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Is Busy Viggo Mortensen First in Line For Oscar Tuxedo Sizing?
Posted by STV at 5:00 AM on August 26, 2008
In the spirit of reader participation, we'll leave it to you to determine the good and bad news among this year's crop of Viggo Mortensen films. For starters: Can the 2007 Oscar nominee climb his way back into Academy hearts with nary a nude, bloody bathhouse throwdown in three movies? Sure, suggests one observer, who points out that beyond roles in the Western Appaloosa and the Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road, Viggo has a fail-safe ace in the hole to unveil this December. Sort of, anyway; assuming it can overcome its distributor's ongoing cash woes, Good is apparently just the kind of Holocaust film for which Oscar voters swoon. Still, disadvantages persist:
Mortensen adores Good, which ThinkFilm plans to release by year's end. But the film is directed by Brazilian director Vicente Amorim, who is not in the Academy directors' club.
Mortensen's third fall pic, John Hillcoat's film version of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road, wasn't ready for the film fests. The 2929 Entertainment pic is set for release November 26 by Dimension/MGM, which suggests that despite its literary pedigree (and the Oscar Best Picture win for No Country for Old Men, based on McCarthy's book), the film may not be on Harvey Weinstein's Oscar must-push list.
Nevertheless, Hillcoat's follow-up to his bleak, brilliant Aussie Western The Proposition got a once-over in New York Magazine's fall preview issue, with Hillcoat indirectly slagging the likes of Cloverfield ("We wanted something more resonant than, you know, the Statue of Liberty cut in half") while keeping mum on Viggo's performance as a father dragging his son through the ashy aftermath of apocalypse. Until we can judge for ourselves, we have the stills above to turn us on/off. Correct us if we're wrong, but like another pivotal dramaturgical maxim of our era, no one we know ever won an Oscar after going "Full Shopping Cart."
- Awards Season Watch: Mortensen Trifecta [Thompson on Hollywood]
- Dossier: John Hillcoat [NYM]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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HelloBastards
Posted 5:55 AM 26/8/08
@LBJeffries:
True that, LBJ! I heard those thirds.
HelloBastards
LBJeffries
Posted 5:45 AM 26/8/08
If The Road is 1/3 as good as the book then that is a role that should have no problem getting him at least a nomination.
Also, if The Road is 1/3 as good as the book, I'm going to weep in the theater.
LBJeffries
bess marvin, girl detective
Posted 5:24 AM 26/8/08
aren't oscar voters offended by how some movies pander to them? then again this is hollywood. never mind, carry on degenerates
bess marvin, girl detective
picardia
Posted 5:18 AM 26/8/08
@Juancho: But who can forget the upcoming Oscar favorite "Valkyrie"?
::/sarcasm::
picardia
Xylo
Posted 5:14 AM 26/8/08
Defiance looks good. Also, Appaloosa has Renée Zellweger in it. Just sayin'.
Xylo
Juancho
Posted 5:06 AM 26/8/08
Also, there's a much higher-profile Holocaust film as Oscar-bait this fall.
Juancho
Juancho
Posted 5:05 AM 26/8/08
Considering its budget, I think Appaloosa is going be a very healthy return for its investors. I think it'll do the kind of business LionsGate thought 3:10 to Yuma would.
Juancho
Little Mintz Sunshine
Posted 6:40 AM 26/8/08
@Xylo: Wow...I took Renee more for a Shetland Pony. I guess that's why I'm not in casting.
Little Mintz Sunshine
inkydinkydo
Posted 7:12 AM 26/8/08
Viggo makes my vaggo go va-va-voom! Put him in a tux. Put him behind a shopping cart. Put him in cowboy boots.
Just put him close enough for me to get to....please?
inkydinkydo
Soy Bomb
Posted 6:52 AM 26/8/08
Poor Thomas Jane could not have been happy the studio replaced him with Viggo Mortensen to revitalize the HOMELESS DAD franchise.
Soy Bomb
Sleepyhead
Posted 7:35 AM 26/8/08
It's The Road for which he'll be nommed and win. I'll link back here in six months so as to crow about how prognosticatingly awesome I am.
Sleepyhead
Huge Tracts of Land
Posted 7:14 AM 26/8/08
If Viggo naked wrestles with dudes in these movies, he gets all the Oscars of my heart. Free your wang, the awards will follow!
Huge Tracts of Land
Little Mintz Sunshine
Posted 7:44 AM 26/8/08
"...which ThinkFilm plans to release by year's end."
Good luck with that.
Little Mintz Sunshine
raincoaster
Posted 9:46 AM 26/8/08
If there were an Oscar for Creative Facial Hair he'd have a lock on it.
It's good to see the guy come into his own. He struggled for twenty solid years before hitting the LOTR jackpot, and his work is good; the harder the role, the better it is.
Also: really, really pretty.
raincoaster
Xylo
Posted 10:30 AM 26/8/08
@Little Mintz Sunshine: Well, now; you might have something there: [en.wikipedia.org]
I didn't think Leatherheads was such a bad little movie (except for the ridiculous Keystone-cops routine in the middle), but honestly, Clooney must have been high or drunk casting her as the "sexy, witty journalist". Surely he's met a few in his day??
Xylo
Miss d
Posted 3:03 PM 30/8/08
If The Road stays true to the book - be prepared to be bummed out for a long,long time... The Academy would go for it more if it was in French or German, though...
Miss d