At his new Salon blog, Andrew O’Hehir asks:

Are the Indiewood movies gradually sucking money and life out of the genuine independents, meaning smaller distributors without a big studio’s marketing muscle behind them?

Answer: Yes.

Glad we could sort that out.

• Jumper only managed to clear $38.1 million at the box office over the five day weekend, which may be enough for sequel talks, but doesn’t seem like such a victory against the news that Step Up 2 made $28 million over the same frame. Meanwhile, The Band’s Visit, which is not a new release, managed the highest per-screen average of any film over the holiday weekend with $12,295 at each of its 13 locations.
• With Blu-Ray declaring “Mission Accomplished!” in the costly, confusing and totally pointless HD DVD format war, technology companies are expected to turn their focus towards creating consoles to handle digital downloads.
• Oscar ballots were due yesterday. Also, did you know we’re having a party?

We’re joining forces with our friends at The Reeler to throw an Oscar viewing party, this Sunday in New York City. If you’re in town, do come out and enjoy free fondue, a cash bar, special prizes (including a set of Eleni’s Oscar cookies, pictured above, to the smartest prognosticator in the room), and much drunken yelling at the screen. All pertinent details can be found here. See you there!

• Above: an ambitious aspiring film editor bought a fixer-upper and Hitchcockified the bathroom. More images here. Via BoingBoing.
• Jeff Wells finds a way to justify talking about “what a gutless dithering douchebag pussy John Edwards has turned out to be” on his movie blog by pulling a Chris Matthews, accusing the former presidential candidate of “acting like the softer, squishier, less decisive brother of Gregory Peck’s character in The Big Country.”
• UnitedHollywood links to a PDF version of an essay from Joan Didion’s After Henry, about the 1988 writers strike.  “Agree or disagree with how this strike has been waged, she puts her finger on realities that sound eerily familiar, 20 years later — and on some key differences as well.”
• Just in time for Valentine’s day, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a Texas statute restricting sales of sex toys. Jette Kernion finds the movie angle at Slackerwood.
• I think this is what qualifies as “comedy” from Vanity Fair. Go easy on them–at least they’re trying.

New York Magazine’s Grub Street blog points to a glorified press release wire story about the menu created by James Sakatos at the Carlyle Cafe for the Academy’s official New York Oscar viewing party, with one course devoted to each of the five Best Picture nominees. Sakatos says he watched all five films in a weekend and took copious notes before putting the menu together, but he’s apparently not much of a deep reader, because each entree is a thuddingly literal interpretation of the film’s themes––and at least one isn’t even accurate.

For instance: There Will Be Blood is represented by Sakatos’ favorite dish of the five, a squid ink risotto with mushrooms, cuttlefish and blood orange foam. That sounds awesome, but the last thing I think of when I think of Daniel Plainview is a delicate seafood risotto. Check out Sakatos’ description of why this is more appropriate than, say, cold steak and a milkshake: “The black ink brings to mind the film’s oil gushers, with blood orange foam to remind diners of the struggle and, of course, the title.” OF COURSE. How silly of me.

Way, way, way worse, is Sakatos’ justification of how Dover sole is the embodiment of Michael Clayton: …Read more

Above: Mel Brooks’ The Critic, which won an Oscar in 1963. Found via this compilation of YouTube links to virtually every Oscar-winning animated short since 1932. Via Fimoculous.

• The Academy’s Sid Ganis, desperate to come to some sort of revealable conclusion as to what kind of Oscars he’s going to preside over, has been pestering the WGA to grant a waiver to allow the producers to use writers/put on a show and not get picketed. So far he’s been denied, and it sounds like his hands are wringing fairly fervently. “I’m nervous. We’re getting down to the final moments; we need to make plans.”
• In the second remake of a 1950s Fritz Lang film announced in as many weeks, Michael Douglas and Amber Tamblyn have been cast in a do-over of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.
• Do Sonic Youth get to make any money off of this?

At his Vanity Fair blog, Stu Van Airsdale predicts that Tony Gilroy, writer/director of Michael Clayton, has a decent shot at winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar that most assume Diablo Cody has locked up, and in so doing, reminds us that Gilroy wrote “a figure-skating opus 16 years ago.” That opus, of course, was The Cutting Edge, that staple of staple of self-pitying sick days (oh, is that just me?), starring Moira Kelly as a prissy figure skater and D.B. Sweeney as the hockey player hired to be her partner.

Certainly, I agree with Stu that Gilroy deserves the career award. I’m not really much of a fan of Michael Clayton, but I think as far as hokey sports romances go, The Cutting Edge is pretty much perfect. Above: a fan-created montage of high-pressure skating scenes. That part where he makes Moira Kelly cry right before they skate by saying, “It can’t be any harder to stay together than it was to stay apart,” and then she wipes the tears from her eyes and is like, “I’m in the mood to kick a little ass,” and then they do their ridiculous made-up skating move, and then kiss right there on the ice? It kills me.

• IFC has acquired Ballast for day-and-date release in a deal apparently worth “a six-figures…plus gross participation and a real P&A commitment.” Lance Hammer’s excellent drama premiered last month at Sundance; see my review here and Kevin’s interview with Hammer and the film’s cast here.
• Diane Garrett says reporters at yesterday’s Oscar nominee’s luncheon tried to keep the conversation light––what are you wearing, etc––but stars like Viggo Mortensen, George Clooney and Michael Moore kept returning to the issue of the writers strike. Everyone agreed that unless the strike is full resolved by Oscar night, AMPAS can throw whatever kind of alternate event they like, but not a single SAG or WGA member will show up.
• Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has hired two former ThinkFilm employees, David Fenkel and Dan Berger, to help him start a “a full-service film distribution company” called Oscilloscope Pictures. Fenkel’s summing up of the curation strategy: “We do the films we want to do.”

