Saturday, September 22, 2012

OSCAR PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2012/2013 SEASON

Not all of the categories are here, just because I don't feel like doing it all. Anyways, here are my predictions. Agree? Disagree? Don't care? Feel free to share your opinions.

Best Picture:

Lincoln
The Master
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
The Hobbit
Moonrise Kingdom
Django Unchained
Argo
Cloud Atlas
Anna Karenina/Hyde Park on Hudson/Hitchcock (I lumped these together due to an equally likely chance of nomination)

Possibilities:

The Dark Knight Rises
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Lawless???

Best Director:

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
Peter Jackson, The Hobbit
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
Tom Hooper, Les Miserables

Possibilities:

Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Andy and Lana Wachowski, Cloud Atlas
Ben Affleck, Argo


Best Actor:

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Russell Crowe, Les Miserables (he could be in supporting actor, depending on whether the Academy considers Javert a lead)
Anthony Hopkins, Hitchcock

Possibilities:

John Hawkes, The Sessions
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Clint Eastwood, Trouble With The Curve
Jaime Foxx or Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained (not sure what their positions are so I'm putting them both here)
Martin Freeman, The Hobbit (a really really long shot I know, but if it happened I would be so happy)
Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson

Best Actress:

Keira Knightley, Anna Karenina
and......I honestly do not know. This race is the most unclear to me

Best Supporting Actor:

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Jude Law, Anna Karenina
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Alan Arkin  and/or John Goodman, Argo
Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, or Aaron Tveit, Les Miserables

Possibilities:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, either for Lincoln or The Dark Knight Rises
Wes Bentley, The Hunger Games (one that will likely never happen, but that I really really want)
James D'Arcy, Hitchcock

Best Supporting Actress:

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Samantha Barks, Les Miserables
Helena Bonham Carter, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Sally Field, Lincoln

Possibilities:

Amy Adams, The Master
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
Amanda Seyfried, Les Miserables


Best Animated Feature:

Brave
Wreck-it-Ralph
Rise of the Guardians
ParaNorman
Frankenweenie

Best Original Screenplay:

Django Unchained
Moonrise Kingdom
The Master
Looper???
Seven Psychopaths


Best Adapted Screenplay:

Anna Karenina
The Hobbit
Argo
Lincoln
The Dark Knight Rises (I really hope for this one)


Best Cinematography:

Les Miserables
Life of Pi
The Master
Anna Karenina
The Dark Knight Rises or Django Unchained

Best Editing:

Django Unchained
Lincoln
Argo
The Master
Life of Pi

Best Visual Effects:

Looper
The Dark Knight Rises
The Avengers
Life of Pi or Cloud Atlas
The Hobbit
The Amazing Spider-Man and Snow White and the Huntsman are also possibilities


Best Production Design:

Les Miserables
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit
Django Unchained
Cloud Atlas or Moonrise Kingdom

Best Costume Design:

Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
The Hobbit
Moonrise Kingdom
Mirror Mirror

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

The Hobbit
Anna Karenina
Hitchcock

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Top 20 Favourite Mad Men Characters

TOP 20 FAVOURITE MAD MEN CHARACTERS


I already did one of these for Game of Thrones, so I figured that I'd do one for Mad Men, another show that ranks amongst the best of all time. There are fewer characters in Mad Men, let alone characters that I like, so I'm doing a Top 20 as opposed to 25. Anyways, enjoy!


20. Betty Draper Francis
Played by: January Jones


19. Megan Calvet Draper
Played by: Jessica Pare


18. Carla
Played by: Deborah Lacey


17. Ida Blankenship
Played by: Randee Heller


16. Faye Miller
Played by: Cara Buono


15. Paul Kinsey
Played by: Michael Gladis



14. Anna Draper
Played by: Melinda Page Hamilton


13. Salvatore "Sal" Romano
Played by: Bryan Batt


12. Rachel Menken
Played by: Maggie Siff


11. Henry Francis
Played by: Christopher Stanley


10. Trudy Campbell
Played by: Alison Brie


9. Harry Crane
Played by: Rich Sommer


8. Roger Sterling (who was a lot higher on the list before Season 4)
Played by: John Slattery



7. Lane Pryce
Played by: Jared Harris



6. Ken Cosgrove
Played by: Aaron Staton



5. Bert Cooper
Played by: Robert Morse



4. Sally Draper
Played by: Kiernan Shipka

\


3. Margaret "Peggy" Olson
Played by: Elisabeth Moss



2. Don Draper (Dick Whitman)
Played by: Jon Hamm




1. Joan Holloway Harris
Played by: Christina Hendricks









Sunday, August 19, 2012

And Then There Were None/Ten Little Indians dreamcasting

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE/TEN LITTLE INDIANS DREAMCASTING



Ten Little Indians is a book by Agatha Christie, possibly her best-known novel, and likely the 

greatest murder mystery novel ever written, as well as one of my person favourites. I have an 

idea for a star-studded  adaptation . I have seen one of the cinematic adaptations of it, but I 

absolutely loathed it and watched it for about 10 minutes and one death before I turned it off 

because it infuriated me so much. For those of you who haven't read the book or don't know

what it's about, I shall provide a short synopsis.



