Week in Film: Oscar fever, Lincoln vs. vampires and 'Skyfall' blog
After a 7-day hiatus, Week in Film returns - and the big news this week has to be the 84th Academy Awards, with the Oscar ceremony taking place this Sunday at 8.30pm EST. The likes of The Artist, The Descendants and War Horse will all be in the running for Best Picture award, whilst Jean Dujardin, George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Rooney Mara are up for Best Actor and Best Actress. This year's ceremony will (hopefully) be made all the more interesting by the return of US comic Billy Crystal as host, plus rumours that Sacha Baron Cohen will attempt to hijack the event as his character from the forthcoming film, The Dictator (2012).
In other news this week, Bond fans have been given a fleeting glimpse of Skyfall (2012) via director Sam Mendes' video blog. Little actual footage is shown from the film, preferring instead to present clips from Craig's previous efforts as Bond, but the commentary by Mendes is interesting and the odd shot of Bond skulking through a darkened room - plus a top-notch cast - suggests a great deal of promise for the 23rd film in the franchise.
This week's cinematic releases sees Denzel Washington return in the action-packed thriller Safe House (review), accompanied by Ryan Reynolds and Brendan Gleeson. Audiences can also be entertained on Friday by a gaggle of British talent coming together for the comedy-drama The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (review), starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Also out this week is crime drama Rampart (review), the BFI re-release of Otto Preminger's 1944 crime-thriller Laura and a historical epic Black Gold (review), set during the 1930s oil boom in the Middle East starring Mark Strong and Tahar Rahim.
The trailer for Timur Bekmambetov's forthcoming vampire flick Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) was also released this week (see bottom of post). Being a typical teaser, it gives little away regarding its plot (at least for those of us yet to read the book by Seth Grahame-Smith), but it does show a great deal of epic fight sequences and lavish looking sets. The potential is there for an entertaining romp, providing it doesn't take itself overly seriously.
Lastly, be sure to check out CineVue's extensive coverage of the 2012 Berlin Film Festival held last week. There were some great films on offer which will hopefully be hitting UK cinemas in the near future - full coverage here.
