Sasha Stone has been around the Oscar scene since 1999. Almost everything on this website is her fault.
Better late than never! Barbie was placed in Adapted at the Oscars but is in the Original Screenplay category here,...
Read moreThe Academy should take a bow this morning for bringing back the Oscars, restoring them to their former glory in...
Read moreThe Golden Globes went off well enough this past year that CBS has signed a five-year deal with the Globes...
Read more
Thank you for your good sharing.
Day Lewis may as well wrap up his Oscar in Christmas tissue paper.
. . . or will Anthony Hopkins in “Hitchcock” give him a run for his money?
. . . or will the Academy shy away from handing Day Lewis an unprecedented third Best Actor Oscar?
The only other performers to win three or more were: Katharine Hepburn (won 4 lead), Meryl Streep (2 leads/1 supporting), Ingrid Bergman (2 leads/1 supporting) and Walter Brennan (3 supporting actor trophies).
I’m not sure the Academy will want to annoint him that many times. It took Streep a lonnnnnnnnggggg time before her elevation to that status.
To me, this film will rise and fall with how much they let Kushner be Kushner. He’s a deeply intellectual artist, probably a greater thinker than those who consume his art. Sometimes he’s so recondite (I got that word from a thesaurus!) that the viewer simply can’t keep up. He just works at a different level than most people.
Which is, in my opinion, the complete antithesis of Spielberg who cleverly disguises how much he dumbs down his work so i’ts readily consumed by the masses. Spielberg is not a deep thinker, at least it’s not evident in his work.
The two don’t seem to match, Kushner and Spielberg. And how the two bridge the gap is going to be fascinating to watch (at least I hope it will be. Kushner will want his script to be full of ideas and he will want to draw parallels with today, Spielberg will want to make hsi audience “feel” and will likely include heartwrenching scenes of slavery and Civil War battle scenes. There’s certainly room for both in this film and if they find the right balance, it might reach heights of greatness that Spielberg hasn’t achieved.
With all that said, I’m extraordinarily skeptical and just think Kushner needed the paycheck because it’s been over 15 years since Angels in America and he desperately needs a commercial success. And Spielberg is tired of playing second fiddle to the Coens and to Anderson and to Scorcese and to several others who have passed him by and he needs some intellectual heft in order to compete with them. This looks like a prestige grab to me, nothing more, nothing less.
Unlikely DDL will blow the chance as he did with Nine. But Nine was not a great source material to begin with. Now are the AMPAS willing to hand him a third Oscar to make him the first actor to win three times in best actor category? That would put him right behind Katherine Hepburn. Kind of crazy as DDL was never a big star, a box office draw although a great actor.
On the other hand, DDL is my personal favorite actor still actively working today. He should have won a supporting Oscar for A Room with a View and My Beautiful Laudrette.
Rufussondheim, consider the fop in Room with a View, the gay punk in My Beautiful Laundrette, the prisoner from In the Name of the Father. I wasn’t keen on Gangs of NY (alway refer to it as his version of Cat in the Hat), but the quieter moments in TWBB are truly brilliant, much more so than the “big” moments. I agree he needs a strong director to keep hold of the reins, but there aren’t many guys around with his range or guts to go for it.
Will Spielberg do the bi-polar, migraine-plagued Lincoln with the wacky Mary Todd? Probably not too deeply, but hope he doesn’t monumentalize too much and let’s these actors show their stuff.
Poster now then trailer later.
Exactly The Iron Lady’s marketing strategy.
And DDL is a much better actor than that one-range Nicholson.
It won’t have to be the biggest bomb in history to not win awards, it just has to be on par with Spielberg’s recent efforts to not win awards.
And how is Sally Field the perfect choice? I never knew Mary Todd was known for her pluckiness.
I’ve been looking forward to this for almost a year now and seeing this poster only wets the appetite even more. The cast is just incredible and Field as Mary Todd was a perfect choice. This film will have to be one of the biggest bombs in history to not pick up awards all over the place. DDL is going to be amazing. I think Les Miz will give it a run for it’s money but I have a feeling this will even surpass Schindler.
I’m not going to lie, I’m not a huge DDL fan. I can see his tecnical brilliance every film I see him in, but I just don’t care about his characters and usually find his films to be pretty boring. Not sure if it’s him or the filmmaker behind this. But I never saw Gangs of New York (Scorcese generally bores me unless I find the subject material interesting) and still haven’t seen There Will Be Blood (I love PT Anderson, but this film came out when I was way too busy with life to see many movies.) If any other actor were in TWBB I would have checked it out by now. But with him, sorry, just not getting the motivation.
