The Oscars 2009

Coming into school this morning, I was amazed at how many people were actually talking about The Oscars- of course, I realised that some would be talking about the spectacle and others, the pure celebrity base instinct that some seem to have inbuilt but instead, today, people were talking about the films.
Whether they liked them, whether they thought the right person won and in the very rare occasion, listening to a conversation between boys over whether the winners should be based on their look (in regards to actresses), of course none of this geared them up for the machine that I was when people were getting the winners wrong or they hadn't heard of Sean Penn!!!
Last night, marked the beginning of the new film year and while sitting in assembly today, our Deputy Head spoke to us about the Oscars. I wondered on first impressions, whether in our traditional chapel, the talk would be purely sensationalist and celebrity, thankfully I was wrong. Instead we were given The Oscars as a window of opportunity, take away from this what you will, but she started talking about opportunity and accomplishment.
What have you done with your life which can place you where you are now? What are you going to be doing with your life, your days and your attitude to people and work that will get you where you want to be? These are all accomplishments and at the end of the day- these are what people can and will judge you on.
Whether you want to be a vet, a singer, a lawyer or an actor, they all need work and accomplishment to get to where you want to be. During one of my breaks today, I sat on YouTube watching the Oscars from last night and was inspired by every single person in the room. There was a spark in there which collectively shows the accomplishments that these people have made and the actual difference they make to people's lives. Now, don't get me wrong, I defiantly understood where my Deputy Head was coming from when she asked a very simple question. "I bet most of you know the winners from last night, but who knows who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year or who are the nominations this year?" (By the way, last years winner was Martti Ahtisaari for "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts") and yet that hit a nerve with me.
I reckon 99% of the people listening didn't know the answer and yet were enthralled by the shiny glamour of last night's event which leaves me to question where the peace prizes of the future will be going because if my generation don't have an understanding of the process but are instead charmed and fascinated by the glitz and the glamour.
The sad truth is that as time goes on, it will lay upon those who do have an understanding to stand up and guide the rest of those before they get left in the storm- becoming just another person. People are always saying that everyone wants to become a celebrity but instead why don't we change the definition of celebrity? Why not look upon this person as someone who stands out from the crowd but also understands the moral practices behind something like the Peace Prize- someone who leaves their positive mark on the world is a celebrity. Not just someone who sleeps around and then sells their story to the media!

So back to last night, take a towel and rub away the shiny, vulgar glitz attracted to such an event and instead look at that little man- Oscar. Look at the accomplishments that people have made to be awarded that little man and what he means to those who have the blessing of holding one. The prestige which comes with him is something that only those in the exclusive group of winners will ever understand and it will never be able to come out in a media article. Did the right people win the awards? That's down to personal opinion.

Britain certainly had something to celebrate with homegrown talent turned international star overnight, Danny Boyle directing a film which has equaled the Oscar success of 'Ghandi' starring Ben Kingsley. 'Slumdog Millionaire' which I covered in my previous post went on to win eight out of the 10 nominations including Best Director and Best Film. Director Danny Boyle, 52, bounced up and down in delight as he received his award, telling the audience: "I swore [to my children] if this miracle ever happened I would receive it in the spirit of Tigger."

The film, set in the slums of Mumbai (Bombay) also won awards for best adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound mixing, film editing, best original score and best song.

As anticipated - after years of waiting, Kate Winslet, 33, won her Academy Award for playing a Nazi prison officer in The Reader.
"I'd be lying if I hadn't made a version of this speech. I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror," she said.
"I feel very fortunate to have made it all the way from there to here."

In a night of predictable outcomes, Sean Penn's best actor triumph for his portrayal of gay rights activist Harvey Milk seemed to win the A-list audience's approval. "You Commie, homo-loving, sons of a gun," said Penn, addressing his fellow performers.
"I did not expect this, and I want to be very clear that I know how hard I make it to appreciate me," said the 48-year-old, who often attracts criticism for his outspoken views.
In an impassioned plea - and to rapturous applause - Penn called on "equal rights for everyone".
"I think it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame," he said.
His thoughts were echoed by Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who won best original screenplay for Milk.
"I heard the story of Harvey Milk and it gave me hope ... that one day I could live my life openly as who I am. And that maybe I could even fall in love and one day get married," he said.

Here is the full list of winners at the 81st Academy Awards, which have been held in Los Angeles.

Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader
Sean Penn
Sean Penn shook as he used a scrap of paper to thank people for his award

Best director: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: Stephen Daldry - The Reader; David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon; Gus Van Sant - Milk

Best actor: Sean Penn - Milk
Also nominated: Richard Jenkins - The Visitor; Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon; Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best actress: Kate Winslet - The Reader
Also nominated: Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married; Angelina Jolie - Changeling; Melissa Leo - Frozen River; Meryl Streep - Doubt

Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Also nominated: Josh Brolin - Milk; Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder; Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt; Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Also nominated: Amy Adams - Doubt; Viola Davis - Doubt; Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Best original screenplay: Milk
Also nominated: Happy-Go-Lucky; Wall-E; In Bruges; Frozen River

Best adapted screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Doubt; Frost/Nixon; The Reader

Best animated feature film: Wall-E
Also nominated: Bolt; Kung Fu Panda

Best animated short film: La Maison en Petits Cubes
Also nominated: Lavatory - Lovestory; Oktapodi; Presto; This Way Up

Best foreign language film: Departures - Japan
Also nominated: Revanche - Austria; The Class - France; The Baader Meinhof Complex - Germany; Waltz With Bashir - Israel

Best documentary feature: Man on Wire
Also nominated: The Betrayal; Encounters at the End of the World; The Garden; Trouble The Water

Best documentary short subject: Smile Pinki
Also nominated: The Conscience of Nhem En; The Final Inch; The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

Art direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: Changeling; The Dark Knight; The Duchess; Revolutionary Road

Costume design: The Duchess
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Australia; Milk; Revolutionary Road

Make-up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: The Dark Knight; Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Changeling; The Dark Knight; The Reader

Best live action short film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Also nominated: Auf der Strecke (On The Line); Manon on the Asphalt; New Boy; The Pig

Visual effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: The Dark Knight; Iron Man

Sound editing: The Dark Knight
Also nominated: Iron Man; Wanted; Slumdog Millionaire; Wall-E

Sound mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Wanted; Wall-E

Film editing:Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Frost/Nixon; Milk

Best original score: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Defiance; Milk; Slumdog Millionaire; Wall-E

Best original song: Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: Down To Earth - Wall-E; O Saya - Slumdog Millionaire

Over ten of my predictions were correct, check the next post to find out what I said yesterday!

So after the sparkle from the dust has settled, one can look upon an event which ultimately changes the directions of so many people in the industry who have tried and accomplished for years to get to where they are today. For me? This is an inspiration for things to come, I don't want the celebrity status but what I do want and what I now understand is that it's work, hard work which is not always beautiful but will always help get to where I want to be, wherever that is...

Why have I written about The Oscars in this way? Because everyone else has written in the same way and... because I can.

By the way, congratulations to Hugh Jackman on hosting the event and this musical number made me smile-

The Academy Awards, Oscars 2009

In case anyone has been living underneath a rock for the past six months, let me explain. This evening at 5PT/8ET, Live on ABC, the film event of the year is broadcast celebrating and awarding the best actors, actresses, directors and films of the past year.

Here's a quick lowdown on the biggest nominations-

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Total Nominations 13
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett star in David Fincher's new feature based on the 1921 short story by F.Scott Fitzgerald which itself was based on a quote by Mark Twain, "Life would be infinitely happier if only we could be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18," where the protagonist, Benjamin Button is born with the appearance and physical maladies of elderly man. Covering almost an entire century, we are taken on a journey stretching from New Orleans to Russia and back to New York City. Following Button as his mind matures but his body seemingly ages backwards and while he wrestles with changes both physically and mentally he is always drawn back to Daisy, played by Elle Fanning (the young Dakota) as a young girl and Cate Blanchett from her 20's till the end. This is the first time that Fincher has directed a love story, albeit an unconventional one, but it's certainly not what we have come to expect from the man who bought us 'Panic Room', 'Seven' and 'Zodiac', and yet he hits the note perfectly, showing a real relationship over time and the deterioration of both Button (in a gut wrenching scene as a baby in the elderly Daisy's arm) and Daisy herself as she goes back to her love.
This film was my favourite of the last year, and I feel it deserves to win Best Picture but also Best Cinematography and Best Make Up.

