Sheldon Turner, acclaimed screenwriter of Up in the Air, is moving into the director’s chair. Variety reports that Turner will be directing By Virtue Fall, based on his own script.

During awards season, Jason Reitman, who directed and co-wrote UITA, wanted sole writing credit for the film. Turner had already written a script and sold it to Warner Bros. before Reitman even got started on the project. Eventually, the WGA ruled that the two must share credit. This definitely hurt the director’s reputation, and may have caused the duo’s snub at the Oscars. (Reitman and Turner now say they have no hard feelings for each other.)

By Virtue Fall is centered on “a man who is framed by his mentor and winds up in prison. Once released, he’s fixated on getting revenge on his former partner, who has flourished in his new life and tried to cleanse himself of the past.”

The film is being produced and financed by Hurt Locker producer Nicholas Chartier through Voltage Pictures. Coincidentally, Chartier also was involved in an Oscar controversy when he was banned from attending the ceremony following an email he sent out urging voters not to vote for Avatar.

Turner said that he wants the film “to stand on the strength of the characters and the power of the performances. This is a film that’s designed to showcase and challenge two great actors.” If he can get two fantastic actors on a less than $20 million dollar budget, this may turn out well.

Although Turner has shown his writing skills, directing is an entirely different animal. He has thought about directing before, but decided to take the plunge because he “cannot imagine anyone else directing this script.” Hopefully, he can take a great written story and successfully realize it on film.

By Virtue Fall is set to begin production September.

Think of it as ‘The Bourne Locker’. Director Paul Greengrass (United 93) and his action muse Matt Damon have teamed up a third time to bring us The Green Zone, a frenzied, fast-paced war thriller that races through the turbulent streets of Baghdad looking for elusive WMDs.

It’s probably fortunate for Damon and the gang that this is opening in the wake of Bigelow’s Oscar win, because they are going to need that initial interest. Once you’ve seen The Green Zone, you aren’t likely to think much on it either way.

The Green Zone is a fictional adventure based off of the details collected in Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a book by former Washington Post writer Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Chandrasekaran’s book and Greengrass’ film return to the milieu of Iraq in 2003 and casts a long look at the invasion itself and the faulty intel that brought it about.

All these years later, I imagine there are few that will argue that a mistake was made in regards to pinpointing the existence of those weapons in Iraq. Placing exact blame on the factors responsible is harder. What The Green Zone argues is that manipulation and conspiracy exist at the center, and a complex plot is married to typical action clichés to make the story palatable for an audience that goes to the movies to be entertained.

Greengrass understands that last point, and that this is largely the reason previous war films backfired. They were showing up to kick and pull at a wound still fresh in the mind of many Americans, and stab, stab, stab at a subject that not even all are in agreement on. The Hurt Locker worked because of its distance from the political machinations on high and its closeness to the actual soldier down on the ground, ducking and covering.

What Greengrass misses, however, is that Bigelow was working to tell a unique story with action tools, not cleverly cloud a heated political message with Jason Bourne charging through the Middle-East on a mission of righteous indignation, followed by a camera that appears to be tethered to a tilt-a-whirl.

The movie is not a bad one, however, and it does work as a rather breathless thrill ride, at least for a while. Damon plays Roy Miller, the chief warrant officer in Baghdad after the U.S. occupation. Miller is responsible for tracking down the WMDs and with each new, failed attempt to find anything he’s growing more and more impatient. Much of this has to do with the fact his team is sustaining casualties as they proceed. Miller is getting conflicted information too; bureaucrat Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) is insistent that the intelligence they have is correct while a CIA agent, Mark Brown, tells Roy that they aren’t going to find any WMDs at any of the sites and that the alleged informant ‘Magellan’ is a ruse.

The story that follows is a labyrinthine track through the turbulent world of Iraq after the liberation a jaunt through all kinds of political skullduggery with Damon’s Miller at the very heart of it, plunging in to discover, if he can, where the truth actually lies. Eventually Miller finds himself being shot at by his own men, and when he goes on the run, things heat up. Greengrass has visually designed The Green Zone as less in-your-face and aggressive than his previous two Bourne movies, but it fails to really capture the structure and reality of United 93, his compelling look at the occupants of that fateful flight on 9/11. The camera moves less, but there’s still the shaky, agitated cam movements that are starting to lose any interest or impact they might have had these days. What he does get right is the pacing.

This is a terrifically tense film for almost of all its running time, and regardless of political positions or affiliations, viewers will be drawn in by Miller’s quest and the twists and turns that he encounters. It’s hard to argue with an action movie well done and a charismatic, focused lead. Damon works in this role because he worked as Bourne, and he uses that performance and character as shorthand to get the audience on his side and believe he’s a man of action capable of the things he’s doing in this movie.

What ultimately strands me though is the shifting focus of the film. While it’s approached as a direct indictment of the administration of the time, and as a kind of ‘real life’ conspiracy theory, Greengrass and his screenwriter Brian Helgeland don’t allow the movie to exist as a plausible drama for very long. It devolves quickly into the kinds of action tropes and lazy storytelling short hand you see all the time in would-be adrenaline rush, popcorn thrillers. It just isn’t the right choice for the material. There are two movies here. One is sharp and provocative, although lacking in conviction, and the other is straight forward and boisterous, handing out the action it thinks moviegoers are looking for. It may sound like the protests of a Philistine, but just give me the action movie next time.

