Gawker
-
oscars
Academy Allows Four 'Reader' Producers -- None Named 'Scott Rudin'
We can officially cross one of this year's must-watch Oscar subplots off our list, with the Academy announcing a rare exception of four producers for Best Picture nominee The Reader. More » -
the reader
Director Stephen Daldry on Sex, Moguls and Surviving 'The Reader'
The culmination of our dedicated coverage of The Reader — from Rudin/Weinstein blow-ups to Oscar prognoses to its sexual audacity — arrived this weekend when director Stephen Daldry phoned Defamer HQ. "Sorry, I overslept," he said in his dignified brogue — a forgivable lapse under the circumstances, with his Kate Winslet film following his Billy Elliot stage adaptation by mere weeks on his late-'08 calendar. Nevertheless, we got him properly caffeinated and settled in for a rousing installment of Five Questions (plus one, just for appropriate awards-season breadth):
4,405
By STVComment by TimDallas: Is it just me or does old-make-up Kate Winslett look alarmingly like Christopher Walken? 1 Responses | Other threads
-
the reader
Grateful Harvey Weinstein Cultivates Fragile Mogul Peace With Scott Rudin
When we awoke this morning to discover California hadn't yet crashed into the sea, we had little choice but to acknowledge that the culturally cataclysmic worst was behind us. Another profound symbol of recovery arrived shortly thereafter, when we heard that Harvey Weinstein actually paid tribute to exiled Reader producer Scott Rudin at the film's premiere Wednesday night. -
kate winslet
'Reader' Trailer Drops as Kate Winslet Craves Oscar in 'Vanity Fair'
The Reader may still require a month's worth of round-the-clock editing under armed guard, but the Kate Winslet drama has at last yielded a trailer to remind us that there is an Oscar-hopeful under all those layers of Harvey Weinstein-Scott Rudin ego-crisis. And like last week's not-embarrassing Valkyrie teaser, the preview assures us that its prestige creds are in place, thus setting the table for the next phase of its awards campaign, "Getting Winslet to Say Anything Positive About It At All." Though the Rudin loyalist spends most of her time in a new interview with Vanity Fair promoting her and Leonardo DiCaprio's Revolutionary Road, there is the modest admission that "you bet your fucking ass" she wants an Oscar this year: More » -
kate winslet
Casualties Mount in Scott Rudin's 'Reader' Implosion
If the plot isn't exactly thickening today around Scott Rudin's exit from The Reader, it's at least sustaining a low, convoluted simmer. Still nobody knows for sure the specific reasons for Rudin's move beyond the obvious, routine desire to gut Harvey Weinstein with a letter opener, but looking forward, a few new clues suggest the Oscar-season bloodbath has a while before it's drained. More » -
kate winslet
BREAKING: Scott Rudin Yanks His Name From 'The Reader'
We don't always know what to believe anymore when it comes to The Reader, but after a turbulent period of fighting, making up, gossip-page ensnarement and a charity payout, no one watching the tormented relationship between Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein could have realistically expected it to survive another two months leading up the release of their troubled Kate Winslet drama. And right on cue, that eerie silence of the last week is ended this afternoon when Rudin reportedly stripped his name from the Oscar hopeful, citing irreconcilable differences — among other things. More » -
harvey weinstein
Bet-Losing Harvey Weinstein Spends First $1 Million on 'Reader' Oscar Campaign
No distance seems far enough, no HazMat suit thick enough to defend against the radioactivity let off by Harvey Weinstein and Scott Rudin's toxic Reader mess. This morning we're getting an idea of the clean-up cost for both parties — none more prohibitive than Harvey's, who today pledged $1 million to charity if Nikki Finke could turn up Rudin's alleged e-mail accusing him of "harrassing" ailing Reader co-producer Sydney Pollack for a 2008 release date. Even Rudin told Page Six: "That is not my e-mail. The contents of it are categorically untrue." Those gambits could have gone a lot better, as both men were soon to discover. More »
7,442
By STVComment by shutupitsmine: When will these two bears kiss and make out? Make up. Whatever. 1 Responses | Other threads
-
kate winslet
Peace at Last! Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein Slate 'Reader' For '08
