Moviefone Editorial

Tag: david-oyelowo

  • ‘Les Misérables’ First Photos Tease Non-Musical PBS Adaptation

    ‘Les Misérables’ First Photos Tease Non-Musical PBS Adaptation

    PBS

    A non-musical six-part adaptation of “Les Misérables” is coming to PBS.

    Non-musical. No songs. Because Victor Hugo wrote a novel, not a musical. And PBS is now adapting the book, not the musical.

    The prestige series is a joint production of the BBC and PBS’ Masterpiece. The first photos were recently revealed, showing Dominic West  (“The Affair”) as Jean Valjean, Lily Collins (“Okja”) as Fantine, and David Oyelowo  (“Selma”) as Javert.

    The cast also includes Olivia Colman (new Queen Elizabeth II on “The Crown”) and Adeel Akhtar (“The Night Manager”) as Mr. and Mrs. Thénardier.

    Les Miserables
    PBS
    Les Miserables
    PBS
    Les Miserables
    PBS

    There have been so many Les Mis adaptations, but few come to mind that have skipped the iconic music. (Liam Neeson’s 1998 film … it doesn’t come to mind without effort.)

    Writer Andrew Davies (the original U.K. “House of Cards,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “War & Peace”) explained his decision to skip the songs (via TVLine):

     

    “Les Misérables is a huge iconic title. Most of us are familiar with the musical version which only offers a fragmentary outline of its story. I am thrilled to have the opportunity of doing real justice to Victor Hugo at last by adapting his masterpiece in a six-hour version for the BBC.”

    Stay tuned for the PBS premiere date for this series.

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  • Netflix is Dropping New ‘Cloverfield’ Movie Tonight

    Take that, Beyonce.

    Earlier tonight Netflix debuted the trailer for “The Cloverfield Paradox,” the latest film in the loosely-connected J.J. Abrams-produced genre series that began with “Cloverfield” (celebrating its 10th anniversary this year!) and continued with the superb, wholly underrated “10 Cloverfield Lane” in 2016. Previously, the film was scheduled to be released this month and was later it was bumped back to April 20th. This was back when Paramount was putting the movie out. Now Netflix has taken over the distribution and instead it’ll be coming out tonight, right after the Super Bowl.

    Just remember to tape “This Is Us.”

    This is a huge move for the streamer and for the sci-fi film, which stars Alias”), so for Netflix to say, loud and clear, “turn your TV off and watch your streaming service” is bold as hell. It’s also super cool.

  • David Oyelowo Says He Stayed in Character for Three Weeks for ‘Nightingale’

    Nightingale David Oyelowo
    David Oyelowo

    For three weeks last year, David Oyelowo wasn’t himself. He was his character in “Nightingale,” and it apparently wasn’t too pretty.

    While speaking to Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” on Wednesday, the actor says that while shooting the film he didn’t break from being Peter Snowden, a lonely war veteran who has a mental breakdown before an old friend visits.

    “It was as tiny little script, a tiny little movie,” he shares. “It was one of those one’s I read, it terrified me, but we made it as a tiny little independent.”

    The film, which was also produced by Oyelowo, was picked up by HBO, something that was never in the cards. “Never in a million years did we think it would end up on HBO,” he says.

    While filming, Oyelowo says he and director Elliot Lester hunkered down in a Los Angeles-area home and didn’t leave. The two, Oyelowo explains, “just knocked heads [in] this tiny little house in Tarzana for three weeks, staying in character the whole time to play this pretty out there dude.”

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  • ‘Selma’ Actor David Oyelowo Will Be the First Black James Bond… on Audiobook

    David Oyelowo
    David Oyelowo

    Many Hollywood observers and 007 fans thought there would never be a black actor in the role of James Bond.

    Never say never again.

    David Oyelowo has been tapped to play the dapper secret agent–rather it is his voice that will portray the character–in an audiobook.

    Still, the British star who won praise for his role as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in “Selma” says he’s “very honored.”

    “I am officially the only person on planet Earth who can legitimately say: ‘I am the new James Bond’ – even saying that name is the cinematic equivalent of doing the ‘to be or not to be’ speech,” he tells The Guardian.