• Who knows whether or not anyone had to use their AK, but according to a “well-placed” WGA strike insider, “Friday was a good day.” The labor dispute is by no means over, but both sides are apparently circling a decision on streaming residuals that no one, as of yet, seems to have a major problem with.
• That Hannah Montana 3D concert film made ridiculous money over the weekend––$42,460 at each of its 683 locations––thus robbing Titanic of the record for best Super Bowl box office of all time.
• Each of the five Best Picture nominees have enjoyed a significant bump at the box office since the noms were announced two weeks ago, but No Country For Old Men “seemingly affirmed its status as Oscar frontrunner” by nabbing the Producers Guild prize over the weekend. 

BUTTERKNIFE 1: Plastic Hassle

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• Butterknife premiered here. Joe talked a little bit about the ingredients of his new web series here.
• Every single little bit of Sundance coverage lives here.
• Aaron Katz’ Spirit Award-nominated Quiet City hits DVD.
• Daniel Day Lewis and Diablo Cody take their Oscar campaigns in their own hands, as worries mount that a split vote will net the latter’s film an award that no one thinks it deserves.
• 5 Things The Cloverfield Monster Could Symbolize.
• Wong Kar Wai’s new movie is shuttled down the calendar.
• Stop Loss is added to the SXSW lineup.
• Looking for metaphors in The Bourne Identity.
• Did MAGNOLIA anticipate Tom Cruise’s future weirdness, or has Tom Cruise become a parody of a character that was intended as a departure?
• Trailers: Son of Rambow, 88 Minutes, Smart People
• Another print film critic’s job is eliminated.
• Joss Whedon whines about Weird Science.
• The Moldy Peaches played their Juno love theme on The View, and it was weird.
• Photos from the set of Gus Van Sant’s Milk.
• Vince Vaughn can’t let Swingers go.
• Perhaps Peter Bogdanovich exaggerated Tom Petty’s cross-demo appeal just a tad?
• Karina’s gonna spend the night with prosumer video and song.
• Michel Gondry gives us the latest in meta marketing.
• Will the new Hobbit movies be totally new with Guillermo Del Toro at the reigns?
• Ernest Borgnine as an Amish father? We’re there.
• Heath Ledger and the Dark marketing conundrum.
• Alain Resnais, by Blur.
• The origins of Woody Allen’s favorite typeface.
• Eight Val Lewton movies are being remade.
• Zooey Deschanel is the cutest thing ever.
• On our podcast, we bitch about the alienating effect of Sundance. Karina also talked about Sundance on a CNET podcast.
• Chris is still hung up on Amelie, even if she doesn’t really exist anymore.
• Juno finally has a gross to match its press release.
• There might not even be a Wet Hot American Summer musicals, but Chris is against it.

Before I started this post, I Googled the phrase “guerilla Oscar campaigning,” and the first result was this story about how Mel Gibson vowed to spend no money on his Passion of the Christ Oscar campaign, aside from sending out 8,000 DVD screeners. Oh, how times have changed.

This year, even as the writers strike limits the venues for pre-Oscar awards show appearances and shillery, nominees are making the most of every TV moment, doing stuff that ends up on YouTube, and ensuring that they, their nominations and their movies stay in the public conversation. Here at SpoutBlog, we’re dedicated to handicapping the hype as it happens, so expect us to compare and contrast these media moments semi-regularly (Daily? Probably not. Weekly? Let’s see how it goes.)

First up: Diablo Cody goes looking for Daniel Day-Lewis cred, whilst DDL himself is busy trying to siphon off some of Heath Ledger’s headlines.

…Read more

The hot new meme in Oscar prognostication: what if the two “serious” Best Picture frontrunners split the sane vote, thus clearing a path for Juno to take the year’s top prize with a mere fraction of the Academy’s total support? Scott Feinberg elaborates:

[Juno] is heating up at just the right time. Also, I am presently of the belief that No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood will split the vote of those who feel the need to support a completely ’serious’ film, and that Juno—which might have enough passionate support anyway—would be the most obvious beneficiary…

I believe to this day that Little Miss Sunshine would have won Best Picture last year had Martin Scorsese not been in the Best Director race… Try as they might, No Country backers will not be able to elicit the same sense of obligation among Oscar voters to seize this opportunity to honor the Coens, and so there will be no coattail effect this year—in fact, I think we probably will see a Picture-Director split.

It could happen. But ST Van Airsdale––otherwise known as The Reeler, now also blogging at Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men awards sub-site––really, really hopes it doesn’t.

…Read more

• Daniel Day-Lewis and Julie Christie continued their winning streaks over the weekend, each picking up the top individual prizes at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The WGA had issued SAG a waver to allow them to produce a telecast with professional writers, which thus made it cool for stars to show up, which thus created the conditions for this photograph of Angelina Jolie in what appears to be a tie-dyed chiffon sack, thus giving credence to recent rumors that she may be carrying two new doses of Pitt spawn.
• Of the many “specialty” films which expanded their theater count in hopes of capitalizing on Oscar nominations, only Atonement failed to see a bump in percentage this weekend, with The Savages gaining 2% even as it shed screens. But the real story of weekend in the indie box office realm––which Variety buries at the very bottom of their writeup––is that Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes-winning, Oscar-ignored drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days earned $48,176 across just 2 screens.
• Ben Fritz gets off a nice joke about Sylvester Stallone being an “ancient warrior” in his mass-market box office writeup, but it must be little comfort to the team behind Rambo, which opened in second place behind something I had never heard of called Meet the Spartans.  Cloverfield dropped almost 70% in its second weekend, which makes sense considering the film’s hype peaked six months ago.