Showing posts with label ACTORS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACTORS. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

What Comes Next?

The post-Oscar nomination effort can in many ways seem even more taxing than the one that got you to the Dolby Theater in the first place.  Which begs the question, of which of the twenty acting nominees, who appears ripe to come back the soonest?  Of this years slate, only Jessica Chastain returned as a nominee from 2011.  Which actor may be back next year?

Serena with Bradley Cooper.
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper earned first first Oscar nomination for career-elevating work in Silver Linings Playbook, and has a lot coming out soon.  First, he'll show up in this springs The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling, then he's re-teaming with his Playbook co-star Jennifer Lawrence in the Depression-era drama Serena, directed by Suzanne Bier (In a Better World) as well as in the Untitled David O. Russell/Abscam film, returning the to the Wolfpack in the third iteration of The Hangover, and is committed to Cameron Crowe's latest- an Untitled work co-starring Emma Stone.   Hugh Jackman is following up his first Oscar nomination with an art film called The Wolverine, as well as co-starring with Jake Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis in the crime thriller Prisoners.  He will follow that with a cameo in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and might, just might, have a baity role if his P.T. Barnum biopic ever sees the light of day in The Greatest Showman on Earth.   Joaquin Phoenix will follow-up The Master by reuniting with his Two Lovers director James Gray in Lowlife, co-starring Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Renner.  He will follow that with the enticing sounding Spike Jonze film Her, co-starring Rooney Mara, Amy Adams and Samantha Morton, and is attached to Paul Thomas Anderson's latest Inherent Vice due in 2014.   Denzel Washington will next be seen in the crime thriller 2 Guns opposite Mark Wahlberg.   Meanwhile, Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis hasn't attached himself to anything just as yet, and don't be surprised if the notoriously picky actor takes his time-- he only made one film in between his last Oscar victory (2007's There Will Be Blood) and Lincoln, and that was the misfire musical Nine (2009); that being said, is there much doubt that Day-Lewis may be able to catch up to Katherine Hepburn's record 4 competitive Leading Actor trophies....

Naomi Watts as Diana.
BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain, whose appeared in nearly fifty thousand movies in the past few years will have a healthy, if somewhat muted 2013 showing if only by her standards.  She already follow-up her work in Zero Dark Thirty with the box office hit Mama, and will next appear in the two-part drama The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, which deconstructs a relationship from both his and her perspective-- James McAvoy co-stars; she's all attached to Liv Ullmann's remake of Miss Julie, due in 2014.    The oldest Leading Actress nominee of all time, Emmanuelle Riva will next be seen in A Greek Type of Problem, while the youngest, Quzenzhane Wallis will try and prove she's no one trick pony with Twelve Years a Slave, Steve McQueen's latest with Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch and recently became attached to play that title role in the Will Smith-produced remake of Annie, begging the question...can you sing?   Naomi Watts has a healthy 2013 slate, including the Sundance hit Two Mothers, the drama Sunlight, Jr., as well as the potentially very baity Diana, where the actress will play late Princess of Wales.  She's also attached to the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde and Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert, but neither have confirmed start dates as you now.   Winner Jennifer Lawrence continues her prodigious young career while anchoring two huge franchises: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will come out this November; while X-Men: Days of Future Past will open summer of 2014.  In the midst of movie star roles, she will continue ground genre work with smaller scaled drama like Serena, co-starring Bradley Cooper, as well as re-teaming with Silver Linings director David O. Russell in his latest, untitled/Abscam film and another film written by Argo scribe Chris Terrio.

A Most Wanted Man with Philip Seymour Hoffman.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Argo nominee and all around curmudgeon Alan Arkin can be seen now in Stand Up Guys opposite Al Pacino and Christopher Walken, co-stars in the action comedy In Security as well as this springs magician comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, he's also currently filming Grudge Match alongside co-nominee Robert De Niro, who himself has a long list of films coming our way, including the delayed comedy The Big Wedding, the thriller Killing Season opposite John Travolta, the crime thriller Motel, the Luc Besson-helmed thriller Malavita opposite Michelle Pfieffer and co-nominee Tommy Lee Jones, as well as the Bucket List-sounding comedy Last Vegas.   Philip Seymour Hoffman will join the cast of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opposite Jennifer Lawrence as well as headlining Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man alongside Robin Wright and Rachel MacAdams.   Lincoln nominee Tommy Lee Jones will co-star in the aforementioned Malavita as well as starring and directing the drama The Homesman with Meryl Streep.  Surprise winner Christoph Waltz will star in Terry Gilliam's next headtrip, The Zero Theorem along with Matt Damon, Ben Whishaw and Tilda Swinton, as well as provide his vocals for the animated feature Epic.