2. Slumdog Millionaire
Total Nominations 10
Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) returns to form after a couple of years with a love story, based on Vikas Swarup's book 'Q & A', set in Mumbai. We follow Dev Patel's (one of the stars of the UK's teen drama, Skins) character Jamal as he is being questioned by police as to how he has managed to get one question away from winning India's 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'. At the very beginning of the film the audience are given a choice- did Jamal A. Cheat B. He's lucky C. He's a genius or D. It's written? As the film continues we are taken to the slums of Mumbai in Jamal's story explaining how he knows the answer to each of the questions asked. Jamal, along with his brother Salim and a girl who Jamal gradually falls in love with, Latika, the audience are shown the history of the magnificent city and how the children survived for so long. Boyle's best known work, Trainspotting, showed that he was not scared to show the dark side of life and again that is seen in 'Slumdog'. He doesn't shy aware from showing the trauma that these children went through whether they are trying to get away from a man who blinds children to get more money on the street or gangsters who want to sell women- it's all in here. But what you have to remember is that it's not all doom and gloom, instead, 'Slumdog' is being hailed as one of the 'Best Feel Good Movies of the Decade', whether you agree with that is up to you but there are plenty of laughs and romance along the way. The children who played the three characters showed some of the best child acting the cinema has seen in a long time as they captured the characters just as they were written.
The decision to advertise the film as if it were a Mamma Mia! 'feel good' movie is an inspired one, even if it totally misrepresents the film and the director is unhappy with the deception. Audiences who will likely be shocked at the torture scenes that appear at the start of the film, but feeling beholden to stay to the end because they've already paid, will by the end feel they've been on a journey and seen a worthy film, even if it wasn't the one they'd been sold.
Personally, I thought 'Slumdog Millionaire' was a very good film, but not my film of the year.

3. Milk
Total Nominations 8
Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic, racked up eight nominations after being virtually ignored by the Golden Globes. 'Slumdog's' status as the presumptive winner doesn't seem to deter the 'Milk' men, "It's a clean slate... and what will happen now- unlike with the nominations- is all of the Academy will vote for all the different Oscars, so it's a completely different voting pool," says Bruce Cohen who produced 'Milk' with Dan Jinks. Van Sant returns after quietly releasing 'Paranoid Park' last year with an Academy friendly film based on a controversial subject. Audience's everywhere are likely to be drawn in half over this biopic about the first openly gay man to be elected in public office in California. With big stars such as Sean Penn and Josh Brolin connected to the work, it certainly shows that Hollywood is not the institution it once was but instead is accepting of everyone what ever their colour or sexuality- it has finally come into this century. The film has received widespread acclaim from film critics.
A.O. Scott of The New York Times called Milk, "A Marvel", and wrote the film "is a fascinating, multi-layered history lesson. In its scale and visual variety it feels almost like a calmed-down Oliver Stone movie, stripped of hyperbole and Oedipal melodrama. But it is also a film that like Mr. Van Sant’s other recent work — and also, curiously, like David Fincher’s Zodiac, another San Francisco-based tale of the 1970s — respects the limits of psychological and sociological explanation."

4. The Reader
Total Nominations 5
After being away for a while, Kate Winslet returned with not one but two highly acclaimed films. 'Revolutionary Road' sees the Brit returning to the screen with her 'Titanic' co-star, Leo DiCaprio, based on the 1961 novel by Richard Yates. The other film was 'The Reader' based on the 1995 novel by Bernhard Schlink. It tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who as a teenager in the late 1950s had an affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. Michael realizes that Hanna is keeping a secret she believes is worse than her Nazi past, a secret that may cost her at the trial.
Winslet has been picking up awards everywhere for this film, beating competition like Meryl Streep (Doubt) and Angelina Jolie (The Changeling). Directed by Stephen Daldry who is best known for 'Billy Elliot' and 'The Hours', the film is hard hitting and it's deep tones resonate still today.

5. Frost/Nixon
Total Nominations 5
Frost/Nixon is a 2008 historical drama film based upon the play of the same name by Peter Morgan, writer of The Queen, which dramatises the 1977 televised Frost/Nixon interviews. The film version is directed by Ron Howard and reunites its original two stars from the West End and Broadway productions of the play, Frank Langella as former President of the United States Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as British television broadcaster David Frost.

As for predictions this evening, in bold (the people I believe deserve to win) and in italics (those I believe the Acadmey will award).

