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CNN Live Saturday
Is This The Year For "Lord of the Rings"?
Aired December 20, 2003 - 14:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: The fight is on for your holiday box office dollar, but which film has Oscar-staying power? With the December 31, cutoff for Academy Awards counting down we are going to talk a look at some of the last-minute entries. And Tom O'Neil host of GOLDDERBY.com it is on the inside track when it comes to entertainment awards. He is live in New York. Welcome Tom.
TOM O'NEIL, HOST OF GOLDDERBY.COM: Welcome thanks Holly.
FIRFER: Let's talk first about "Cold Mountain" it was a great book. How does the movie stack up?
O'NEIL: It's very, very good. It's, of course, this terrific story, which won a national book award as a book, that is about a confederate runaway soldier who tries to find his way back home during the Civil War, to his wife, Nicole Kidman here. It just scored the most nominations at the Golden Globes. Actually, the second most in globe history. So it bodes well for the Oscar. This is that big romantic epic that they tend to like.
FIRFER: And talking about big epics, Tom Cruise is getting stellar reviews for "The Last Samurai." Do you think it's an Oscar worthy performance and Oscar worthy film?
O'NEIL: No, I think we learned this week when the Golden Globe nominations came out, it doesn't hold up. Tom wag nominated, but the movie wasn't. And that puts a big surprise, it's also tanking at the box office by comparison to how it opened. It doesn't follows a pattern we've seen recently at the box office, where big block busters fall off 40 and 50 percent, but this fell off 40 percent and may fall off another 40 percent this weekend.
FIRFER: OK, I want to talk about one of my favorite movies. The trilogy. "Lord of the Rings." The third one just came out, a lot of people going to see it, is this it? Could finally Peter Jackson get that, in my opinion, well-deserved Oscar? Is this his year?
O'NEIL: I think it is. The question is, will those Oscar voters finally hail a fantasy? They have never done it in history, but the Globes have, they named "E.T." best picture for example back in the 1980s so maybe there's some hope for them.
And it is going to need that bump from the globes to the Oscars in order to make them do something this unprecedented. But this isn't just any movie, this is the biggest gamble in film history, $300 million given to a relatively unknown director, who in turn produced something so amazing, that if these box office projections we see this weekend hold, this is going to become only the second movie in history to top $1 billion worldwide. The other movie, of course, was "Titanic."
FIRFER: Tom, those are some incredible numbers. So why is it that we haven't we seen "Lord of the Rings?" I mean the last two years, they got some awards, but not like a lot of people thought they would be raking in those awards, sweeping the academy awards. What is the problem? It's a huge, stellar trilogy.
O'NEIL: I know, but they like their movies real, at the Oscars, they like the stories real. And it's not just fantasies that are cursed. Wizard movies, sci-fi films and horror movies, too. There is only one horror movie that ever won best picture "Silence of the Lambs," and that only because it had the critics behind it.
FIRFER: All right lets talk more about Oscars in general. Anything else we can expect to see at the awards?
O'NEIL: Yes, "Lost in Translation" is popping up as that quirky little Indy, that we always see one of them in the race. This week, it showed up in the globe nominations in every lead category this was a surprise. We expected to see Bill Murray up for best actor, maybe Sophia Coppola for best director, but wow. It was the best picture, it was best actress? This could be that little movie like "In the Bedroom," that tiny film that takes on the goliaths.
FIRFER: All right, Tom O'Neil, Goldderby.com we appreciate your input.
O'NEIL: Thanks.
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 20, 2003 - 14:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: The fight is on for your holiday box office dollar, but which film has Oscar-staying power? With the December 31, cutoff for Academy Awards counting down we are going to talk a look at some of the last-minute entries. And Tom O'Neil host of GOLDDERBY.com it is on the inside track when it comes to entertainment awards. He is live in New York. Welcome Tom.
TOM O'NEIL, HOST OF GOLDDERBY.COM: Welcome thanks Holly.
FIRFER: Let's talk first about "Cold Mountain" it was a great book. How does the movie stack up?
O'NEIL: It's very, very good. It's, of course, this terrific story, which won a national book award as a book, that is about a confederate runaway soldier who tries to find his way back home during the Civil War, to his wife, Nicole Kidman here. It just scored the most nominations at the Golden Globes. Actually, the second most in globe history. So it bodes well for the Oscar. This is that big romantic epic that they tend to like.
FIRFER: And talking about big epics, Tom Cruise is getting stellar reviews for "The Last Samurai." Do you think it's an Oscar worthy performance and Oscar worthy film?
O'NEIL: No, I think we learned this week when the Golden Globe nominations came out, it doesn't hold up. Tom wag nominated, but the movie wasn't. And that puts a big surprise, it's also tanking at the box office by comparison to how it opened. It doesn't follows a pattern we've seen recently at the box office, where big block busters fall off 40 and 50 percent, but this fell off 40 percent and may fall off another 40 percent this weekend.
FIRFER: OK, I want to talk about one of my favorite movies. The trilogy. "Lord of the Rings." The third one just came out, a lot of people going to see it, is this it? Could finally Peter Jackson get that, in my opinion, well-deserved Oscar? Is this his year?
O'NEIL: I think it is. The question is, will those Oscar voters finally hail a fantasy? They have never done it in history, but the Globes have, they named "E.T." best picture for example back in the 1980s so maybe there's some hope for them.
And it is going to need that bump from the globes to the Oscars in order to make them do something this unprecedented. But this isn't just any movie, this is the biggest gamble in film history, $300 million given to a relatively unknown director, who in turn produced something so amazing, that if these box office projections we see this weekend hold, this is going to become only the second movie in history to top $1 billion worldwide. The other movie, of course, was "Titanic."
FIRFER: Tom, those are some incredible numbers. So why is it that we haven't we seen "Lord of the Rings?" I mean the last two years, they got some awards, but not like a lot of people thought they would be raking in those awards, sweeping the academy awards. What is the problem? It's a huge, stellar trilogy.
O'NEIL: I know, but they like their movies real, at the Oscars, they like the stories real. And it's not just fantasies that are cursed. Wizard movies, sci-fi films and horror movies, too. There is only one horror movie that ever won best picture "Silence of the Lambs," and that only because it had the critics behind it.
FIRFER: All right lets talk more about Oscars in general. Anything else we can expect to see at the awards?
O'NEIL: Yes, "Lost in Translation" is popping up as that quirky little Indy, that we always see one of them in the race. This week, it showed up in the globe nominations in every lead category this was a surprise. We expected to see Bill Murray up for best actor, maybe Sophia Coppola for best director, but wow. It was the best picture, it was best actress? This could be that little movie like "In the Bedroom," that tiny film that takes on the goliaths.
FIRFER: All right, Tom O'Neil, Goldderby.com we appreciate your input.
O'NEIL: Thanks.
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
