the Last King of Scotland Tagged Articles at Cinematical

An Academy Award-winning filmmaker has chosen his next project. Kevin Macdonald has signed on to direct Roman epic The Eagle of the Ninth, according to an announcement in Cannes by Focus Features. Macdonald won an Oscar for his superb documentary One Day in September and guided Forest Whitaker to his Academy Award for Best Actor in The Last King of Scotland.

Scotland co-writer Jeremy Brock adapted the screenplay for Eagle from the novel of the same name by Rosemary Sutcliff, the first in a series, originally published in 1954. The book is set in the second century in Roman-ruled Britain, telling the tale of a young Roman's search for "the truth about the disappearance of his father's legion," according to Wikipedia. Focus emphasizes the danger involved, with its hero off "to confront ... savage tribes, make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth."

I'm finding this news over at Variety so utterly surreal and weird. As the story goes, this place called Protagonist creates "entertainment concepts" for Pepsi's many brands, and the idea for a new, Dew-branded game started there. The plan was to tap into Mountain Dew consumers who "don't have that burning need for being rebellious or individualism" and are "more about choice and community," and they wanted someone who "was interested in new ways at telling stories." That person became none other than Forest Whitaker, who helped develop the new game that hits shelves next year.

I don't know about you, but he's just about the last person I would think of for this project. But after winning an Oscar for The Last King of Scotland, all eyes were on Forest, and the actor says: "Mountain Dew offered me an amazing opportunity to create a mythic universe using all forms of storytelling that will allow those who participate to develop their product. Ultimately, the drink will be on the street and in stores where you get to see it, tough it, taste it, drink it, make it a part of you; bringing you from the virtual world to the real world." Whitaker helped come up with the game's world, which involves political themes, and says: "This is about voting. This is about taking a stance and making things happen. It's about empowering people and allowing them to express themselves and create something that represents who they are." And here I thought it was about selling Mountain Dew...

It's been eight months since Helen Mirren won an Oscar for her title performance in The Queen, yet people are still clamoring to give her and the film more awards. (As Cinematical's Christopher Campbell told us last week, they're even giving prizes to the movie's dogs.) Now The Queen has been nominated for six European Film Awards, including best picture, actress, director, screenwriter, composer, and editor.

How can that be, when it's a 2006 release? Because unlike the Oscars, which go by the calendar year, the European Film Awards run from July-June. So anything released in Europe after July 1, 2006 is eligible. That means that in the EFA actress category, last year's Oscar winner Helen Mirren is up against Marion Cotillard (for La Vie en Rose) -- who may very well be nominated for an Oscar this year. Kooky!

After The Queen, the next top-nominated film is another contender from last year's Oscars, The Last King of Scotland. It got five EFA nods, for picture, director, actor (James McAvoy), cinematographer, and composer.

Note that for all the awards, the nominees must be European by birth, or else have a European passport. This means, for example, that the American star of Last King of Scotland, Forest Whitaker, was ineligible, even though others in the film -- and the film itself -- qualified. The films themselves must be "European" in the sense that most of the key participants -- director, writer, leading actors, etc. -- must be from Europe. For the EFA's purposes, Israel and Palestine are considered part of Europe (even though they're, um, not.)

Three other films earned three nominations each, including best picture: La Vie en Rose, The Edge of Heaven, and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The sixth best picture nominee is Persepolis -- its only nod.

As IndieWIRE reports, the nominees were announced Saturday at the Seville Film Festival. The EFA's 1,800 members will vote, and the winners will be revealed Dec. 1 at a ceremony in Berlin. This is the 20th year of the EFA awards.

Every once in a while, a film critic comes out of the woodwork and tries to pose the idea that the auteur theory is bunk and that film authorship should be based on the work of the writer, and not the director. Currently, auteur critics consider the director the author of a picture (and it has to be a picture with personality, otherwise, the director isn't really an author, but rather a technician).

Recently the San Francisco International Film Festival started paying tribute to writers. Last year the recipient was Paul Haggis, about whom I think we've heard quite enough. He's worked on just about every movie that came out in the last couple of years: Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Casino Royale, The Last Kiss, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. I guess I don't need to point out that the only good movies on that list were directed by Clint Eastwood, and that the other good one, Casino Royale, depended on a good deal more than just its script. And if you take away the directors of those films, there's not much connecting them thematically or otherwise.

