1. Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn– Birds of Prey has just had its opening weekend and managed to bring in $33.3 million which brings its gross amount to a grand total of the same amount.
2. Bad Boys for Life– Bad Boys for Life continues to bring in a decent amount, having brought in $12 miliion this past weekend. This brings its box office gross to $166.3 million.
3. 1917– 1917 continues to hold a place near the top of the box office, taking third after bringing in $9 million, which brings its total to $132.5 million.
4. Dolittle– Dolittle is still managing to bring some money in at $6.7 million for a total of $64 million.
5. Jumanji: The Next Level– Jumanji: The Next Level continues to stay on the list proper by bringing in $5.5 million which brings its total gross to $298.5 million.
6. The Gentlemen– The Gentlemen brought in $4.2 million for a grand total thus far of $26.9 million.
7. Gretel & Hansel– Next is Gretel & Hansel, which brought in $3.5 million, and this brings its gross amount to $11.5 million after 2 weeks.
8. Knives Out– With only a couple of weeks until its Blu-Ray/DVD release, Knives Out stays on the box office list having brought in $2.4 million for a total of $158.9 million.
9. Little Women– Little Women has brought in $2.3 million this past week, bringing its grand amount to $102.7 million.
10. Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker– The Rise of Skywalker brought in $2.2 million which brings it to a total of $510.5 million.
Screenplays are what make a movie what it is, and without one, you simply cannot create a movie. At the very least, it would be completely incomprehensible. They give plot, direction, and purpose to a film and are always necessary to a film. There are, however, many different kinds of screenplays that exist out in the cinema world. For instance, there are screenplays that are wholly original and are created by the director or other writers of a film to give it a unique plot. On the other hand, there are what are known as adapted screenplays which are stories told though some other medium which find their way onto the big screen.
First on the list of nominees for this category is a film that is receiving yet another nomination is ‘The Irishman.’ The person who specifically worked on the screenplay which is being nominated is Steven Zaillian. ‘The Irishman’ tells the story of aging World War II vet Frank Sheeran as he reflects on his life as a hustler and mob hitman, working alongside many notorious figures, including Jimmy Hoffa, the subject of one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history.
The next film to grace the list of nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay is Jojo Rabbit. Yet another film that has been nominated for a number of Academy Awards, Jojo Rabbit’s screenplay was written by director Taika Waititi himself. The movie shows us a lonely German boy’s world turned upside down during WWII when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend Adolf Hitler, Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.
Then, we have an adaptation that gives us a look at what is considered to be one of the more enigmatic characters in a comic book universe. At least background wise he is enigmatic, but the adaptation of ‘Joker’ is based off of the background few knew existed in the first place. In Gotham’s fractured society, a young man longs to be a stand-up comic, but finds the joke is always on him. Caught in a cycle of apathy, cruelty and ultimately, betrayal, the comedian makes one bad decision after another, bringing about a chain reaction of escalating events.
Following that, we have the movie ‘Little Women’ which is the seventh film adaptation of the 1868 novel of the same name. Obviously the original novel was a very well told story, because this screenplay adaptation by director Greta Gerwig was nominated for multiple awards as well. ‘Little Women’ tells the story of burgeoning author Jo March who looks back on her and her three sisters’ Massachusetts childhoods and the events and relationships that helped shape them as adults.
The last nomination on the list is ‘The Two Popes,’ and more specifically Anthony McCarten for writing the adapted screenplay to begin with. To further give credit where it is due, the movie is adapted from McCarten’s 2017 play, The Pope. The plot of the movie revolves around the introspective Pope Benedict and his harshest critic, Cardinal Bergoglio, engage in a deep, revelatory discussion about the state of the Catholic Church and their future as its leaders in 2012.
We have already covered numerous other award categories already such as Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Directing Nominees, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, Best Film Editing, Best International Feature, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Music (Original Score), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Visual Effects.
Visuals are, obviously, what we pay attention to when we watch movies. This category is more about the technological advancements that a group has managed to achieve in order to make a movie into a visual masterpiece. So we will be going over the nominations for the Best Visuals categories.
First on the list of nominations for this category is ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and more specifically the designers of which were Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken and Dan Sudick. ‘Endgame’ is extremely reliant on visual effects and did an unbelievable job at immersing its audience into a world to feels almost real. Marvel films have always tried to push visuals to their extremes, and ‘Endgame’ carries on that tradition by creating some of, possibly, the best visuals seen yet.
Next up, we have a movie that has a numerous amount of other nominations, and that is ‘The Irishman.’ The visual effect designers for which were Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser and Stephane Grabli. It should be no surprise that this movie ended up in this category either as many visual aspects have been nominated for this movie already so the nomination for Best Visual Effect makes sense.
Following that, we have ‘The Lion King’ as the next nomination. As a live action version of an animated film, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Elliot Newman, the visual effects designers, did an excellent job of making the characters seem real. It isn’t easy making animated anthropomorphic animals seem like they are living and speaking in real life. As such, they earned their place on the list of nominees to receive this award.
Another film to have multiple awards attached to it nomination wise is ‘1917.’ It managed to also make its way into the category for Best Visual Effects because of the hard work of Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy. War films, often times, must be visceral to some degree in order to illicit some kind of emotional response from the audience. This movie did well enough in that respect to make an impact that put it on this list.
