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During last week's For Your Consideration event, news broke that David Hull and Scott Michael Foster have been promoted to series regulars for the third season of the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend TV show on The CW.Hull has recurred on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend since its first season. He plays White Josh, a friend of Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III) and Greg (Santino Fontana). Foster, who boarded in season two, plays Nathaniel Plimpton. He's a potential love interest for Rebecca (Rachel Bloom). The CW comedy series also stars Donna Lynne Champlin, Pete Gardner, and Vella Lovell.Read More…...

By Michael Speier

When I was six, I played soccer. My team stunk, but we always got a trophy just for participating.

That's where the Academy is headed now that it has announced that 10 movies will be in competition for best picture.

Don't like that analogy? Ok, how's this -- the Academy is officially going the way of the Golden Globes. And that used to be blasphemy, heresy, whatever.

But by inviting more people to the party, AMPAS has diluted the value of getting a nomination, which is everything in Hollywood.

Ten movies? Are there really 10 movies every year that should get a be...

We may not get to vote in the Academy Awards, but here at Cinema Blend we've got opinions as strong as anyone's-- and of course, we know we're always right. So even though Slumdog Millionaire will probably win Oscars in categories it's not even nominated for, we've got our own idea of where the Academy should go. Some of our picks are frontrunners-- it's hard to argue against Heath, right?-- and some have even admitted themselves that they don't have a shot at winning. But they've won our votes, and our affection. Check out our list below. By Josh Tyler I'm here for the other guy. Richard Jenkins has been the other guy for his entire career. He's that guy from that movie. He's "oh yeah he looks familiar". Even though he's been nominated for an Oscar this year, nothing has changed. In a category filled with star-studded, high-profile...

[As per high decree, Tom Articles stay at the top of the page for 24 hours, Scroll Down for regular Twitch News and Articles]

Personally, I have a bit of a speculative fiction bent (with a penchant for post-apocalyptic flavours) and an aversion to long winded film franchises, here are the ground rules for this weeks Twitch-o-Meter. A couple cases below may benefit from splitting up the adaptation into more than one film (as is the trend these days, at least evidenced mightily with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien) might help ease the burden of adapting the dense plotting, but then we are talking story telling, not the typical breeding ground for repetition and diminishing returns that plagues both American and International sequels (The Alien franchise anyone? Infernal Affairs? Ringu? Whispering Corridors? Ginger Snaps? Highlander?)

But first, a few notes on what is not included on the list, but might have been some years ago. Certainly Cormac McCarthy’s The Road would have been on this list if it was not already in post-production...

As many of you may know, we are not big fans of beating dead horses around here. Then again, this little ad that a reader at TotalFilm worked up for The Spirit is less of a beat and more of a poke -- a poke at one of the most ...

The Academy’s list of 49 tunes deemed eligible for the Best Original Song Oscar this year seems like a lot for the Music Branch to pick through. That is, until you notice that more than one-fifth of those contenders are from the same film (High School Musical 3, which, thanks to a new rule, is only allowed, at most, two nominations in this category) and you recall that last year’s list included many more songs (59) to choose from. The talent involved this year, however, is tremendous, at least in terms of those performers who sing the tunes on the soundtrack (many of whom had a hand in the songwriting). These artists include Mariah Carey, Etta James, Beyonce Knowles (who played Etta Ja ...

The Academy’s list of 49 tunes deemed eligible for the Best Original Song Oscar this year seems like a lot for the Music Branch to pick through. That is, until you notice that more than one-fifth of those contenders are from the same film (High School Musical 3, which, thanks to a new rule, is only allowed, at most, two nominations in this category) and you recall that last year’s list included many more songs (59) to choose from. The talent involved this year, however, is tremendous, at least in terms of those performers who sing the tunes on the soundtrack (many of whom had a hand in the songwriting). These artists include Mariah Carey, Etta James, Beyonce Knowles (who played Etta Ja ...

When the Golden Globe nominations were announced last week, there was one glaring omission from the Best Supporting Actor category: a nod for Milk. Actually, there were four glaring omissions, because Milk still does not have a definite forerunner among its quartet of campaigned-for supporting actors, which includes Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch and Diego Luna. Did the Hollywood Foreign Press Association truly snub the film, as has been suggested, or could the organization simply not decide which actor to nominate? Perhaps the two favorites, Brolin and Franco, cancelled each other out. If so, the Academy needs to ensure that such a thing doesn’t happen with its Oscar nominations. And the best way to do this is to get behind Diego Luna for Best Supporting Actor. This will ...