Although I do recognize that The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Last of the Mohicans are two very good films, but I like both movies in spite of my lack of spark at his two performances.
The last time DDL went up against Nicholson, they tied for two major awards with Day-Lewis winning the New York critics. I will always believe they split the vote giving Brody the Oscar in what sadly looks more and more like a fluke. Currently, Day-Lewis is the actor’s actor with performers as varied as Russell Crowe and Javier Bardem proclaiming him the greatest living actor. Remember also that the admittedly remarkable 3 Oscars for Streep and Nicholson include one Supporting award. Only Katherine Hepburn won 4 Best Actress. No one is talking household name. We are talking greatness.
Ha! Almost never?
When you line up all the roles DDL has played in his career, you have to wonder why he doesn’t have a mantle full.
I agree, Steve, he’s a great actor. But how often does Oscar come down to the best performance of the year?
The last time I can say with 100% confidance that the best performance won in a lead category and there was no politics involved was Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry. Every award since then I can say that something led to them winning other than the performance (The person was a big star, the movie was loved so the performance won as well, they were due, and so on…)
I agree with Steve50, while DDL has not been around as long as Queen Meryl and Nicholson, he is awfully close to that league. When he decides to make a big, budget movie with a big time director, they tend to become big, event movies for movie nerds.
“…isn’t in the same league as Streep and Nicholson”
Beg to differ – DDL is in the same league as these two, imo. He may not have the star quality, whatever that’s worth, but his chops are up there with Streep’s and his range far beyond Jack’s. He is the single reason I would bother with this and his participation in the project makes it a must-see.
The poster would`ve been even better if they didn`t put title on it but just let that DDL picture speak for itself. Like Harry Potter posters with only date of release on it. Yes, it`s that powerful and very game over as far as Best Actor goes.
MUCH more excited over this than if they had gone (as it was to be originally) with Liam Neeson. Liam is a very good actor, but DDL is
fantastic. i still think he should have 3 already by now (the second
from THE CRUCIBLE)
And people who have seen John Hawkes claim that it is his year, and the ones who have seen Phoenix says the same….
It’s a crowded field this year, alright. Hawkes, Phoenix, Day-Lewis and Jackman seem like good bets already, which is kind of the problem with Oscar. We have almost already decided on four slots, even though only a fraction of voters or on-lookers have seen the films in question. Sure, we are having this debate every season. But it is a bit discouraging that every time there is a supposedly strong field (or what is perceived as a strong field in advance based on hype and the calibre of the stars), the field seems to narrow accordingly. That’s why best actress is shaping up to be more exciting this year, precisely because no one can say for certain who will be in contention for real. The trajectory of the two main acting races therefore seem extremely divergent this year: The known unknowns vs. the unknown unknowns (to try out a probably ill-conceived Rumsfeld paraphrase).
This is where DDL is going to get credit for being a huge risktaker. He can play Lincoln any way he chooses and he’s going to get major kudos just because he looks the part.
Everyone’s going to pretend to be an expert on Lincoln mannerisms when the film’s released and say DDL nailed it. Of course there’s no footage of him so he can pretty much do anything he wants.
Of course he won’t win a third Oscar. Only four actors have done this and they are all iconic Hollywood celebrities. DDL is probably not even a household name, and certainly isn’t in the same league as Streep and Nicholson, the two surviving 3+ award winners.
It’s Jackman’s year. Take it to the bank.
DDL looks great on the poster! I am so excited about this movie.
They should just give Oscar on the basis of the poster alone. But I have a sneaking suspicion Hugh Jackman is gonna crush it in Les Mes…
Playing a real person= Oscar nod or win. No doubt Day-Lewis will be frontrunner come Oscar time. Ditto film and director.
@Jesse
“Meryl Streep as Pontius Pilate in 2015!”
I got seriously excited when I read that lol. I even went on IMDb to see if it was real, and was very much let down when it wasn’t.
Even though I like DDL as much as most I almost can’t contain my joy in the fact that Sally Field finally is back in a big movie. I’m betting money on her getting a nomination!
Oh My God!
He doesn’t look like a vampire hunter.
“It will be a shock when you see a walking and talking Lincoln. ”
There was one of those (mechanical Lincoln’s) at the 1964/65 NY World’s Fair, right next to It’s a Small World (Pepsi pavilion).
His voice wasn’t that high-pitched, even though he had a rod up is backside.
First time I saw Lincoln talk or had a Bavarian waffle. I’ll have to smuggle a Bw into the theater for old times sake.
here’s hoping for an oscar for my man tony kushner!
