
Excluding previously wides (Dec 11th-13th)
01 Trumbo $.8 554 screens (cum. $5.4) SAG Ensemble
02 The Big Short $.7 8 screens *NEW*  Review & SAG Ensemble
03 Chi-Raq $.5 285 screens (cum. $2.1) Podcast
04 Carol $.3 16 screens (cum $1.2) Reviewish, Podcast, Its Genius, Sketches
05 Legend  $.3 107 screens (cum. $1.3)
06 The Danish Girl   $.2 24 screens (cum. $.6) Interview
07 Macbeth  $.2 108 screens (cum. $.3) Review, Podcast
08 Room $.2 198 screens (cum. $4.1) Premiere, Podcast, FYC Jacob Tremblay
09 Youth $.1 17 screens (cum. $.2) Review, Podcast
10 Suffragette $.09 166 screens (cum. $4.5) Review, Carey Campaign

Dean O'Gorman (The Hobbit) plays Kirk Douglas in "Trumbo"

What did you see this weekend?
I finally caught up with Trumbo. I have no idea why it took me so long to see it since I do love my Hollywood history movies and celebrity impersonations (New Zealander Dean O'Gorman does a terrific Kirk Douglas for what it's worth! He was stupidly left out of the SAG Ensemble nomination). More on Trumbo soon since it's popping with SAG & Globe nominations.

SAG Ensemble -- Everyone's Nominated... Except for You!

Happy SAG NOMINATION DAY! It's time for our glorious depressing tradition of trying to convince a UNION that they ought to look into slightly different rules that are less likely to devalue their dues paying members. Each year when the SAG ensemble nominees are announced the list of actual nominees from the films reveal that non-big name actors are routinely excluded. The problem is that the size of your fame doesn't always correlate with your role and the bulk of SAG's membership is non-famous actors.  If you're curious about why this happens it's due to the rules that you have to have your own title card to be considered part of the official ensemble. In other words you need to a) be famous or b) have a really good agent or c) have the leading role. The only exception to this rule is when the credits don't follow the normal rules. For example Woody Allen movies always list the cast alphabetically on a shared title card. In those cases, you have to be on the first title card to make it in which is why Corey Stoll, who gave the best performance in Midnight in Paris, was left out that year. He wasn't famous enough yet to be on the first page of credits. Now he tends to get his own title card. 

So let's look at who was honored and who was mistreated this morning by the group nominations.

BEASTS OF NO NATION
Nominated Cast: Abraham Attah, Idris Elba, Kurt Egyiawan (as "2nd I-C")

Who was left out: Just about everyone which makes it the strangest nomination of the group. Does three make an ensemble?  I have not yet seen the film -- child soldier dramas are a subgenre I avoid like the plague since they're mentally scarring -- but I hear that Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye who plays "Strika" is quite good in the movie. 

more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

SAG Award Nominations

Early this morning while waiting for the Screen Actors Guild Nominations to come i wondered out loud "what will be the insane 'Naomi Watts in St Vincent' nomination today?". No one could have expected that the answer would be "all of them".

Ladies and gentlemen the weirdest bunch of nominations ever for the SAG AWARDS which will be broadcast on Saturday January 30th on TBS/TNT. Many people will be rethinking their Oscar predictions this morning but it's important to remember that there is extremely little overlap between nominating committee members of SAG (chosen at random each year from their huge membership) and Oscar's acting branch (a few thousand elite people). 

In fact, Melodipopvision is correct when she suggests "Isn't SAG basically now an annual list of "prestige actors I've liked in some other stuff"?"

Normally we love surprises during awards season but when they're as unfortunate as so many of these surprises this morning, the terror begins to set in. What kind of Oscars are we going to get this year?

Nominations with commentary & statistics after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Lukewarm Off Presses: James Dean, Christopher Guest, Bryan Cranston

Three stories we're late mentioning but so what? Always eager to hear your thoughts...

Trumbo
Still no trailer but there's now a poster for Trumbo, the Hollywood blacklist drama starring Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren (as gossip icon Hedda Hopper). Cranston could be looking at the Triple Crown if he's Best Actor nominated since he already has the Tony and the Emmy. Will Oscar go wild for this? A word of caution for those predicting at home: People were going on and on about how much Hollywood loves movies about itself when Birdman won the Oscar last season but it's not entirely true. They sometimes nominate movies about movies but they don't tend to be the big winners. And Hollywood blacklist dramas are an infrequent subcategory unto themselves: Career (1959) won a few tech nominations but nothing in the top categories;  The Way We Were (1973) only won for music and didn't even make the Best Picture lineup which it absolutely deserved to be in; Guilty by Suspicion (1991) with Robert De Niro and The Bening and The Majestic (2001) starring Jim Carrey were both entirely ignored;  Good Night and Good Luck (2005) was popular with voters for nominations but lost each of its categories. 

Mascots
It's been nine freaking years since Christopher Guest's last mockumentary For Your Consideration (2006) which was, unfortunately his weakest comedy. But he's finally making something new! The movie will be for Netflix and it's about what it sounds like it's about. No cast announced yet but I think we can safely guess at least a handful of players. I NEED to see Parker Posey and Catherine O'Hara in big furry costumes, okay? I need it like I need oxygen. 

<-- The "Life" of James Dean
Bring Your Own "Yes No Maybe So" in the comments. James Dean has had biopics before but this one comes from Anton Corbijn who I think we should allow made a very fine music biopic on Ian Curtis of Joy Division called Control (2007). This ground, however, is amply covered previously -- except for its macro focus on a photoshoot the moment before Dean was famous. The film, which looks depressingly actress free from the trailer, stars Robert Pattinson, Ben Kingsley, the ubiquitous Joel Edgerton and Dane DeHaan as James Dean.

Ready? Go...