When the Golden Globe nominations were announced last week, there was one glaring omission from the Best Supporting Actor category: a nod for Milk. Actually, there were four glaring omissions, because Milk still does not have a definite forerunner among its quartet of campaigned-for supporting actors, which includes Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch and Diego Luna. Did the Hollywood Foreign Press Association truly snub the film, as has been suggested, or could the organization simply not decide which actor to nominate? Perhaps the two favorites, Brolin and Franco, cancelled each other out. If so, the Academy needs to ensure that such a thing doesn’t happen with its Oscar nominations. And the best way to do this is to get behind Diego Luna for Best Supporting Actor. This will no ...

Paramount Pictures has launched a hilarious viral for your consideration campaign for Kirk Lazarus, star of the hit summer comedy Tropic Thunder. Lazarus was of course played by Robert Downey Jr. in the Ben Stiller directed flick. The funny thing about the ads is Paramount is legitimately campaigning for Downey Jr. in the Best Supporting Actor category. While very funny, I’m not sure a viral campaign is the best way to go after a nomination. Then again, does Downey Jr. really have a chance at getting nominated?...

Though I fully expect Heath Ledger to win the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for The Dark Knight, there will likely be a few oversights in the category, actors whose work certainly deserves mention alongside the other best performances of the year.

One actor we hope does not get overlooked is Robert Downey, Jr. He's one of the frontrunners for our own Mvp award, with Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, and another odd gem of a portrayal in Charlie Bartlett way back in the spring. And his work in Tropic Thunder, as the dude playin' the dude disguised as another dude, is top notch stuff.

And you have to love this Parmount reminder of Downey's work in Tropic Thunder as Kirk Lazarus, who underwent a controversial procedure in order to play the role of the gritty black sergeant Lincoln Osiris.

First order of business is to let you know that we did not make the following Oscar advertisements. They were handed down to us by the folks at Paramount Pictures, who continue to release faux marketing materials for Tropic Thunder, the year's most outrageous and ridiculous comedy. As Oscar season ...

NEW YORK - Jennifer Coolidge, Sean Hayes and (no relation) Isaac Hayes are joining Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac in Malcolm Lee's comedy Soul Men for Dimension Films.

Musician John Legend, Affion Crockett, Adam Herschman, Fatso Fasano and Jackie Long are also joining the feature about two former bandmates (Jackson and Mac) forced to reunite when a third member (Legend) passes away. The pair fight with each other all the way across the country when they're forced to take a road trip together for a reunion concert.

Soul marks a return to the big screen for former South Park voice star Hayes, who plays himself. The veteran soul singer suffered a stroke in 2006.

Longtime Christopher Guest ensemble member Coolidge (For Your Consideration) plays Mac's love interest. Former Will & Grace star Hayes plays the band's obnoxious manager.

The film, written by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone, is now shooting in Shreveport, Memphis and Los Angeles. Producers David T. Friendly, Charles Castaldi and Steve Greener are aiming for an October theatrical release through MGM.

Kenneth Branagh and Eugene Levy have signed with Endeavor. Branagh is filming the feature Valkyrie, in which he plays Henning Von Tresckow. He most recently directed Sleuth, starring Jude Law, which will be released this year by Sony Pictures Classics, and the HBO Films adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like It, which premieres Aug. 21.

His recent acting credits include the films Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Celebrity along with HBO's Warm Springs, A&E's Shackleton and HBO/BBC's Conspiracy, which won him an Emmy in 2001 for best actor in a miniseries or TV movie.

Branagh also directed The Magic Flute, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Hamlet, the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay. He continues to be repped by manager Judy Hofflund.

Levy most recently co-starred in the film For Your Consideration, which he co-wrote with Christopher Guest. He co-wrote and co-starred in three other collaborations with Guest: A Mighty Wind, Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman.

Levy, a Second City Theater and Second City TV alum, also has appeared in such films as the American Pie franchise, Bringing Down the House, Serendipity and Father of the Bride as well as the TV series Mad About You and The Drew Carey Show. He continues to be repped by 3 Arts Entertainment and attorney Jared Levine.

Jennifer Coolidge and Alan Ruck have been tapped to star in ABC's comedy pilot Family of the Year.

Additionally, Alanna Ubach has joined Fox's comedy pilot Playing Chicken, Josh Dean has come aboard another Fox comedy pilot, The Beast, Alex Borstein has been cast in ABC's comedy pilot The Thick of It, and Anna Chlumsky has landed a lead in CW's comedy pilot Eight Days a Week.

