In Contention

Tag: Contagion

  • 9/19 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Toronto Oscar bounces, threads in ‘Drive,’ adaptng le Carre

    • Anne Thompson talks “Rampart” with writer/director Oren Moverman. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Greg Ellwood ponders who got an Oscar bounce out of Toronto. [Awards Campaign]

    • Simon Kinnear on the clothing designs of “Drive.” [Clothes on Film]

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  • 9/16 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Scientists vouch for ‘Contagion,’ Refn breaks down ‘Drive,’ Toronto takeaways

    • Scientists say “Contagion” is for real. [Associated Press]

    • James Rocchi talks “The Ides of March” with Best Supporting Actress hopeful Evan Rachel Wood. [MSN Movies]

    • Nicolas Winding Refn breaks down a scene from “Drive.” [Arts Beat]

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Strong year for double-dippers

    We find ourselves right in the middle of the big Toronto press junket, er, film festival, where 200-plus films are landing, many of them as world premieres, and the landscape of this year’s Oscar race is really beginning to take shape.

    As I looked out at the various films in play this year, it suddenly occurred to me that, perhaps more than ever, there are a lot of double-dipping actors and actresses in the hunt. Not all of these performances are or will be awards bait necessarily, but there could still be cases for more than a few saddling up to dual nominations this year.

    At the top of that list would have to be Brad Pitt. After already giving what many believed to be his best performance to date in Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” the paparazzi-hounded star found himself the recipient of a lot of great ink for his work in “Moneyball” when it screened in Toronto at the end of the week. Wisely, Fox Searchlight will be planning a supporting actor push for the actor in Malick’s film, which is both practical (given his clear lead in the other film), and organic (given that, at least in my opinion, he is supporting to Hunter McCracken’s lead in “The Tree of Life”).

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  • BOX OFFICE: ‘Contagion’ finally stops ‘The Help,’ ‘Warrior’ stumbles in the first round

    I don’t pretend to be a box office expert, but I have to think five million for “Warrior” on opening weekend is a disaster for that film. What’s the ceiling when you start out there? It has to be low. Money was always going to be the difference for its Oscar chances. If it hit, there would have been a lot of potential. But now it’ll be lucky to eek out that nod for Nick Nolte. Meanwhile, “Contagion” and its all-star cast predictably took the weekend. It’s a smart but entertaining segue from summer to fall. And “The Help” is still chugging along, nailing down the #2 spot and cruising toward $150 million.

    (Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)

  • Tell us what you thought of ‘Contagion’

    I dropped my thoughts on Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” while at the Telluride fest, following a brief discussion on the film with Anne in last weekend’s podcast. All of that came on the heels of my in-depth interview with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, but now it’s your turn to sound off. The film opens nationwide today, so when/if you get around to the film this weekend, head on back here with your thoughts.

  • 9/9 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Gosling King of Toronto, ‘Descendants’ drops earlier, spoilers in trailers

    • Susan Wloszczyna writes up Toronto as the Oscar season kickstarter, hears good buzz for Woody Harrelson in “Rampart.” [USA Today]

    • Jeff Labrecque chalks Ryan Gosling up as the King of Toronto with two films set for the fest. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Fox Searchlight moves “The Descendants” up five days to November 18. [Variety]

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  • Tell us your ‘Contagion’ germaphobe stories

    Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” opens tomorrow nationwide. We’ll put up the usual “tell us what you thought” post then, but for now, I thought I’d point you all to this interesting behind-the-scenes look at the bacteria-infested billboard Warner Bros. commissioned for advertising the film in Toronto, courtesy of JoBlo. It’s kind of brilliant:

    Meanwhile, I thought it would be a good way to get the discussion going to probe (no pun intended) you all for your own OCD tendencies when it comes to germs and the like. Any Howie Mandels out there? Any Bob Wileys? (Props to you if you caught that reference.) Rattle off your stories in the comments section.

