A juicy exclusive by Kris Tapley over at In Contention pointing out this year’s WGA drop-offs – Beasts of the Southern Wild, Middle of Nowhere, Amour, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Rust and Bone and more. It happens every year, which is part of the reason why the WGA doesn’t predict Oscar for nominees. Most of the time, the winners do end up matching, though obviously not all – as Tapley points out, The King’s Speech wasn’t eligible for the WGA but still ended up winning Best Original Screenplay.
But the two strongest contenders in both adapted and original do qualify, Tony Kushner’s Lincoln and Mark Boal’s Zero Dark Thirty. In Contention.
Well after letting it sink in, I really did enjoy The Hobbit. The Pale Orc wasn’t that bad I guess, just different from what we saw in LOTR. I still cant stand the Goblin King though. I loved the long running time and I don’t know why the critics complained about it. Its one of my favorites of the year!
I think to myself: if you’re a writter, what’s the problem being a member of the guild?
If I was a writter, I’d like to be a member.
So…
@Paddy
While I agree that perhaps WGA doesn’t hold as much weight for Academy as some of other guilds, I think most of those movies could have really used the help with buzz, even if just a bit.
Take this Waltz and Your Sister’s Sister are pretty much cold / dead in terms of Oscar buzz while both Middle of Nowhere and Seven Psychopaths deserve more hype / support. Also, if there is a guild of writers, ALL great scripts deserve the recognition and not just the ones that have managed to jump through their pointless hoops.
Meh. Same story, different year. The WGA holds little weight with the Academy, anyway. I remember four years ago when their original screenplay lists matched up 1/5.
My wife and I both really liked the Hobbit. Perfect? No. But we are huge LOTR movie fans (not Tolkien purists) and we loved it, so to us — it did its job. When it was over, I was surprised because I wasn’t clock-watching and still thought we had another 20-30 mins to go. So the complaints critics have about the length and being bored were, to me, a sign of their inability to step outside the critical arena and view something as a fan. The movie is made for fans; it succeeds in pleasing them according to the accounts of all those in my circle of friends and family who have seen it thus far.
Really, Bball_Jake? I had some complaints about THE HOBBIT with the 48fps but then saw it in normal 3D and those complaints went away. I haven’t read the books so I don’t know if those orcs were supposed to be like that or what. It’s been my guess that the reason THE HOBBIT isn’t factoring into these lists is that it’s being judged against the LOTR trilogy instead of against this year’s movies. I’ve been watching FOTR tonight, and it’s definitely different looking in spots because of the technology but storywise it really melts together.
I just saw The Hobbit in 3D, and I have to say it was a great movie but Highly flawed. The “pale orc” CGI was terrible. I think they should have just left the orcs how they were in the LOTR films. And the big fat Goblin King guy was a little to cheesey for me. An the tree scene just wasn’t a great note to leave off on toward the end. It also lost that certain cinematography glow that LOTR had But overall it was a good film, of course not as good as LOTR, but good enough!
Seven Psychopaths, Your Sister’s Sister, Take this Waltz, Middle of Nowhere and Beast could have really used a boost but no… It’s the great annual tradition known as WGA snubs.
“But hey are a private group! But they are simply following their guidelines! But they are…” FUCK THEM.
I’ve read countless articles on their defense (Some from Pete Hammond and few others). They are trying to rationalize the whole thing but guess what? DGAs are also a guild and there are filmmakers who aren’t members yet don’t get snubbed because of stupid and unnecessary restrictions. This is like some medieval guild that is too blind to see anything beyond its own ego and “power”.