Coldplay's The Scientist Re-Imagined in the Chipotle Ad

It was probably in 2003 when phone ringtones were generally funky sounding midis, and I put Coldplay's The Scientist on my phone. I love the song, and don't really know what it's even all about, but I enjoy the ballad from the fantastic album, A Rush of Blood to the Head.

With the Grammy Awards playing in the background my eyes were instantly pulled to the screen when the song started playing on a commercial, this time with Willie Nelson singing, and a real unique picture/short film style message about more natural animal environments. The advertisement (or should I say short film) is an advertisement for Chipotle that puts a story to the song that is ad genius.

And it's kind of random in it's own way as well since this song is past it's prime coming out about 10 years ago.

The above advertisement is shared as an impressive piece of work - not as an advertisement for any benefit to this blog. I just think the video and way it uses Coldplay's hit song is pretty incredible. If you haven't seen it, enjoy.

Nine 2011 Best Picture Oscar Contenders and Their Release Date

When Touchstone Pictures released the film The Help in August of this past year, I have to trust that their choice was based on the thought that the August release date would be the best financial release date for the film. August seems to be the prime release date for a "book club favorite." This type of August release still gives it a summer film status without the early replacement by the next big superhero or talking dog movie.

Yet, as soon as the Oscar field expanded from it's traditional 5 film nomination status, I have been curious to see if that might spread out the release dates of Oscar winning films.

It's hard to tell how a widened Oscar field impact studio release plans, but at a minimum it seems like summer brings a couple Oscar nominees every year for the past couple year, with around three May/June/July/August films receiving an Oscar nomination.

2011's films were not an exception. I won't complaint about critically acclaimed films being released before thanksgiving and being remembered in time for Oscar season.

Here's a list of this year's 10 nominees in order of their non-festival US release date and number of screens on that date...

Midnight in Paris (May 20, 2011 - 6 screens)
The Tree of Life (May 27, 2011 - 4 screens)
The Help (August 10, 2011 - 2511 screens)
Moneyball (September 23, 2011 - 2933 screens)
The Descendants (November 16, 2011 - 29 screens)
Hugo (November 23, 2011 - 1277 screens)
The Artist (November 25, 2011 - 4 screens)
Warhorse (December 25, 2011 - 2376 screens)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (December 25, 2011 - 6 screens)

*Pictured above, Viola Davis in The Help.

Battleship Board Game to Movie

I certainly remember playing Battleship as a kid - it wasn't the talking battleship version ("You Sunk My Battleship") and it wasn't the original old school paper version.

But for me the vision of the Battleship game always seemed to be a war context with coordinates being used to send torpedoes or other ship related weapons to sink the ships. Perhaps the ships are masked in fog or conditions that require coordinate precision instead of the ability to judge by sight alone.

So, I'm not sure that you are allowed to have expectations when a simple board game is turned into a feature length film. Yet, the science fiction element and the previews for this film (which looks like a boring version of Transformers), certainly doesn't meet my exceptions.

I just hope Peter Berg doesn't direct more sci-fi version of games. I can only horrifically imagine an alien version of Risk, or shape shifters buying up houses on Boardwalk in Monopoly.

I have a feeling you agree.

Super Bowl Film Commercials - 2011 & 2012 Films

Over the past couple years I have been tracking Super Bowl Movie commercials and their resulting box office results to see how they fared. Last year saw a swell of film ads and this year, unless we're suprised, is a much more limited list.

Here's the link to the post from 2010 & 2011.

This year's films with Super Bowl ad treatment will include:

• The Avengers


• Battleship


• The Dictator


• John Carter


• G.I Joe 2: Retaliation


• The Hunger Games

Super Bowl Film commercials from last year are listed below - a quick look will indicated some successes and a number of failures - so perhaps that why we see fewer film commercials this year, after a swell from last year.

• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (#2 in US in 2011; $352 million domestic gross)


• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (#5; $241 million)


• Thor (#10; $181 million)


• Captain America: The First Avenger (#12; $176 million)


• Kung Fu Panda 2 (#15; $165 million)


• Super 8 (#21; $127 million)


• Just Go with It (#27; $103 million)


• Cowboys and Aliens (#29; $100 million)


• Battle: Los Angeles (#37; $83 million)


• Limitless (#40; $79 million)


• Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (#47; $73 million)


• Priest (#98; $29 million)


• The Eagle (#119; $19 million)


• Take Me Home Tonight (#147; $6.9 million)

Fiction to Film: 2012

This past year 4 of the 9 best picture nominees came from film adaptations of novels.

I've continued over the past year to track the future film adaptions of novels, whether it's classic literature, best sellers, or lesser known stories, with no prejudice to children or young adult literature.