Family, from 20th TV, revolves around the Halloways, a 10-time winner of the "family of the year" title in their dusty New Mexico home town. Coolidge, recently seen in Click and For Your Consideration, will play the family's matriarch, a former beauty queen. Spin City alum Ruck will play her affable but not very bright husband.

Chicken, from WBTV and Werner-Gold-Miller, centers on two brothers with opposite political views who are forced to live together after one Norbert Leo Butz) suffers an accident that leaves him in a wheelchair. Ubach will play his physical therapist, on whom he has a crush. Ubach (Gersh, Margrit Polak Management) had a talent deal with WGM this season.

Christopher Guest has come aboard to direct The Thick of It, Mitch Hurwitz's comedy pilot for ABC.

The single-camera project, which Hurwitz penned with Richard Day, is based on the BBC series. It revolves around the workers in the office of a low-level congressman in Washington.

Hurwitz is executive producing the Sony Pictures TV/BBC Worldwide Prods. pilot with Paul Telegdy and the creator of the original series, Armando Iannucci.

Multihyphenate Guest, who began his directing career in television before moving to the big screen, most recently co-wrote and directed the feature For Your Consideration, his follow-up to Best in Show and A Mighty Wind.

In the latest round of major pilot castings, Craig Bierko has been cast as the lead in Fox's comedy The Rules of Starting Over for director Bobby Farrelly, and Rome star Kevin McKidd has been tapped as the lead in NBC's drama Journeyman.

In addition, Zachary Levi has landed the title role on NBC's drama Chuck for director McG, Mark Valley is set as one of the two leads on NBC's comedy Business Class, "ER" co-star Shane West has joined Fox's Supreme Courtships and Jane Lynch has come on board NBC's comedy Area 52.

* Rules, from 20th Century Fox TV, centers on a thirtysomething newly single man (Bierko) and his recently divorced friends.

Bierko, who has been recurring on ABC's Boston Legal, recently was seen in the feature For Your Consideration.

Rashida Jones also has been cast in the pilot, playing a partner at a law firm looking for a decent guy. She recurs on NBC's The Office.

* Journeyman, from 20th TV, is an epic fantasy about a man (McKidd) who travels back in time to fix people's lives, but by recalibrating the past, he sometimes alters the future.

Damien Lewis has been tapped to play the lead on NBC's drama pilot Life.

Sarah Shahi also has been cast in the project, from writer/executive producer Rand Ravich and NBC Universal TV Studio.

Life is a quirky drama about a former cop (Lewis) who rejoins the force after having spent years wrongly imprisoned. Shahi will play his partner with a checkered past.

David Semel is directing the pilot and is executive producing with Ravich and Far Shariat.

Lewis, who received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, recently appeared in the features An Unfinished Life, Chromophobia and Stormbaker. He is repped by Endeavor.

Shahi, who played Carmen de la Pica Morales on Showtime's The L Word, co-starred on Fox's drama pilot Damages this past development season. She most recently appeared in the feature For Your Consideration. She is repped by McKeon-Myones Management and attorney Neil Meyer.

In firing the opening shot of this year's awards season, the National Board of Review went with a bit of a surprise, giving its Best Picture honor to Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, a Japanese-language release that was originally slated for early 2007 but bumped up just a few weeks ago. The movie's English-language companion piece, Flags of Our Fathers, was released in October to mixed reviews and middling box office, and had been expected to be a major Oscar contender this year. While it didn't rate a major award, Flags did receive a spot in the group's top ten films of 2006. Two other surprises were had in the supporting categories as well, with Djimon Hounsou winning for Blood Diamond and Catherine O'Hara named for her comedic turn in For Your Consideration. As for the other major categories, heavy hitters prevailed, with early Oscar faves Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) and Helen Mirren (The Queen) taking lead honors, Martin Scorsese (The Departed) winning Best Director, Volver named as Best Foreign Film, and Cars and An Inconvenient Truth taking animated and documentary honors, respectively. In terms of omissions, the most notable was the absence of Dreamgirls from the group's top ten films of the year, a list that included The Devil Wears Prada, The History Boys, and Little Miss Sunshine, among others. Almost always the first group to hand out awards, the National Board of Review is made up of film professionals, teachers, students and historians.

The top ten films of the year as named by the National Board of Review: Letters from Iwo Jima, Babel, Blood Diamond, The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada, Flags of Our Fathers, The History Boys, Little Miss Sunshine, Notes on a Scandal and The Painted Veil.

John Krasinski, one of the breakout stars of NBC's The Office, is in negotiations to star alongside George Clooney and Renee Zellweger in Universal Pictures' Leatherheads, a 1920s football romantic comedy that Clooney is directing.