Actor in a Leading Role-
Sean Penn (Milk)
Sean Penn (Milk)

Actor in a Supporting Role-
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Actress in a Leading Role-
Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Kate Winslet (The Reader)

Actress in a Supporting Role-
Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Animated Feature Film-
Wall-E
Wall-E

Art Direction-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Cinematography-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design-
Milk
The Duchess

Directing-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire

Documentary Feature-
Man on Wire
Man on Wire

Film Editing-
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire

Foreign Language Film-
Waltz With Bashir
The Baader Meinhof Complex

Make Up-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Music (Score)-
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Picture-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire

Visual Effects-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Milk
Milk

Benjamin Button leads Oscar field

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has emerged as the frontrunner for this year's Oscars with 13 nominations.

Slumdog Millionaire, from Britain's Danny Boyle, was close behind with 10 nominations, including best film.

The Dark Knight and Milk received eight nominations, with the late Heath Ledger receiving a best supporting actor nod.

Meryl Streep scored a 15th Oscar nomination for her role in the film Doubt, alongside Kate Winslet for best actress in Stephen Daldry's The Reader.

Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire were joined by Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon as contenders for the coveted best picture prize.

Oscar nominations announced

"For Slumdog Millionaire to be included in the nominations for the Oscars is a huge honour," said lead actor Dev Patel.

"I have been overwhelmed by the positive reaction to the film. Thank you to everyone who has supported us. I truly feel blessed."

Winslet, receiving her sixth Oscar nomination, was the only British actor to be honoured with an Oscar nomination this year.

Aside from Streep, her rivals include Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married, Melissa Leo for Frozen River and Angelina Jolie for The Changeling.

Jolie's real-life partner Brad Pitt was also celebrating. The 45-year-old led the best actor nominations for his role as Benjamin Button - a man who ages in reverse.

"I am proud and pleased for the film," Pitt told the BBC. "And particularly for David Fincher." Fincher, best known for Seven and Fight Club, picked up his first best director Oscar nomination.

BEST FILM NOMINEES The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Frost/Nixon Milk The Reader Slumdog Millionaire Send us your comments

Pitt goes head to head with Frank Langella, for his role as disgraced US president Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, Sean Penn, as gay rights activist Harvey Milk in Milk, Richard Jenkins for The Visitor and recent Golden Globe winner Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.

"I'm very grateful and appreciative of this incredible honour. I'm truly thrilled to be included," said 56-year-old Rourke, whose return to form has startled critics after years in the doldrums.

Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle received his first nomination for best director, alongside Britain's Stephen Daldry for The Reader and Benjamin Button's Fincher.

Milk's Gus Van Sant and Frost/Nixon's Ron Howard completed the best director nominees.

"We are delighted that the Academy has so generously recognised our film," said Eric Fellner, of Working Title Films, the production company behind Frost/Nixon.

"All of these nominations... show that our industry is performing at the top of its game on the international stage," added John Woodward, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Film Council.

There were few surprises in the nominations, announced by former Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, in Hollywood at 0530 local time.

MOST NOMINATED FILMS The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttton - 13 Slumdog Millionaire (pictured) - 10 The Dark Knight - 8 Milk - 8 Wall-E - 6 Doubt - 5 Frost/Nixon - 5 The Reader - 5 Changeling - 3 Revolutionary Road - 3

However, it was widely anticipated that Winslet would feature in both the best supporting and best actress categories, following her double win at the Golden Globes.

Her omission in the best supporting category created space for The Wrestler's Marisa Tomei and Benajmin Button's Taraji P Henson, best known for her role in Hustle and Flow.

They were joined by Doubt stars Amy Adams and Viola Davis, and previous best actress nominee Penelope Cruz, for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Actor Michael Shannon made an unexpected appearance among the best supporting actor nominees - the only actor to be nominated from the cast of Revolutionary Road, despite award hopes for both Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Milk's Josh Brolin, Doubt's Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr for Tropic Thunder and Heath Ledger completed the category. Ledger, who received the nomination on the anniversary of his death, remains the favourite to win.

The critically acclaimed Batman sequel, the second-highest grossing film in US box office history, did well in the technical categories, but British film-maker Christopher Nolan missed out in both the director and screenplay categories.

Tomei previously won an Oscar for her role in My Cousin Vinny in 1993

Nonetheless, British screenwriters were well represented with Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky), Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon), Sir David Hare (The Reader) and Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) all nominated.

"I am fantastically happy and honoured," said Beaufoy. "Not just for myself but for Vikas Swarup's wonderful novel without which I would have never started my journey to the world's Maximum City, Mumbai."

