Slumdog takes its Best Picture Oscar to DVD!

That's right kids, one of the releases this week on DVD is the film that took home the big prize at the Academy Awards this past year. It also happens to be my PICK OF THE WEEK. In case you haven't figured it out by now, it's:
Slumdog Millionaire
Now, I know I wasn't the biggest fan of this film (though it still cracked my top 10) on the site, and in fact was probably one of the few people in general that felt the film was very good, but not as amazing as it was made out to be, but the fact remains that it's a quality film. I had no real complaints about it, and that's a compliment in and of itself. If you like having Best Picture winners on DVD, this is a fine one to pick up.
-Also out this week are a couple of very decent family films. Adam Sandler's Disney adventure Bedtime Stories is nothing special, but it's harmless fun, and Marley and Me is a perfect movie for families. It's also nothing special, but the dog is entertaining and the film is never too annoying or cute.
-We also have Will Smith's far too earnest melodrama Seven Pounds, which could have been much better than it turned out, and the spanish time travel film Timecrimes, which got almost no release but was very interesting. It's worth a look if you come by it on DVD.
-My Vintage pick this week is the Paul Rudd-led ensemble film Diggers. An interesting look at friends in Long Island during the 70's, it features Rudd's best performance to date, and that alone should make it worth a look.
-What will you be watching on DVD this week?

A job for Simon Beaufoy off his Slumdog win

From The Hollywood Reporter:
Simon Beaufoy has his first post-Oscar gig.The "Slumdog Millionaire" writer, who walked away with the Academy Award for adapted screenplay last month, is working on the script for DreamWorks Animation's "Truckers." The project is in the early development stages, and nothing is known about the story line.Recent blog-fanned rumors that Beaufoy had been hired to write "Wolverine 2" were unfounded, though he did have a conversation with"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" producer Lauren Shuler Donner about the project.The animation process is drawn-out for writers and involves years of give and take with storyboard artists, animators and executives as they provide input and create scenes. But Beaufoy isn't the first scribe to take the gold and dive right into animation: Michael Arndt, who won the original screenplay Oscar for 2006's "Little Miss Sunshine," packed his bags for Pixar to work on the script for the forthcoming "Toy Story 3" after winning his statuette.Beaufoy, repped by the Rod Hall Agency and Thompson Street Entertainment, earned an Oscar nom for "The Full Monty."
-Interesting direction for him to go in...thoughts?

Slumdog also was a hit with the Cinematographers

Variety has this quick hit:

"Slumdog Millionaire" continued its winning ways on Sunday night when the American Society of Cinematographers awarded the film's d.p., Anthony Dod Mantle its feature film prize at the 23rd Annual ASC Awards ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. The award follows top honors bestowed on "Slumdog" by SAG, DGA, PGA, WGA and the Art Directors Guild.
The Brit d.p. -- an Oscar nominee whose largely hand-held work consisted of a combination of digital and 35 mm imagery -- also has won cinematography kudos from BAFTA and Camerimage, the Polish film fest devoted to the art of cinematography.
In television, Nelson Cragg won the episodic TV award for his work on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ("For Gedda"), while David Stockton took home the TV movie/miniseries/pilot award for "Eleventh Hour." Both shows air on CBS.
The evening also included a slew of honorary laurels, including the ASC Board of Governors Award presented to "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan; the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award to Jack Green, best known for his d.p. work with Clint Eastwood, who presented the award; the ASC International Achievement Award to Aussie lenser Donald McAlpine ("Romeo + Juliet," "Moulin Rouge!"); the ASC Career Achievement in Television Award to Robert Liu ("Desperate Housewives"); and the ASC Presidents Award to Isidore Mankofsky.
Other presenters included actors Amy Adams and Simon Baker, director Paul Mazursky and d.p. Wally Pfister, who was also a nominee for his work on "The Dark Knight."
-It's all looking more and more inevitable...thoughts?

The Usual Suspects win the ACE Eddie Awards

Yes, indeed, Slumdog was joined by a man on a wire and a certain robot as this years winners...so, in short:

Drama: Slumdog Millionaire

Comedy: WALL-E

Documentary: Man on Wire

-Thoughts?

And Finally, to Sum Up the WGA Awards...

Waltz with Bashir wins for Documentary.

-So to summarize the WGA awards, the winners were Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire, Dustin Lance Black for Milk, and Ari Folman for Waltz with Bashir....thoughts?

