With Oscar trends being foremost on film fans and industry pundits minds this week, I came across this article at The Daily Beast that talks of a social faux pas committed on behalf of The Hurt Locker’s financier, urging Academy Voters
When director Kathryn Bigelow first heard that Nicolas Chartier, the Frenchman who financed and produced her film, The Hurt Locker, had sent out emails last week urging members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to vote for Hurt Locker and “not a 500M film”‘ (i.e., Avatar), the first thing she did was pick up the phone and call Jon Landau, who produced Avatar, to express her horror.
At least Bigelow did the classy thing and stepped forward distancing the film and herself from Charier’s actions before rumour and speculation buried this in some horrible grudge match.
The article goes on to say that despite their gratitude for their financial saviour (who without this film may not have been made) Chartier was a handful on the set, often prone to fits of rage and attempted to fire more than one crew member before he was politely asked to stay off the set.
Now the well meaning producer of the film has crossed the line and what he thought would be a plea for level heads has been received as an inappropriate smear campaign. Contacting the voters in any way to attempt to curry favour for votes is strictly against the Academy Rules.
Bookies are placing even odds on Hurt Locker and Avatar to win the Best Picture, and while I enjoyed Avatar a great deal for what it was, I hardly think it was Best Picture. But popularity and respect for Cameron among Academy Voters might just tip that hand.
I won’t be surprised if Avatar wins even if I think it doesn’t deserve it. This new 10 film process leaves too much room for vote sway instead of limiting the voters to the Top 5.
This fiasco is just the surface of the drama this film is stirring
On Friday, another blow came in the form of a front-page Los Angeles Times story—”The Hurt Locker Sets Off Conflict”—saying that several soldiers and Army veterans found the film an inaccurate representation of combat, and that the U.S. government had pulled its funding of the film after seeing the script.
Wait, suddenly NOW they decide to make a stink about this? So no one knew about the US Government pulling its funding from the film? This was a big secret?
Fortunately that mess hit the news AFTER the ballot deadline and can’t affect the voting.
Do you think Avatar has a shot at winning? Should it?
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