Sin City, Spin City

By Aaron 5/31/2007

News this week, on sites including Joblo.com, are reporting that Sin City 2 isn’t going to happen. That is terrible news indeed.

I thought the first Sin City was revolutionary – a comic book movie that actually told a real story – several stories in fact. It was a more serious look at comics and a presentation that was true to the source material – Frank Miller was co-Director and the scenes seemed to come directly from Miller’s black and white cells. The limited color infusion was a sharp contrast that made each story look incredible. The acting was spectacular, even down to the bit parts and helped revive Mickey Rourke’s career. Not to mention we got to see Carla Gugino naked.

But now the outlook is bleak (even for Sin City). Apparently studio honchos have decided that the abysmal failure of “Grindhouse” – a great flick by the way – should somehow implicate Rodriguez’s other projects, even the ones that were financial and critical successes. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but I know what I’m missing.

Early interviews had Michael Madsen saying his character was going to get a larger role – Mickey Rourke said he was coming back and rumors began to whirl of Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie joining the cast. Those are some pretty solid additions – think of Captain Jack and Tomb Raider joining the franchise! Oh, and I forgot to mention, Jessica Alba’s Nancy was supposed to be back with a larger role. That alone had me salivating for more. I wanted at least one more. But now it doesn’t look like its going to happen, just because moviegoers could sit through three hours of Gore Verbinski but couldn’t “tough out” three hours of Quentin and Robert.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.