    The 39-year-old describes his version of Bond as “a man who is very self-assured.”

    British star Oyelowo will voice Bond and other characters for audiobook “Trigger Mortis,” a 2015 novel written by Anthony Horowitz, commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate. The spy fiction novel takes place after the events of Bond scribe Ian Fleming’s 1959 book “Goldfinger.” The late 007 creator would be 107 years old today, and has penned 14 books in the Bond series.

    “I was asked specifically by the Fleming estate, which is really special,” Oyelowo adds.

    Chatter about a black actor replacing actor Daniel Craig as the coveted spy recently made headlines in January with Idris Elba’s named as a top contender.

    Hacked emails from then-Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal to Elizabeth Cantillon, former executive VP of production for Columbia Pictures, which distributes the Bond films, revealed that she endorsed the idea of a black actor taking the part: “Idris should be the next bond,” Pascal’s email read.

    The fallout that ensued was a mixed bag of reactions, with some fans supportive of the suave, handsome Elba taking the part, and others who want the character to reflect author Fleming’s physical description of Bond.

    In 2011 Elba told NPR that he did not want Bond to be defined by skin color.

    “I just don’t want to be the black James Bond,” Elba explained. “Sean Connery wasn’t the Scottish James Bond and Daniel Craig wasn’t the blue-eyed James Bond, so if I played him, I don’t want to be called the black James Bond.”

    “Spectre,” the 24th film in the Bond franchise, starring Daniel Craig Naomie Harris, Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux, arrives in theaters on Nov. 6.

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  • Neil Patrick Harris’s 7 Best Moments From the 2015 Oscars


    Well, this year’s Oscars was certainly full of surprises and one of the biggest was just how uneven Neil Patrick Harris‘s gig as emcee went. At first it seemed like the actor, who starred in last year’s Oscar-nominated box office smash “Gone Girl,” would translate his boisterous, Broadway-honed song-and-dance routine into one of the more memorable hosting gigs of recent memory (in a good way). But the high highs also complemented by some incredibly low lows (like the overlong gag about his predictions, which culminated in a reveal that had us asking, Oh he likes magic right?) Still, NPH did more bad than good last night – and here are our seven favorite moments from the show.

    1. Acknowledging the Race Discrepancy Right Away
    Despite a number of films that tackled racially diverse issues (and just as many ace performances by nonwhite actors), this year’s Oscars was one of the whitest in recent memory (at least as far as the acting categories went). NPH acknowledged this early, saying that the show honored Hollywood’s “Best and whitest — sorry, brightest.” It wasn’t just a great joke but it allowed for some of the tension in the room to be released, establishing his mostly easygoing hosting style.

    2. The Opening Number, ‘Moving Pictures’
    Following a couple of spoken word gags, Harris went into the night’s big opening musical number, a jaunty tune penned by the Oscar-winning “Frozen” team of Bobby and Kristen Lopez entitled “Moving Pictures.” And this really was a showstopper, featuring some incredible projection-display technology, cameos from Anna Kendrick and Jack Black (who had us saying “Screens in your jeans” for the rest of the night) and Harris interacting with famous movies in a way that didn’t feel derivative or overly indebted to the similar shtick that Billy Crystal trots out every time he hosts. When the Lopezes involvement was originally announced, it was mentioned that they had written multiple songs. This never came to pass. But the one song we did get certainly brought down the house.

    3. The Awkward Joke About How Much Money ‘American Sniper’ Made
    Early on there was a poorly worded and equally poorly delivered joke about how successful “American Sniper” was, when Harris equated half of the room to the other nominees and “American Sniper” to Oprah. Even Oprah looked a little dumbfounded as to what the joke meant and it certainly didn’t land the way the writers (or Harris) intended. So at the close of the joke, Harris sold it with an irrepressibly charming button when he addressed a visibly confused Oprah by saying, simply, “It’s because you’re rich.” And like that a potential bomb because a mini-triumph.

    4. The Farmers Insurance Joke
    It was short, it was simple, it was right after J.K. Simmons took home the award for Best Supporting Actor, it was Harris looking into the camera and saying, to the tune of the Farmers Insurance jingle, “He won an Oscar, bom bom bom bom bom bom bom.” Perfection.