The result of this restless combination is that although it’s riveting while you watch it, the very moment Green Zone ends it begins to fade away into the grainy, blurred vortex that the last few Bourne pictures occupy. All these months later I still have the visuals of Bigelow’s bomb unit uncovering a dead Iraqi child with an explosive sewn into his chest. On the ride home, Miller’s Jack Bauer antics had all but vanished from the forefront, leaving little lasting impression.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Here it is at last! The 2010 Academy Awards! Who’s bringing home the Oscars? James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow, or will Tarantino stage an upset? Will The Dude Lebowski have a best actor win under his belt? The stars are crossing the Red Carpet right now and in a few hours Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will be hosting 82nd Academy Awards.

Prior the main event, you can check out the AP staff picks for all of the winners and check back often as I’ll be updating all the wins with my own commentary as the evening progresses. Feel free to drop your own guesses and thoughts on the evening as it progresses.

Me, I’m pulling for District 9 for best screenplay!

See you at the Oscars!

Updated! The entire list of winners with my thoughts and earlier predictions below:

— Motion Picture: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart.”

— Actress: Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side.”

— Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds.”

— Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”

— Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker.”

— Foreign Film: “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Argentina.

— Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”

— Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker.”

— Animated Feature Film: “Up.”

— Art Direction: “Avatar.”

— Cinematography: “Avatar.”

— Sound Mixing: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Sound Editing: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Original Score: “Up,” Michael Giacchino.

— Original Song: “The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart,” Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

— Costume: “The Young Victoria.”

— Documentary Feature: “The Cove.”

— Documentary (short subject): “Music by Prudence.”

— Film Editing: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Makeup: “Star Trek.”

— Animated Short Film: “Logorama.”

— Live Action Short Film: “The New Tenants.”

— Visual Effects: “Avatar.”

Best actor in a supporting role:

Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Matt Damon in Invictus
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Updated:  And the first award of the night goes to Christoph Waltz! No surprises there, but it’s nice to see him win. Waltz was a fantastic villain and it’s good to see new fresh faces take home awards. A nice short acceptance speech that thanked his  fellow filmmakers on ‘embarking on this journey.’

My guess: With the exception of Tucci, who was one-note in a revolting role, all of these performances were good. But it’s Waltz who really zings in Inglorious Basterds and elevates the movie he’s in with his presence. Waltz also doesn’t come with the baggage these others have, allowing the Academy to really focus on the singular work he’s done here.

 Matt’s Pick: Christoph Waltz

Creth’s Pick: Christoph Waltz

Brett’s Pick: Christoph Waltz

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Animated feature film

 
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)
The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)
Coraline (Henry Selick)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)
The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)

Absolutely loved the way they introduced this award, with each of the animated protagonists briefly talking about being nominated. Great way to quickly showcase the films and give the Oscar telecast some pep it’s lacking in the awkward Baldwin/Martin team-up. As I watched this I was reminded how great all of these movies are. And Up wins of course! Nice to see Pete Doctor thank his wife and family! Nice, touching moment with a cutaway to his wife in the audience.

My pick: Up has this one in the bag. The fact it was nominated for a best picture it has no chance of winning pretty much clinches it. Pixar is almost always an unstoppable beast in this category. Confession though: It’s not even close to being my favorite of the five choices. I’m a much bigger fan of Mr. Fox and Coraline, which were both odd and brilliant in equal measure. Disney had a great return to form with Princess and Secret of Kells, the mysterious visitor to the list, is a great little bit of art.

Matt’s Pick: Up

Creth’s Pick: Up

Brett’s Pick: Up

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Music (original song)  

Almost There, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname, from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
Take it All, from Nine by Maury Yeston
The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

The Weary Kind wins the award and takes home the Oscar! Interesting though, have they stopped performing Oscar nominated songs? Usually this one comes far later in the evening after all have played. Must have missed that. Loved this song and it makes me want to grab the soundtrack. Nice perf by Colin in the film as well.
 
Nate’s pick: The Weary Kind. Bingham and Burnett are a hard team to beat and the song is part of the film itself and related to Bridges performance. No one saw Paris, and I think the two Princess songs will cancel each other out. Although I loved Princess and the Frog, none of the songs were particularly memorable.

Matt’s pick: Down in New Orleans

Creth’s pick: The Weary Kind

Brett’s pick: The Weary Kind

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A John Hughes tribute? The classiest thing the program has done all night! Bravo! Nice to see all of those actors up there all these years later giving Hughes his due.

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Writing (original screenplay)

 The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)
The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)

Mark Boal wins for The Hurt Locker. Not too surprising. This is the first win of the night for the film, and a good sign. Let’s see how the rest of the night goes.

My pick: The work that Mark Boal did here is very good in movie terms but recently there’s been plenty of discussion as to how much of it was journalistically accurate. Will that hurt its chances? In a different year, probably, but the truth is that Bigelow’s final film speaks more loudly than anything else (including the recent producer scandals) and the other nominees, save for Basterds, don’t have the gumption to best it. If the Academy does decide it wants to punish Boal, expect them to give it to Tarantino.

