Having pioneered tech-noir with Blade Runner, Ridley Scott is trying his hand at classical noir with The Kind One. Variety reports that Scott will direct and produce an adaptation of the Tom Epperson book, with Epperson himself writing the screenplay. The novel is about an amnesiac in 1930s Los Angeles who is informed that before he lost his memory, he was a ruthless gangster named "Two-Gun Danny," and that he works for a fearsome gangland boss. Epperson is a screenwriter by trade, best known for co-writing The Gift with Billy Bob Thornton; The Kind One is his first novel.

The other person to sign on to the project is Casey Affleck, who is clearly enjoying his new lease on life following The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone. He's really the perfect noir hero, scrappy, jaded and intelligent; we saw some of that on display in his brother's film, where he practically disappeared into the tough working-class Boston milieu. He and Scott should be able to hit this one out of the park, if the source material is any good. As always, I'd love to hear from commenters who are familiar with the book.

It's still hard for me to imagine Casey Affleck as a rising movie star. This isn't to say that I don't think he has talent, but seeing him these days makes me giggle a little bit, because I think back to his days as a tracer hater and his time on 200 Cigarettes, the indie comedy/drama Desert Blue, and of course all that sage advice in American Pie. The man has come a long way, and after finally seeing The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone up on the big screen, Variety reports that he's getting into the mob.

Affleck is going to head the noir period piece The Kind One, which Tom Epperson will adapt from his recently published novel. Set in Los Angeles in the 1930s, the film focuses on "an amnesiac (Affleck) who finds himself working for a mobster -- a sadistic killer given the nickname 'the Kind One' -- and falling in love with the thug's girlfriend." There's smarts for you. Or, a big set of brass...well, you get the idea. Once the strike wraps up, which will hopefully be soon, Epperson will turn his work into a script. The writer is a childhood friend of Billy Bob Thornton's, and the two collaborated on Sam Raimi's The Gift back in 2000, so I'm hoping for good things. At the moment, this is all we have. While the star and writer are in place, there's no word on who will direct this puppy.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees:

Casey Affleck -- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Javier Bardem -- No Country for Old Men

Philip Seymour Hoffman -- Charlie Wilson's War

John Travolta -- Hairspray

Tom Wilkinson -- Michael Clayton

Predicted Winner: Javier Bardem

Once in awhile there comes to cinema a character, and a performance that goes with it, that goes on to haunt us for years. Such a timeless villain is played in No Country for Old Men by Javier Bardem. It's the actor's third Golden Globe nomination and will be his first win. How do I know? Here at Cinematical headquarters we were going to toss a coin to find out if Bardem would get the statue. But then we realized that this award isn't about chance (plus we were afraid of getting an air blast to the skull if it came up that he'd lose). Bardem will win because he deserves the award, because his is the most well-developed and most memorable performance of the bunch.

Now it's your turn to vote ...

Yahoo reports that the National Society of Film Critics (made up of 61 film critics across the country) has chosen Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood as the Best Picture of the Year, beating The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and No Country for Old Men. Anderson also won Best Director, over Julian Schnabel and the Coen Brothers. Daniel Day-Lewis was named Best Actor for Blood, and Robert Elswit received an award for its cinematography. The critics are clearly crazy for Blood, but I don't think it'll take the Best Picture Oscar. It's too cold a film for Oscar voters to fully embrace, and though I know I'm practically alone in this assessment, it's too flawed.

Julie Christie was named Best Actress for her understated performance in Away from Her. Casey Affleck was named Best Supporting Actor for his excellent work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. And Cate Blanchett was selected as Best Supporting Actress for a performance that, for me, didn't amount to much more than a pretty good Bob Dylan impression. No End in Sight, a straightforward account of the bad decisions made by the Bush administration after the invasion of Iraq, won Best Documentary. Tamara Jenkins' script for The Savages was named Best Screenplay. I really loved the first half of The Savages but felt the second got distracted with side stories that thinned out the story's impact. Only 41 of the Society's 61 members cast ballots this year (?), and their choices frequently differ from Oscar voters. We'll find out just how much they differ when the Academy Award nominations are announced on January 22nd.