    5. Seat Filler Interaction
    At one point Harris was set into the crowd, for a bit that was clearly supposed to be built around his casual interaction with some very famous and well-dressed people. But, for whatever reason, when Harris was supposed to mingle was also the moment that those famous people were using the toilet, since instead of giant stars he exclusively found himself confronted by everyday seat fillers. This could have been deathly, but instead it was an opportunity for Harris to expose one of the lesser-known oddities of the Oscars, the fact that nobodies in eveningwear fill in for celebrities if they have to go somewhere, so that when the cameras pan to the crowd, it always looks bursting at the seams. Harris salvaged the bit, too, when he came upon a more-than-game Steve Carell, who said that he was really looking forward to running into Edward Norton. “He’s right over there!” Carell exclaimed with impish glee. End scene.

    6. Everything Sounds Better With a British Accent
    There were a number of famous Brits at the Oscars last night, including but certainly not limited to the Oscar-nominated likes of Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Felicity Jones. But for a bit where Harris had a British person recite the punch line to a really bad joke, the honor of “Brit being singled out by jolly American awards show host” went to David Oyelowo from “Selma.” Wearing a wine-colored three-piece suit (bold but lovable), the actor, who was not nominated but still an audience favorite (leading to one of Harris’ more pointed jokes, as the said, “Oh now you like him”), gamely played along with NPH. Harris started the gag by setting up the joke, saying: “This year, we said goodbye to some beloved movie franchises …” To which Oyelowo, reading from a note card clutched by Harris, uncomfortably finished by saying: “We saw the last ever ‘Hobbit’ movie, the last ever ‘Night at the Museum’ movie and the last ever attempt to remake ‘Annie.’” Even though the joke didn’t totally work, the combined charm of their interaction was pretty fantastic.

    7. The Birdman Bit
    Of course “Birdman” had to be parodied, even before it came away as the big winner of the night. In one of the evening’s more memorable moments, Harris restaged the famous centerpiece scene from the film (where Michael Keaton gets locked out of the theater in his underwear and has to parade through Times Square nearly nude), with Harris ducking and diving through the auditorium’s backstage area in his skivvies. Not only did it end with a surprisingly fit Harris, onstage, in his tighty whities, but it also had a nifty gag with Miles Teller playing the drums, a tip of the hat to the movie’s unconventional score that was only slightly less funny because they did the same joke a night earlier at the Independent Spirit Awards (which had the added benefit of Bill Hader impersonating Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu). Hey, a good joke is still a good joke, even when it is two days in a row.
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  • The 15 Most Memorable Moments From the 2015 Oscars

    87th Annual Academy Awards - Show
    “Stay weird. Stay different.” That was the advice of Best Adapted Screenplay winner Graham Moore (“The Imitation Game“) to kids out there who might one day follow in his footsteps, but it also could have been the motto for the 87th annual Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night. The weirdness of the Neil Patrick Harris-hosted Oscars wasn’t in the results — for the record, I went 18 for 24 in my predictions, which is more a testimony to how closely the voting followed conventional wisdom than it is to my crystal-ball skills — but in the presentation. The show was full of WTF? moments, some wonderful, some cringeworthy, some merely bizarre, and all of them memorable. Here are some of the weird and different Oscar moments that viewers won’t soon forget.

    1. “Moving Pictures”
    Neil Patrick Harris‘s opening number was penned by Robert Lopez and Kristin Anderson-Lopez, the composers who won the Oscar last year for “Let It Go”; suffice it to say that your kids won’t be memorizing this one and singing it over and over again like they did that “Frozen” anthem. A few funny lines aside (particularly the one suggesting a homoerotic reading of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s on- and off-screen friendship), it was a mostly earnest tribute to the ability of movies to capture our imagination. Which is fine, and so was having Anna Kendrick step in to give sort of a reprise of her Cinderella from “Into the Woods.” The song got weirder when Jack Black showed up, singing lyrics that dripped with cynicism about the movie business — it was actually sort of a welcome antidote to the gee-whiz enthusiasm of Harris and Kendrick — but it was also kind of a buzzkill for a party meant to celebrate movies, and it ended mercifully when Kendrick, still in Cinderella mode, threw her shoe at Black.