Matt’s Pick: The Hurt Locker

Creth’s Pick: Inglorious Basterds

Brett’s Pick: Inglorious Basterds

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Short film (animated)
French Roast (Fabrice O Joubert)
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell)
Logorama (Nicolas Schmerkin)
The Lady and the Reaper (Javier Recio Gracia)
A Matter of Loaf and Death (Nick Park

Logorama? I hadn’t heard of this one prior to the win. What a cool idea! Love the strange animation style and the basic premise; characters running about in a world made up of brand names, icons and slogans. Definitely gonna have to seek this out.
 

My pick: A Matter of Loaf and Death. The Lady and the Reaper is a really fantastic bit of animation, but I suspect that voters are more than happy to welcome Park and his animated characters back into the Oscar fold.

Matt’s Pick: French Roast  

Creth’s Pick: French Roast

Brett’s Pick: A Matter of Loaf and Death

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Documentary (short subject)

China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill)
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
Music by Prudence (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)
Rabbit à la Berlin (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

Music by Prudence wins and it certainly was a worthy film. I have to say though, that was a terribly rude and awkward moment where one of the winners interrupted the other and then steamrolled them by using the excuse “they always let the man talk first’. Totally unprofessional, but then that seems to be the theme this year.

My pick: Music by Prudence: I’ve seen exactly one of these short films, and by default that’s the one I picked. It helps that Music By Prudence is a delightful little movie and may actually have a shot at it.

Matt’s pick: Music by Prudence

Creth’s pick: Music by Prudence

Brett’s pick: Music by Prudence

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Short film (live action)

 
The Door (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)
Instead of Abracadabra (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)
Kavi (Gregg Helvey)
Miracle Fish (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)
The New Tenants (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)

Never seen the New Tenants but it looks interesting. I was just eager to wash the taste of that last embarrasing display away but then the technical team goes right ahead and plays music over one of the recepients as he’s talking. I’m pretty sure they did this two years ago too when Stewart was hosting. If I remember correctly, it was for ‘best song’ when Falling Slowly from Once won.

My pick: Miracle Fish is a perfectly quirky bit that I enjoyed very much. Will it win? Hard to say. The Door might have a shot as well. Kavi’s worth seeing too. Hoping to see a collection of these released soon so I can catch up with the rest.

Matt’s Pick: Kavi  

Creth’s Pick: Kavi

Brett’s Pick: Miracle Fish

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Makeup

Il Divo (Aldo Signoreti and Vittorio Sodano)
The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore)
Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)

Star Trek wins! Awesome. Loved the work they did here and feel they captured the ST universe in a way it previously hadn’t been. For a franchise that started out with the worst kind of pancake makeup, they have come a very long distance. Must say though, after five seconds Stiller’s Na’vi routine wasn’t working for me.

My  pick: Star Trek. Granted, the makeup in Young Victoria is fantastic, but Trek isn’t just giving us the best conceivable version of these characters, visually speaking, it’s also delivering subtle suggestions of the older actors in the younger actors and that’s really hard to pull off. My personal favorite makeup job is the little alien who looks like he’s made out of Cabbage but let’s give some shout outs to the green gal too.  

Matt’s pick: The Young Victoria

Creth’s pick: Star Trek

Brett’s pick: The Young Victoria

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Writing (adapted screenplay)

 
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)
In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche)

Precious wins the award! I didn’t see this one happening at all, but you know, at least this throws in some surprises. Precious was a difficult work to translate to film and Fletcher managed it beautifully. A great script for a great movie and a pretty darn good acceptance speech too. Maybe Precious will have a bigger night than we guessed.

My pick:  District 9. Although I loved the wonderfully witty screenplay for In the Loop, I don’t believe it has any sort of chance at winning. That may be true too for District 9, but if you consider the fact that it’s one of two big sci-fi pictures nominated this year and the other has been chastised for a lackluster script and generic story, it might pull an upset. The script had all the nuance and originality lacking in Avatar, but it’s highly probable that Up in the Air could gum up the works. I can see this going either way and I’m pulling for Blomkamp. If the Academy wants to honor him at all, this is probably the only feasible chance to do so.

Matt’s Pick: Up In The Air

Creth’s Pick: Up In The Air

Brett’s Pick: Up In The Air

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Actress in a supporting role

Mo’Nique in Precious

Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

Mo’Nique taking the award and doing it with some class and style. I liked this moment a lot. Maybe the best one so far. Go Precious!

My pick:  Mo’Nique

Vera Farmigia is definitely my personal favorite of five and the work she does in Up In The Air is mostly very subtle for long stretches of the film. Ultimately though, it’s Mo’Nique who makes the biggest leap forward from previous roles and hers is also the performance that is most emotionally commanding. I think she’s got this one.

Matt’s Pick: Mo’Nique

Creth’s Pick: Mo’Nique

Brett’s Pick: Mo’Nique
 

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Actress in a leading role

 
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Carey Mulligan in An Education

Bullock takes the award! I can live with that. She had a cute little acceptance speech. Loved the line “Did I deserve this, or did I just wear you down?” Nice addition of shouting out to all the mothers who “take care of the babies” and the tribute to her own late mother. Good for you Sandy!