I was a little hard on the International Press Academy last year, but they made some ridiculous decisions when handing out their Satellite Awards. Still, at least they came off as being different than every other year-end awards giver by picking winners like Joseph Cross and X-Men: The Last Stand (best comedic actor and best editing, respectively). Those are at least some interesting, unpredictable picks, right? This year, I feel the need to be harder on the organization, because it's gone totally predictable in honoring No Country for Old Men, Juno, Sicko, American Gangster, Ratatouille, Diablo Cody and Christopher Hampton, among others. The actors they honored -- Marion Cotillard, Viggo Mortensen, Ellen Page, Ryan Gosling, Tom Wilkinson/Casey Affleck (tied) and Amy Ryan -- aren't all the most obvious choices, but they aren't shocking, either. Couldn't they have at least gone with nominee Clive Owen or his nominated "comedy or musical" Shoot 'Em Up (!?!?!?), or something?

Not that the winners aren't deserving, but what good is yet another awards ceremony if it's not going to distinguish itself from the Golden Globes, which are the Satellite's unrecognized yet unmistakable "baby daddy". Yeah, the Hollywood Foreign Press will likely go with some other winners, but they won't seem that different. Again, I do salute the IPA for having a documentary category, though it wouldn't have hurt to give The King of Kong its one possible prestigious(?) award -- not that it was actually a better film than fellow nominee No End in Sight. Also, it's always enjoyable to see what the IPA picks for best DVDs (The Prestige for overall; Borat and Masters of Horror Season 1 (tied) for extras; Ratatouille for youth-oriented; Ken Burns' The War for documentary; The Graduate 40th Anniversary Edition for classic). For the rest of the nominees and winners, head over to Variety.

The San Francisco Film Critics Awards have been announced, and they're especially exciting for us here at Cinematical. Why? Because three of our writers are in the SFFC! Our very own James Rocchi, Jeffrey M. Anderson, and Richard Von Busack are all part of the San Francisco critic "scene." San Fran made some interesting picks, several outside of the expected Oscar nominees. So what were their choices? For Best Foreign Film, they selected Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (which I am watching when I finish this post). For Best Documentary, they selected No End in Sight (which didn't blow me away, but was certainly well done). Best Adapted Screenplay went to Sarah Polley for Away From Her (great script, one of the most kick-in-the-stomach depressing movies I've seen lately). And Best Original Screenplay went to Tamara Jenkins for The Savages.

Amy Ryan was named Best Supporting Actress for her brilliant portrayal of a highly difficult character in Gone Baby Gone. Ryan's co-star in that film, Casey Affleck, was named Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Best Actress was Julie Christie for Away From Her and Best Actor was George Clooney in Michael Clayton -- two choices I approve of though I disagree with them. Joel and Ethan Coen took Best Director(s) honors for their latest masterpiece, No Country for Old Men. And -- drumroll please -- the Best Picture Award went to Jesse James. A surprising pick perhaps, but it was an absolutely fantastic film, and hopefully the award encourages more people to see it. The SFFC gave a special citation to an indie called Colma: The Musical, "a homegrown song-and-dance extravaganza about the paradoxical drudgery and surreality of life in a city where the dead outnumber the living one thousand to one." That old story again? See the list for yourself here -- it's a San Francisco treat!

Most people consider the National Board of Review irrelevant, and yet they continue to write about the organization's annual film honors. Like the Oscars, though, it doesn't matter if the NBR is irrelevant or not. It's been around for nearly a century now, and it's been a significant part of awards season for many decades. Maybe the organization is made up of paid-entry film buffs rather than critics or "experts" but at the end of the day its members are simply movie lovers like you and me. And sometimes those members even champion and endorse movies that deserve that extra notice.

Sure, the 2007 mentions by the NBR seem so exhaustive that I almost can't even think of a movie that didn't get an award. Also, many of them seem like obvious and predictable decisions (doesn't this just mean the movies were noteworthy enough to receive the awards anyway?). Some of the winners, though, are pretty satisfying. Tim Burton probably won't win an Oscar for best director, so it's good to see him honored here. Also, I wouldn't have expected Lars and the Real Girl to get an original screenplay mention from anywhere. Nor did I expect for The Bucket List to land on any top ten lists. Mostly, I'm delighted to see Casey Affleck recognized for his acting.

Check out all the awards after the jump.

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. ... He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it."