    2. J.K. Simmons’s public service announcement
    Many of the winners used their speeches to forward a cause, but the message of Simmons’ victory speech for his supporting role in “Whiplash” was to value your parents, to call them (not just e-mail or text them), and to listen to everything they had to say. It didn’t seem at all relevant to his role as a scary music teacher, but it was certainly sweet.

    3. Neil Patrick Harris Crushes on Channing Tatum
    Introducing presenter Tatum, Harris gushed about how great Tatum looks, whether in “Magic Mike” stripper garb or in his “Foxcatcher” wrestling unitard. He pretended to make a Freudian slip and used the phrase “pants down” instead of “hands down.” Maybe this was Harris’ way of joking about his own sexual orientation; at any rate, having a male host eye a male presenter was probably a historic first for an Oscar ceremony.

    4. Pawel Pawikowkski wins for “Ida”
    The first-ever Polish winner for Best Foreign Language film marveled at his good fortune, winning for a contemplative, black-and-white movie from a previously unheralded country. “How did I get here?” the filmmaker wondered aloud. He made the most of his moment in the spotlight; the orchestra had to play him off twice before he managed to thank everyone.

    5. Harris Editorializes
    Or maybe it was just his joke writers doing the editorializing. Either way, the host seemed to have a lot of pointed opinions about the ceremony, the winners, and the snubs. He introduced presenters David Oyelowo and Jennifer Aniston as “two people who absolutely deserve to be here tonight,” referring to their surprising omissions from the acting nominees’ list (Oyelowo for “Selma” and Aniston for “Cake“). He also did a comedy bit with Oyelowo, and when the audience applauded for the British actor, Harris said, “Oh, now you like him?” Most jarringly, moments after Laura Poitras won Best Documentary Feature for “Citizenfour,” which depicts her suspenseful interview with fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, Harris punned that Snowden himself was unavailable to attend the Oscars, “for some treason.” Whether you think Snowden is a heroic whistleblower who’s standing up for Fourth Amendment privacy rights or an attention-seeker whose leaks jeopardized national security, wouldn’t the classy thing to do be to let Poitras enjoy the recognition of her achievement for at least 20 seconds before pissing all over it for a cheap laugh?

    6. “Everything Is Awesome”
    No surprise that the performance of this nominated tune from “The Lego Movie,” with Tegan and Sara singing the chorus and Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island comedy trio rapping the verses, would feature a troupe of dancers dressed like characters from the movie. But there were also some surprise guests, including Questlove on drums and Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh (complete with trademark flowerpot hat) on keyboards. Bonus points for the Oscar statuettes made of Lego bricks (a pointed reference to the film’s inexplicable snub from the Best Animated Feature category), which were circulating on stage and among the audience for the rest of the evening. Compared to a real Oscar, the Lego ones were, well, awesome.

    7. “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”
    Presenter Gwyneth Paltrow reminded everyone of the moving story of how Glen Campbell made a point of writing and recording this song after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and knowing that the disease would soon ravage his memory. The rendition of the tune by Paltrow’s “Country Strong” co-star Tim McGraw was one of the evening’s most poignant moments. Just wondering, though: does McGraw ever take off that black cowboy hat?

    8. The “Birdman” parody
    Harris proved he’s not just a nimble emcee but also a good sport by spoofing Michael Keaton’s dash through Times Square in nothing but his briefs. Here, a backstage camera showed Harris locked out of his dressing room, with his robe caught in the door. He abandoned the robe and dashed to the stage, with pulse-pounding drumming supplied by Miles Teller (in character from “Whiplash”). Standing before a billion people in his underwear, Harris delivered the punchline, with a speech that began, “Acting is a noble profession…”

    9. Patricia Arquette speaks out
    Arquette’s victory as Best Supporting Actress was a foregone conclusion (though, surprisingly, it was the only win for “Boyhood” out of six nominations), so viewers shouldn’t have been surprised that she had prepared a written list of people to thank. What was odd was that she ended her speech with a plea for wage equality and equal rights for women. She was far from the only winner to use her speech as an opportunity to raise a political or philanthropic issue, but it probably wasn’t evident to most viewers what those issues had to do with her “Boyhood” performance. Later, Harris scoffed at Arquette’s political statement, referring to it as her “Norma Rae moment.”