My pick: There’s probably a very good chance Bullock will walk away Sunday with the Oscar. Part of it may come from the fact she’s surrounded this role with several lackluster comedies that aren’t very flattering to her acting ability. Where that worked against Eddie Murphy back in 06, it works for Bullock because Blind Side came after those other films and aimed at and surprised her fan base. However, I’m going with Gabourey Sidibe because it stands to reason that if Mo’nique can win for Precious than certainly the big beating heart of the movie, Sidibe, has a shot. Add to that the fact that Sidibe is a first-time actor who takes a problematic, easily-botched role and gives us a completely plausible and sympathetic human being. She should win and I think she’s got more of a chance than most think.

Matt’s Pick: Meryl Streep

Creth’s Pick: Sandra Bullock

Brett’s Pick: Sandra Bullock

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Actor in a leading role

 
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

My pick: Bridges, no contest. Jeff has been doing great work all through his career and I’ve got a soft spot for his performances in Fearless and Starman. Even if you aren’t as familiar with Bridges past work or aren’t a fan, it’s hard to argue with how completely he embraces the character of . You couldn’t ask for a more plausible grizzled, world-weary country singer, even if Kris Kristofferson was playing the part himself. I suppose Clooney has a shot, but I’m pretty sure we are gonna get to hear The Dude give his acceptance speech.

Who didn’t guess that Bridges acceptance speech would be the most fun. It’s always great to hear a winner use terms like ‘groovy’ and the ‘biz’ in the middle of a big spiffy event like the Oscars and be completely sincere about it. Bridges is the man and his few minutes on stage were genuinely more heartfelt than a good bit of the rest of this. Entertaining too.

Matt’s Pick: Jeff Bridges

Creth’s Pick: Jeff Bridges

Brett’s Pick: Jeff Bridges

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Foreign language film
Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)
The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)

The Secret of Her Eyes takes the award! I rather like that something I’m not familiar with won. Every time that has happened in the past in this category. I find myself seeking it out and being rewarded with a treasure. I’m looking forward to catching up with this one. Seriously, though, see A Prophet if you can, it’s fantastic.

My pick: This is a hard one because I’ve only actually seen two of these, A Prophet and The White Ribbon. My guess is that both of them are the primary contenders and both are worthwhile movies. The Academy has gone flipping for Haneke before and he won big accolades at Cannes last May, so Ribbon has that going for it. For my money, A Prophet is possibly the best film of the year and after Sunday I’m confident that it will have the same kind of unexpected publicity that previous winners like Lives of Others and Departures got.

 Matt’s Pick: A Prophet

Creth’s Pick: The White Ribbon

Brett’s Pick: The White Ribbon

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Directing

 
Avatar (James Cameron)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
Precious (Lee Daniels)

Bigelow gets the award! This sets Hurt Locker up for the big win! I expected this, but it’s really shaping up to be a steamroll for Locker vs. Avatar. Add in that sort of ridiculous Stiller moment and I think it’s safe to say Cameron’s reception here isn’t what it was some 12 years ago. Kudos for Bigelow giving a modest acceptance speech that never referred to herself as queen or included a line about her dominion over the planet.

My pick: This is a really interesting category. Kathryn Bigelow battling it out with ex-husband James Cameron? How ‘bout the fact both have atypical Oscar juggernauts that feature men of war in pictures awash in adrenaline and action? That being said, I think this one belongs to Kathryn. Balancing realism, exhilaration and escapism (even if we are ready to get back out five minutes in) is hard to do and she excelled at it. There are suspense pieces in this film that Hitchcock would be proud of. Bigelow deserves it and I think she will easily dethrone the King of the World on this one.

Matt’s Pick: The Hurt Locker

Creth’s Pick: The Hurt Locker

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

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Best picture

Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers)
District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, producers)
An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers)
The Hurt Locker (nominees to be determined)
Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender, producer)
Precious (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, producers)
A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, producers)
Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, producers)
The Blind Side (nominees to be determined)
Up (Jonas Rivera, producer)

And The Hurt Locker claims the big prize! Awesome and nicely done. In the end, I think this was the right choice. A pretty strong close to an evening I felt was otherwise rather haphazard. All in all, I guess it’s about what one expects from The Oscars.

__________________________________
 
Art direction

 
Avatar (art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith)
Nine (art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim)
Sherlock Holmes (art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer)
The Young Victoria (art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray)

What? Avatar won? How did this happen? Amazing acceptance speech though from Robert Stromberg, who shared the award with Rick Carter and Kim Sinclair. “You know, 13 years ago, the doctors told me I wasn’t going to survive and I thought that this dream of standing here would never come true,” he said. “And here we are…” This is perhaps the most well deserved award of the night, save for the vfx guys. Cameron and the rest wouldn’t even be here without them.

My pick: Avatar. This is where the movie is going clean house. Half the reason it’s been nominated for the big prizes is because of how breathtakingly ground-breaking it is on the technical end of things. If you can point out a more stunning elaborate use of art direction this year, I don’t think it will be found on that list. The other films are fine, but none of them frankly come close to what Cameron’s team put together. Pandora was an entire world and culture that felt organic as you were watching it.

