Here are some photos of Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones at last night’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival presentation of the Cinema Vanguard Award. They both received the award for their work on The Theory of Everything. Felicity’s blah dress is Osman Resort 2015. I’m still disappointed in her styling and dress choices, but I guess I have to make my peace with the fact that she’s not all about appearing on the Best Dresses List or becoming a Fashion Girl.
Anyway, I just wanted to talk about Eddie. As we discussed earlier this week, Eddie is suddenly a MAJOR contender for Best Actor. He won the Golden Globe for Drama, which is nice, but then he won the SAG Award last Sunday. Eddie is likely going to walk away with the BAFTA next weekend too. All of which actually makes Eddie the favorite to win the Oscar, not Michael Keaton. So what could possibly slow down Eddie’s momentum? Well, he could be Norbit’d.
For those of you unfamiliar with thegh term, “to Norbit” to “to be Norbit’d” refers to Eddie Murphy’s shot at an Oscar for Dreamgirls. Everyone thought Murphy was a lock. Murphy thought he was a lock. But his terrible film, Norbit, came out in the middle of the awards season. Norbit was blamed for messing with Murphy’s momentum, plus Norbit reminded Academy members that Eddie Murphy has spent much of the past 15 years making really terrible family films.
So what is Eddie Redmayne’s Norbit? Jupiter Ascending. It was supposed to come out last summer, but got pulled at the last minute because A) it looked like a terrible film and B) “technical issues.” So it’s being released in the film-release graveyard at the beginning of February (next Friday, a week from today). It’s probably going to bomb in a huge way, but even if it surprises everyone and makes some money, there are already think-pieces being written about why it’s an awful movie that should have never been made. To be fair to Redmayne, he’s not the lead. Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis are the leads, and Redmayne plays the villain. It’s possible that Redmayne will be the best, campy part of a terrible film. But that’s not the problem – the problem is that it could seriously mess with his Oscar mojo.
Also messing with his mojo? The studio released stills from the film and they are AWKWARD. Go here to see.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
His acting in the commercials make me cringe.
I guess it would depend on when voting closes for the Oscars? If it closes a few days later I don’t think I’ll have a huge impact, but it people can vote right up to the last minute then yeah, he might have screwed the pooch.
(Am too lazy to look up the info, so I’ll just assume voting closes about 1 week in advance).
Voting opens on the day of the debut. If he gets bad reviews, some studio enemy cof Harvey Weinstein cof can use it against him.
Sandra Bullock won despite What About Steve
Yeah, but The Blind Side and The Proposal made too much money to hold that against her. Hollywood couldn’t afford to make her into a fool — they needed her money-making power.
Um, I think that movie looks kick ass.
I do love a good campy sci fi though. Battlefield Earth was terrific.
I agree!
me too, I’m totally going to go see this.
Uh, have you seen Potato Tatum’s elf ears and glitter eyeshadow? NO. Plus Redmayne is chewing the scenery, and not in a fun Alan Rickman manner.
Pass.
But Eddie Murphy is also a notoriously difficult ,obnoxious person whereas Redmayne comes off as a consummate professional I think if he looses it will be because Keaton is so awesome in Birdman not due to this crappy film.
Norb it was probably A factor, because it really did serve to remind everyone of what truly terrible work he was doing for years, but Eddie’s own crappy personality was a factor as well. An actor either has to turn in a performance that is so searingly good that it just can’t be denied, or campaign like a champ. And Eddie didn’t exactly campaign like a champ.
Saw the trailer, I kinda like it. Might not pay to see this movie though. Hope it doesn’t hurt his chance at Oscars, we will see.
The first time I saw a trailer, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, but honestly, the more I see the trailer, the more I think no, just no.
I’ll still watch it though. On dvd.
Voting ends on the 17th, but I imagine most will have voted before this release, so I doubt the influence. Since all voters in this category are also sag members, that win was telling..I’d bet on him
Nope. That movie looks awful but Eddie is a SUPERB actor. He’ll probably win the Oscar.
Superb? ToE is his first decent performance. Everything else he’s been from Les Mis to My Week with M., he was either dreadful or just forgettable.
I think he’s brillant in most of his movie roles and the critics always praised his acting for the most part but he gave a really really great performance in the ToE. Well above “decent”.
See if you can find the BBC version of Tess of the D’Urbervilles he did with Gemma Arterton. They were both great in that.
I have never seen anything with him, so I have no idea if he is actually a good actor or not. Plus I have an irrational hatred towards this movie and everyone involved, so maybe I am just projecting… but he creeps me out, and this trailer and his acting in it make me cringe!
Watch the the Theory of Everything. He’s the favorite to win Best Actor. Not only the acting is great, the movie as a whole is awesome.
@JWQ The performances of Eddie and Felicity are the best thing in this awful movie.
I don’t think it will be the same kind of problem. The problem with Norbit wasn’t just that it was bad. It was that Eddie Murphy wrote, produced, and played most of the roles in it, and that it was fairly high profile. It became very hard to separate him from the movie or vice versa.
Eddie Redmayne is much obscure to begin with and isn’t so prominent in this project. I think he’ll be okay.
I agree, I don’t think it’s going to hurt his chances at an Oscar at all.
Also, Academy voters just love movies with lead characters who overcome their horrible diseases/afflictions. It’s almost a cliche.
Himself The Elf will be fine. He is a magnificent actor-this movie obviously wasn’t a passion project. It’s all good.
Eddie R is not the star of that film. I would think it would hurt Tatum more. I may be in the minority, but I don’t think Norbit had anything to do with Eddie M. losing. I think the Academy just liked Alan Arkin, and he fits their make-up profile more and there may have been other factors as well going against Eddie M. Little Miss Sunshine won the SAG and Arkin won BAFTA, so he was clearly on a roll. (I loved him in it too, so I liked that he won). It has kind of been shown that Academy members don’t go see movies in the theater (Selma). They like them mailed out to them, so many probably will not even know that this movie even exists or who is even in it.