    10. In Memoriam
    Meryl Streep gave an eloquent speech suggesting that the departed movie artists live on in the unforgettable work they created. The usual montage followed, but instead of clips of the actors and directors at work, it just showed still portraits, painted from photographs. OK, still classy. (Not classy: omitting Joan Rivers.) Director Mike Nichols seemed to win the applause-meter, but maybe he just got the loudest applause because he closed out the montage. Jennifer Hudson followed with an emotional ballad, which was also classy. But you know what would have been even classier? A moment of silence.

    11. “Glory”
    Staging matters. Here’s proof: “Glory,” John Legend and Common’s nominated song from “Selma,” is an emotional number, but when you stage it with a backing choir that reenacts the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, that puts it over the top. It brought the audience in the Dolby Theater to tears (or at least David Oyelowo and Chris Pine, both of whom the camera caught crying), and maybe some viewers at home as well. That the singer and rapper won the Oscar for the song a few minutes later seemed entirely apt, and their eloquent speeches continued the theme expressed in their song: that “Selma” isn’t just about events in Alabama 50 years ago but about the struggle for justice that continues today, all over the world.

    12. “The Sound of Music” tribute
    OK, I understand the impulse to want to pay homage to one of the most beloved movies ever, a Best Picture winner whose 50th anniversary arrives next week. But to put it two hours and 45 minutes into the show, with seven major awards left to be handed out? Not sure why Scarlett Johansson, of all people, was picked to introduce the tribute, or why Lady Gaga, of all people, got to sing the medley. (She did fine, by the way, though it was a little disconcerting to see arm tattoos on a woman belting out tunes made famous by a nun-turned-nanny. Couldn’t she have covered them up with gloves like Rita Ora did?) This would have been the most superfluous musical number of the evening had it not ended with Gaga’s introduction of surprise presenter Julie Andrews. That the “Sound of Music” star showed up at all was an emotional high point of the show; that she graciously thanked Gaga and then presented the award for Best Original Score was icing on the cake. Couldn’t they have skipped the manufactured nostalgia, brought to you by two performers born 20 years after the film’s release, and just had Andrews show up?

    13. Graham Moore’s speech
    Moore’s victory for writing the “Imitation Game” screenplay wasn’t the least bit surprising, but his acceptance speech was a stunner. What, after all, had drawn him to write about Alan Turing, the brilliant World War II codebreaker who, instead of being celebrated as a hero, was hounded to his death because of his homosexuality? Moore made the political personal, revealing to billions that, “When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird, and I felt different, and I felt like I did not belong. And now I’m standing here.” That instead he lived to become an Oscar-winning screenwriter was Moore’s proof that, as the public service ad campaign a few years ago suggested, It Gets Better. He urged gay kids, or any kids who feel alienated, to stick it out and do something great, so that one day they can stand at the podium and pay it forward.

    14. The briefcase gag
    At the beginning of the show, Harris boasted of his prowess at predicting the Oscars and pointed to a briefcase in a glass box, which he said held predictions he’d made earlier in the week, predictions he’d read from at the end of the show to prove his prophetic skills. To make sure no one tampered with the case, he enlisted Octavia Spencer, sitting in the front row, to keep an eye on it for the next three and a half hours. (Great, the woman wins an Oscar, and now Harris is once again making her into The Help.) Throughout the show, Harris turned to Spencer to ask if she was still guarding the case. Finally he read his predictions, which were not about the winners but about the funny things that happened during the show. Smuggling that list, printed out on gold cards and shown on camera, into the locked case was a neat magic trick, but the lengthy setup wasn’t really worth the slight, jokey payoff.

