Red Carpet Arrivals

I shan't be live-blogging the awards tonight -- I miss too much of the show when I do that but expect some tweets here and there and lots of post-mortem recapping tomorrow ALL DAY. But for now a few arrivals...

Eddie Redmayne's hair defies gravity, logic, and follicular reason #redcarpet twitter.com/nathanielr/sta…

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 24, 2013

LORI SINGER (?) I wonder if Amadeus or Places in the Heart will win tonight? #redcarpet #thatsso80s twitter.com/nathanielr/sta…

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 24, 2013

When Reese hears "Naomi Watts" she does this. Which is exactly what @joereid does when he hears "Reese"! twitter.com/nathanielr/sta…

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 24, 2013

MORE GOWNS & GOODIES AFTER THE JUMP

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5 Days Until Oscar Noms!

nom nom nom

Whenever someone uses the abbreviation "Oscar noms" it sounds like they're referring to snacks at a party.

— Scott Renshaw (@scottrenshaw) January 5, 2013

Scott Renshaw is right!

I have received edible swag in the mail before, generally in the form of chocolate or popcorn (though not, regret to inform, chocolate-flavored popcorn) but this is the first time cold cereal has arrived. And it's even the first time for movie-appropriate edible swag since Silver Linings Playbook has some choice Raisin Bran product placement in a key "not a date!" scene.

Each time when a tiny piece of FYC mail arrives in a matryoshka-style series of boxes within ginormous boxes, I weep for the trees that have been cut down to provide me with it. The Waste. The Waste. 

So I did not waste the raisin bran. I owed it to the dead trees and to the landfills where all the unused detritus of swag the world over will eventually reside. I ate it.

nom-nom-nom

This should no way be construed as an endorsement of Silver Linings Playbook, but it tasted good. 

Tarzan, Lord of the Links

TMZ Carrie Fisher 'damn right she wants to be in Star Wars Episode VII'
Pajiba '11 Heir Apparent Brit Actors to Hugh Grant's Hair.' Hee
Vanity Fair photographs Olivia Munn! (Q: Wasn't she superb in Magic Mike? A: Yes) 
i09 Jeff Bridges was always going to play The Giver. He finally has a director. Maybe. 
Awards Circuit likes Lionsgate's chances in two of the lead acting categories 

The Envelope Skyfall would like a Best Picture nomination, please
All Things Twitter killed the fail whale on election night
Towleroad Barack Obama's election night tweet becomes the most popular tweet of all time
Joe Pitt is sharing concept art from Wreck-It Ralph. You can see the evolution of the new hit character
Hollywood.com celebrates Movember with dos and don't of the moustache via celebrity photos. The only time I've ever done a 'stache was for a Halloween costume and my god it was a terrible look for me! Never again.
BuzzFeed pays tribute to the fallen on Walking Dead (spoilers). I stopped watching the show halfway through Season 2 (exactly like Season 1 only slower!) but people seem to like Season 3 
HitFix thinks that Flight is now a legit Oscar contender. It's not just for Best Actor anymore... 
The Broadway Blog looks at the reviews for The Heiress on Broadway starring Jessica Chastain 

Finally, Warner Bros still wants to reboot the once very lucrative Tarzan franchise... and David Yates (who directed the last half of the Harry Potter franchise) is their man for the job. I'd caution them that maybe today's moviegoers don't care about Tarzan. I know personally that everytime I try to generate interest in Tarzan (I have a soft spot for those movies) comments seem to vanish. The last time anybody got seriously excited about Tarzan, in my recollection, was Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan Lord of the Apes -- the only "prestige" Tarzan to date -- and that was nearly 30 years ago. Sure the Disney version in 1999 was a hit but it also was the fumes at the tail end of Disney's second Golden Age and Disney animated features have never been quite the same afterwards. They're already talking about name actors but if you ask me they'd be crazy not to go with an unknown. Tarzan the character is, by nature, a discovery. 

just another linking ol' dirty birdy!

Bleeding Cool Heathers, Psycho and The Apartment (yes, The Apartment) all receiving TV spin-offs soon. Weirdly the Heathers series is supposed to be about the daughters of The Heathers. Um, they died as teenagers, stupids #23YearOldSpoiler
HitFix reviews Quartet and says Pauline Collins, not Maggie Smith, actually has the best part 
Awards Daily interviews the man behind the visual effects in Snow White and the Huntsman. Oscar bound? 
Unreality Tom Hanks cracks audience up at Michael Clarke Duncan's funeral 

The Hollywood Reporter looks at the way the awards race is shaping up: Argo, Silver Linings Playbook and The Master up front, Best Actress still anyone's game (for nominations)
Stale Popcorn spots an odd critic's pullquote on the Holy Motors quad 
MNPP pic of the day. Thor 2 ... literally
Unreality five lessons learned from Pee Wee Herman from a lifelong fan. I love this article alot but i strongly object to the intro which states:

I was born in 1983. I am currently straddling the border between old enough to know what “cool” is and too old to be writing for a pop culture site.

You're never too old to be immersed in pop culture. Pop culture is culture. It's ageless if you're doing it right. The real world is not Logan's Run ferchrissakes. Are people over 30 not supposed to enjoy anything or have any feelings about anything that's for entertainment? Boo!

Finally...

Please send out your warmest get-well wishes and prayers to Ms Kathy Bates who announced yesterday on Twitter that she had just had a double mastectomy. I personally miss her breasts more than "Harry's Law" (About Schmidt!) but I'm happy she has a sense of humor about it all, laughter being the best medicine. Our thoughts go out to the Oscar winning Misery star and all of her #1 fans.

A Whiff of TIFF

As you may have heard on Twitter, it looks like I'll be attending the last four days of the Toronto International Film Festival (i.e. the time when most of the journos have gone home) due to a very last minute window of time and my standard impulse control problems ("But... moviessssss! I must ?!!")

I love TIFF and I haven't been in way too long. So I'm winging it which is not the best way to approach one of the biggest and bestest festivals in the world but we do what we can do in the way that we can do it. If you want to help The Film Experience be on sounder financial footing next year, and help Nathaniel maybe get to Cannes or Telluride for the first time  (I can dream!) please consider the subscription donation in the right hand side bar. If everyone who loved this site spent the price of a cup of coffee on the blog every month, the world would open up to us like an oyster. No... not like an oyster... 

Amir, who covered the festival for us last year, will be doing a bit more this year and I'll pick up the baton in a week for the last few days.  (My regular podcast mate Nick Davis (first timer!) is going, too. TFE friend / podcast mate Katey Rich, and yours truly, will arrive next week.) Then, almost as soon as I return to New York, Michael Cusumano (of "Burning Questions" fame) and I will start covering the 50th annual New York Film Festival (NYFF) for you. Sound good?

TIFF's opening day features an all star live reading of the American Beauty screenplay which we really wish we coulda been there for given that Christina Hendricks is doing Annette Bening's part. The opening film is Rian Johnson's time travel head scratcher LOOPER which is already winning positive reviews, omg!you-gotta-see-this type buzz and even some playful tweetdowns like this...

Are you excited that festival season is here? Which films are you most desperate to have in front of your eyeballs right this second?