How do you turn an award-winning, six-hour British television mini-series directed by David Yates and starring Bill Nighy into a feature-length motion picture and expect it to work? Well, first you get Brad Pitt to star, which the producers of State and Play State of Play* took care of months ago. Then, you hire a director who is good at providing a filter between two cultures, like Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald. Universal has just announced MacDonald's attachment, with shooting set to begin this fall). An added bonus for the remake would be to now cast Nighy, Kelly Macdonald and James McAvoy -- he's no stranger to working with Kevin Macdonald, of course -- to reprise their roles (I'm not sure who Pitt is filling in for). Of course, this isn't necessary nor does it make sense for a film about American politicians.

It will still be difficult to completely adapt the mini-series, especially editing the length down, but Matthew Michael Carnahan has apparently already turned in a script the studio is happy with. The plot involves the murder of a congressman's mistress, which is a story we've previously seen in one form or another on television and in film. Regardless of what some people thought of The Last King of Scotland (I loved it), Kevin Macdonald should be the one to make this thing into one of those rare good Hollywood products. Pitt probably won't get the same out of working with Macdonald as Forest Whitaker got (especially since everyone considers it to have been all Whitaker's doing), but I'm sure he's fine with Angelina having the only Oscar in the family.

*Thanks to Gerry for noticing my mistake with the title.

Hey all. Tommy here, pinch-hitting for regular box-office soothsayer Patricia, who is off battling near-sub-zero temperatures in Park City, Utah, to attend the Sundance Film Festival this week.

So here's what's happening this weekend at the box office. In the wake of the Golden Globes and in anticipation of this coming Tuesday's Academy Award nominations, a slew of Oscar contenders (most of which were released in 2006) are expanding to more theaters. These include Golden Globe Best Picture winner 'Babel,' the critically acclaimed 'The Queen,' the enthralling adult fairy tale 'Pan's Labyrinth,' Clint Eastwood's other World War II flick 'Letters From Iwo Jima,' the powerful indie 'The Last King of Scotland' and the Edward Norton period drama 'The Painted Veil.' Alas, despite their lofty aspirations and high caliber, these almost-sure-to-be-nominated flicks will get crushed -- and I mean crushed with AUTHORITY -- by this week's only new wide release 'The Hitcher.'

Despite its R-rating, 'The Hitcher' appeals to that primal desire in a large group of moviegoers to watch a beauitful scantily clad woman (in this case Sophia Bush) flee from an eerie-looking -- and clearly deranged -- dude (in this case Sean Bean) who likes to thumb rides in the rain and then end the lives of his car-pool "buddies." Prediction: 'The Hitcher' will be riding solo atop the box office come Sunday.

Prediction deadline: Saturday at noon

1. The Hitcher
2. Stomp the Yard
3. Night at the Museum
4. Dreamgirls
5. Pursuit of Happyness

POST: What's your weekend top five prediction?

POST: What do you think of these movies?

For whatever reason, all the orgs and major awards shows are staying far away from Children of Men, even though the film has shown up on quite a few top ten lists (our own James Rocchi easily picked it as this year's best film). Since I have not seen Children of Men yet (I know, don't kill me, I'm going Sunday), I can't sit here and cycle through what those reasons might be, but I can tell you that the film has finally won an award.

Remember that USC Scripter award I was telling you about recently? For those that don't recall, the Scripter award is handed out each year (by the USC Libraries) to the writers involved in an outstanding film adaptation. Not only do the screenwriters who adapted the (book, short story or novella) get recognized, but also the original author. This year, five films (and their writing teams) were nominated, including Children of Men, Notes on a Scandal, The Devil Wears Prada, The Last King of Scotland and The Illusionist. As I previously noted, Little Children was strangely absent from the finalists, which probably helped Children of Men (and its five screenwriters, as well as original author P.D. James) ultimately win this year's USC Scripter award. Previous winners include Capote and Million Dollar Baby, among others.

If you're a huge Children of Men fan, then might I suggest you cherish this moment folks, as the film will most likely not win anything else this year. The official awards ceremony will be held on February 18 at USC's Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library in Los Angeles.