Amy Adams in Man of Steel
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Nominee Amy Adams has tons of stuff coming our way.  She'll next be seen in Man of Steel, the Zack Synder reboot of the Superman saga as Lois Lane, the drama Lullaby with Garrett Hedlund, a supporting role in Spike Jonze's Her opposite her Master co-star Joaquin Phoenix, as well as reuniting with her Fighter director David O. Russell in his Untitled Abscam feature.    Sally Field will reprise her role as Aunt May in the next Spider-man film, but has nothing slated for 2013 as of yet, while Helen Hunt will be a part of the ensemble cast of Decoding Annie Parker, as well as co-starring in Relative Insanity.    Surprise nominee Jacki Weaver will co-star in Stoker with Nicole Kidman, which opens in limited release this week and currently filming Parkland opposite Zac Efron.   Les Miserables winner Anne Hathaway appears to be taking a break post Oscar-win with only a cameo in Joseph Gordon Levitt's directorial debut, Don Juan's Addiction and the sequel the 2011 animated film Rio slated as of now, of course that long gestating Judy Garland biopic, if it every actually gets made, could very well Oscar number two.

BEST DIRECTOR
Just as hard for actors to follow up Oscar-nominated work, the case can be made that directors have even more difficult decision to be made, and nominees Michael Haneke, Benh Zeitlin, as well as champion Ang Lee haven't committed to anything as of yet.  David O. Russell isn't waiting as his Abscam project starring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams and Louis C.K. is due later this year, about a 1970s FBI sting operation.    And Steven Spielberg will follow the Oscar success of Lincoln with what's sure to be bonafide AMPAS catnip with Robopocalypse. 

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Actors

Tuesday, February 23rd marked the official date the ballots were due back to the Academy.  So all is done; pencils down...now we just wait for the magic makers (dread bringers) of PriceWaterhouseCoopers to count.  Unfortunately, recounts have never occurred in Academy history.

BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
James Franco, 127 Hours
Colin Firth, The King's Speech

One of the fiercest races this year!  What with the surging momentum of Bardem, juggernaut box office of Bridges' True Grit, hip cool jack of all trades in Franco, and I can't continue.  The race ended last year when Colin Firth nabbed his first Oscar nomination for A Single Man, changed the facet of his Mr. Darcy-plagued career and it was announced his next project was a royalty period flick.  Done, signed, sealed, and statute delivered by Sandra Bullock this coming Sunday.

BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Here there's a race of Bening and Portman, a classic veteran vs. ingenue race, although calling Portman an ingenue would be fairly false-- she's been acting forever, and her pretty, petite self is almost playing against type in Black Swan.  Portman has won the most critical prizes of the year, as well as the Golden Globes, SAG Award, BAFTA, Critic's Choice vs. Bening's Golden Globe prize and NY Film Critics Circle award.  It's Portman's Oscar to lose I believe, and the case for Bening is more online boredom than anything else, and what if scenarios.  However she's a strong second with her Hollywood royalty, and she's gotten better at playing the game-- plopping herself on Jeff Bridges' lap during the Oscar luncheon and name calling her husband- the Golden Globe winner for 1962 Most Promising Newcomer-- Oscar nomination number four is clearly hers.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

A race is brewing between Bale and Rush.  It was moving along swimmingly as Bale won nearly every critics prize, the Golden Globe, Critic's Choice, SAG Award...but then Rush won the BAFTA, cruising along with The King's Speech's royal flush.  What happens now?  Well, the performance itself should lead to Bale all the way, and it would be churlish to bet against him, since he's The Fighter's best hope for a statute, a film that scored 7 nominations, the performance nicely mixes Bale's hardcore physical intensity with a role that's flashy but fundamentally more moving than his previous work.  Plus, Bale has played nice during the awards season; probably helpful that he's been filming throughout.  Though Rush is a close second, and a clearly beloved actor (damn he's already a triple crowner: he's won an Oscar, Emmy and Tony) in the top contender...watch out for a King's Speech sweep, he could float in.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Here's where it gets tough.  The chart shows Leo in the lead-- she's won the Critic's Choice Award, Golden Globe, SAG Award and the most critics prizes, but she's come off a bit loony, and those self-produced FYC ads may have hurt, maybe not.  Carter's won the BAFTA and is in the frontrunner-- supporting actress and best picture have matched often in the past (think: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago and Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind for recent examples), plus she might have a sense of overdue status.  Then there's Steinfeld whose in the most popular film in the group and there might be sense to reward True Grit with a major award.  Adams gives a strong, against type performance (which has worked, she's a movie star on her third nomination), while Weaver is a critical favorite who might prevail, assuming enough voters has watched her small Aussie crime drama.  My point, there's a case for everyone, and this category is the most ripe for surprise.  A betting dude should probably check Leo, since logical awards momentum points her way, but crazy things have happened here before: MARISA TOMEI for My Cousin Vinny.  Carter's win would point a King Speech flush...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...