High School Musical 3

For Your Consideration: 5 Alternates for Best Song Oscar

By Christopher Campbell posted 10 months ago

The Academy’s list of 49 tunes deemed eligible for the Best Original Song Oscar this year seems like a lot for the Music Branch to pick through. That is, until you notice that more than one-fifth of those contenders are from the same film (High School Musical 3, which, thanks to a new rule, is only allowed, at most, two nominations in this category) and you recall that last year’s list included many more songs (59) to choose from. The talent involved this year, however, is tremendous, at least in terms of those performers who sing the tunes on the soundtrack (many of whom had a hand in the songwriting). These artists include Mariah Carey, Etta James, Beyonce Knowles (who played Etta James), Norah Jones, will.i.am, Jack White and Alicia Keys, Danny Elfman, Emmylou Harris, Chaka Khan and Regina Spektor.

Add to those big names such heavyweights as Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel, both of whom are locks to be nominated, as well as tween favorites Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron (along with the rest of the cast from High School Musical 3), and you could have one hell of a concert if the Academy simply turned its awards telecast into one big celebration of the year’s songs written for the screen. Unfortunately for ABC, the Oscars aren’t just about securing viewers, so there’s no promise that the most popular artists will be among the five nominees. Rather, the true Oscar-worthy songs are those tunes that serve their respective films best — in terms of context as much as in the quality of their songwriting.

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Hollywood

Porno Blocked By School. Trade Roughage 11/03/08

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

With Halloween dragging the weekend box office down by over thirty percent, High School Musical 3 took the top spot with just $15 million. The Weinstein Company says Zack and Miri Make a Porno came in second with $10.7 million, but rival studios say that projection may be inflated.
Meanwhile, Europeans really like James Bond.
MSNBC Films has picked up Witch Hunt. The documentary, which premiered at Toronto and is narrated by Sean Penn, willhave an Oscar qualifying run and then air on TV next year.
Variety has picked up the “Joaquin Phoenix is quitting movies” story. They’re running an AP item which says the actor, who showed up to Saturday’s Two Lovers premiere at AFI with the phrase “good bye” written on his knuckles, confirmed to reporters that he’s leaving the business to “focus on music,” and promised, “I will emotionally impact you with that, as well.”

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Hollywood

The Return of the Musical. Trade Roughage 10/28/08

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

In yet another sign that 2008 is the new 1928, Hollywood, impressed by the massive first-weekend success of High School Musical 3, is rushing a number of music-based projects into production. Paramount is bumping their Zac Efron-starring, Kenny Ortega-directed remake of Footloose up the calendar; Nick and Norah director Peter Sollett has been asked to punch up the script before a spring shoot. Meanwhile, Fox is setting up their own big-screen musical around a passel of Disney Channel stars: this time, it’s the Jonas Brothers, and the project is the first film in a hoped-for franchise based on the “Walter the Farting Dog” books. Yes, there are apparently childrens books about farting dogs. Maybe it’s not The Great Depression 2 — maybe it’s Idiocracy 0.5.
Perhaps surprisingly, Dan Glickman says that although “there’s no fundamental difference between Obama or McCain on intellectual property issues,” an Obama administration might be slightly more favorable for the MPAA’s fight against piracy, as Obama be expected to connect to “newer, younger White House staffers and appointees about the value and importance of IP.” But the studios’ lobbying board would clash sharply with a Democrat administration over net neutrality, which Obama strongly supports, and Glickman … doesn’t.
DETAILS Magazine has invited their readers to submit film pitches. In partnership with Larry Meistrich of Shooting Gallery and Film Movement, the mag will seek a winning idea targeted at “intelligent, modern, metropolitan men,” they’ll then actually produce.

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Hollywood

HIgh School Musical Schools For Record. Trade Roughage 10/27/08

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

High School Musical 3 had the biggest opening weekend of any musical, ever, grossing $42 million to leapfrog over Saw V’s respectable-for-an-effing-fivequel $30 million. What the latter number will mean for Lionsgate’s reported turn away from genre film is anyone’s guess, but when Saw V grosses another $2 million, that franchise will surpass Friday the 13th as the highest grossing horror franchise in history. Also, Changeling had a ridiculously high per screen average, which might indicate that it’ll be able to hold on through Oscar season despite extremely mixed reviews.
Richard Linklater and Todd Haynes will participate in a conversation on indie filmmaking at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival. The festival, which will go forward next year under the direction of Janet Pierson for the first time, will also welcome Stanley Kubrick’s brother-in-law/producer Jan Harlan and IMDb founder Col Needham.
Christine Vachon’s Killer Films will produce its first big-budget action movie, a medieval period pic called William the Conqueror.

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Hollywood, Indies

High School Musical 3 for Best Picture? Trade Roughage 10/13/08

By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago

Is it a sign of the end of the world, or simply an effect of the economic crisis and the presidential election? Beverly Hills Chihuahua has won the hearts of an America that apparently doesn’t want anymore serious content to think about. The talking dog movie came out on top for the second weekend in a row with $17.5 million (for a total of more than $50 mil.), easily defeating Leo, Russell and Ridley, and especially Bill Murray, whose City of Ember barely beat out the Christian hit Fireproof to make it into the top 10. An announcement about Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 is expected by the end of the week.
At least specialty division films are doing well enough, with The Duchess expansion bringing the period piece into the top 10 and both RocknRolla and Happy-Go-Lucky debuting in limited markets with per screen averages around $20,000. Rachel Getting Married is also still seeing success with its old-fashioned slow rollout, now grossing about $17,000 on each of its 27 screens. And Religulous continues its path towards surpassing Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed as the top grossing doc of 2008.
Ridley Scott will finally direct the epic sci-fi adaptation The Forever War, which he describes as “a bit of The Odyssey by way of Blade Runner” and which he’s been attempting to make for 25 years. Is it terribly cynical of me to think that it will be a major disappointment? Certainly the expectations are going to be extremely high since Scott’s other efforts in the genre are two of the most influential sci-fi films of all time.
Back to signs of the end of the world: Variety posted this ludicrous sentence, which fits with audiences favoring dumb, happy fare during hard times, late last Friday: “So if Oscar voters rebel against the pervasive darkness, does this mean “Mamma Mia!” and “High School Musical 3″ could become front-runners?”