    15. The “Birdman” sweep
    The arty, surreal drama about a former superhero-movie star seeking redemption on Broadway won four prizes — Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, Best Directing, and Best Picture. Three of those trophies ended up in the hands of writer/director/producer Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, the Mexican filmmaker whose imaginative mind and fractured English led to some of the most offbeat acceptance speeches of the night. He claimed that, as a good-luck talisman, he was wearing Michael Keaton’s famed tighty-whities from the film. He also tried to express humility and share the credit, derisively referring to “that little prick called ego” (a phrase that surprisingly went unbleeped by the ABC censors). He also called for a more sensible immigration policy — this after Best Picture presenter Sean Penn made a green-card joke about him. (Penn starred in Iñarritu’s “21 Grams” a decade ago, so maybe he was just razzing an old friend, not making a slur.) Michael Keaton didn’t win Best Actor (that went to the bouncy and excited Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything“), but Iñarritu let him speak anyway. Keaton started to thank his colleagues but then the 63-year-old first-time Oscar nominee interrupted himself, saying, “Look, who am I kidding? It’s great to be here.” Indeed it is.
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  • Oscars 2015: The Reasons for the Black Shutout Are More Complicated Than You Think

    Well, with last Thursday’s announcement of the Oscar nominations, the sometimes ratings-challenged Academy Awards got all the traditional media and online attention they could have wished for. Too bad almost all of the attention was negative.

    Usually, Oscar controversies are about taste — whether “Crash” was really better than “Brokeback Mountain,” or whether “Shakespeare in Love” was really better than “Saving Private Ryan.” This year’s controversy over “Selma,” however, is shining an unflattering light on Hollywood’s racial politics.

    The snubbing of “Selma” in every category except Best Song and, curiously, Best Picture — that’s only part of what has professional and amateur critics up in arms. As many have noted, this year is the first since 1998 that no actors of color have been nominated. The nominations list has drawn predictable condemnation from the likes of Spike Lee and Rev. Al Sharpton, who has threatened to go to Hollywood and take unspecified steps to remedy the situation. Even Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy, has felt compelled to address the outrage. Meanwhile, on Twitter, #OscarsSoWhite has become a trending hashtag.

    It’s a little too easy to blame this year’s awards slate on old-fashioned racism. After all, this is the same Academy that, last year, named “12 Years a Slave” Best Picture, nominated Steve McQueen for Best Director, nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor for Best Actor, nominated Barkhad Abdi for Best Supporting Actor, and named Lupita Nyong’o Best Supporting Actress. And Alfonso Cuaron became the first Latino to win Best Director. And this year, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu could become the second; his film “Birdman” tied with “The Grand Budapest Hotel” for most nominations this year (nine each), including Best Picture. Conversely, Clint Eastwood failed to score a nomination for himself for directing “American Sniper,” even though the film was cited for Best Picture and several other categories. Did he not get the nomination because he’s white? Or because the liberals in the Academy still won’t forgive him for his chair speech at the Republican National Convention in 2012?

    Still, this year’s sudden white-out seems fishy. But if it’s not straight-out racism, a lot of other excuses have been trotted out to explain it. A lot of awards-season voters didn’t receive “Selma” DVD screeners in time. The controversy over the film’s historical accuracy may have soured some Academy members on the film. (Though similar controversies over the factuality of “Foxcatcher” and “The Imitation Game” didn’t keep those films from getting a slew of nominations.) Or maybe this was just such a strong year for films that there just wasn’t room to recognize the contributions of black people to the industry this year.

    This last reason sounds especially specious. Not to slight the Best Actor nominees this year, but was David Oyelowo’s performance as Rev. Martin Luther King in “Selma” — the one element of the movie no one seemed to find fault with — not worthy to be included among them? And aside from “Selma,” was Chadwick Boseman’s performance as James Brown in “Get On Up” a lesser achievement than those of the white actors nominated for biopic roles this year? Did Gugu Mbatha-Raw not deserve consideration for her starring roles in “Belle” or “Beyond the Lights”? Was Chris Rock’s screenplay for “Top Five” not worthy of inclusion? Did cinematographer Bradford Young, who shot both “Selma” and “A Most Violent Year,” not deserve a nod? Did not one black person do Oscar-worthy work this year?