Many films are getting a second chance for theatrical success this year. Golden Globes are having a huge effect on box office sales -- especially for arthouse pictures. Films that were originally being overlooked by audiences are now being re-released due to a suddenly sparked interest. I always find it funny -- I fall victim to it too -- that we are so influenced by the kudos given to films by people we don't even know. The opinions of people we may not even respect. But production companies are thanking their lucky stars for these particular individuals' opinions because it is easy marketing for their beloved films.

Many films went under the radar this year once they hit theatres -- The Last King of Scotland to be exact -- had limited box office draw but after a Golden Globe nomination for Forest Whitaker the people are finally curious. Their curiosity is cause for its relaunch by Fox Searchlight hopefully in the next few weeks. For this I am very happy -- I anticipated its original release and when I went to see it, it was already out of the only two theatres it was screening at!

Many films even waited for nominations in order to boost their screening expansion; Little Children did just that. Only one theatre in Los Angeles is screening this critically acclaimed film but now that nominations are rolling in it may receive a wider release; relying on possible Oscar nominations to create even more ticket sales.

So maybe awards are good for something...marketing. I'm not a fan of award shows. I tend to have a big mouth when it comes to nominations and an even bigger one when people finally win the awards. But currently my mouth is shut and content due to the Golden Globes' generosity for inspiring interest in what I think are some of this year's best films.

Do you prefer fact to fiction or fiction to fact? I think it's inevitable after watching any film based on real life individuals or happenings that you may find yourself fact checking choices made by the filmmakers. Did Johnny Cash really ask June Carter to marry him on stage like in Walk the Line? Yes, he did. But what if he didn't? Would you be annoyed or angry by the writer, director, and actor's choice to make the story more whimsical?

Variety did a little fact checking of their own on this year's films with notable historical references. The article rated films such as Catch a Fire, Pursuit of Happyness and The Last King of Scotland according to their historical relevance and gave a little synopsis of the filmmaker's "spin" on the story.

Almost all the films had a high rating according to factual validity although none scored a perfect ten. Why all the twisting of the truth to make an already good story better? Well first of all, most stories do not come with that tried and true "Hollywood Ending" that viewers love so much. A story, no matter how difficult it is throughout (Hotel Rwanda anybody?) ultimately needs to have an awe-inspiring ending -- leaving the audience member uplifted and with a sense of hope.

So which movies ranked the highest and the lowest? World Trade Center received a nine on the fact meter. The story is about two NYPD officers who survived after their extraordinary heroism following the attacks on 9/11. Writer Andrea Berloff had the upper hand though as she had direct accounts from the real life survivors; whereas Sofia Coppola couldn't have a word with Marie Antoinette. If she had a dialogue with the late queen she may have found out that Manolo Blahniks were not yet available at street markets and New Order wouldn't be arriving on the scene for a couple hundred more years -- but that doesn't mean the film is any less fun.

I say, write it well, direct it well, perform it well and then maybe I won't even care if it's fact or fiction.

Last year's best actor, according to almost everyone in America, was Philip Seymour Hoffman. This year's is Forest Whitaker. But who is the better of the two? Luckily in the U.S., critics don't have to damage their brains deciding. In London, however, critics do. Thanks to later release dates in the UK, Capote is considered a 2006 movie there. So are Good Night, and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale and The Upside of Anger. All four are featured among the nominees for the London Film Critics Circle awards, which will be presented February 8.

At least Hoffman hasn't been pit against Toby Jones, the other portrayer of Truman Capote, in Infamous. The former is in the Actor race while the latter is recognized in the British Actor category.

Neither Capote nor Good Night, and Good Luck, both of which were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar were considered by the London critics for Film of the Year. Their five picks were limited to more current releases, including The Queen, which received the most nominations, with seven.

Is it obvious that The Queen is recognized so well by the Brits? Well, considering it is a British film, it qualifies for more categories than other top contenders for the major awards. It is the only title to be listed in the Film of the Year and British Film ("The Attenborough Award") categories and Helen Mirren has been nominated for Actress and British Actress, an honor she shares with Judi Dench. Without the double mentions, The Queen would be tied with The Last King of Scotland for five noms.