Ten Little Indians is a novel where ten different people are lured to an island, under various 


pretenses. When they get to the island, they discover a quiet butler, a pale, ghostlike cook, 

and the abscence of their host and hostess. After a wonderful dinner, they hear a mysterious 

voice accusing them of committing various crimes that they never got their comeuppance for. 

One of them chokes on whiskey, and tension soon mounts as more of them get bumped off 

and they have to figure out who did it. The title comes from the fact that the killer is committing 

these crimes, basing them on a poem called Ten Little Indians (an ironic calling card if you 

will), and that is all I will say for fear of  spoilers. I have ideas for who will play the characters 

and I shall provide the short synopsis from the book for each character to further explain.



*I know there's an unrealistic amount of big name stars in this, just find your suspension of disbelief and enjoy!


THE MAJOR PLAYERS



Natalie Portman as Vera Claythorne


An ex-governess with a Coroner's Inquest in her past. She had been completely absolved of all guilt--she said, even the boy's mother hadn't blamed her.




Tom Hardy as Philip Lombard


A soldier-of-fortune, his past didn't bear close examination, yet he was the only one that felt it necessary to carry a gun to Indian Island.




Robert DeNiro as Detective Inspector Blore


The blunt, bearlike ex-CID man tried to pass himself off as an African Colonial, but when the game was up, he amused himself by suspecting everyone else's motives.



Jack Nicholson as Justice Lawrence Wargrave


The reptilian man, known in the press and the courts as a "hanging judge", had the blood of countless prisoners on his hands. How many were innocent?



Helen Mirren as Emily Brent


A sixty-five year old spinster whose troubled dreams and rambling diary were the only indications of a disturbed-and perhaps dangerous-mind.





Anthony Hopkins as General John Macarthur


His life, as far as he was concerned, had ended in the trenches in the Great War. "I'll never leave Indian Island alive", he'd say to anyone that would listen.




Johnny Depp as Dr. Edward Armstrong


At first, the physician was a convenient disposer of sedatives and diagnostician of causes of death, but later the others remembered he was the one with the access to poison.




Andrew Garfield as Anthony Marston

Like a young, bronzed god, he came careening into his companions' lives as if he would live forever, but his stunning strength would prove pitifully inadequate against that of his unknown adversary. 




Michael Caine and Meryl Streep as Thomas and Ethel Rogers


The stammering butler and white, bloodless cook for the strange gathering on Indian Island had been the perfect servants, as the others learned when circumstances forced them to fend for themselves.




THE MINOR PLAYERS/FLASHBACK CHARACTERS





Zooey Deschanel as Leslie Macarthur

John Macarthur had loved Leslie, and believed in her absolutely. However, after he discovered her secret, he had sent her lover to his death and came home without acknowledging that he even knew what happened. But after the war, she had hardly seemed there anymore....


*I realize pairing Zooey Deschanel with Anthony Hopkins is creepy, but her character only exists in flashback and were she alive, she'd be in her sixties*






Jamie Bell as Arthur Richmond

Arthur was a good boy, and Macarthur was pleased that Leslie took a motherly interest in him, but it only took a letter in the wrong envelope for him to find out their secret and exact his revenge.





Elijah Wood as Edward Seton

A young, handsome, straightforward man accused of murdering an old woman in his trust, he ended up being the key figure in one of the Judge's most controversial cases, especially when his fate was sealed. Was he innocent? If he wasn't, then why was the Judge called to Indian Island?





Amber Tamblyn as Beatrice Taylor


Beatrice was a kind, well-mannered girl, brought up by good parents and thriving in the service of Emily Brent. However, she was cruelly cast out when her behaviour caught up with her and, with nowhere to turn, she threw herself into the river, her death leaving a disturbingly small blotch on Brent's conscience.





Ewan McGregor as Hugo Hamilton

Hugo had stood to inherit the entire Hamilton fortune had Cyril been born a girl. Unfortunately, his nephew meant financial ruin for him, and it was the only thing that prevented him and Vera from marrying. He loved Vera dearly, and she loved him in return, but after Cyril's death, he suddenly lost interest....





Asa Butterfield as Cyril Hamilton


The child in Vera Claythorne's care, whose accidental drowning death meant the transferrence of the family's fortune to his uncle. The death also caused a Coroner's Inquest for Claythorne, and seems to be the reason she is present at the island.





Kate Winslet as Mrs. Hamilton


Despite her son's tragic death, Mrs. Hamilton had never blamed Vera for the incident, dismissing it as merely an accident. In fact, she had prided Vera on keeping a cool head and excellent nerves.






Edward Norton as Isaac Morris

A slimy, reptilian man who made the arrangements for Indian Island, including Lombard's arrival and payment, and yet mysteriously disappeared once it was all over.






Marion Cotillard as The Sister


She was the only who knew of Armstrong's secret, and he had hoped she'd held her tongue. It would appear she did not, or else how would the tin voice know?




Hope you enjoyed!