    Rather, the problem seems more complicated and systemic. It’s been pointed out that the Academy membership is 94 percent white. This, in turn, is probably reflective of what the film industry looks like as a whole, especially behind the camera. As Chris Rock has noted, people in Hollywood tend to hire other people who resemble themselves. That’s not necessarily racism, just a failure of imagination, an inability to think outside the box. The Academy Awards seem to work the same way; voters tend to choose nominees from their own background unless (like last year) they’re given a compelling reason not to.

    The answer to the problem, then, seems to require a more diverse Academy membership. Which is something that Academy president Boone Isaacs (who is the Academy’s first black president) says her organization is working toward. Addressing the nomination controversy, she told the Associated Press, “In the last two years, we’ve made greater strides than we ever have in the past toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization through admitting new members and more inclusive classes of members,” Without directly criticizing this year’s slate of nominees or the process that created it, she added, “And, personally, I would love to see and look forward to see a greater cultural diversity among all our nominees in all of our categories.”

    Of course, for her to add more minority folk to the Academy roster, there have to be more of them finding work in Hollywood. Which ultimately means there has to be more diversity in the executive suites among those who make hiring decisions, both in front of and behind the camera.

    It would make economic sense. After all, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, Latinos go to the movies more often than other Americans, and white people go less often. (African-Americans make up 12 percent of frequent moviegoers, consistent with their numbers in the populace as a whole.) Yet it’s only recently that the studios have recognized Latinos as a market worth courting, or that African-Americans want to see more than just Tyler Perry and Kevin Hart movies. The current box-office success of “Selma” and its overwhelmingly positive word-of-mouth (measured by a rare A+ grade at CinemaScore) suggests that, not only are black audiences hungry for more substantive and dramatic stories in which they can see their own hopes and aspirations reflected on screen, but that some white viewers are interested in such stories as well.

    The studio system in general is not poised to make such films, not because of racism but because the distributors are wedded to the blockbuster business model. All their eggs are in the giant-acton-spectacle basket, since such movies return hundreds of millions of dollars. Modestly budgeted dramas like “Selma” (or “The Theory of Everything” or “The Imitation Game,” for that matter) aren’t part of the business plan because their returns, while profitable, are also modest. These may be the kind of movies that win Oscars, but the major studios have all but abandoned that business to the independents. Again, it’s more about a failure of imagination than outright bigotry.

    Perhaps the wisest perspective on the situation comes from erstwhile firebrand Spike Lee, whom the Oscars famously snubbed 25 years ago for directing the landmark “Do the RIght Thing,” a movie that the Academy ultimately overlooked for Best Picture in favor of “Driving Miss Daisy,” a comforting racial fable that, a quarter-century later, looks quaintly patronizing at best. Talking to the Daily Beast, Lee pointed out that the ultimate arbiter of quality is not the Academy but history. Today, he pointed out, “nobody is talking about motherf—in’ ‘Driving Miss Daisy.’ That film is not being taught in film schools all around the world like ‘Do the Right Thing’ is.” He added. “You can’t go to awards like the Oscars or the Grammys for validation. The validation is if your work still stands 25 years later.”
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  • Watch History Come Alive in Our Exclusive ‘Selma’ Featurette (VIDEO)

    This weekend “Selma,” a film centered on the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery led by Martin Luther King Jr. (played by David Oyelowo), finally opens nationwide, and you should be very excited indeed. This is one of the very best films of the year, a historical eye-opener that is also a profound character study and as much a reflection on race relations in 2015 as it is in 1965 (sadly). And if you needed another reason to get excited about seeing “Selma,” well why don’t you check out our exclusive featurette?

    Time and time again in the two-minute montage, which features footage from the film as well as behind-the-scenes interviews with cast members and creative principles (including the film’s dazzling director, Ava DuVernay), the point is reiterated that “Selma” isn’t a movie about Martin Luther King Jr. the legendary civil rights leader, it’s about Martin Luther King, Jr. the man. And it’s true — the movie is beautiful and nuanced and will rip your heart out, especially given the recent racial unrest in our country.

