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Perennially Ignored By Academy Voters, James Bond Gets Oscarcast Tribute

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday January 4, 2013 @ 6:26am PSTTags: James Bond, Javier Bardem, Oscars, Skyfall
Mike Fleming

James Bond Oscar Tribute SkyfallBREAKING: It has only taken 007 half a century to get his due from the Academy. Oscars exec producers will include a tribute to the James Bond franchise, it was announced this morning. It’s a good idea from the standpoint of getting the masses interested in avoiding a snore-fest like last year, but the timing is also fortuitous for honoring moviedom’s most enduring feature franchise.

The most recent installment, the Sam Mendes-directed Skyfall, recently became the first 007 film to crack the $1 billion worldwide gross mark; also, Bond celebrated its 50-year anniversary with the Skyfall release.

Related: Academy Celebrates 50 Years Of James Bond Music From ‘Goldfinger’ To ‘Skyfall’

It is a remarkable exception to how the Academy has historically dismissed the James Bond films as award-worthy. Only 1964′s Goldfinger and 1965′s Thunderball won awards, and they were for Best Effects. The 2006 film Casino Royale, which introduced Daniel Craig as 007 and is on my Top 10 favorite films, didn’t get a single Oscar nomination. Perhaps this year will be different — Javier Bardem’s villain character in Skyfall has so far been nominated for SAG and PGA Awards. I’m not sure about a Best Picture nomination, because there are so many worthy films up against Skyfall. At least the series will get a little bit of love from Oscar. Has 007 been done an injustice all these years by Oscar?

Here’s the official announcement: READ MORE »

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Beijing Conference On International Actors’ Treaty Opens With Video From Meryl Streep

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Wednesday June 20, 2012 @ 2:42am PDTTags: International Actors' Treaty, Javier Bardem, Meryl Streep

More than 10 years in the making, an international treaty aimed at protecting actors’ rights is due to be signed in Beijing in the coming week. Backed by UN agency WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the treaty … Read More »

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Ridley Scott Drafts Brad Pitt And Javier Bardem For ‘The Counselor,’ With Fox Circling

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 12, 2012 @ 11:52am PDTTags: Brad Pitt, Cormac McCarthy, Javier Bardem, Michael Fassbender, Ridley Scott, The Counselor
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Back in February, Deadline revealed that Ridley Scott was aiming high for a nemesis to play alongside Michael Fassbender in The Counselor, with Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem on the wish list. I’m told now that Scott is on the verge of getting both actors into the movie. … Read More »

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Warner Bros In Talks For Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’; Will Javier Bardem Saddle Up?

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday March 12, 2012 @ 5:03pm PDTTags: Brian Grazer, Javier Bardem, Ron Howard, Stephen King, The Dark Tower
Mike Fleming

Javier Bardem Stephen King The Dark TowerEXCLUSIVE: When Universal Pictures said no to making three feature films and two limited-run TV series from Stephen King’s mammoth post-apocalyptic Western The Dark Tower, the partners in the film all pledged they were going to find a way to get a movie made. Well, I hear that Warner Bros is now very close to a deal that will give Ron Howard the chance to direct at least the first feature, potentially with Javier Bardem starring as gunslinger Roland Deschain. And Akiva Goldsman (who wrote the script) is producing with Brian Grazer and the author.

Basically the studio bought Goldsman’s script and are paying him to do a polish. Howard remains attached to direct, likely in first-quarter 2013. Pic is a co-production between Goldsman’s Weed Road and Howard and Grazer’s Imagine. Bardem’s participation would depend upon his availability, but he was firmly attached when the project was at Universal.

That is an amazing development for fans of the book and for a movie that has been searching for new backing since Universal let it go last July. Back then, Universal was deciding on three features and the two TV segments, which was perhaps the most ambitious movie project since Peter Jackson shot three installments of The Lord Of The Rings back to back. Read More »

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Top Actors Lining Up For Villain Role In ‘The Counselor’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday February 24, 2012 @ 10:58am PSTTags: Cormac McCarthy, Javier Bardem, Jeremy Renner, Michael Fassbender, Ridley Scott, The Counselor
Mike Fleming

The hot role that actors are lining up for is the villain in The Counselor, the Ridley Scott-directed Cormac McCarthy-written thriller that will star Michael Fassbender. I’m hearing that The Bourne Legacy‘s Jeremy Renner and No Country For Old Men‘s Javier Bardem are among the actors circling. I’ve been hearing … Read More »

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James Bond ‘Skyfall’ Adds Helen McCrory, Ola Rapace To Cast As Cameras Roll

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday November 7, 2011 @ 7:04pm PSTTags: Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Daniel Craig, Film Castings, James Bond, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Sam Mendes, Skyfall

As filming got underway Monday for Skyfall, the names of two additional actors but not their characters’ identities were posted on the movie’s Twitter account @007: Helen McCrory (Hugo, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 & 2) and … Read More »

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‘Skyfall’ Confirmed As Title Of New Bond Movie; Budget Around $230M; Sam Mendes Says He’s Open To Follow-up

By TIM ADLER in London | Thursday November 3, 2011 @ 6:18am PDTTags: Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Daniel Craig, Eon Productions, James Bond, Javier Bardem, John Logan, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Sam Mendes, Skyfall