With that in mind, and a general interest in faction-to-film adaptations, I've created the list of 2012 films based on novels. I'm sure this will be a significant part of my 2012 reading list.

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Anyone who's enjoyed the bestseller Life of Pi by Yann Martel will translate to screen, as the story largely focuses on a boy on a boat with a tiger. Ang Lee directs.

Tom Hopper follows up the success of The King Speech with a film adaptation of the musical Les Miserables based on the classic Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonhem Carter, Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, and Anne Hathaway star.

Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonhem Carter and Ralph Fiennes star in another film version of Charles Dickens' Charles Dickens' Great Expectations directed by Mike Newell.

There's already a lot of excitement for what will surely be one of the first big films of the year with the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. The film stars academy award nominee Jennifer Lawrence.

Jennifer Lawrence will also be appearing in an adaptation of Matthew Quick's The Silver Linings Playbook. The film is the follow up to David O. Russell's Oscar nomination for The Fighter and stars Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper.

Peter Jackson returns to the world of dwarfs, elves, and mysterious realms directing the first part of J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit. As a two-parter, the first part released this year is titled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and will include reprise rolls by Elijah Woods, Cate Blanchett, Andy Serkis, Ian McKellan, Orlando Bloom and Christopher Lee with the lead roll of Bilboa played by Martin Freeman.

It just somehow seems very natural that Baz Luhrmann would direct and adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Leonardo Di Caprio and Carey Mulligan will surely give inspired performances.

Lee Daniels directs an adaptation of The Paperboy by Pete Dexter, about an investigation of a death row inmate. The film stars Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and John Cusack.

Tom Hardy, Guy Pierce and Jessica Chastain all appear in the film Wettest County based on The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story.

The six related/unrelated stories of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell create an opportunity for an ensemble cast that includes Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Susan Surandon, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, and James D'Arcy. Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski brothers direct.

David Cronenberg is to be directing an adaptation of Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis, staring Robert Pattinson in a prominent lead.

Joe Wright works with acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard to adapt Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina staring Keira Knightley and Jude Law.

Oliver Stone brings a film version of Savages by Don Winslow about a Mexican cartel (led by Selma Hayek) after two successful marijuana growers with a shared girlfriend (Blake Lively).

Brad Pitt stars in a mob thriller adapted from George V. Higgins' novel Cogan's Trade.

Robert Redford directs an adaptation of The Company You Keep by Neil Gordon, a film about a Weather Underground activist on the run from a journalist. The film features Anna Kendrick, Shai LeBeouf, Stanley Tucci, Chris Cooper, Susan Surandon.

Helen Mirren stars in an adaptation of The Door by Magda Szabó.

John Madden directs The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel based on the book These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach.

Walter Salles bring Jack Kerouac's On The Road to life.

Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci and Uma Thurman star in the period piece Bel Ami based on the book by Guy de Maupassant.

Disney is certainly hoping that it's upcoming film John Carter will be a success, and if it is - there is plenty of material to keep the story going. This film is based on the book A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first of an 11 book series.

In the same year we see a legitimate biopic of Abraham Lincoln, we also see an adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith.

We also see Marc Forster direct Brad Pitt in the film adaptation of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks.

2012 will bring an accapella music comedy in an adaptation of Mickey Rapkin's Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory, staring Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow.

In franchise land, Twillight Saga's fourth book is released in cinemas as we will see part two of Stephanie Meyer's Breaking Dawn.

Fiction to Film: Oscar Nominees his Years Oscar Nominees vs the Past 10 Years

This year has the unique distinction of having 9 Best Picture nominees under the new rules.

Of those nine nominees, five are based on novels (The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, and War Horse)

Of the other four, three are original stories (The Artist, Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life) and one is based on a non-fiction book (Moneyball)

This years stat with 55% of Academy Award best picture nominees coming from novels is significantly higher then the stats for the previous 10 year.

Nominees for Best Picture from Novel from the Previous 10 Year (2001-2010 films)

• 2010 films - best picture nominees: 2 of 10 adapted from a novel (Charles Portis' True Grit; Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone)

• 2009 films best picture nominees: 2 of 10 adapted from a novel (Saphire's Push [source material for Precious]; Walter Kirn's Up in the Air)

• 2008 films best picture nominees: 2 of 5 adapted from a novel (Vikas Swarup's Q & A [source material for Slumdog Millionaire]*; Bernard Schlink's The Reader)

• 2007 film best picture nominees: 3 of 5 adapated from a novel (Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men*; Ian McEwan's Atonement; Upton Sinclaire's Oil! [source material for There Will Be Blood])

• 2006 films best picture nominees: 0 of 5 adapted from a novel

• 2005 films best picture nominees: 0 of 5 adapted from a novel

• 2004 films best picture nominees: 1 of 5 adapted from a novel (Rex Pickett's Sideways)

