Saturday, August 06, 2011

Cameron Crowe - Will This Director Finally Be Invited to Join the Club?

When it comes to directors with name recognizably, Cameron Crowe would certainly has some name traction, for work that at times has balanced itself somewhere between popular filmography and critically embraced.

Cameron Crowe has been nominated for three Oscars (a screenplay and best picture nomination for Jerry Maguire, and he won for Best original screenplay for Almost Famous), but never received a nomination for directing, making you wonder if this year could be the year they let him "join the club."

Previous film efforts with Crowe as director:

  • Elizabethtown (2005)

  • Vanilla Sky (2001) [1 Oscar nomination, Best Original Song

  • Almost Famous (2000) [4 Oscar nominations: 2 supporting actress nods, editing, and won best original screenplay]

  • Jerry Maguire (1996) [5 Oscar nominations: best picture, original screenplay, editing, lead actor, and won supporting actor, Cuba Gooding Jr]

  • Singles (1992)

  • Say Anything (1989)

Will Cameron Crowe be invited to "join the club" with an Academy Award for his 2011 effort We Bought A Zoo?
Crowe's film is a little different from his most praised works because the screenplay is adapted, and while Crowe's hands are still on the script, the story is not in own. Instead it's source material is the memoir We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee.

This will either be a really great new move for Crowe, perhaps allowing the story to be separated from his previous work, or then again - the source material might mean that Crowe isn't able to fold in well crafted memorable lines, scenes, and human moments.

It's hard to tell how We Bought A Zoo fits into the landscape of the upcoming year, but at this point, the buzz behind the film is positive in pre-release and maybe people will be talking about Crowe more as the director of a powerful film than a smart writer.

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Previous directors in this series who have joined the club:- David Fincher (post from 2008, since then has received two director Oscar nods)
- Darren Aronofsky (post from 2008, Aronofsky was nominated in 2011 for Black Swan)

Previous directors in this series who still have not joined the club:- Cristopher Nolan (post from 2008, since then two more nods, but not for directing)
- Edward Zwick (post from 2008, and additional 2010 post, still no additional nominations)

2 comments:

Lorna said...

Directors have to work so hard for their time in the sun. I think he should be in the club on the basis of Almost Famous, but that's just me.

NeverTooEarlyMP said...

I'm hopeful for Crowe, but there are so many returning veterans in this category this year. I wish they would spread the wealth a bit more.