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.

Code Red

By Aaron 8/26/2007

This episode stayed pretty close to the preview – the boys are scrambling to land a plane to get to Cannes amid a terrorist scare that pushes the state of emergency to “red”. Ari is dealing with Lloyd’s and Mrs. Ari’s anger over Ari not wanting them to go to Cannes with him. Then Walsh decides he wants to change the character Drama was to play into a girl to give the part to Anna Faris. Vince and Billy pressure E to get Anna on board and he has to deal with his growing emotional and professional feelings for Anna. 

The episode had lots of funny parts. I particularly liked Drama making fun of E for his “clush” (a client-crush). Johnny Drama even wants to play a little Johnny Quest – saying he wants to do a loop around the airport to look for suspicious looking characters. Drama does not let up – pushing Turtle to make friends with an Arab guy at the airport just in case the guy turns out to be a terrorist and their pre-flight compassion saves their lives. Drama has the perfect end to their conversation telling the guy “be well my friend.” Poor Drama even says that he thinks his popularity is finally high enough that if he and Vince both died the newspaper would read “Chase brothers die” instead of just “Vince and brother die.” Ari is back in form, pushed by both his wife and Lloyd, finally snapping at Lloyd and telling Lloyd to find his own “dick clique.” Hell, Billy actually has some non-E-bashing humor when he tries to say “I’m a team player.” I have to ask though, is it too soon for terrorist jokes?

I thought the episode did a lot, and had one pretty serious development, but I will not ruin it for those who have not seen the episode yet. I loved Anna Faris’ characterization of Billy and the type of movies he would watch – “Blue Velvet and Portrait of a Serial Killer.” Vince was selfish as usual, asking E to put Vince’s career ahead of Anna’s and being as pigheaded as ever. At the same time, E is ignoring Vince’s career. It just seems that E is never around Vince anymore.

The musical chairs at the end of the episode for plane seats was pretty funny, as was Kanye. Just when things could not get any worse, as usual, Entourage is saved by an unpredictable solution.

Heading into the finale there are a few questions. Is E being totally honest about Anna? Is he whipped again? I thought Anna offered the writers a chance for E to have an equal relationship with a good character. I predict Cannes will not resolve ANY of the cliffhangers or story arcs we have been talking about, except maybe Vince’s career. And for God’s sake Ari, give Lloyd a freaking promotion.

 

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