Hollywood edgy before Oscars
2008-02-24 11:27
Los Angeles - Final preparations were being made on Saturday ahead of the 80th Academy Awards, where a crop of films notable for their grim, dark themes were expected to dominate the Oscars top honours.
After months of uncertainty during the Hollywood writers strike, the movie industry's biggest party of the year will get under way as planned at 17:00 on Sunday (01:00 GMT Monday) at the Kodak Theatre.
Streets around the venue were being cordoned off on Saturday as authorities prepared to drape a security blanket over the neighbourhood that is normally packed with tourists, Marilyn Monroe and Darth Vader impersonators.
Around 3 400 guests comprising hundreds of A-list celebrities and movie industry powerbrokers will descend on the red carpet on Sunday, although forecast rain could dampen the party atmosphere.
No Country for Old Men unstoppable
The awards themselves are expected to be carved up between several violent, bleak movies, with the eight-times nominated No Country for Old Men heading the field along with There Will Be Blood.
There Will Be Blood, an edgy movie about a tyrannical oil prospector, is joined in the best picture category by legal thriller Michael Clayton, historical drama Atonement and comedy Juno.
But after scoring a sweep of the movie industry's professional awards - seen as key Oscar indicators - Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men looks unstoppable as the best picture winner.
Bookmakers have made the film a 1/3 favourite while the Coens are backed at 1/4 to scoop the best director prize.
Pundits say the expected success of No Country for Old Men indicates the willingness of the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science's 5 829 voters to reward quality film-making regardless of the level of violence.
New era
"The old days of The Sound of Music and Oliver winning best picture are gone, at least for the time being," said Tom O'Neil, an awards season pundit with the Los Angeles Times' theenvelope.com.
"It's going to be the second year in a row that a best picture winner has won where all guns have been blazing," O'Neil added, recalling Martin Scorsese's win in 2007 for gangster movie The Departed.
Beyond the contests for best picture and best director clear front-runners have emerged in most of the acting categories.
Daniel Day-Lewis is regarded as a shoo-in to scoop the second best actor statuette of his career for playing an oil baron in There Will Be Blood, ahead of fellow nominees that include George Clooney for Michael Clayton and Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah.
Always one upset
However, O'Neil cautioned that the widely popular Clooney may yet pull off a shock. "In the history of the Oscars there is usually one absolutely jaw-dropping upset," O'Neil said.
"Michael Clayton is a very popular film and the reason for that is Clooney. That could carry him."
The best actress award is expected to be a straight fight between British veteran Julie Christie, who plays a woman grappling with Alzheimer's in Away from Her, and France's Marion Cotillard, nominated for her startling portrayal of tragic chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose.
In the supporting categories, Javier Bardem is poised to become the first ever Spaniard to win an acting Oscar for his performance in No Country for Old Men, where he plays a psychopathic hitman whose specialty is executing victims with a slaughterhouse cattle-gun.
But the race for best supporting actress is less clear-cut. Australia's Cate Blanchett, who is also nominated in the best actress category, had been the early favourite following her gender-bending performance as music legend Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.
However, there was less glory at another awards ceremony on Saturday - the Razzies - the annual salute to the very worst Hollywood has to offer.
The awards were dominated by Lindsay Lohan and Eddie Murphy. Lohan scooped a record-equalling eight Golden Raspberries (Razzies) for her critically panned box-office flop I Know Who Killed Me.
Veteran funnyman Eddie Murphy meanwhile scored a rare treble of acting Razzies for his trio of performances in the comedy Norbit, which once again saw him don latex and make-up to play multiple characters.
The film was relentlessly savaged by critics across the United States, with top reviewer Richard Roeper branding it "offensively bad."