  • 9/7 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Summit’s ‘Better Life’ first screener with a chance, ‘Contagion’ peeps, Murphy reactions

    • Pete Hammond reports that Summit’s “A Better Life” is the first screener to go out “from a movie that has any chance in hell of getting a nomination.” [Deadline]

    • Bryan Alexander talks to the principals of Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion.” [USA Today]

    And naturally, everyone has something to say about Eddie Murphy…

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  • ‘Contagion’ keeps you at arm’s length — by design

    Spinning off of comments made in the podcast this morning, I liked Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” quite a bit. It doesn’t reinvent the outbreak movie wheel per se, but it manifests a unique cross-section of characters and dissects them clinically, perhaps the film’s (and screenplay’s) biggest stroke of genius.

    There isn’t a lot of heart to be found in the film, though when it peeks through, it counts. And even then, Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns aren’t concerned with lingering on it. They’re more interested in depicting a global community in crisis, dropping the players onto a Petri dish to observe — coldly — societal breakdown and human frailty.

    The film pulses along (driven by precise editing by Stephen Mirrione and thumping electronic interludes by composer Cliff Martinez), rarely taking time to burrow into a character before pushing on to the next. Indeed, some threads are left dangling, handled in closing by mere suggestion. And it’s all of a piece with a film that seems determined to keep you at arm’s length — and for good reason.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 59 — Venice thoughts from Guy Lodge, debating ‘The Artist’, Telluride musings and Soderbergh’s stripped-down ‘Contagion’

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    Today Anne and I are both in the Colorado Rockies for the 38th annual Telluride Film Festival. We’re joined today by Guy Lodge, who has been filing from the Venice Film Festival and has plenty to say about what he’s seen so far. Let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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  • 9/2 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Diary’ a TFF surprise?, Cronenberg talks ‘Method,’ Cody’s most anticipated

    • Word is one of the big Telluride surprises is the Johnny Depp starrer “The Rum Diary.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • At Venice, is “Contagion” following “The Town”‘s awards playbook? (Uh…yeah.) [24 Frames]

    • Sticking with the Lido, Nick Vivarelli talks to “A Dangerous Method” director David Cronenberg. [Variety]

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  • INTERVIEW: ‘Contagion’ screenwriter Scott Z. Burns

    There’s a scene in 2009’s “The Informant!,” Steven Soderbergh’s tongue-in-cheek look at corporate malfeasance written by Scott Z. Burns, when Matt Damon’s pathological liar Mark Whitacre rants internally about the spread of a virus, spurred by a sneeze from co-star Scott Bakula.

    By the time the film was complete, Soderbergh had built a solid working relationship with Burns and the two were eager to dive into something new. The director asked what Burns would like to do next, and the writer brought up Damon’s rant scene and mentioned that he thought it would be cool to do an outbreak movie.

    “That was literally the extent of the pitch,” Burns says over breakfast poolside at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. “And he said, ‘That’s great. Go do that.’”

    And so the germ (no pun intended) of “Contagion” was born. The film — a dialed down, ultra-realistic look at societal breakdown in the wake of an unpredictable virus strain mutation catching hold and wreaking havoc across the globe — quickly spun away from those simplistic beginnings and became, for Burns and Soderbergh, an opportunity to metaphorically dissect the spread of misinformation in a time of crisis.

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  • 8/31 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Social media boost ‘The Help,’ actress Oscar plays, Bird Flu back ahead of ‘Contagion’

    • Anne Thompson talks to “Warrior” stars Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy and director Gavin O’Connor. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Lucas Kavner on the debt “The Help” owes to social media for its box office staying power. [Huffington Post]

    • Louis Virtel looks shines a light on five female roles that seem to have the right Oscar stuff. [Movieline]

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  • VENICE: Follow the Lido — a festival preview

    “Why Venice and not Toronto?” a colleague asked when I mentioned I was heading to the Lido for the world’s oldest film festival for the third straight year. Given the North American bent of this site, it was a fair question, but also one I found easy to answer — and not just for the dully practical reason of relative airfare expense.