Written by Stephen Schiff and Clooney, the story centers on team owner Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly (Clooney), who hires straight-laced college football sensation Carter Rutherford (to be played by Krasinski) to play professionally. The scandalous sport becomes popular and commercialized, and confirmed bachelor Dodge falls for Carter's reluctant fiancee, Lexi (Zellweger).

One point still being ironed out is how to make the movie -- slated for a spring shoot -- fit in to Krasinski's schedule, which has him making the Emmy-winning NBC comedy until March. Considering that The Office is an NBC Universal TV production, sources said the two sides are working together to find a solution to production timing issues.

Clooney's Smoke House producing partner Grant Heslov is producing with Casey Silver.

Krasinski has a starring turn in Warner Bros. Pictures' comedy License to Wed.

He also has cameos in Columbia's The Holiday, DreamWorks' Dreamgirls and Warner Independent Pictures' For Your Consideration.

Krasinski is repped by CAA and James Suskin Management.

NEW YORK -- Actor-director Christopher Guest will be honored this month with the Kodak Award at the 2006 ShowEast Convention in Orlando, where he will screen his new Oscar satire, Warner Independent Pictures' For Your Consideration. "There is perhaps no one working in our industry today who captures the day-to-day natural feel, nuances and language of everyday people with such uproarious comical results (as) Christopher Guest," ShowEast co-managing director Mitch Neuhauser said. "There is an excitement and enthusiasm people have when they know they are going to see one of his films, and much of that is due to the fact that we all know we're going to be laughing at everyday foibles of those on the screen, who in turn could very well be any of us." Consideration, a recent selection at the Toronto International Film Festival, will be screened Oct. 26. Guest will receive his industry tribute that night at the Gala Final Night Banquet and Award Ceremony at the Orlando World Center Marriott.

Imagine a serio-comic Syriana and it would probably look and sound a lot like Fay Grim, Hal Hartley's wildly ambitious sequel to 1998's Henry Fool, widely regarded to be one of his best films.

Returning to those characters almost a decade later, Hartley is a man with a lot to say about what's going on in the world these days, and while the trademark irreverence is very much intact, his venture into a much broader, international landscape proves more admirable than rewarding.

Fans will undoubtedly still be up for the ride, ensuring that boxoffice-wise, the Magnolia Pictures release shouldn't be a grim reaper.

Where the previous film centered around Thomas J. Ryan's Henry Fool character, this one focuses on his abandoned wife, Fay Grim (a delightfully sassy Parker Posey), who's still living in Woodside, Queens, raising their son, Ned (Liam Aiken), who is now 14, and, she fears, on the same self-destructive path as his peripatetic dad.

Meanwhile her famed garbage man-poet brother Simon (James Urbaniak), has been serving 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting Henry's escape (after killing a nasty neighbor), and has had plenty of time to reflect on the true meaning of Henry's many volumes of his scrawled Confessions.

So has the CIA, which contends that the much sought-after notebooks contain information that seriously compromises the security of the United States.

That is why the calculating Agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) coerces Fay into traveling to Paris to retrieve the notebooks, leading to a wild goose chase that ends in Istanbul, where Fay ends up coming face to face with an infamous Afghan terrorist.

Hartley's kooky cosmopolitan caper can never be accused of slumming, but the shift from dry, offbeat wit to politically charged drama is a little jarring, to say the least; it's a bit like taking in Woody Allen's Annie Hall and having it morph mid-way through into Shadows and Fog.

But his cast handles the tonal fluctuations beautifully. Posey's got the quirky Hartley speech rhythms down cold, and between this and her appearance in Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration, which also screened at this year's Toronto Festival, she delivers an expert comic one-two punch.

Goldblum, Aiken and Hartley regular Elina Lowensohn, as a former stewardess who proves to be one of Fay's key contacts, are also terrific, while Sarah Cawley Cabiya's hi-def cinematography, with all those expressionistic fun house angles, neatly sets the off-balance, anything-can-happen stage for all that is to follow.

Fay Grim

Magnolia Pictures

HDNet Films presents a Possible Films production in association with This is that and Zero Fiction wit the support of Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg

Credits:

Director-screenwriter: Hal Hartley

Producers: Hal Hartley, Michael S. Ryan, Martin Hagemann

Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente

Executive producers: Ted Hope, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban

Director of photography: Sarah Cawley Cabiya

Production designer: Richard Sylvarnes

Editor: Hal Hartley

Costume designers: Anette Guther, Daniela Selig

Music: Hal Hartley.