• 2003 films best picture nominees: 3 of 5 adapted from novels (J.R.R. Tolkein's The Return of the King*, Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander, Dennis Lehane's Mystic River)

• 2002 films best picture nominees: 2 of 5 adapted from novels (J.R.R. Tolkein's The Two Towers, Michael Cunningham's The Hours)

• 2001 films best picture nominees: 1 of 5 adapted from novels (J.R.R. Tolkein's The Fellowship of the Ring)

This years percent of Oscar nominees from Novels - 5 of 9 nominees : 55.5%

The percent of Oscar nominees coming from Novels over the previous 10 years - 16 of 60 nominees: 26.6%

*won the Oscar for best picture

Follow Up: 2011 Not an R Year

Earlier this month, I was projecting a very non-R rated Oscar nominee field predicting the only R rated film would be The Descendants. I feared I could be wrong and we'd see Ides of March, Drive, J.Edgar or even Bridesmaids or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

But 9 films were nominated, and the only R rated film was...The Descendants. Joining the ranks of 7 PG-13 films (The Artist, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, and War Horse) and one PG film (Hugo).

Which, I can appreciate, and think is an interesting occurrence, that I'm curious will mark the coming years. Perhaps it relates to film studios making more "box office safe," films that wouldn't limit the audience size by the rating, that resulted in this.

I also have to wonder about the impact of last year's film The King Speech, which was a tame movie with one foul mouth scene that sky-rocketed the rating and became somewhat of a discussion over the past year.

Even at the box office, the top 20 films only have 2 rated R movies which were summer comedies (The Hang Over Part II and Bridesmaids).

Will the not R best picture nomination trend continue? 2012 will show.

Meryl Streep - Standout Perforamances in Less-Than-Standout Films

After Meryl Streep's 16th Oscar nomination (playing Julia Child in Julie & Julia) I did a post commenting on despite Meryl Streep's many nominations, it's her performances that are strong, not the films themselves.

Now, receiving her 17th nomination portraying Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, I feel the need to reiterate that point again.

Now, of Meryl Streep's 17 Oscar nomination - only three of those films she was nominated for where nominated for best picture, and incidentally each time her film was nominated for best picture it won (The Deer Hunter, 1979; Kramer vs. Kramer, 1980; Out of Africa, 1986).

And even this year in the Best Actress race, I would venture to say that if awards were the marker of a strong film (which I realize they aren't) Meryl Streep's competition is each in a debatably stronger film.

The Iron Lady receives two Oscar nominations (Streep's nomination and a nomination for the less-prestigious Make-up category). Three of her contenders are in films which carry more nominations. Rooney Mara's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is nominated for 5 awards (primarily technical), Viola Davis' The Help has four nominations (best picture, and three female acting nominations), Glen Closes's Albert Nobbs has three nominations (two acting and make-up).

The fifth nominee, Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn also comes from a two nominee film, but those two nominations are both acting, which I would suggest Kenneth Branagh's nomination brings more weight then the make-up nomination The Iron Lady brings to the table.

But of course, nominations aren't the only judge of film. But I still thing Meryl Streep is consistent, but her choice of films leads to stand out performances in less-than-standout films.

Oscar Nomination Morning - Freeform Thoughts

Melissa McCarthy bust in for Bridesmaids.

The Supporting actor field is a little different than I would have expected - especially Max Von Syndow.

And then Damien Bachier and Gary Oldman.

Some actual surprises.

Terrance Malick for director - I thought we were past Tree of Life, maybe it will break into the questionable number of best picture nominees.

Time to brush up on my foreign films this year.

Animated films are a little higher brow then normal.

And how many best picture nominees will there be. The screen is looking big...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

And Extremely Loud gets in with a final scream during the nominations.

Here's the 9 best picture nominees:
Extremely Loud and Incredbly Close
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
Tree of Life
War Horse

The Artist - Potentially Putting Astericks In Oscar History

The last silent film to win best picture was Wings in 1927, the first year the Oscar ceremony was held.

The next year, four of the five best picture nominees were "talkies." This non-talkie and the last best picture nominee to be a silent film is 1928's The Patriot.

As for black and white films, since the 1970s to present, only six black-and-white films have been nominate for best picture. Those films: The Last Picture Show (1971); Lenny (1974); The Elephant Man (1980); Raging Bull (1980); Schindler's List (1993); and Good Night and Good Luck (2005). Even Raging Bull and Schindler's list could find them self with an asterisk for their minimal use of color within the films.

With The Artist taking home the Producer's Guild top prize and Oscar nominees around the corner, it's undeniable that The Artist is a contender and should certainly be at a minimum receiving a nomination.