After a brief but concentrated period of friction over the release date for their Oscar-bait drama The Reader, Harvey Weinstein and Scott Rudin issued a joint statement late Sunday confirming the film would arrive in theaters Dec. 12, 2008. Thus anticlimactically ended Rudin/Weinstein Death Match II, their first since The Hours, another Stephen Daldry film that endured a litany of tweaks and torment coming down to the awards-season wire in 2002. While Defamer scorekeepers last week favored Rudin in the tilt, a late flurry of Weinstein jabs sent the superproducer reeling to the canvas — or maybe not quite the canvas, but at least a sort of easy détente few saw coming when Harvey insisted on receiving Daldry's first edit a week from today. Let alone Rudin's congested awards roster also including Doubt and Revolutionary Road, the latter of which positions Reader star Kate Winslet in a potential race against herself for Best Actress. More » -
-
harvey weinstein
Harvey's Peril Worsens as MGM Drops 'Zack and Miri' and Rest of Weinstein Slate
The three-year distribution match made in the mildly optimistic spirit of convenience between MGM and the Weinstein Company was set to expire at the end of this year, but the Lion isn't waiting around to box up the furniture. A day after Kevin Smith's associates blogged that MGM had yanked its logo from the marketing materials for Zack and Miri Make a Porno — one of the few remaining titles it planned to distribute for the Weinsteins — new reports have surfaced saying that MGM has dumped everything but the Sam Jackson/Bernie Mac effort Soul Men back on Harvey's lap. And yes, that includes The Reader, which Harvey wants for Dec. 12 despite his mortal mogul Scott Rudin's insistence otherwise. Gasp! What now? More » -
kate winslet
Weinstein Vs. Rudin: Handicapping Their Kate Winslet Oscar Grudge Match
While most of the filmgoing world probably wouldn't have minded seeing Kate Winslet compete against herself for a Best Actress Oscar next February (at this point we'd do anything to improve her odds), we'd sacrifice that opportunity if it means we get to witness and/or feel the seismic power struggle rocking Winslet's war-crime period piece The Reader. It was about a month ago that Harvey Weinstein cited positive test screenings and a Winslet Oscar push while moving the film's release date up to 2008; alas, as we anticipated, co-producer Scott Rudin probably heard the news right around the same time we did. More »
5,678
By STVComment by A Pimp Named DaveR: Why were Weinstein & Rudin photoshopped over a picture of Christopher Walken in drag? 2 Responses | Other threads
-
tommy lee jones
'No Country' Sequel Features Angry Tommy Lee Jones Hunting For $10 Million Payday
For a while, it looked like No Country For Old Men might have been the perfect crime, one where everybody made out as a winner: Javier Bardem, Scott Rudin and the Coens with their Oscars; Josh Brolin with leading-man creds; and Miramax and Paramount Vantage splitting the $160 million worldwide gross. Did we forget anyone? Oh. Right: More » -
kate winslet
Kate Winslet Oscar Bait Doubles Overnight as Weinsteins Bump Up 'The Reader'
The last news we'd heard about Kate Winslet's post-WWII drama The Reader was less than reassuring: While the film ultimately got its first choice of leading lady after a pregnant Nicole Kidman backed out, the successive passings of co-producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack left Scott Rudin on his own with the broke-ass Weinsteins to maneuver the Oscar push everyone had in mind. Then, as recently as last month, Defamer operatives whispered that The Reader wouldn't make it to 2008 at all, instead landing somewhere of TWC's choosing in 2009 — if it could afford to release it at all. More »
15,298
By STVComment by Victor Ward: So, is Kate Winslet playing Michael Caine? 2 Responses | Other threads
-
16,073
By STVComment by TylerDurden67: Here Here! although Magnolia is a masterpiece. get with the fucking program Defamer. more » | Other threads
-
defamer
Massacred Film Critics Have a Friend in Scott Rudin
The film-critic deathwatch we launched here way back in January (and continued yesterday) hit The New York Times this morning, when part-time Oscar gadfly and inveterate media observer David Carr surveyed the carnage from the sidelines. It's not a story we haven't been hearing for years, but Carr's essential access to insiders from Scott Rudin to Michael Lacey — the bloodthirsty boss of the New Times chain currently decimating New York's Village Voice — hints that conventional wisdom among film and publishing types won't be reconciled any time soon: More » -
defamer
Will 'No Country' Weak Links Compel Oscar Recount?