Matt’s Pick: Avatar

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

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Cinematography

 
Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)
The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

My pick: Avatar. The man invented his own camera specifically for the film. Nuff said. Unless of course, you feel that what was done on the movie is less ‘cinematography’ then special effects editing. Still, some of the best and most effective 3-D shots in the films were captured on the ship and inside the human compound. I’m guessing the only potential competition is Hurt Locker, which found fresh, harrowing ways to visualize the explosions.  

Finally, some reliable Avatar love! Still, I don’t think the movie got the traction it expected. Oh well, it’s not like a lack of awards is going to keep Cameron awake at night. I hear it’s easy to get back to sleep on a bed of money.

Matt’s Pick: Inglorious Basterds

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

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Costume design
Bright Star (Janet Patterson)
Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)
Nine (Colleen Atwood)
The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

Yawn. The Young Victoria wins. Deserving? sure. Best work of the nominees? No. SandyPowell doing faux modesty while name dropping her three wins is pretty much par for the Oscar course.

My pick: Bright Star. Period pieces always stand a great chance in this category but there is something wholly refreshing and authentic about the work done in Bright Star, the touching biopic about John Keats and his love Fanny Brawne. Fanny herself was a fashion designer and made many of her own clothes which are highlighted extensively in the picture. But it isn’t just that, it’s the perfect way in which all of the clothing/wardrobe choices accentuate and define the characters. The cinematography on the film was deeply sumptuous and the costume work managed to keep pace with it. Fabulous stuff.

Matt’s Pick: The Young Victoria

Creth’s Pick: The Young Victoria

Brett’s Pick: Bright Star

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Documentary (feature)

 
Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)
The Cove (nominees to be determined)
Food, Inc (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)
Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa)

The Cove wins the award! Good form and perhaps it will lead others to discover this great film. As usual, there are those pesky shots of the other nominees looking on longingly as the winners take the stage. If I were Daniel Ellsberg, I think I’d look at those cutaways of me and feel like I had just shown up to school naked.

My pick: The Cove. Easily one of the most entertaining documentaries I’ve seen in some time, The Cove plays out like a narrative adventure while also drawing alarming attention to its subject. There’s a really fine line it walks between trying to give us a story we can follow and deliver a fair and intelligent look at all sides of the issue. There’s an odd mash-up of Jacques Cousteau meets Ocean’s Eleven. I’m counting on this one to take home the gold.

Matt’s pick: Food Inc.

Creth’s pick: The Cove

Brett’s pick: The Cove

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Film editing

 
Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)
District 9 (Julian Clarke)
The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)
Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
Precious (Joe Klotz)

This is the death blow to Avatar. The Hurt Locker grabs the film editing award.

My  pick: The Hurt Locker. Yes, this is another significant technical achievement that seemingly Avatar should scoop up. There’s more going on here though. Typically if a film wins film editing it also wins best picture. There have been very few deviations from this theory. If the Academy goes for Hurt Locker in the best pic and directing category, which I suspect they might, then it’s not a big stretch to give it this too. It’s also helpful that Hurt Locker may actually be more deserving of the editing award than Avatar. The suspense scenes are integral to the Hurt Locker and it’s the way all of those elements are cut together that makes those scenes work.

Matt’s pick: Avatar

Creth’s pick: Inglorious Basterds

Brett’s pick: The Hurt Locker

 _____________________________

 
Music (original score)
Avatar (James Horner)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
Up (Michael Giacchino)
The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)
Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Up wins? I can certainly live with that. Afterall, Michael Giacchino did some great work, not just on this but the Star Trek score as well. Nice job Giacchino!

My  pick: Avatar. A fine epic score that sometimes scoots over into new age ambient chanting a bit too much for my taste, but is engaging all the same. Is it the best score? Nah. That’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, hands down. But Avatar’s score is integral to the overall effect of the movie and that’s going to work in its favor. Plus, a lot more people saw Avatar than Fox.

Matt’s pick: Avatar

Creth’s pick: The Fantastic Mr. Fox  

Brett’s pick: Avatar

 ___________________________

 
Sound editing

 
Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson)
Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)
Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)
Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)

More awards for The Hurt Locker! Expect the sound mixing to follow suit then.

My pick: Avatar. Cameron is a technical guru and in addition to the slamming visuals his film has some of the finest sound design I’ve ever heard. This, perhaps as much so as the 3D, goes a long way to making the movie an interactive experience. Nothing else comes close.

Matt’s Pick: Avatar

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

_________________________________
 
Sound mixing

 
Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett)
Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)
Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

My pick: Avatar. Duh.

Matt’s Pick: Avatar

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

_________________________________
 
Visual effects

 
Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones)
District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken)
Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)

Avatar. As far as the Academy is concerned, I tend to think awarding Avatar’s visual effects is to honor it for everything they valued about it. I can’t see it having gotten nominated for best picture without that massive box office. Again, it little matters about the lack of other awards. People will be watching this for years to c0me on home video I think and Cameron and his artists landed a grand achievement.

