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SSN AWARDS ORIGINALS
SHORT FILMS AND INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS
Without a doubt, the short film categories are likely the three toughest to call in your Oscar pool; they’re the films that nobody actually watches. Well, we’ve done the dirty work for you, over a long, frigid, New York City weekend. Behold, your inside look at the three short film categories.
(SSN)
The Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic,
Selma, is nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Feature, Director, Cinematographer, and Actor and Actress for David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo, for their respective portrayals of King and his wife Coretta Scott King. The awards will be held on Saturday, the 21st, the day before the Oscars.
(SSN)
TODAY’S HEADLINES
It’s a big week in the TV work, with series a plenty getting the go ahead to the pilot stage, with spinoffs, remakes of foreign shows and original projects all moving forward.
(SSN)
Hosted by
The Daily Show alum John Oliver, the first season of the show proved a big hit for the cable network and in fact won a big award over the weekend from the WGA. Now, with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert either leaving or gone from Comedy Central, HBO waited just two episodes into Season Two to make sure that Oliver would stay in the fold. Each season will run 35 episodes, with Season Three in 2016 and Season Four in 2017.
(IW)
The duo previously worked on the Western drama
Meek’s Cutoff and the drama
Wendy and Lucy, both of which received critical acclaim and accolades from various festivals. Williams won best actress at the Toronto Film Festival and a nomination from the Indie Spirit awards. The hopes are that this pic will bring similar critical praise. Reichardt is writing and directing. Plot details are unknown at this time.
(VAR)
Originally made in Poland by Krzysztof Kieslowski in 1989, the anthology series episodes are each assigned to one of the Ten Commandments. Now, the Peacock Network is teaming with Entertainment One for a re-imagining of the production. Todd Ellis Kessler (
The Good Wife), who is writing and producing the remake.
(FSR)
Former WB head of production’s new company has acquired
White Boy Rick, a spec script by Logan and Noah Miller that is inspired by the story of Richard Wershe Jr. At the age of 14, Wershe became an undercover informant for local and federal law enforcement agencies in the mid-80s, and grew in that role enough to establish himself as a major drug dealer. He was brought down in 1988 and sentenced to life without parole. The baby-faced felon has been in jail 27 years.
(DH)
With voting ending today at 5 pm PST, it’s crunch time for Oscars voting, and Focus Features is one of many film studios using social data and analytics to woo Academy members on Twitter and Facebook. The studio's biopic about renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, "The Theory of Everything" has been nominated for Best Picture this year, and Focus and other production companies are taking the classic For Your Consideration print ad and aiming narrowly targeted messages to Academy members and their social networks.
(AA)
It’s not enough that you release the finest feature film in a given year; in order to qualify for the Best Picture Oscar, you’ll have to meet a good number of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences-ordained demands, particularly in regard to the distribution of your movie.
(MLF)
Film director Bryan Singer has released some production art by designer Grant Major. The image shows the back of either a massive robot or ship, in front of a lone humanoid figure. Of course, all of the key, discernible details are stippled out. Still, it’s something.
(VUL)