The film also picked up two nominations for original song, alongside Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman for Down To Earth from Wall-E.

Six-time nominee Wall-E, shortlisted alongside Bolt and Kung Fu Panda, is widely tipped to win the best animated feature film Oscar.

Only two previous films - Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950) - have received more than 13 nominations. Both films were shortlisted in 14 categories.

The awards, to be hosted by actor Hugh Jackman, will be announced on 22 February at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

Source: BBC News

New Trailers for Upcoming Films...

...which I want to see. With the Christmas holidays coming up, people will be rushing from the cold outside and sitting with their popcorn to enjoy some of the newest releases. Also over the next couple of months, the Academy will be thinking which film, actor/tress etc will be winning the coveted award come early next year.
So just as the Summer blockkbusters draw to a close, a new season of film is coming to the local cinema. See what you think-

1. Blindness
Blindness is a 2008 dramatic thriller film that is an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by José Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. The film is written by Don McKellar and directed by Fernando Meirelles with Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo as the stars.



2. Milk
Milk is a 2008 American biographical film directed by Gus Van Sant. The screenplay by Dustin Lance Black focuses on the later life, political career, and assassination of San Francisco city supervisor/gay rights activist Harvey Milk.



3. W.
W. (pronounced "dub-ya") is a 2008 biographical film based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. It was produced and directed by Oliver Stone, written by Stanley Weiser, and stars Josh Brolin as President Bush. Stone compares his goal for W. to the approach of The Queen (2006) and his own Nixon (1995). Filming began on May 12, 2008, in Louisiana and the film was released on October 17. The Motion Picture Association of America rated the film PG-13 in the United States for "language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images."



4. Changeling
Changeling is a 2008 American period thriller directed by Clint Eastwood. The film is set in late 1920s Los Angeles and is based on the true story of a woman who recognizes that the boy returned to her after a kidnapping is not her son. After confronting the city authorities, she is vilified as an unfit mother and branded delusional. The film was written by J. Michael Straczynski, who spent a year researching the case through archived city records. It was produced by Imagine Entertainment and Malpaso Productions for Universal Pictures. Ron Howard was originally slated to direct, but scheduling difficulties and Universal's desire to fast track the project led to his replacement by Eastwood.

Angelina Jolie appears in the lead role with support from Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Ryan, Michael Kelly, Geoff Pierson, and Colm Feore. The film explores themes such as disempowerment of women, corruption in political hierarchies, and the impact that violent crime has on communities. Principal photography began on October 15, 2007 and was completed in November 2007. Filming took place at locations in and around Los Angeles. Changeling premiered in competition at the 61st Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2008, where it received largely positive reviews. The film had its North American premiere on October 4, 2008 as the centerpiece of the 46th New York Film Festival. It was released wide in North America on October 31, 2008 after a limited release that began on October 24, 2008. It will be released in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland on November 28, 2008.



5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 film in a modern setting loosely adapted from the 1922 short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film is directed by David Fincher, and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film will be released December 25, 2008. Unlike Fincher's earlier work, the film is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for "Brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking", making it his first PG-13 film.
Adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" follows a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time.



6. Frost/Nixon
Frost/Nixon is a 2008 drama film based upon the play of the same name by Peter Morgan. The film version is directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment and Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films for Universal Pictures. The film reunites its original two stars from the London and Broadway productions of the play, Frank Langella as former President of the United States Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as British TV broadcaster David Frost. Filming began on August 27, 2007.



7. Australia
Australia is an upcoming period epic film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The screenplay was written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Ronald Harwood also later credited. The story takes place during the bombing of Darwin in Australia during World War II. Production took place in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra, and Bowen. The movie was to be released on 13 November 2008 in Australia[2] and 16 November 2008 in the United States;[3] however, Fox announced that it had pushed back the release dates in both Australia and the United States to 26 November 2008,[1] with subsequent worldwide release dates throughout late December and January 2009.

During World War II, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) is an English aristocrat who is left in control of a cattle station in Australia. She is assisted by an Australian drover (Hugh Jackman), in whom she becomes romantically interested. He helps to drive the cattle across the property as they are under the threat of nearby Darwin being bombed.



8. Passengers
Passengers is 2008 drama film starring Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson, and directed by Rodrigo Garcia. It was released in the United States by TriStar Pictures on October 24, 2008.