An Update from the WGA Awards

Seems that Slumdog Millionaire has won for Adapted...big shock.
-More as we hear it...

M. Night Shyamalan gets a Slumdog for Avatar

Night appears hard at work on this, as Variety reports:

"Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel has joined the cast of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender," the Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Films live-actioner based on a Nick TV series.
Patel will be featured alongside newcomer Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone and Jessica Jade Andres. Production begins in mid-March in Greenland.
In casting Patel and Ringer, a director accustomed to delivering plot twists to audiences got some surprises of his own. Ringer is a complete unknown who was tapped for the title role off an Internet audition. Patel, meanwhile, steps into a role that Jesse McCartney had all but locked up until the actor's second career as a musician got in the way.
"Jesse had tour dates that conflicted with a boot camp I always hold on my films, and where the actors here have to train for martial arts," Shyamalan said.
Patel was "already one of the guys I was interested in. Then I saw 'Slumdog Millionaire,' and the kid just grew in my eyes," he said.
Tyro thesp Ringer will play Aang, the film's lead, who is the last of a race of people who can manipulate the elements of air.
Ringer, a 12-year-old from Texas, landed the part after demonstrating his martial arts skills in an Internet vid that he posted to a website Shyamalan set up for open virtual auditions.
Patel will play Zuko, a member of the Fire Nation. Peltz plays the Water Tribe rep Katara, while Andres is the Earth Kingdom's representative, Suki.
While McCartney was knocked out by scheduling, Rathbone managed to work around a conflict with "New Moon," where he will reprise his role as a bloodsucker from "Twilight."
Paramount is set to release "Airbender on July 2, 2010.
Shyamalan said he is planning a three-picture story arc.

-Perhaps he can get back on track with this...

Danny Boyle wins the DGA!

In the last day or two it seemed like some people were readying themselves for an upset, but it was not to be, as Boyle, along with Ari Folman's Documentary win for Waltz with Bashir, were the events of the night, as The Hollywood Reporter, well...reports:

The Little Movie That Could can do no wrong. Danny Boyle has just been handed the DGA Award for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film for "Slumdog Millionaire."Boyle walked away with the honor Saturday night during the DGA's annual awards ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), Gus Van Sant ("Milk"), Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") and Ron Howard ("Frost/Nixon"), who won the award in 1995 and 2001, also were nominated.It was Boyle's first DGA nomination.It's been a miracle year for Boyle, the 52-year-old British director of "Shallow Grave," "Trainspotting," "A Life Less Ordinary," "The Beach," "28 Days Later…," "Millions" and "Sunshine." He's already been named the year's best director by several critics groups and took the top director's prize at the Golden Globes."Slumdog" almost didn't make it into theaters when Warner Independent folded, until audiences at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals responded fervently to its heartwarming story of a Mumbai street orphan with a shot at 20 million rupees. Fox Searchlight subsequently picked up and distributed the film, which has now grossed more than $75 million worldwide and earned 10 Oscar nominations.The DGA Award for feature film has traditionally been an excellent predictor of the Oscar race. Only six times since 1948, when the guild began giving out awards, has the DGA Award gone to a director who didn't then win the Oscar. Those awards will be handed out Feb. 22.Recent winners of the DGA Award are Joel and Ethan Coen in 2007, for "No Country for Old Men"; Martin Scorsese in 2006, for "The Departed"; Ang Lee in 2005, for "Brokeback Mountain"; and Clint Eastwood in 2004, for "Million Dollar Baby."

-Congrats, now make room for your Oscar Danny.

Slumdog wins the Scripter...like there was ever any doubt?

Yes, the expected win went down, and here's the LA Times with a quick story on it:

"Slumdog Millionaire" won the USC Libraries 22nd annual Scripter Award on Friday evening.The Scripter honors both the author and the screenwriter of the year's best book-to-film adaptation. This year's award went to Vikas Swarup, the author of "Q&A," and Simon Beaufoy, who adapted Swarup's book for the screen as "Slumdog Millionaire."
The other four finalists were "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Reader," "Revolutionary Road" and "Iron Man.""Slumdog," which swept the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards, has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards and is considered a favorite to win the best picture Oscar at the awards ceremony, to be held Feb. 22 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.Michael Chabon ("Wonder Boys") received the Scripter Literary Achievement Award.
The winners were announced at a ceremony at USC's Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library. Jamie Lee Curtis was the host.

-The march continues...