 It’s time to dive, dive in deep…well, at least as deep as you can in May. As I attempted to unveil the newest set of Oscar Predictions, I realized how many promising films are left to be seen in the remaining seven months. As of now, the only real Best Picture contender that has the legs to make it until the end of the year would be Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell, and that’s a longshot at best given its genre. You can make arguments for films like The Place Beyond the Pines by Derek Cianfrance and even Mud by Jeff Nichols but those will need a well-placed DVD release with a focused campaign, something I’m not sure the studios are willing to bet on. Cianfrance’s film also has an outside shot for Screenplay and a Supporting Actor mention for Ryan Gosling. If anything, this helps him for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, if they’re feeling like recognizing him a second time. It feels like eons ago when Gosling was nominated for Ryan Fleck’s Half Nelson (2006) and then later missed other opportunities for Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Blue Valentine (2010), and Drive (2011). Not sure when it will be before he gets back onto the Oscar radar.
Down below, why don’t we start taking a look at the slate by each studio and assess where their money will and should go throughout the season. Read more on Oscar Circuit – The Studio Assessment Part 1…
Categories: Article, Editor, Oscar Circuit, Oscar Predictions Tags: 2014 Oscar Predictions, Academy Awards, Alfonso Cuarón, American Hustle, August: Osage County, Before Midnight, Ben Stiller, Blue Jasmine, Bruce Dern, Cameron Diaz, Captain Phillips, Dane DeHaan, David O. Russell, Editor, Ethan Hawke, Foxcatcher, George Clooney, Gravity, Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Wells, Julie Delpy, Kill Your Darlings, Kristin Wiig, Leonardo DiCaprio, Man of Steel, Maria Bello, Martin Scorsese, Matthew McConaughey, melissa leo, Michael Fassbender, Mud, Nebraska, Oscar Circuit, Pacific Rim, Paul Greengrass, Penelope Cruz, Peter Jackson, Prisoners, Richard Linklater, Ridley Scott, Ryan Gosling, Sarah Polley, Shirley MacLaine, Sony Pictures Classics, Steve Carell, Steve McQueen, Stories We Tell, The Counselor, The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Seventh Son, The Way Way Back, The Wolf of Wall Street, tom hanks, Twelve Years A Slave, Viola Davis, Woody Allen
 Directed By: Ridley Scott
Written By: Cormac McCarthy
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Dean Norris
Synopsis: A lawyer finds himself in over his head when he gets involved in drug trafficking.
Award Speculation:
It’s so unusual how it seems the internet gets their hands on things even before the studios even do. Cormac McCarthy, the author of “No Country for Old Men” and “The Road,” both of which were adapted into films directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and John Hillcoat respectively. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men (2007) obviously went on to win four Oscars including Best Picture. The Counselor is McCarthy’s first original screenplay that was sold in January 2012 to Nick Wechsler, Paula Mae Schwartz, and Steve Schwartz who were producers on The Road (2010). Nearly two weeks after the selling of the script, three-time Academy Award nominee Ridley Scott was announced to be directing the project. Read more on Awards Profile: The Counselor…
 It’s March! We get started right away and over the past few weeks after the Oscar ceremony, I took some brief stabs at some categories. Those have been tinkered with and will be reflected on the actual Oscar Prediction pages in the next couple of days. The full listing of predicted nominees is on the sidebar with the list of contenders on the Oscar Prediction pages for Picture, Director, Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, and Animated Feature.
Obviously categories like Original Song are merely speculation because we don’t know what film will have an eligible song attached. Disney and Pixar films are good for a song or two so that’s always a good place to start. Read more on Oscar Circuit – 2014 Films and Minority Contenders…
Categories: Article, Editor, Oscar Circuit Tags: 2014 Oscar Predictions, A Separation, Academy Awards, Adepero Oduye, Angela Bassett, Antonio Banderas, August: Osage County, Berenice Bejo, Black Nativity, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Captain Phillips, Chavez, Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor, forest whitaker, Fruitvale, Gwyneth Paltrow, Idris Elba, jennifer hudson, Julia Roberts, Kasi Lemmons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Michael Fassbender, Michael Pena, naomi watts, nicole kidman, Octavia Spencer, Oprah Winfrey, Out of the Furnace, Penelope Cruz, Ridley Scott, Rosario Dawson, Saving Mr. Banks, Steve McQueen, Tahar Rahim, The Counselor, The Grandmaster, The Past, the weinstein company, The Wolf of Wall Street, tom hanks, Twelve Years A Slave, Walt Disney, Woody Harrelson, Zoe Saldana
 Oscar Track Record: Never Nominated
I found myself watching Vanilla Sky (2001) today and seeing that back in the early 2000s, Cameron Diaz was up near the front of the line of someone aching for an Oscar nomination. After impressing critics years prior in There’s Something About Mary (1998) and surprising with a win from the New York Film Critics Award and a Golden Globe nominations, Diaz was in her prime. She followed up with a brilliant performance in Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich (1999) which she received both Golden Globe and SAG nominations for. When it came time for Oscar, co-star Catherine Keener only managed a nomination from the Academy. Diaz also co-starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002), a performance that received mixed reviews from critics. Read more on In Line: Cameron Diaz…
Michael Hoffman’s Gambit is a remake of a 1966 heist film of the same name that starred Michael Caine (as a burglar) and Shirley MacLaine (as a showgirl that he recruits to assist him). Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz step into those roles in the remake, with Firth’s character being an art dealer this go around, and Diaz’s character now a rodeo cowgirl. The pair is out to con Firth’s loathsome boss, played by Alan Rickman. The Coen Brothers (who wrote the screenplay) vibe can be sensed throughout the trailer, which overall looks like a lot of fun. There is no US release date yet, though it will be released in the UK on November 21st.
