The Road, District 9, and Star Trek: Among Oscar® Makeup Race Shortlist

A "Prawn" from "District 9"

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday announced that seven films remain in competition in the Makeup category for the 82nd Academy Awards®.

The Academy Award for Best Makeup actually recognizes the individuals who perform both makeup and hairstyling duties. Like Best Visual Effects, this category has only three nominees, chosen from a list of seven finalists which are announced in a bake-off advance.

Certain names such as three-time Oscar® winner Greg Cannom (Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Mrs. Doubtfire) and six-time Oscar® winner Rick Baker (Tropic Thunder, Men in Black, How the Grinch Stole Christmas) show up with frequency. Creation of monsters and other fantastical characters such as Mike Elizalde's makeups in Hellboy I and Hellboy II, in addition to aging makeups, like those used by Greg Cannom in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, tend to be the branch’s preferred accomplishments.

The 82nd Oscar® Best Makeup finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

* “District 9”
* “Il Divo”
* “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
* “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”
* “The Road”
* “Star Trek”
* “The Young Victoria”

Toni Servillo in Il Divo

The biggest surprise was the inclusion of Il Divo among the seven. Paolo Sorrentino’s biting satire has been mostly ignored by US critics’ groups. The makeup job in question transformed actor Toni Servillo into Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, who is aged over several decades.

Robert Duvall (left) and Viggo Mortensen in "The Road"

The rugged survivors' makeups in The Road, Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic tale are haunting and unforgettable.

Eric Bana as the Romulan Nero in "Star Trek"

The successful reboot of the Star Trek franchise created the numerous famous characters, a bevy of Vulcans, Romulans, Orions, and most notably, Eric Bana’s antagonist Romulan Nero.

A "Prawn" from District Nine

While much of the work in Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 was achieved with visual effects, makeup nevertheless played a key role in capturing the hellish life in the title slum. Makeup effects and prosthetics were created by Jackson’s WETA crew.

Christopher Plummer as an immortal Eastern mystic
and Lily Cole as his daughter
in "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus."

Makeup is a key to Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a circus movie involving a 1,000 year old title character. Sarah Monzani has been out of the race for 27 years since winning this award for Quest for Fire.

Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend as Victoria and Albert

in "The Young Victoria."

The Young Victoria captures the early years of the British monarch.

One surprising omission is that of James Cameron’s Avatar. That’s probably because much of the Na’vi’s look is a result of computer generated imagery, not actual makeup jobs. The makeup artists on the crew have yet to be widely recognized by the Academy.

On Saturday, January 23, all members of the Academy’s Makeup Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

* * *

Dan Gaud's 'Leap': Traveling Between Parallel Worlds With A Snorkel

Filmmaker Dan Gaud's (District 9, Watchmen) short film Leap is about the dangerous side of travel between parallel worlds. The concept design is beautiful, and the mundane-looking snorkel gear adds an odd sense of menace. Luc Godbout and Virginie Goulet star in the film.

He shot the whole thing in two days with a RED digital camera (the same camera that Peter Jackson uses for his work, and which was used to shoot District 9). The short film will be 6 minutes when complete. Gaud says "It's a story about a guy that discovers that he can travel between two parallel worlds, but traveling between the two worlds has deadly consequences".

He's hoping to show it at festivals and get support to do a feature-length film that he says isn't "as epic" as Leap, but is still a superhero story on a small scale. The Leap full short will be available next month.

Check out ArsenicFilms.com for more information. Follow Dan Gaud on Twitter.

Go behind the scenes of District 9 with Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson's DISTRICT 9: New TV spot!

TriStar Pictures has unleashed a new extended TV spot and two brand new spots for the highly-anticipated horror film, District 9, produced by Peter Jackson.

If you haven't already heard, District 9 will be showing at San Diego Comic-Con International on Thursday this week, so expect to hear some early buzz coming from that. Peter Jackson, who produced this, will also be at Comic-Con in support of the movie. Lucky you if you were able to snag a tix to the sneak preview! If you get the opportunity, ask Peter about the latest Hobbit casting rumours (wink, wink).

Tagline: You are not welcome here!

It's really not a coincidence that a movie from a South African director, District 9, has aliens being treated like second-class citizens. In a new interview, Peter Jackson explains that yes, the movie really is all about apartheid.

The NZ Herald has an interview with Jackson, and the article also explains a bit more of this movie's plot, which revolves around a multinational corporation, MNU, charged with policing the aliens while trying to find out their technological secrets. When an MNU agent is accidentally exposed to a mysterious alien substance, he finds himself a hunted man. An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions in Johannesburg, South Africa suddenly find a "kindred spirit" in the government agent from MNU.

District 9 is both written and directed by first-timer Neill Blomkamp, a South African filmmaker who previously directed the awesome Halo: Arms Race shorts. The screenplay was co-written by Blomkamp and writing partner Terri Tatchell. This project is based on Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joburg.

Shot documentary style, District 9 breaks down responses to the presence of space aliens to the level of the streets. The information always seems imperfect, distorted by fear and other agendas. In the new TV trailer we get further glimpses of the near-panicked atmosphere that arises in the absence of any real knowledge of what's going on.

The aliens have arrived, but people don't know what to expect of them. A government representative says they will not be able to go home. The aliens are herded into the mysterious District 9, where the police conduct raids, unprepared for what they find. And as one alien gets hauled away, a man insists, "I did not know they were doing this to you guys." Most ominous of all is the comment that "nobody ever knew what this place was."

In the absence of any reliable information, people's reactions say a lot more about them than they do about the aliens. This is highlighted further in a couple of viral interviews that popped up recently. Not knowing what exactly the aliens eat leads to disturbing rumors that they are eating missing pets (perhaps even people) or subsisting on government handouts, all of which fuels public animosity. Overall, the movie looks to be treading pretty close to the old Pogo line: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

District 9 is set for release on August 14.

TV Spot #1


District 9
TV Spot #2


MNU Protest