Finally, we have Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach and Dominic Tuohy for their work on ‘Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker.’ As this movie is supposed to be the last in the mainline series of films, it should be no surprise that a lot of extra work went into the movie to make it incredibly visually appealing. A fantastic space opera should have fantastic visuals, and that is what was accomplished for this film. No matter what you may have thought about the film, there is no question that the visuals were incredible.
There are countless categories for the Oscars. There are so many in fact that we may not end up covering all of the categories and their nominations. We have managed to cover a fair number of them already, however, such as Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Directing Nominees, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, Best Film Editing, Best International Feature, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Music (Original Score), and Best Original Screenplay.
The 92nd Academy Awards are fast approaching, in fact at the time of this being written they will be taking taking place in just a few days. There are plenty of people out there that don’t understand exactly how the voting process works. First of all, the biggest thing that people should know is that it is called The Academy Awards for a reason. The Academy is the group that votes on movies, directors, musicians, etc. This doesn’t mean, however, that one group of people determines all of the winners.
Winners of the awards are decided upon by their peers in the same fields. For example, Best Directing is decided by directors and film editors are nominated by film editors, etc. However, the award for Best Picture is voted on by all members of The Academy. Other certain categories such as International Feature Film and Animated Feature Film have special voting rules. Voting for these films is done when the Academy president chooses a head for the voting committee and that head sends invitations to other members of the Academy to vote for the best films.
Nominations voting is conducted using both paper and online ballots, with online voting being the preferred choice for the overwhelming majority of Academy members. Voting begins for all Academy members at the end of December and all votes are tallied by PricewaterhouseCoopers. For the final balloting process, all voting is conducted online, and all categories become available on the ballot for voting members. In the end, only two members of PricewaterhouseCoopers know the results of the ballots until the envelopes are opened on stage. The results of which we will get to see on Sunday Febraury 9 @ 8pm EST.
Among the numerous things that go into the making of a movie, one of, and perhaps the most important thing of all, is the screenplay. A movie simply would not exist if it didn’t have a screenplay. Screenplays are the movies before the movies actually start being filmed. We will now be going through the nominees for the Best Original Screenplay, and the movies that they did the screenplays for.
First up on the list of nominees, we have Rian Johnson for his work on the movie ‘Knives Out.’ Johnson is known for his work on the movies Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and now, Knives Out. This movie sees a popular mystery writer turning up dead in his mansion, forcing renowned private detective Benoit Blanc to investigate, thus revealing that every member of the eccentric author’s family, as well as his nurse, is a murder suspect.
Next on the list of nominees for Best Original Screenplay is Noah Baumbach for his work on the movie ‘Marriage Story.’ Baumbach wrote for movies such as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Madagascar 3. ‘Marriage Story’ sees a young creative couple and their son navigate the tricky waters of bicoastal separation and impending divorce.
Coming in next on the list is Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns for their work on the movie ‘1917.’ Mendes worked as director, not only on this movie, but also on films such as Skyfall and Spectre. This, meanwhile, is Wilson-Cairns first feature film she has written for. ‘1917’ sees two British soldiers during WWI sent on a dangerous mission to stop an attack by the British 7th Division that will result in a massacre by the Germans. Their assignment takes on extra urgency as one of the young soldiers’ brothers is fighting in that Division.
Following that nomination, we have Quentin Tarantino who is up for a couple of different nominations for his film ‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood.’ Tarantino has a number of original screenplays under his belt already such as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and Inglorious Basterds. It isn’t much of a surprise that he is on this list of nominees either. ‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood’ sees Los Angeles in 1969, with aging TV star Rick Dalton and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth struggling to make their way around an industry and a city they hardly recognize anymore.
Finally, the last nominees for Best Original Screenplay are Bong Joon-Ho and Han Jin-Won for their work on ‘Parasite.’ This movie ended up being a surprise hit in the United States, so much so that it had been nominated for a number of different awards already. ‘Parasite’ sees greed, class discrimination and a mysterious interloper threatening the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
The Oscars are fast approaching, and with numerous awards to be given in a variety of categories, we have already covered some of those categories. The nominees we have covered already were for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Directing Nominees, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, Best Film Editing, Best International Feature, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Music (Original Score).
The Despicable Me franchise has been wildly successful since its inception since 2011. That tradition seems as though it will continue even now moving into the next decade. With three main titles under its belt and a prequel, the franchise continues with another prequel. This time it is an obvious continuation of the first prequel, Minions. At the end of the first prequel, we see just how the main character of the main films, Gru, met the titular minions. Now, we will get to see just how the minions and Gru managed to become known as an incredible super-villain.
‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ is being steered by the franchise’s original creators. The film is produced by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and his longtime collaborators Janet Healy and Chris Renaud. Directing the film, we have returning franchise filmmaker Kyle Balda (Despicable Me 3, Minions) and co-directors Brad Ableson (The Simpsons) and Jonathan del Val (The Secret Life of Pets films). The film stars the voices of Pierre Coffin, Steve Carell, Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, RZA, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, and Alan Arkin. ‘The Rise of Gru’ releases to theaters on July 3rd, 2020.
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