In an interview with Interview magazine Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) was asked about his thoughts on the awards race to which he told Elvis Mitchell:
“I think it’s total, utter bullshit, and I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t believe in it. It’s a carrot, but it’s the worst-tasting carrot I’ve ever tasted in my whole life.
I don’t want this carrot. It’s totally subjective. Pitting people against each other… It’s the stupidest thing in the whole world. It was one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life when Walk the Line was going through all the awards stuff and all that. I never want to have that experience again.”
To make sure people realized he wasn’t joking, Phoenix later tweeted:
https://twitter.com/jrphoenix/statuses/258981999023386624
I wonder what Harvey Weinstein thinks of this. I’d love to see that tete-a-tete.
Next, I’ve updated the awards calender, adding dates from the New York Film Critics Awards and the announcement of the National Board of Review awards. Last year the NYC critics moved up their date in an attempt to be first out of the gate and ultimately caused a fuss, needing to see David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before they voted. This year they’ve moved back a bit to Monday, December 3 and, rather surprisingly, the National Board of Review, which has typically been the first org to announce their thoughts on the year’s best, will announce on Wednesday, December 5.
You can check out the full awards season calendar here and I’ve also updated these dates on the Oscar Overture.
Some of you may be interested in clicking on over to the New York Times where Leos Carax discusses a scene from Holy Motors featuring Kylie Minogue and her potential Best Original Song contender.
For those interested in the critical reaction to Robert Zemeckis’ Flight, click on over to Fandor where David Hudson has compiled a massive list of review quotes.
In an interview with The Playlist, Sam Mendes talks about directing Skyfall and how he was directly inspired by Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight and he may actually be the first person to say that and then go on to explain his reasoning:
“We’re now in an industry where movies are very small or very big and there’s almost nothing in the middle, and it would be a tragedy if all the serious movies were very small and all the popcorn movies were very big and have nothing to say. And what Nolan proved was that you can make a huge movie that is thrilling and entertaining and has a lot to say about the world we live in, even if, in the case with The Dark Knight, it’s not even set in our world. If felt like a movie that was about our world post-9/11 and played on our fears and discussed our fears and why they existed and I thought that was incredibly brave and interesting. That did help give me the confidence to take this movie in directions that, without The Dark Knight, might not have been possible. Because also, people go, ‘Wow, that’s pretty dark,’ but then you can point to Dark Knight and go ‘Look at that – that’s a darker movie, and it took in a gazillion dollars!’ That’s very helpful. There’s also that thing – it’s clearly possible to make a dark movie that people want to see.”
Mendes must have enjoyed the experience because along with telling The Playlist, initially he was “not at all interested” in directing a James Bond movie, he tells Time Out London he’d be up for another one.
Over at Gold Derby, Tom O’Neil breaks down the Oscar chances for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey while over at The Hollywood Reporter, Kim Masters does a little budgetary breakdown.
Kris Tapley has seen Lincoln and he appears to have gone ga-ga for Steven Spielberg’s latest. [HitFix]
Finally, sound supervisor and sound designer Erik Aadahl talks about his work on Argo.
