Weinstein Says Bigelow for Director but Basterds for Pic

Both Jim Cameron and Harvey Weinstein are putting it out there how they’d like to see the the awards turn out – they are both saying, “give the award to Kathryn Bigelow but save the big award for us.” This is what is called in polite company, cock-blocking. What’s interesting here is that both Avatar and Inglourious Basterds are original screenplays that were directed by their own writer. And The Hurt Locker is also original. I can’t remember the last time such was the case. Tom O’Neil has just posted his Oscar predictions – and I don’t know what is more surprising, Inglourious Basterds for Best Pic or The Hurt Locker for both Sound Categories. His predictions are here.

In an interview with Scott Feinberg, Harvey Weintein gives the following money quotes. Here is Weinstein on Tarantino being overdue:

Well, you know, there are certainly financial rewards if you win — you know, you get a whole new life. And even if you’re on video you sell a lot more video copies; if you’re still in theatrical internationally — which we are in a bunch of territories on “Inglourious Basterds” — it just has all sorts of good economic results. And the other thing is just sometimes in the case of certain movies, like this year with “Inglourious Basterds,” I just honestly think that– Quentin has made “Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Kill Bill,” “Jackie Brown,” and “Inglourious Basterds”; you know, he wrote “True Romance” and “Natural Born Killers”; but, you know, he’s never won the big prize. I just think he’s overdue, and I just really feel this is his best work, and I said it at the time and I say it now: I just think it’s, you know, just one of the greatest films and I’m just really proud of it for a myriad of reasons.

And then Feinberg asks him, “You understand this stuff as well as anybody, so tell me: Can ‚ÄúInglourious Basterds‚Äù beat ‚ÄúThe Hurt Locker‚Äù and ‚ÄúAvatar‚Äù?

Well, I think it’s fairly simple. I mean, if you do the Oscar math, the movie is supported by the actors — it won the Screen Actors Guild against “The Hurt Locker” and a bunch of other good movies. And I think that, you know, everybody in the world is gonna pick Kathryn Bigelow for best director — Quentin’s already announced he is — so I think that she wins that. And I think that there’s room for this movie to win best picture — I think the actors will lead the charge. And I think that, you know, as people re-look at the movie– There were 450 members of the Academy on Tuesday who watched the movie again — you know, the movie’s out on video, but they went to the theater and saw it again. So I think that kind of buzz and the excitement it’s generating is making people take a second-look at all the movies. And, you know, that screenplay, and those actors, and that panorama of movies — you know, it’s just glorious, not to make a pun, but I just think it’s one of those great upsets in the making, and it’s gonna happen.