Oscar Bits and Bites

‘No, she’s not. Superheroes live in a world of good and evil, and she’s far more complex than a superhero. She’s been compromised. She’s been subjugated. She’s been marginalised. She’s been swept into the gutter and she’s had a part in it. She dresses like trash because she’s someone who has been betraued and hurt so badly, by forces beyond her control, that she’s just decided to be refuse. She can sit anywhere she wants on the bus, because nobody wants to deal with her.” David Fincher on Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for an upcoming  interview in Empire Magazine

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More than anything, though, the film’s not-so-secret weapon is its screenplay, written by the powerhouse team of Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network). Moneyball may be a sports movie, but what it really is is one of those happy, gabby, super-smart talkfests that take you back to the pleasures of movies made during the wisecracking days of the Hollywood studio system, when action and F/X and “visuals” hadn’t taken over everything, and talking — whether in snappy screwball comedies, ingeniously ominous film noirs, or teary romantic melodramas — was really all that actors and actresses could do. Moneyball isn’t a movie about swinging a bat and spitting tobacco. It’s a heady, digital-age story of salaries, statistics, front-office politics, and the art of the deal that lurks behind the art of the game. Owen Gleiberman on how audiences have fallen back in love with the screenplay.

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Gary Oldman, Charlize Theron and David Cronenberg will all be honored at the Gotham Film Awards, November 28.

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Clint Eastwood will be the voice of Mark Twain for Mark Twain: Words and Music to be released. More information on the CD here.

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Played a famous person: 14 out of 50 nominees.
Starred in a period piece set more than 15 years before the release of the movie: 24 out of 50 nominees.
Used an accent/changed his voice: 23 out of 50 nominees.
Underwent an impressive physical transformation and/or allowed himself to look like shit: 21 out of 50 nominees.
Miscellaneous showboat factor not quantified above (aged many decades on screen, played multiple roles, played someone with a physical or mental handicap, sang, etc.): 11 out of 50 nominees.
Died on screen: 11 out of 50 nominees. (This one’s an estimate based on memory, because despite my commitment to bringing you the best possible Oscar analysis, life is just too short to rewatch Venus to determine if Peter O’Toole’s character survives to the end. I barely survived to the end.)
–Mark Harris’ stats on why he thinks the odds are against Brad Pitt getting nominated for Moneyball