Can’t Fucking Wait.
Julian, you know the statue is as still (and serious-looking) as this. People are familiar with it. It will be a shock when you see a walking and talking Lincoln. Especially if he speaks in alleged high tone. That would not be a problem for DDL, we know he has a high voice. Even in his fifties. I hope he’s a little gay, too.
Good one sheet. But not as good as the one with Meryl Streep as Pontius Pilate in 2015!
I think this looks uninspired and predictable, which is probably perfect from a market-perspective.
@Geremy
I was going to write something about the billing, too. I’m not sure it’s an indication of screen time, though… more like a combination of screentime, name recognition, and other factors. Sally Field was always going to recieve second billing regardless of screentime simply because she plays Mary Todd. Tommy Lee Jones receiving the “And” credit solidifies speculation that he has what is considered the key supporting role. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is probably on there more for name recognition than for screentime, because in an interview when asked if playing Robert Todd Lincoln was a big part, he responded by saying it’s “A great part”, meaning it’s probably not that sizeable, but has an impact nonetheless. Hal Holbrook has said he only has a couple scenes, and both of them are with Day-Lewis, so he’s likely on there more for name recognition (he played Lincoln in an excellent 1975 miniseries, so that might be part of it, too).
But Strathairn and Spader are interesting… we know David Strathairn’s part (Seward) is another key supporting role, so he’s credited there for screentime, and since James Spader isn’t as much of a household name, we should probably assume he is, too, especially considering the other actors who could have been credited: Bruce McGill, Tim Blake Nelson, John Hawkes, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jackie Earle Haley, Jared Harris, Walton Goggins, Lee Pace, David Oyelowo…
Tero your probably right about them putting a hold on the trailer; great marketing technique on there part. I am going to guess though that the trailer will be released this weekend or when Lawless comes out next week. Should be a great Spielberg flick!
Mother of God – that is hot!!
(oops – wrong thread)
I’m waiting for that parody pic with a milkshake and a straw. His position is perfect for that. And I don’t have to make it, cause I know it’s coming.
MASTER actor, and a sure-nominee he is. You can’t bet against it. Phoenix and everyone else is not going to get the Oscar without serious campaigning.
Amazing looking poster. I am riveted for this movie.
Noticing the billing order after DDL:
Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, AND Tommy Lee Jones. If this reflects screen time at all then that pretty much locks Fields for Supporting Actress; unless she goes lead, in which case she will still be a likely contender. Strathairn and JGL are now also contenders. Spader and Holbrook are probably out of the running. Tommy Lee Jones with the AND likely has some scene-stealer moments, and considering he’s playing Thaddeus Stevens, one of my all time favorite characters of American political history, I’d expect nothing less.
I’m really liking this poster. When was the last time a Spielberg film had a different font for poster credits? Seems like they were always the same.
I have a feeling that they really have something here, and want to hold the trailer so it will not be over-hyped for Oscars. Guessing it will be 3+ hours, too.
That man being Daniel Day Lewis of course.
The poster has a very clear message – “You know you want to give that man a third oscar, so we’ll try to make it a nobrainer”
Now, that’s a poster.
Not intended as a criticism, but the image on the poster has had some work done to straighten the bump in the bridge of DDL’s nose and to slim down his ear — to better match the profile we know from the penny.
Whether the poster reflects some new prosthetic tricks we’ll see in the movie not evidenced in the first look we got a few weeks ago, or if it’s just enhanced for the purpose of the poster — who knows. Doesn’t matter. It’s uncanny either way.
But it’s a choice the art designers made a some point. I’m only noticing and appreciating their attention to those details.
(the poster nose is almost too aquiline now. But all’s fair in War and Photoshopping.)
I am really starting to get on the bandwagon for this film. While Spielberg has done some fine, fine work since ’93, it would not at all surprise me to see this one reach the same level that his classics have reached.
Seems like – on paper – the perfect marriage of actor + director + material.
Yeahhh! Really waitintg for this. Daniel is really “man of 1000 faces”. If it will be a little good all main Oscars will go to LINCOLN.
Yeah. If I don’t get to see a trailer soon, I’m going to have a stroke.
By the way, does anyone have anything about the trailer? I am thinking it might be released this weekend when Premium Rush is released, since Spielberg and director David Koepp have a history of working with one another. But I am not sure, I am just guessing anyways hope to hear some feedback! Thanks!
Now all we need is a trailer! They’ve been talking about this film for a very very long time. I think this will be Spielberg’s best film since Schindler’s List. Lets hope for the best for Spielberg!