My pick: Avatar. All of these are great looking movies and best of all, each also happens to be a stellar science fiction movie. Back in 99 there was an upset where Matrix bested Phantom Menace for visual effects, mostly because voters thought of Matrix as the better movie. Could that happen again with District 9? Not a chance.

Matt’s Pick: Avatar

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

Here are the 2010 Best Film Nominees of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts as seen through the eyes of graphic designer Tavis Coburn. Coburn’s website describes his style as “inspired by 1940s comic book art, the Russian avant-garde movement, and printed materials of the 1950s/60s.” I say thank you and may I have another! This is the one time when I think the Oscar’s new 10-nominee field isn’t so bad, BAFTA’s five nominees just aren’t enough. Anyway here are Coburn’s An Education, Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Precious, and Up in the Air which makes me think — of these five, which would you pick as your “Best of 2010?”

It’s that time again. Puxatawney Phil has seen his shadow, Lost is back on the air, and the Oscar nominations have been announced. And, to be honest, there are very few surprises here.

Granted, I’m a little late in breaking the news here, but if anything, this list proves there was no news to break. The Hurt Locker and Avatar led the best picture category with 9 nominations each, with A Serious Man, Inglorious Basterds, Precious, The Blind Side, Up in the Air, District 9, An Education and Up also picking up nods. Sandra Bullock, Jeff Bridges and Christoph Waltz were among the acting nominations.

Ten nominees for the coveted slot of Best picture didn’t do anything else really than allow a few more pics to get an ‘honorable mention’ for their efforts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see Up on the Best pic list instead of the ghettoized Best animated feature category (although it’s there too) and you won’t find me complaining about the presence of District 9 here. But the real problem is that there’s no added interest or investment to come with an extra five choices.

 And ‘bah!’ to everyone who said 2009 was a weak year for film. The Academy (with whom I usually disagree) nominates ten movies and the only one that actually disappointed me was the Coen bros. Serious effort, which failed to bring any nuance or significant creativty to a revisionist take on the Book of Job. The other 9 are all worth seeing. Still, several of these choices just feel like padding, including the decent but overrated The Blind Side and the quirky but empty Man.

Historically, it’s usually a film that is nominated for both best director and best picture that wins the night’s biggest award.  In that case, you can just look to the best director list to decipher which picks make up the REAL best picture race: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Up In The Air, Precious, and Inglorious Basterds. Ok, now that looks better, but again….no surprises. If anything, it’s even more boring. At this point, we should just put the boxing gloves on The Hurt Locker and Avatar and let them fight it out for sensory spectacle of 2009.

As for the rest of the nominees, they similary lack anything that would amount to an underdog or a genuinely thrilling bit of inspiration. I could have assembled this list yesterday based on what we knew then and have come very, very close.

The list of all the nominees is below. What did you think? When the awards roll around, who do you think is gonna go home with the gold?

Atomic Popcorn will be taking a closer look at most of the categories individually over the next few weeks. Until then,  enjoy the speculation….

Actress in a supporting role

Mo’Nique in Precious

Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air

Penélope Cruz in Nine

Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air

Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

Actor in a supporting role

Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Christopher Plummer in The Last Station

Matt Damon in Invictus

Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones

Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Actress in a leading role

Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

Helen Mirren in The Last Station

Gabourey Sidibe in Precious

Carey Mulligan in An Education

Actor in a leading role

Morgan Freeman in Invictus

Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart

George Clooney in Up in the Air

Colin Firth in A Single Man

Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Animated feature film

Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)

The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)

Coraline (Henry Selick)

Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)

The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore

Foreign language film

Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)

A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)

The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)

The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)

The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)

Directing

Avatar (James Cameron)

The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)

Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)

Precious (Lee Daniels)

Writing (adapted screenplay)

District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)

An Education (Nick Hornby)

Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)

Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)

In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche)

Writing (original screenplay)

The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)

Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)

Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)

The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)

Best picture

Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers)

District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, producers)

An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers)

The Hurt Locker (nominees to be determined)

Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender, producer)

Precious (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, producers)

A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, producers)

Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, producers)

The Blind Side (nominees to be determined)

Up (Jonas Rivera, producer)

Art direction

Avatar (art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith)

Nine (art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim)

Sherlock Holmes (art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer)

The Young Victoria (art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray)

Cinematography

Avatar (Mauro Fiore)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)

The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)

Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)

The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

Costume design

Bright Star (Janet Patterson)

Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)

Nine (Colleen Atwood)

The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

Documentary (feature)

Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)

The Cove (nominees to be determined)

Food, Inc (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)

Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa)

Documentary (short subject)

China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill)

The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)

The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)

Music by Prudence (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)

Rabbit à la Berlin (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

Film editing

Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)

District 9 (Julian Clarke)

The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)

Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)

Precious (Joe Klotz)

Makeup

Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano)

The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore)

Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)

Music (original score)

Avatar (James Horner)

Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)

Up (Michael Giacchino)

The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)

Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Music (original song)

Almost There, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman

Down in New Orleans, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman

Loin de Paname, from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas

Take it All, from Nine by Maury Yeston

The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short film (animated)

French Roast (Fabrice O Joubert)

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell)

Logoramam (Nicolas Schmerkin)

The Lady and the Reaper (Javier Recio Gracia)

A Matter of Loaf and Death (Nick Park)

Short film (live action)

The Door (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)

Instead of Abracadabra (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)

Kavi (Gregg Helvey)

Miracle Fish (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)

The New Tenants (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)

Sound editing

Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)

The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson)

Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)

Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)

Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)

Sound mixing

Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)

The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett)

Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)

Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

Visual effects

Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones)

District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken)

Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)

The winners for the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards are below. I am not going into any detail because you all don’t care!