So from this point forward, will we no longer consider The Patriot the last silent film, or does the minimal scenes with sound effects and talking warrant exclusion, or inclusion with an asterisk.

I don't think that there needs to be any asterisks for the black and white category, but should The Artist win it will dethrone Schindler's List from the spot of "the last black-and-white best picture nominee."

Two Best Leads And The Lack of "Big 5" Films

It hasn't been since Million Dollar Baby, a 2004 film, that a film has been nominated for the big 5. The "Big 5" is the idea of films that get nominated in Oscar's big 5 categories - Picture, Director, Lead Actor, Lead Actress and the appropriate writing category (original screenplay or adapted screenplay).

In the history of film 40 films hold this honor, and three films the honor of winning all five the nominations. Those three films are: It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

When I think about these films, and the lack of films falling into this category it seems to me the biggest limitation is that more than ever it seems like critically acclaimed films have two lead performances by a male and a female. And even when they do, one performance is classified as supporting.

And I guess that's where sometimes, the lower classification of the lesser-lead seems to shift these results. In the The Artist, I would consider that there is a female lead in the film in the role of Peppy Miller played by Bérénice Bejo. Yet instead, this role is widely considered supporting, whether by virtue of the award bodies, or the awards campaign.

So instead in the lead category for females we see females that aren't co-lead to another male, but instead lead the show, and and any male performance is supporting. This is especially true of performances by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, Glen Close in Albert Nobbs, or Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn.

The same is true for the male lead performances. George Clooney's role is clearly the lead in The Descendents, but in many ways Shailene Woodley has a lead female performance as well, and yet she's considered supporting.

Forget the idea of "Big 5," if we just talk lead actor and lead actress nominations, the last time this happened was for the 2005 film Walk The Line, when Reese Witherspoon was nominated (and won) alongside the nominated Joaquin Phoenix.

I can tell you now in advance of the Oscar nominations, that 2011 had no "Big 5" film. Who knows when we'll see the next "Big 5" film.

My 3 Year Olds First Chapter Book

This past week, I decided to pull Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl off my book shelf to read to my 3 year old.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of my favorite Roald Dahl books (#2 favorite by Dahl in fact).

And didn't know how it my three-year old daughter would handle the book, in terms of it being a chapter book and us working through it - but she absolutely loved it.

I'm not sure how appropriate it is for a three year old, but I just made some modifications to the text as I read (some times I changed the word "kill" to "hurt" for example, or "Shut up, Badger" to "Please be quiet, Badger").

But the book translated to bed time/nap reading perfectly with it's 19 very short chapters we would read two or three at a time (although she always begged for more), and every page had a picture of some sort to help the story translate for her and keep her engaged.

And her favorite part was talking about the "Smelly Farmers." My favorite part was when she would told me tonight we finished it she wanted to read it again and more books like it.

Now I just need to figure out what other chapter books we would enjoy reading together (ideally short chapters, good story, and pictures).

Will This Oscar Nomination Streak Be Broken?

Usually someone works in the industry awhile before getting an Oscar nomination.

But occassionally someone gets the buzz behind them and gets a nomination on their first shot for a work or performance that really catches the Academy's eye.

But Stephen Daldry was nominated for his first piece of work, and then his second. And then his third. His streaks could end come Oscar nomination morning this year, but anything's possible.

Stephen Daldry
Director
Oscar Nomination Streak: Daldry received best director nomination for his first three feature length films.
Films Nominated: Billy Elliot (2000); The Hours (2002); The Reader (2008)
Potential 2011 Streak Maker/Breaker: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)
Nomination Expectations: Expectations here are extremely low and incredbily far away. Only the Broadcast Film Critics Association has given him any attention with a nomination for the critics choice award.

Cinemark Movie Theater Death

There's a lot of ways to go - but this has to be one of the worst.

A man died in the bathroom of the Cinemark 16 in Fort Collins Colorado and was not found until 5 days when the movie theater smelled a stench on Saturday that led them to discover the deceased man.

There's a lot to be said here, and while this certainly seems to have enough comedy for a late night TV sketch. But not only is that unnecessary for the seriousness of the situation and the family.

I think the secondary story is that Cinemark really dropped the ball. 5 days is a long time for a bathroom (even a personal family bathroom) not to be checked and cleaned.

This story is shocking - last movie theater death I wrote about was a suicide during Watchmen in Oregon in 2009. I don't know what it is, but a movie theater seems like an awful place to day under any circumstances. I don't know if it's because it's a place of entertainment, it's a "last expected place to die," or because it seems like an unimportant place.

The the family of George DeGrazio, my heart goes out to you. To the management of Cinemark in Fort Collins, how disappointing.