2014 Academy Award Winners


by Paul William Tenny

Category Winners
Best Picture

American Hustle (Blu-ray+DVD: $24.96)
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray+DVD: $22.77)
Dallas Buyers Club ((DVD: $6.99)
Gravity (Blu-ray+DVD: $22.99)
Her (Blu-ray+DVD: $24.99)
Nebraska (DVD: $16.99)
Philomena (DVD: $18.99)
Winner: 12 Years a Slave (DVD: $14.99)
The Wolf of Wall Street (DVD: ($16.99)

Best Original Screenplay

Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Adapated Screenplay

John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

Best Actor (Lead)

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress (Lead)

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Actor (Supporting)

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress (Supporting)

Jupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Director

Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

 


Best Animated Feature

Frozen

Best Cinematography

Emmanuel  Lubezki (Gravity)

Best Costume Design

Catherine Martin (The Great Gatsby)

Best Documentary (Feature)

20 Feet from Stardom

Best Documentary (Short)

The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life

Best Film Editing

Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger (Gravity)

Best Foreign Language Film

The Great Beauty

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Original Score

Steven Price (Gravity)

Best Original Song

Let It Go (Frozen)

Best Production Design

Cahterine Martin, Beverley Dunn (The Great Gatsby)

Best Animated Short Film

Mr. Hublot

Best Live Action Short Film

Helium

Best Sound Editing

Glenn Freemantle (Gravity)

Best Visual Effects

Tim Weber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould (Gravity))


in Film
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More on Modern Family


by Paul William Tenny

There have been one or two developments on the Modern Family story I posted yesterday, along with some questions and issues raised by people who commented on a version of that story that was syndicated over here. First and foremost, the cast went back to doing their jobs yesterday and production seemingly will not be further delayed.

20th Century Fox and the cast are still talking, but the lawsuit remains.

As to comments on the other site, here are some of those issues in no particular order.

1. Modern Family is enormously profitable.

That actually remains to be seen. It's public knowledge that ABC made $164 million in advertising revenue from the show last year. But ABC doesn't produce the show, they just license it from 20th Century Fox. 20th foots the bill to produce the show, which means the real issue is how profitable the show is for them, not ABC.


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in Business, Legal, Television

"Modern Family" cast delays S4 production, sues 20th Century Fox


by Paul William Tenny

Graph comparing the salary's of the Modern Family cast to the median American household.
Graph comparing the salary's of the Modern
Family cast to the median American
household.

This is one of the many reasons that people legitimately loathe actors, directors, and other Hollywood celebrities.

A story in THR reports that the cast of Modern Family is endangering production of the fourth season over plain and simple greed. It may be common practice for actors to try to break their contracts a few years after their show becomes a hit, and it may be just as common for studios to put up with it, because everybody wins in the end.

But that doesn't make it right.

These actors are already earning more for a single episode -- a few weeks worth of work -- than the median American household makes in a year. It would take such a household composed of two working adults almost 32 years to earn as much as these people make in a single season.


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in Business, Legal

Joss Whedon to succeed Nolan and Abrams as Hollywood's next big thing


by Paul William Tenny


If I were pretending to be him, I might write this line of dialogue:

"Good things happen to good people. It's not true, you know. But it ought to be."

A few weeks from now, it's going to come true for someone who has more than earned it.

If you mention a certain name to most people, you'll probably draw an uncomfortable but brief blank stare, like they are waiting for the punchline of a joke, followed by a glance at the ground and if you look closely, even a squint or two, as they desperately search their memory for clues. Is this someone who was awesome back in the day, but I missed it because I always miss this crap? Is it someone brand new from a generation removed of pop culture that I'm missing because I always miss this crap?

But if you know that name, then you're already hastily throwing together a shrine made from whatever you can grab that's nearby. Pebbles on the side of the road. A doodle on a napkin. An impressive and distinguished mountain of empty pop cans.

Hallowed quotes thatyou can't get from anyone else in the world will inevitably follow:

"Someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill 'em right back. Wife or no, you are no one's property to be tossed aside. You got the right same as anyone to live and try to kill people."


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in Feature, Film

Are directors as interchangable as spark plugs?


by Paul William Tenny

Steve Zeitchick has a short piece in an LA Times blog, wondering "what will the [Hunger Games] franchise look like without [Director Gary Ross], and what will his career look like without it?".

I'd take issue with this point:

Recent Hollywood history suggests that, "Harry Potter" notwithstanding, sequels work best when the same director stays with them. "Jurassic Park" took a pretty big dive when Joe Johnston stepped in for Steven Spielberg. In contrast, a franchise conceived and helmed by one person over the course of its life tends to turn out pretty well (see under: Peter Jackson and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy).

This is an old and cheap trick, dismissing a very important exception to the proposed new rule precisely because it disproves the thesis of the author. Especially cheap when you don't give a valid reason for doing it, and Zeitchick didn't. It allows you to spend five minutes on a blog post instead of spending an hour or two doing research to find out why the Potter franchise is a standout exception.


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in Feature, Film, Television

Where The Hunger Games stands against the champs


by Paul William Tenny


First, this past weekend's box office numbers:

1. The Hunger Games: $21.5 million ($337m total)
2. *The Three Stooges: $17.1m
3. *The Cabin in the Woods: $14.8m
4. Titanic 3D (2012): $11.6m ($44m)
5. American Reunion: $10.7m ($39.9)
9. *Lockout: $6.2m
14. Woman Thou Art Loosed!: $650,000 (limited release)*+
15. Bully: $534,000 (limited release)*+

*New release.
+Limited release.

These are domestic numbers only. The Hunger Games has earned $531 million worldwide between March 23 and April 15th. Here's how the first installment matches up against other freshman franchise films (title, domestic sales, worldwide gross, budget not including marketing):


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in Box Office Booty, Feature, Film

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