Cast:

Fay Grim: Parker Posey

Fulbright: Jeff Goldblum

Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) Juliet: Saffron Burrows

Ned Grim: Liam Aiken

Bebe: Elina Lowensohn

Carl Fogg: Leo Fitzpatrick

Angus James: Chuck Montgomery

Henry Fool: Thomas J. Ryan

MPAA Rating: Not yet rated

Running time -- 118 minutes...

Having already taken on the worlds of musical theater, dog shows and folk music with devastatingly funny results, it was only a matter of time before Christopher Guest and his writing partner Eugene Levy would get around to sending up the Hollywood hype machine.

The outrageously hilarious For Your Consideration was well worth the wait. Again delivered with comic precision by Guest's crack repertory company, his patented brand of parody--call it gentle skewering--takes affectionate but deadly aim at its awards buzz mania target and the results aren't just funny, they're face-hurting funny.

Look for boxoffice results that could well top the $16-$17 million taken by Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, especially if--dare we say it?--the picture should itself generate some of that nasty awards season buzz.

Certainly a major candidate would have to be the ever-brilliant Catherine O'Hara as Marilyn Hack, a perennially struggling actress who takes a role playing a dying Southern Jewish matriarch in the period indie melodrama, Home for Purim.

Cast as the Pischer family patriarch is Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer), best known for his commercial appearances as a giant wiener, but now looking to hit the big time with lines like, "It's a dang mitzvah!"

Rounding out the family in this first feature by sitcom veteran Jay Berman (Guest with an Albert Einstein 'do), is the contrary daughter, played by Callie Webb Parker Posey), a former stand-up comic whose widely panned one-woman show, No Penis Intended, was dubbed "an unfunny romp" by one unamused critic; while the part of her enlisted brother is filled by Brian Chubb (Christopher Moynihan), who happens to be her real-life boyfriend.

But it looks like it's Marilyn's ship that is finally about to come in when an Internet rumor touts her performance as bona fide Academy Awards material and, in no time flat, that contagious Oscar fever becomes the talk of the town.

Home for Purim is suddenly on everybody's lips, including those of Chuck Porter (Fred Willard in an orange faux-hawk) and Cindy Martin (Jane Lynch), the unctuous hosts of Entertainment Now.

All that attention is causing Sunfish Classics president Martin Gibb (Guest newbie Ricky Gervais) to consider making a few, not-so-subtle changes that would make the picture more commercial, much to the chagrin of screenwriters Lane Iverson (Michael McKean) and Philip Koontz (Bob Balaban).

By now, with most of the cast having worked together on Guest's three previous films, one only needs to see them pop on screen to start laughing, and that's especially true of Willard as well as Jennifer Coolidge as Whitney Taylor Brown, the film's producer and family diaper-service heiress, whose over-the-top wardrobe looks like it was raided from MGM's old costume department.

Forgoing their usual behind-the-scenes, mockumentary format, Guest and Levy (who plays Shearer's shallow agent) have opted for a straight-ahead narrative this time around, which manages to make room for an expanded cast of real characters.

They're all terrific, but at the end of the day this is O'Hara's show all the way. Watching her navigate her freshly plumped-up lips around her extreme makeover just prior to the arrival of nominations day, is alone worth the price of admission.

Not to get her hopes up or anything...

For Your Consideration

Warner Independent Pictures

A Warner Independent Pictures, Castle Rock Entertainment and Shangri-La Entertainment presentation.

Credits:

Director: Christopher Guest

Screenwriters: Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest

Producer: Karen Murphy

Director of photography: Roberto Schaefer

Production designer: Joseph T. Garrity

Editor: Robert Leighton

Costume designer: Durinda Wood

Music: CJ Vanston.

Cast:

Jay Berman: Christopher Guest

Morley Orfkin: Eugene Levy

Marilyn Hack: Catherine O'Hara

Victor Allan Miller: Harry Shearer

Callie Webb: Parker Posey

Martin Gibb: Ricky Gervais

Cindy Martin: Jane Lynch

Corey Taft: John Michael Higgins

Whitney Taylor Brown: Jennifer Coolidge

Syd Finkleman: Larry Miller

Brian Chubb: Christopher Moynihan

Lane Iverson: Michael McKean

Chuck Porter: Fred Willard

Simon Whitset: Jim Piddock

Philip Koontz: Bob Balaban

Debbie Gilchrist: Rachael Harris

Sandy Lane: Ed Begley Jr.

David van Zyverden: Michael Hitchcock

Ben Lilly: Don Lake

Liz Fenneman: Deborah Theaker

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running time -- 86 minutes...