-- Raymond Chandler, The Simple Art of Murder

The detective's job and nature haven't changed much since Raymond Chandler wrote those words in 1945; the streets, though, are another matter. Directed by Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone follows two detectives, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Genarro (Michelle Monaghan) as they go down the main streets and back alleys of shabby South Boston investigating the disappearance of little Amanda McCready (Madeline O'Brien). The girl's mother Helene (Amy Ryan) is a drunk, a druggie, a loser. In the early scenes where Helene stands in front of the media circus that's erupted around the case, Ryan brings a perverse, compelling mix of emotions to life in Helene's eyes, fear and confusion and a fierce, wretched kind of glee: She finally matters.

And normally, she doesn't, and she knows it. It's Helene's sister-in-law Beatrice (Amy Madigan) who actually hires Kenzie and Genarro -- Helene and her brother Lionel (Titus Welliver) both can't imagine anything above and beyond the efforts of the Boston PD. Kenzie and Genarro take the case, figuring they'll ask a few questions and earn a few bucks. The cops working the abduction (John Ashton and Ed Harris) are driven and competent and not overly fond of private investigators; their boss, Captain Doyle (Morgan Freeman) lost his own daughter to an abduction-murder years back, so he's driven, too. But everyone involved knows the math: The longer Amanda is lost, the more likely she'll be lost forever. And, through the days that turn to weeks, something happens: Kenzie can't stop looking.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford starts with images, moments, visions -- all grounded in the dry, calm tone of the narrator explaining where we are, and who we're watching. We meet Jesse James -- played by Brad Pitt -- and Robert Ford -- played by Casey Affleck; their ultimate relationship can hardly be in doubt, given the title of the Ron Hansen novel Andrew Dominik's adapted for the screen. But this isn't a mystery. Instead, Dominik gives us -- through gorgeous camerawork and a ridiculously talented group of actors -- a carefully-crafted dreamlike vision that captures the moment in time when The West became America, when a frontier became part of civilization, when the myth of the West went from something lived to a story that was told.

With amazing cinematography (courtesy of regular Coen Brothers collaborator Rodger Deakins) and a sprawling cast (Pitt and Affleck aside, other parts are played by Sam Shepard, Sam Rockwell, Paul Schneider, Ted Levine and Jeremy Renner), you can feel what Dominik's shooting for. He's made a rich, ripe,'70s-styled Western that exploits and explodes the Western mythos, equally influenced by Altman's range and reach in depicting the affairs of men and Malick's wide-eyed wonder in depicting the natural world. (There are a few Coen Brothers touches in with the Malick and Altman, as well; a tea spoon shows bitter knowledge sinking in, death comes as clumsy fumbling lunges.) With its wintry tones and measured movements, you'd be excused for thinking that The Assassination of Jesse James is far from Dominik's first feature, the low-budget, brawling and messy prison story Chopper. At the same time, though, both are about criminal aristocrats -- the best possible kind of bad men. You want to see them change their lives, but know full well they can't.

I'm actually surprised that neither the trailer for Gone, Baby, Gone nor this new poster feature the words "From Academy Award Winner Ben Affleck." It wouldn't have been the first time we've seen or heard that phrase (or part of it, anyway), and for once it would have actually been appropriate since Affleck won his Oscar for screenwriting. Instead you have to look at the credits at the bottom of the poster to notice that Affleck co-wrote the script (with Aaron Stockard) and directed the film, too. Rather than emphasizing Affleck's achievement or involvement, Miramax (who also distributed the film that got him the Oscar) spotlights a different connection. Under the title, the poster tells us that this film is from the same novelist (Dennis Lehane) who wrote Mystic River. But while the trailer does make the film seem like that Clint Eastwood film, the poster reminded me more of The Departed, especially after I noticed the subtle gun that's in the hand of Casey Affleck.

However, this poster, which highlights the Boston skyline, is nothing like the poster for The Departed since it doesn't have a close up or frontal shot of Casey Affleck's face. Perhaps such a head-shot would have less appeal to moviegoers since the younger Affleck is still pretty much unknown. I'm guessing (and hoping), though, that after Gone, Baby, Gone comes out, Casey will become a bigger star. The rest of the film's cast includes Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Michelle Monaghan (all three of whom join Affleck's name on the poster marquee), along with Amy Madigan, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Titus Welliver and Robert Wahlberg (brother of The Departed's Mark; he also appeared in The Departed and Mystic River). The film goes into limited release on October 19.