Tracking the Oscar race for best adapted screenplay

Obviously, "The Social Network" is ahead in the Oscar race for best adapted screenplay, given its front-runner status as best picture and the vaunted reputation of Aaron Sorkin as master wordsmith. However, upsets are always possible at these quirkly Hollywood awards, of course. "127 Hours" or "True Grit" could quickly jump ahead if one of them wins best picture from the film critics' awards in early December, which is quite possible. The creators of both films have been honored by them in the past and they also previously won the Oscars for best picture and screenplay in the past for "Slumdog Millionaire," "No Country for Old Men." There's an obvious link between those two Academy...

127 Hours Academy Awards Oscars Slumdog Millionaire The Hurt Locker The King's Speech The Social Network
10/29/2010 16:23
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Gold Derby nuggets: 'Lost' finds on auction block | Woes for Oscar winners | Stamp of approval for Katharine Hepburn

• Fans of "Lost" will be able to own a piece of memorabilia from the Emmy Award-winning drama series. This summer, more than 100 props used on the show will go up for auction. As James Hibberd notes, "There's plenty of iconic memorabilia from the show (Charlie's guitar, Locke's death certificate, Hurley's Lotto ticket) and plenty of less-than-iconic (hey, who wants Ana Lucia's ID card? Anybody? How about Kate's toy airplane?)." The penultimate episode of "Lost" airs in the regular Tuesday night time slot on Tuesday. On May 23, ABC is airing a two-hour retrospective and then the 150-minute finale. FOR THE RECORD: This post previously gave the wrong date for the "Lost" finale. The...

24 Academy Awards Emmy Awards Emmy nominations Emmy nominees Emmy winners Emmys entertainment news Jeff Bridges Kathryn Bigelow Modern Family Oscar nominations Oscars The Hurt Locker TV news
05/13/2010 12:21
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Gold Derby nuggets: Bigelow more influential than Cameron | 'Chicago' creators allege accounting razzle dazzle | 'The Hobbit' arrives in 2012

• Kathryn Bigelow has bested her ex James Cameron once again. The Oscar-winning director of "The Hurt Locker" secured the third spot on Time's top 25 most influential artists of the year -- only Lady Gaga and Conan O'Brien ranked higher -- while the onetime "king of the world" had to settle for the last slot despite creating the biggest moneymaker in movie history with "Avatar." Also earning places of distinction were director Neill Blokamp -- who contended at this year's Oscars for his script for best picture nominee "District 9" -- at No. 16 and best actress champ Sandra Bullock ("The Blind Side") at No. 22. Neil Patrick Harris -- who hosted both the...

Academy Awards Avatar Barbra Streisand Betty White CMT Awards Glee James Cameron Oscars Peter Jackson Sandra Bullock The Blind Side The Hobbit The Hurt Locker The Lord of the Rings
04/29/2010 14:01
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Gold Derby nuggets: Katherine Heigl exiting 'Grey's Anatomy'? | Banned 'Hurt Locker' picks up Oscar | Extended 'Avatar' in the works?

• Michael Ausiello reports that Katherine Heigl may well be leaving "Grey's Anatomy" for good. Heigl -- who won the supporting actress Emmy in 2007 -- declined to submit herself for consideration in 2008, telling Gold Derby, "I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination." Heigl, who has been MIA for most of this season, was to return to the show March 1. However, as Michael writes, "talks between Heigl and ABC have been going on for months and last week both sides mutually decided that the best solution would be to part ways now as opposed to at the end of the season. As a...

Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Avatar Emmy Awards Emmys Glee Golden Globes Grey's Anatomy Katherine Heigl The Hurt Locker
03/12/2010 14:59
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'The Hurt Locker' ranked lucky 13 on Rotten Tomatoes Oscars countdown

"The Hurt Locker" comes in at No. 13 on the Rotten Tomatoes ranking of all 83 best picture winners at the Oscars. The inclusion of this year's critics' darling pushes last year's top pic -- "Slumdog Millionaire" -- down one spot to No. 32. All of the Oscar champs were "sorted by the strict and rigorous standards of Tomatometer science" into this overall list, which has some real head-scratchers. "Casablanca" -- the last best picture winner chosen from 10 nominees -- rates only slot No. 14 while "Gone With the Wind" is one place above "The Hurt Locker" at No. 12. And ranking above "Slumdog Milliionaire" on the list are such overrated past champs as...

Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscars Slumdog Millionaire The Hurt Locker
03/11/2010 09:23
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Gold Derby nuggets: 'The Hurt Locker' expands screens | 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' in primetime |'Mad Men' gets Barbie makeover

• The post-Oscars box office bounce for "The Hurt Locker" will be limited by its availability on DVD. However, as Melena Ryzik reports, "The film, which has actually never left theaters since it opened in a very few in June 2009, will open in an additional 35 on Friday, in major markets like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Washington D.C., Seattle, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis and San Diego, as well as in 30 more in Canada. That will take its total in North America to 348 theaters; for comparison’s sake, 'Avatar' is playing in 2,163 theaters (although 'Alice in Wonderland' has scooped up most its 3-D screens), and 'Crazy Heart' in 1,274."...

Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Avatar Carey Mulligan Emmy Awards Emmy winners Emmys Gabourey Sidibe Mad Men Oscars The Hurt Locker
03/10/2010 15:46
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Gold Derby nuggets: Banned 'Hurt Locker' producer's Oscars speech | Stone & Hammond on 'Avatar' loss | Alec Baldwin on Oscars gig

• Eugene Hernandez does a crackerjack job reporting on how banned "Hurt Locker" producer Nicolas Chartier spent Oscar Sunday. He was feted by 300 people gathered at the Malibu home of reality TV/film producer Mike Fleiss, who co-hosted with WME Global chief Graham Taylor and his producer wife Lynnette Howell ("Half Nelson"). As Eugene writes, "The crowd was clearly biased in favor of 'The Hurt Locker' and when the movie won the final award of the night, an uproar was unleashed. Chartier silenced the crowd to listen to the televised speeches and then stepped onto a footstool for his own acceptance. Someone handed him a small plastic statue that looked a bit like an Oscar."...

Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Avatar Crazy Heart Inglourious Basterds James Cameron Kathryn Bigelow Mo'Nique Oscar nominations Oscars Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire Sandra Bullock The Blind Side The Hurt Locker Up in the Air
03/09/2010 14:29
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Revenge of the fallen: Pete beats Tom

I may have trounced my Envelope colleague Pete Hammond (Notes on a Season) at predicting the most Oscar nominations last month and, before that, forecasting the most correct wins last year. But Pete just struck his revenge! He just clobbered me at scoring this year's derby 19 to 17. Congrats, Pete! (Click here to see our prediction lists.) Most impressive: Pete got some of those really tricky Oscar categories right, the ones determined by private screenings like best live action short ("The New Tenants"), animated short ("Logorama") and best foreign film ("Secret in Their Eyes"). I botched those, but topped Pete in predicting those two sound races ("The Hurt Locker"). But, of course, I botched...

Academy Awards Oscars The Hurt Locker
03/08/2010 18:39
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How did 'The Hurt Locker' defy the odds at the Oscars?

It's amazing that "The Hurt Locker" won best picture at the Oscars despite having three strikes against it. "The Hurt Locker" didn't feature A-list stars. It wasn't successful at the box office. And maybe, worst of all: it was about the Mideast war, a topic usually cursed at the Academy Awards. So how did it pull off this Oscar miracle? For starters, "The Hurt Locker" had some high-caliber oomph behind it. It was distributed by Summit, a studio with bold leaders who had deep pockets and something to prove. Flush with money from the "Twilight" movies, Summit wanted to be taken seriously as an artistic player in Hollywood. Early on, Summit hired Cynthia Swartz and...

Academy Awards Oscars The Hurt Locker
03/08/2010 17:07
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Oscars ratings highest in five years

The doubling of the best picture nominees revived viewer interest in the Academy Awards, which enjoyed a 14% increase in the overnight Nielsen numbers compared to last year's Oscars. About 41.3 million Americans saw "The Hurt Locker" take home the top prize, an increase of 5 million viewers over 2009 when "Slumdog Millionaire" won and the Oscars hosted by Hugh Jackman earned a rating of 21.68. This was the one piece of good news Monday for first-time Oscars producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman, who saw their show beset by bad reviews. They benefited from the upward trend in ratings for all awards shows. And the avid interest in "Avatar" no doubt drew new viewers...

Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Avatar Oscar nominations Oscars The Hurt Locker
03/08/2010 15:11
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Oscar winners were predicted by guild awards

"The Hurt Locker" won a leading six Oscars, including best picture and best director for Kathryn Bigelow. The Iraq war drama also picked up prizes for original screenplay, editing, sound mixing and sound editing. As is often the case at the Oscars, many of these wins followed up on equivalent kudos from the respective guilds, largely because the two sets of awards share many of the same voters. But the scale is hugely different. There are, for example, 1,240 members of the academy's acting branch but more than 100,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild. The academy includes 374 directors while the vast majority of the 13,000 helmers who belong to the DGA create TV...

Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Avatar Crazy Heart Inglourious Basterds Jeff Bridges Kathryn Bigelow Mo'Nique Oscar nominations Oscars Sandra Bullock The Blind Side The Hurt Locker
03/08/2010 11:57
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'The Hurt Locker' wins six Oscars, including history maker for director Kathryn Bigelow

The 82nd Academy Awards followed the script set down by pundits, as the front-runners for all of the major Oscars won Sunday night. "The Hurt Locker" led with six Oscars, including best picture and best director for Kathryn Bigelow, who became the first woman to win this award. The Iraq war drama also picked up prizes for original screenplay (Mark Boal), editing, sound mixing and sound editing. "Avatar" went into the night tied with "The Hurt Locker" with a leading nine nominations but had to settle for three Oscars for art direction, cinematography and visual effects (and a $2.4-billion and counting box-office take). See a complete list of all Oscar winners here. Lead actor went...

Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Avatar best actor best actress best director best picture best score best screenplay Carey Mulligan Crazy Heart Directors Guild of America entertainment news Helen Mirren Inglourious Basterds James Cameron Jeff Bridges Kathryn Bigelow Meryl Streep movie news Oscar nominations Oscars Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire Producers Guild of America Sandra Bullock The Blind Side The Hurt Locker Up Up in the Air
03/07/2010 21:38
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