I looked at those stills, and all it looks like (to me) is that this is Mila Kunis’s “Padme” moment…..remember in Star Wars Episode II, when she had costume changes like every other scene? YEAH. This looks like a movie where she’s just playing dress up. I mean, Mila looks pretty, but she is a horrible actress. Better than that a-hole Kutcher.
Lol – his acting in the trailer does seem awfully awkward. His face in the still for the video reads “who the f*ck talked me into this?!”.
Anyway, Sandra Bullock won despite her Razzie-winning performance in All About Steve. So who knows.
EDIT: Btw, Eddie isn’t the only nominee with an awful February release. Julianne Moore, no less, is playing an evil witch in Seventh Son, costarring Jeff Bridges and Jon Snow. I really doubt this will hurt her chances, but that movie’s release date was supposed to be Feb 2013… so you can make an educated guess on how much it will suck.
Sandra Bullock is a star. Eddie=who?
That’s actually a valid point. All of these actors have had long and prestigious careers. Eddie’s more or less a newcomer to the top-tier Hollywood lists.
Along those same lines- Serena supposedly gets released in Feb. I don’t think Bradley C has much of a chance anyway, but he prob isn’t thrilled with the timing of the release.
I wanted to say that also – Seventh Son. However bad is Jupiter this is definitely much worse.
This is the kind of movie where I feel like everyone involved got super drunk, came up with the idea and filled out the paperwork while laughing and stumbling into bushes then woke up the next morning awkward as Fck when they realized they actually committed to it.
I saw the trailer for this when I went to see TIG on Christmas Day and it actually looks really interesting. I didn’t recognize Eddie at first and had to Google during the promo for Mortdecai (the preview made that move look like crap, so not surprised its tanking)
Nah, I think he’ll be fine.
So Eddie as Jaye Davidson?
They should have simply hired Jaye Davidson. Much cheaper.
Hehe, Jaye Davidson, good call!
Although I doubt it would be cheaper. Jaye pocketed 1 million for those 5 scenes in Stargate, just because.
How can that movie be so bad?? The ads don’t look bad. It looks like campy fun! I’m shocked that it’s so terrible, since I loved the trailer (but any campy sci if is right up my alley- 5th element is my favorite movie!)
I’m totally watching it anyway…
I think it looks good. at least more interesting than the same re-booted drivel that comes out of hollywood every year. It reminds me of awesome 80’s scifi movies that may be bad/campy but at least original and fun!
Maybe part of the problem is that they showed it at Sundance and snubbed the media. But it is opening in February so…
I’ll totally see it and drool all over Eddie’s abs.
Hullo, Sean Bean
This^^^^^.
Sean Bean as a human-bee hybrid. Buzzzzz.
Eddie as a guyliner wearing campy villain. Score!
I wouldn’t miss this crapfest and I’m going to enjoy every popcorn munching moment,
I’ve been saying for months Eddie will win despite the fact that many people have never heard of him. Why? Three word answer: Daniel Day Lewis. NO ONE had ever heard of him when he won for My Left Foot. The Academy lerves two things:
(1)great portrayals of severely handicapped individuals, and
(2) posh articulate British dudes.
I’ve read E Murphy lost not because of Norbert but because he gave a super boring pompous speech when he won his Golden Globe (?) for Dreamgirls. Eddie gives GREEAAT acceptance speech.
I’ve had a soft spot for him since Pillars of the Earth. And Sean is still my fantasy husband. We have been together for over twenty years now. He and Eddie also worked together on an abominable stinker called Black Death in 2012.
er, no. Daniel Day Lewis had already shown talent in My Beautiful Laundrette.
It won’t affect him. The movie was pulled for the post-production problems (or so they say).
Eh. As far as I can tell this movie isn’t getting that much attention, and Eddie isn’t the star. In fact, I’d heard about the movie and seen a trailer for it, and still didn’t register that he was even in it until months later. I don’t think it reflects that badly on him.
I doubt it. He has incredible films on his resume that is going to shield him from the “this is a fluke” criticism that many stars fall to. Also, the Wachowski siblings are well-respected as visionaries so that also provides some cover. The difference between Norbit and JA. Norbit was bad at it’s inception. JA is from the visionary directors of the Matrix, it will be a miss, but it was a bold and daring movie, and Eddie took a chance. Actors eat that mess up especially when it’s a “serious” actor.
If anyone takes a hit, it will be the siblings. the president of Warner Bro’s asked them to create an original IP and franchise. To be honest, I hope it doesn’t affect them though. I may not have enjoyed all of their films, but I do believe that they are some of best visionary SciFi directors that we have around at the moment and their movies are always a visual spectacle. They also take big risks and chances and without risks like this, there are many great films/franchises that would have been pushed aside for a safe remake/reboot. Critics were writing off Avatar as a 237 million bust before it previewed.
Ok, something must be wrong with me because Eddie as some glam rock, sci-fi, pouty, bad boy, is the first time I’ve ever been attracted to him.
Although gotta admit, that daily mail abs galore pic is kinda embarrassing.
I still Keaton will win the Oscar (but not because of Jupiter Ascending). I think Birdman is more their kind of movie, plus its also kind of like heres an Oscar for a great body of work kind of thing. I don’t know.
I just don’t think Jupiter Ascending is the same thing as Norbit. I mean it might bomb, but its just isn’t as absolutely silly as the plot of Norbit. Also, Sandra Bullock won and she had All about Steve in that same year soooooo…..
Do. Not. Like. Him.