Some of the bigger winners were James Cameron, Sandra Bullock, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, and Jason Reitman.

Here are the results of the categories we all care about – winner is in bold!

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

• Avatar (20th Century Fox)
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)
• Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company)
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (Lionsgate)
• Up in the Air (Paramount Pictures)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

• Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria
• Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren – The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan – An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

• Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
  
• George Clooney – Up in the Air
• Colin Firth – A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman – Invictus
• Tobey Maguire – Brothers

BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

• (500) Days of Summer (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• The Hangover (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• It’s Complicated (Universal Pictures)
• Julie & Julia (Columbia Pictures)
• Nine (The Weinstein Company)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

• Sandra Bullock – The Proposal
• Marion Cotillard – Nine
• Julia Roberts – Duplicity
• Meryl Streep – It’s Complicated
• Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

• Matt Damon – The Informant
• Daniel Day-Lewis – Nine
• Robert Downey Jr. – Sherlock Holmes
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt – (500) Days of Summer
• Michael Stuhlbarg – A Serious Man

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Sony Pictures Animation)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• Coraline (Focus Features)
• The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney Pictures)
• Up (Disney•Pixar)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE

• Penelope Cruz – Nine
• Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
• Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
• Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Julianne Moore – A Single Man

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE

• Matt Damon – Invictus
• Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds
  

BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE

• Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron – Avatar
• Clint Eastwood – Invictus
• Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE

• Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell – District 9
• Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
• Nancy Meyers – It’s Complicated
• Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE

• Michael Giacchino – Up
  
• Marvin Hamlisch – The Informant
• James Horner – Avatar
• Abel Korzeniowski – A Single Man
• Karen O and Carter Burwell – Where the Wild Things Are

Bigelow...gettin' more respect.

Acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow will be reuniting with Mark Boal for the upcoming action-adventure flick Triple Frontier. The team that brought this summer’s critical darling, The Hurt Locker, will focus on a story that is described as a “high-stakes ensemble project.”

Though details are scarce, the film takes place in the border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, an area known for having a high amount of organized crime and terrorist activities. The area, ironically, also has a high concentration of South American Pandas, a rare breed of cuddly herbivores that delight in the area where the Igazu and Parana rivers converge.

The Hurt Locker, along with Duncan Jones’ Moon, has been one of the few films this summer worth seeing. Mark Boal wrote the script for Hurt Locker after being embedded with an U.S. Army bomb squad for several weeks. Bigelow, who has been receiving Oscar buzz for her direction, shot the film in Jordan and Vancouver, Canada.

No word on the film’s anticipated release date.

Three viewings in, and I still believe The Hurt Locker is the best film of the year, and maybe last year too. Kathryn Bigelow has crafted a film that is perfectly paced, acted, directed, and features the action scene to beat this year. It’s the first film of the year that makes a strong case for being a Best Picture nominee and it’ll likely be there once it’s all said and done. Plus, how cool would it be to have the director of Near Dark and Point Break accept an Oscar for Best Director?

I’m getting ahead of myself but I love this film (as evidenced by my review here) and was fortunate enough to get a chance to chat with Brian Geraghty who plays Specialist Owen Eldridge in the film. Brian does an excellent job conveying a guy who really shouldn’t be in war to begin with and is an all around great guy to talk to. It really felt like a conversation rather than one being the interviewer and the other the actor. After praising and gushing over Brian and the film several times, we finally talked about the best film of the year, working with Kathryn, and a possible Point Break sequel.

How did you get involved with the movie?

Basically, about two years ago in June ’07 I went up to Kathryn and basically read with Jeremy. I didn’t think anything of it and I knew they were targeting another actor at the point. I just went over there and read a couple of scenes with Jeremy and I guess whoever they had in mind got a TV series or something so I guess I was next in line and it ended up taking month, then they offered me the job.

That’s awesome man.

Yeah.

So what was it like to work with Kathryn?

Y’know she’s a very kind person, really collaborative. The great thing about working with her as an actor is that she really hires actors and trusts them. She kinda lets them go and if you fall off course she’ll get you back on. She’s really involved, particularly in this film, with the suspense and the action and that was kinda nice.

Oh yeah. What she did with this movie, I mean the sniper scene alone was better than anything in Transformers 2.

Yeah, I know. I love that scene. Thank you man.

No problem. Was that a fun scene to shoot?

I loved the location. It was hard, it was dirty, and it was sandy. It was fun to, to me it was fun to make the decision of killing someone. Ralph Fiennes was there, y’know he’s fun to work with. To see that film set, it just kinda captures the Middle East and that was really wonderful.

Definitely. I wanted to ask, because I know you were in Jarhead with Sam Mendes. Was there any difference working on The Hurt Locker as opposed to Jarhead?