Read more on ‘Gambit’ Trailer: Firth and Diaz Go After Rickman…
 Since winning an Oscar and having a child, Penelope Cruz has been keeping a low profile, but she poised to come back on screens in a big way. In addition to her role in the new Woody Allen film, To Rome with Love, Deadline has reported that Cruz has signed on to costar in the Ridley Scott directed, Cormac McCarthy scripted film The Counselor, alongside Michael Fassbender, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt and husband Javier Bardem. Also announced today was that she would be filmming another movie with long time collaborator Pedro Almodovar. The flick Los Amantes Pasajeros (The Brief Lovers) is about an affair on an airplane and will star other Almodovar regulars like Lola Duenas, Javier Camara and Cecilia Roth.
Read more on Penelope Cruz to star in Ridley Scott’s ‘The Counselor’, reteam with Almodovar…
Categories: News Tags: Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, casting, Javier Bardem, Michael Fassbender, news, Pedro Almodóvar, Penelope Cruz, Ridley Scott, To Rome With Love, upcoming projects
 Hello readers! Late Pass is back with your quick update of news we’ve missed this week.
Casting News
Vince Vaughn will play a man who fathers 533 children in a new movie Starbuck- Variety
Cameron Diaz and Benicio del Toro will team up for action comedy Agent: Century 21. Diaz seems to fit this movie well having made Knight and Day but del Toro? Action comedy? Should be an interesting project. – The Hollywood Reporter
Michelle Monaghan will join Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan in action thriller The Coup. The story “revolves around American family that moves to Southeast Asia and finds themselves embroiled in a violent coup where rebels mercilessly attack the city.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Read more on Late Pass: Casting and Production News…
Categories: Blog, News Tags: Benicio Del Toro, Cameron Diaz, Cannes Film Festival, Late Pass, Lisa Cholodenko, Michelle Monaghan, news, Owen Wilson, Pierce Brosnan, upcoming projects, Vince Vaughn
 Read the Press Release:
Beverly Hills, CA – Cameron Diaz will present at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, telecast producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer announced today.
Diaz will be seen next in “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and “Gambit.” Her film credits include “Bad Teacher,” “The Green Hornet,” “Knight and Day,” “My Sister’s Keeper,” “What Happens in Vegas,” “The Holiday,” “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” “Gangs of New York,” “Any Given Sunday” and the four animated “Shrek” films.
Read more on Cameron Diaz to Present at 84th Academy Awards® on Oscar® Sunday…
"Bad Teacher" has two main problems – Cameron Diaz and the screenplay…
How she ever got to be a teacher in the first place is irrelevant when it comes to John Adams Middle School English teacher, Elizabeth Hulsey. For whatever may have compelled her to get her degree in education, she put in her year and now wants to retire and get married to her fiance, Mark. Problem is her fiance, via incessant prodding from his mother, confronts Elizabeth and proclaims that the only reason she is with him is because he has millions of dollars in the bank. He’s not wrong. Now dumped, single, with no money available to speak of, Elizabeth needs to set new plans. And she does. When the school year comes back around, Elizabeth is back teaching and not happy at all about being there.
So Elizabeth drinks early, during, and after school. School-based film offerings such as “Stand And Deliver”, “Dangerous Minds”, and “Lean On Me” are the only curriculum she offers her English class. She is not above sneaking a bong hit or two in her car in the school parking lot and chastises a student for catching her. And newly single, she is on the hunt for a new man and finds a potential paramour in rich, preppy, and mild-mannered new teacher, Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake). Problem is, Elizabeth isn’t striking his fancy and worse yet, a new rivalry has formed with the exceptionally strange but apparently also very successful Amy Squirrell (Lucy Punch). Amy is now teaching on the opposite side of the hall from Hulsey and takes great exceptions to Hulsey’s methods, if you will.
Read more on Bad Teacher (**)…
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