Some people's underwear cinches at the mere thought of foreign-language film snubs, "In Memoriam" montage omissions and other Oscar-night transgressions, but one eagle-eyed blogger appears to have found the sure-to-be-controversial Achilles' heel that could have — nay, should have — stopped the No Country For Old Men juggernaut in its laconic Texas tracks: More » -
defamer
Did Academy Officials Pinkwash Scott Rudin's Declaration Of Superproducerly Love?: Update
My goodness. What a night. We wish we could say we managed to get some sleep, but truth be told, we just wandered back in, having spent the last eight hours or so partying at Prince's new mansion—a stunning, 48-room villa he had constructed out of a rare purple travertine found only in Madagascar, which the Demonschlonged One had air-lifted and dropped at its current address of 3121 Mulholland Dr. Apparently, the glitter had yet to fully settle before a minor Oscars controversy erupted: You'll recall when Scott Rudin, whom viewers might have recognized from the classic Goya portrait "Producer Devouring One of His Assistants," closed his Best Picture acceptance speech with a special mention to "my partner, John Barlow. Without you, honey, this is just hardware." His spouse appeared nowhere on the screen—we pictured much mayhem in the control booth, with Gil Cates barking into a headset at a camera operator, "Not Travolta, you fool! Barlow! Check the legend! CHECK THE—oh never mind,"—but it was a tender moment nonetheless. Good As You now notices that the mention has been stricken from the official Academy transcript: More » -
tyrants who care
Uncompromising Superproducer Scott Rudin Would Gladly Sacrifice 1000 Assistants For One 'No Country'
As a shepherd of great literary works from page to screen, assistant-gobbling producer/Kraken Scott Rudin is arguably without equal: He produced both of the dark, uncompromising visions currently vying for Oscar greatness, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. In an LAT profile, Rudin is credited with scooping up rich source material before it even hits bookstore shelves, pairing it with the right director, making casting suggestion, and even tweaking crucial moments in the script. (Recent legend has it that he quietly pulled P.T. Anderson aside between Blood takes to question if "maybe some other beverage besides Ovaltine might work better in that one line," before staring down at a half-finished Wendy's Frostee for the creative epiphany of a lifetime.) Still, no Rudin profile is complete without the requisite paragraph on his notoriously mercurial temper: More » -
518
By MarkComment by Sweet Panda Love: @nojo: As marvelous as those BBC performances were (Patrick Stewart as Sejanus - hubba hubba!) I'm excited to see it... more » | Other threads
-
defamer
ABC Very Gay-Responsible
· GLAAD's first-ever "Network Responsibility Index" rates each network for how well they "handle the still-sensitive issue of depicting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals on TV." ABC got the highest rating for shows like Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, and the upcoming Cavemen, sure to stir up much constructive discussion about gay-caveman stereotypes. [Variety] More » -
universal
How The Little Soccer Story That Could Ruined Scott Rudin's Week
There is little in this world more heartwarming than tales of how fascinating real-life stories make their way from touching Sunday newspaper features to full-blown Hollywood lust objects, complete with nasty bidding wars that create overnight millionaires out of good-natured souls engaged in acts of movie-ready charity. Today's WSJ recounts how NY Times reporter Warren St. John's article on Luma Mufleh, a Jordan-born woman who became a soccer coach for the "Fugees," an adorable collection of kids from various war-ravaged countries who were then displaced from their Clarkston, GA soccer field, made the journey from the Times' pages to big-screen-tearjerker-in-development. As all such stories must, this one begins with "mercurial" (read: blunt-object-hurling) uberproducer Scott Rudin given just cause to maim an employee, and ends with an acquisition by a big studio: More »
670
By MarkComment by gwendemarco: Not so sure how Ms. Mufleh will feel when Rudin acquiesces to the test audiences demands for more guns, bigger... more » | Other threads
-
trade roundup
Trade Round-Up: Studio Seeks Spielberg's Expertise With "Worlds"
· Hollywood Out of Ideas, All-Worlds Edition: Paramount brings in Steven Spielberg, the world's leading expert on expensive remakes with "Worlds" in the title and movies dealing with deadly threats from outer space, as producer of the re-do of 1951's When Worlds Collide. [Variety] More »
- 1
1-21 of 21 for "Defamer, Scott Rudin"
