It was the first big experiment of a quite experimental Oscar season, and by all accounts, it was a resounding success. Last night, for the first time in Academy Award history, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out their honorary awards at a separate event from their annual Academy Award ceremony. At a three-hour gala dinner in the ballroom above the Kodak Theater, B-movie king Roger Corman (pictured, left), groundbreaking cinematographer Gordon Willis (right), and legendary screen siren Lauren Bacall (center) received honorary Oscars, and producer and studio chief John Calley was recognized with the rarely-bestowed Irving G. Thalberg Award.
“I’m delighted, and surprised,” Corman told me at the pre-dinner reception. “I knew I’d been nominated [to receive an honorary Oscar], and I predicted flatly that I had no chance of getting the award, because I make low-budget films. I thought the Academy will not give an award to someone who makes low budget films.” Both he and Willis earnestly professed they were happy the Academy had chosen to spin-off their awards into a distinct event. “I like it better this way,” Willis said. “It’s more meaningful, [and] it also gives them the opportunity to do more than one person at the end of a commercial.” (Bacall declined to speak to press.) Free from the time constraints and nerve-wracking pomp and circumstance of a prime-time television broadcast, the evening’s festivities did indeed feel appealingly warm and intimate. Along with the usual montage of clips representing their body of work, each honoree received lengthy toasts and testimonials from their friends and colleagues, read from note cards instead of teleprompters or simply delivered off-the-cuff. Academy first vice-president and multiple Oscar-winner Tom Hanks summed up the feelings about the evening for pretty much everyone there. “I’m over the moon about it,” Hanks told me after the first two honorees had received their awards. “This is what it should be. Look how long you got to talk about Gordon [Willis] or Roger [Corman]. You get the clips, the anecdotes and everything else. If this was on the TV show, it would be seven, pressure-filled minutes. This way, it’s all peers, and it’s all honors.” (Read full post)
Roland Emmerich has once again proved his mastery over the art of destruction with his latest film 2012: Moviegoers shelled out an estimated $23.7 million for the flick’s opening day. If the number holds, the Friday figure will mark a personal best for the German director, beating 2004’s disaster film The Day After Tomorrow. Second place went to Disney’s A Christmas Carol, which grossed $5.6 million on its second Friday in theaters. The third slot belonged to the George Clooney-starrer The Men Who Stare at Goats which earned an additional $1.95 million to put its 8-day cumulative at $19.2 million. Lionsgate’s Sundance acquisition Precious continues to exceed expectations, landing in the fourth spot with an additional $1.94 million on 174 theaters. In very limited release, this Oscar shoo-in has grossed $4.7 million in eight days. Rounding out the top five movies Friday was the Milla Jovovich thriller The Fourth Kind which grossed $1.8 million.
The master of disaster Roland Emmerich is back and this time nothing’s sacred. Will his over-the-top spectacle — blowing up Vegas, India and Rome among other locales — be the cure-all for moviegoers this weekend? Sony Pictures seems to think so. The PG-13-rated actioner starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet will bow in some 3,000 locations. The only thing that could hold back the weekend results on this film is the long runtime of 2 hours and 38 minutes. (This may be the perfect movie to test out 