    But this makes the film seem oppressively bleak and heavy; it’s not. “This is the story we’ve never seen before,” Oyelowo says in the featurette. And he’s right. This isn’t some history lesson, and not just because the MLK Jr. estate, notoriously controlling when it comes to representations of the slain civil rights leader, didn’t let the production use any of his actual words (meaning that the filmmakers had to come up with speeches and dialogue that sounded like he’d say it but weren’t actually his). This is a living, breathing, fully realized dramatization and an absolute must-see. So, after you watch the featurette, buy your tickets for this weekend right here on Moviefone. You won’t be sorry.david oyelowo in selma %Slideshow-253055%

  • Best of Late Night TV: Bradley Cooper Plays Air Guitar in Birthday Afro, Bachelor Chris Soules Overshares (VIDEO)

    If you’re like us and value your sleep, you probably nodded off into your Ambien dreamland before the party started on post-prime time TV. Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Here’s the best of what happened last night on late night.

    The 2015 late-night talk shows are now in session! “The Tonight Show” welcomed the new year with Bradley Cooper playing Neil Young’s “Down by the River” on air guitar while wearing a crazy birthday hat afro and thrusting his crotch in audience members’s faces. It’s going to be a good year.
    The story behind the crazy afro hats is that Jimmy gave one to Bradley for his birthday (Bradley turned 40 on January 5), then rocked one himself. Bradley also talked about Clint Eastwood and “American Sniper,” which sounds like a strange transition, especially since they did so much laughing. They just got a case of the giggles and couldn’t let it go.
    ABC‘s new Bachelor, Chris Soules, was on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” talking about Monday night’s premiere. Does he like being called Prince Farming? Does he get to keep the clothes? Has he been back to farming? Jimmy said he knows who wins this time because he invaded Chris’s inner sanctum. (He probably always knows who wins from spoilers, but he’s refraining from sharing his “prediction” this time.) Jimmy shared a bunch of contestant photos, and Chris reacted with “crazy or not crazy.” Jimmy laughed and stopped him at one point, since Chris was giving away too much real information. Jimmy said he might get sued by ABC from all of Chris’s spoilery answers.
    Anne Hathaway was also on JKL, and Jimmy asked her if she watched “The Bachelor.” She said no, but she does watch some reality TV. Or she did, for one day, when she had swine flu. She binge-watched “Toddlers & Tiaras.” Ha! She also talked about spending the holidays with her family, and she and Jimmy discussed the cut-off date for “Happy New Year.”
    Kathy Griffin was on “Late Show” and she called the Fashion Police on David Letterman, to declare him one of the worst dressed. You can imagine how deeply Dave cared. #sarcasm They posed together, though, and Dave said she looked great. He said he’s not supposed to look great. Kathy disagreed. She also discussed her pre-telecast dinner with Ryan Seacrest and Anderson Cooper (she bashed the heck out of Ryan, you almost have to feel sorry for the guy) and talked about dyeing Anderson’s hair live on TV. She and Dave also shared some interesting sexual innuendo. “Selma” star David Oyelowo was also on Dave’s show, talking about theater, spoiling his kids, and his role as MLK Jr. Very different from Kathy Griffin.
    Anna Kendrick, always the best part of any talk show, was on “Late Night” with Seth Meyers, and she talked about singing in “Into the Woods” and preparing for “Pitch Perfect 2.” Apparently the Green Bay Packers are huge PP fans and they’re in the sequel. Anna also talked about how much she loves red pandas. She went to the zoo on Christmas day and saw the pandas. Now she wants a whole farm of them.
    Donald Faison was on “Conan,” talking about the difference – to him – between “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.” He likes one much more than the other. Much. In fact, he dogs the other one as boring and lame.
    Courteney Cox was also on “Conan,” and apparently she has a really bad memory. She produces a show called “Celebrity Name Game,” hosted by Craig Ferguson (miss you, man) and she talked about the pressure of the game and her lousy memory. They showed a clip where she just couldn’t come up with ’80s band intel. It’s tragic. She said her memory is so bad that she forgets when she doesn’t like someone. She also talked about passing up a Central Perk pop-up store.

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