    Toronto may have become the bigger and, depending on your field of interest, more influential festival (certainly so if you’re in the Oscar-watching business). But with its abundance of pre-premiered films and no juried competition, it’ll never have the grandeur or ever-so-slightly scuffed glamor of the Venice event, with its beachside location, soaring marble delegate halls and saturated aroma of overpriced espresso — not to mention the artsier exclusivity of its film programming, a once hit-and-miss virtue that scored a bulls-eye with a 2010 lineup that beat last year’s Cannes for range, relevance and vitality.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Fall fests look to boost early Oscar hopes

    On a warm Saturday afternoon in Telluride last year, I sat in the crowded Chuck Jones Cinema and felt the warmth in the room as Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” screened for its first audience of the year. Six months later, at the end of a road with plenty of twists and turns, the film’s producers held aloft the Oscar for Best Picture.

    In 2008, Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” after previewing in Telluride, screened on the very same day as Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” at the Toronto International Film Festival. Six and 18 months later respectfully, same results. In 2007, Joel and Ethan Coen’s “No Country for Old Men” started its victory march at Cannes before moving into autumn fests. In 2004, Paul Haggis’s “Crash” bowed for Toronto audiences before a summer 2005 release and an eventual Oscar win.

    The obvious connection here is the festival circuit, particularly the fall festival circuit, which has become a significant launching ground for awards contenders in the last half-decade. And starting in two days with Guy’s Venice coverage, the 2011 fall festival season — and the awards potential it is sure to bring with it — officially kicks off around these parts.

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  • ‘Contagion’ character posters

    I’ve successfully dodged the trailer — and swiftly ducked out of any online discussion — for Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” to I can honestly say that I haven’t the faintest idea what it’s about, and plan to stay cheerfully ignorant until the lights go down at its Venice press screening in a few weeks’ time. Fortunately, this set of six character posters that hit the web yesterday doesn’t shed any more light, selling the film on its tantalizing cast and a hazy sense of foreboding that invites so many questions. What’s going on? Why can’t we touch anyone? Why has Matt Damon switched bodies with Mark Wahlberg? Why is Jude Law preserved in ice? And what did poor Gwyneth Paltrow, here lobbying hard for Ron Howard’s long-gestating Tilda Swinton biopic, do to so displease the film’s marketers?

    All will be revealed in under a month. The most arresting of the designs is after the cut, followed by the most flattering (Marion Cotillard clearly has friends in the right places) — check out the rest at Yahoo! Movies.

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  • Telluride guessing game

    (UPDATED: 8/29)

    Now that the Toronto and Venice line-ups have been unveiled (though we have a few more Toronto announcements to come), I figured I’d take a few stabs at sussing out the Telluride crop this year. I haven’t been a good journalist and called around or anything. Just spinning my wheels.

    One studio that always has a big presence at Telluride is Sony Pictures Classics, and this year, honchos Michael Barker and Tom Bernard have a full plate once again. Of that stable, David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” is hitting both Venice and Toronto. It’s very possible, then, that it will kick things off in the Rockies.

    Roman Polanski’s “Carnage,” meanwhile, was announced as a Venice play this morning. It would be easy enough for the team to bring the film there and not worry about getting the filmmaker in town (seeing as he can’t legally step foot in the country), saving his press run for Venice. (7/28 UPDATE: The film has been set for New York fest, so it seems unlikely we’ll see it in Telluride.)

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  • Venice competition includes Polanski, Cronenberg, Alfredson

    These days, so much media speculation precedes the announcement of any major festival lineup that the eventual unveiling comes almost as an anti-climax — or at least it would do if the long-expected films weren’t so appetizing in the first place. As was the case with the Toronto lineup on Tuesday, the just-revealed programme for this year’s Venice Film Festival is as heavy on highlights as it is light on surprises, and that’s good enough for this Lido-bound journo.

    In recent years, as Berlin has receded, Venice has grown into an increasingly bolshy competitor to Cannes, taking a slightly riskier, younger approach to Competition programming while nabbing enough sexy, big-name auteur titles to draw the headlines. It’s a balance that has paid off handsomely in recent years: “The Hurt Locker,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Black Swan,” “I Am Love” and “A Single Man” all debuted in Venice before going on to greater success elsewhere.

    This year’s Competition lineup would appear to continue the pattern: for every long-established auteur in line for the Golden Lion, there’s at least one buzzy up-and-comer arriving on the back of a breakthrough hit.

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