Oh of course. The Hurt Locker is basically three guys and Jarhead was eight of us, a platoon. It was shot in El Centro which is in Mexico, about two and a half hours east of San Diego. We had weekends off and there were a lot bigger movie stars. I was with two others, who were obviously two of the best actors of our generation I’m sure everyone would say the same thing [Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal.] So to be in that company was an extraordinary thing. The first part of it where we’re pulled into the Middle East, I’m there. And obviously Anthony and I did We Are Marshall together and we played best friends in that movie so it was kinda strange to be playing best friends again. That was certainly part of it. We made a movie about the Army, not the Marines, about a very specific unit, not so much the infantry work as we do in the film we do clear some buildings out of the necessity of our Sergeant who makes us. But it’s totally different jobs, completely different war. That was the first Gulf War, this is Afghanistan/Iraq and now we’re fighting the IED. Any my character is different as well.

Yeah, and The Hurt Locker is more action oriented and Jarhead is more drama oriented. To me though, what I got out of The Hurt Locker was that your character represents the face of war in that you really shouldn’t be there. Anthony Mackie represents the level-headed guy, y’know it’ll get to him but he still hangin’ in there. Then Jeremy Renner’s basically the most balls-out, weird, renegade cop. I wanted to ask you did you get the same kind of sense or what did Eldridge represent to you?

I approached it as a regular guy who is obviously a volunteer, volunteered for E.O.D.. To me he represented the people, like you and I, you put us in war. Let’s say you were good at interviewing and I was good at camera operating. When you’re in a special unit we get to use our mind more. But y’know we’re just everyday people, put us under gunfire and stuff. I think I was trying to make him more relatable to people. Y’know he’s put in situation where he’s not anti-war or pro war, he’s just fucked up. He’s lost people that were close to him because of him not first in the first scene with Guy Pearce, when Guy Pearce dies. I tried to make him relatable because Sanborn is real by the books soldier and James is a renegade. This is how I approached it, this is very subjective of course. Very subjective point of view is how I approached it. I didn’t approach it with any political agenda.

Oh no, and that’s what I appreciated about the movie is that it doesn’t have a political agenda and that’s why I think it’s so much better than all these Iraq war movies because you could basically take the Iraq war and replace it with World War II and get the same story.

Well that’s good man. I think we have real three-dimensional people here and not just some cliche war fronting like I’ve played before. And she really kept the integrity of the political message ambiguous which is ultimately more like a piece of art than it does like a anti-war or pro-war film. There’s a place for it in Kathryn’s mind which is one of the criticisms, which there hasn’t been any.

Well she’s earned it. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when you’re playing Gears of War and the Colonel comes up to you and you guys have that conversation. I just liked how your character looked so great at war simulation but when you put him in war he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Well that’s great man. That’s a great little moment you picked up on. I mean I never really thought of it that way, but I’m glad you did.

Well thank you. So, what can we expect from you in the future? I know you’ve got this which I think is probably going to win Best Picture.

Well thank you. I did a movie just a year ago, and it’s based on this author Davy Rothbart. You know Found Magazine?

I think I’ve heard of it.

We shot it entirely in Albuquerque and we just went to Vegas and we won Best International Feature at Edinburgh. So we have a lot more of the festival circuit. We’ll see how we did Galway, in London and Montreal, Canada. So we’ll see about that. Right now I’m doing this movie called Open House. It’s a thriller, like psychological thriller. I play a sociopath. Gotta good cast and crew and it’s a lot of fun.

You said you play a sociopath. That’s totally different than what you played in Hurt Locker.

That’s right dude. Gotta change it up man y’know?

Well I look forward to it. I’ll get ya out of here with this. I know you’re into surfing so I want to know if Kathryn Bigelow asked you about collaborating on a Point Break 2?

Y’know what? No. They did talk to me about Point Break 2: Indo Nights and I said as much I’d like to go to Indonesia and surf for the movie, you can’t try to replace Point Break 1. We did talk about Point Break when I was drunk and I would bother her about Point Break.

That’s awesome.

I would ask her like stupid questions y’know. She knows that I surf.

She know how to surf too?

I’m sure she knows how to surf too. You ever seen her before? She’s like six feet tall.

I know. I was looking at a picture of her and I was like ‘dang, that’s one tall babe.’

She’s beautiful dude. I can’t believe the kind of movies she directs. She’s just great man and I’m so happy to be a part of her project. I’m so excited for everything that’s happening right now. And Jeremy’s one of my great friends and Anthony and I. It’s been a really exciting thing.

Well you should be man because to tell you the truth I raved to every single critic in San Diego and all of them came out for the screening. One of them walked up to me afterward and said ‘I’m sorry for every negative thing I ever said about you.’

Thank God man. Thank you man. Keep the word out there.

Again, I’d like to thank Brian for this and would also mention I’m enjoying a Capri Sun right now. The movie Brian mentions that went to CineVegas and Edinburgh is called Easier With Practice which can be found here.

The Hurt Locker is in select cities right now and is due for expansion on July 24th. You can get a list of theaters it’s playing by clicking here. Go see it. Just go see it.