Shooting on the latest James Bond movie starts Monday, Daniel Craig revealed at this morning’s press conference for Skyfall, the 23rd 007 movie. Producer Michael G Wilson scotched UK tabloid rumors that the budget for the latest Bond film has been slashed by $100 million. “We’re in the same budget range as the last film. We haven’t had to change anything in the script. In fact, we keep adding things — everything is going to be just as it was,” he said. Director Sam Mendes also denied he was making a downbeat Bond with fewer action sequences. He would be directing action sequences himself. “There will be plenty of surprises,” Mendes promised. “The action needs to be balanced with the drama.” Mendes said he was open to directing another Bond installment, “if I still feel that it’s as much fun in six months’ time, then the answer is yes.” Read More »

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Candescent Films Launches With Jeff Nichols, Javier Bardem, R.J. Cutler Pics

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday September 21, 2011 @ 12:55pm PDTTags: Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Javier Bardem, Jeff Nichols, R.J. Cutler
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Candescent Films, a new venture formed to make films that advance a social agenda, is financing and co-producing a small slate of films that are passion projects of A-list talent. Spearheaded by Lilly Hartley, Candescent kicks off with Native, a drama being written by Take Shelter director Jeff Nichols, with Hartley producing with Sarah Green (The Tree of Life) and Automatik Entertainment’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. Candescent is also the catalyst for two documentaries. Javier Bardem is the star and producer of Sons of the Clouds, an in-producton documentary that explores the political and human rights issues facing the people of the Sahara, with an emphasis on a former Spanish colony in Africa that is now occupied by Morocco and where there are more than 200,000 refugees living in camps in the desert. Bardem is producing with Hartley and Alvaro Longoria of Morena Films. Longoria directed it and is close to finished, with Candescent financing.

Candescent is also financing development of The Fifth Estate, a feature documentary to be written and directed by The September Issue‘s R.J. Cutler that examines the future of journalism in the digital age, and the role of the Internet in 21st century democracy. WME Global’s Liesl Copland packaged both of the documentaries. Read More »

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Universal Nixes Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ – No Ambitious Film Trilogy Or TV Series

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday July 18, 2011 @ 4:09pm PDTTags: Akiva Goldsman, Brian Grazer, Javier Bardem, Ron Howard, Stephen King, The Dark Tower, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: The moment has come for Universal Pictures to fish or cut bait on The Dark Tower, the ultra-ambitious adaptation of the Stephen King 7-novel series that was going to encompass a trilogy of feature films and two limited run … Read More »

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Universal Pushes ‘Dark Tower,’ Attempts To Trim Budget

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday May 13, 2011 @ 12:56pm PDTTags: Javier Bardem, Ron Howard, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has pushed this year’s start date on the Ron Howard-directed adaptation of Stephen King’s mammoth novel series Dark Tower until February, I’m told. It was supposed to start this summer. The studio will work with the … Read More »

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Javier Bardem Closing ‘Dark Tower’ Deal

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday April 6, 2011 @ 5:45pm PDTTags: Akiva Goldsman, Brian Grazer, Daniel Craig, James Bond, Javier Bardem, JRR Tolkien, Kerry Foster, Ron Howard, Sam Mendes, Sergio Leone, Stephen King, Terrence Malick, The Dark Tower, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Javier Bardem is close to sealing his deal with Universal Pictures to play gunslinger Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower, the mammoth adaptation of the Stephen King 7-novel series that’ll span three movies and a limited run TV series in between each film. Director Ron Howard begins production on the first film in September, and he’ll also direct the first TV segment. Akiva Goldsman has scripted the film and the initial TV component. Imagine Entertainment chief Brian Grazer is producing the films with Goldsman and King. Goldsman will produce the TV part through his Weed Road banner.

Bardem, who won the Oscar for his ferocious portrayal of a hit man in  No Country For Old Men and who was more recently nominated for Biutiful, is a strong match to play the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers. Deadline revealed in late January that Bardem had been offered the role of Deschain, who becomes humanity’s last hope to save civilization as he hits the road to find the Dark Tower. Along the way, he encounters characters, good and bad, in a world that has an old West feel.

Bardem’s WME reps are putting the finishing touches on the deal, and they are close enough that Howard has begun meeting with other actors to cast the roles around Bardem. It’s a complex deal, almost unprecedented, because it calls for Bardem to star in the feature film and the TV component. His deal will also include options for two sequels (the TV program that runs between the second and third films will be a prequel). I’m told it will add up to a career-best payday for Bardem. Howard and Goldsman have told me they see the trilogy as their answer to the Peter Jackson-directed adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. While Middle Earth had a mystical medieval feel, The Dark Tower vibe is one that Goldsman described as “an alternate Americana, one part post-apocalyptic, one part Sergio Leone.” Read More »

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OSCAR: Javier Bardem Q&A

By PETE HAMMOND | Saturday February 12, 2011 @ 5:55pm PSTTags: 83rd Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Biutiful, Biutiful Javier Bardem, Javier Bardem, Movies, Oscar Best Actor Category, Oscars, Pete Hammond Oscar Coverage
Pete Hammond

Javier Bardem’s first acting job was at the age of six, but his career has heated up since the mid-1980s not only in a number of notable films in his native Spain for such directors as Pedro Almodovar but now as a full-fledged international star. … Read More »

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OSCAR: Hammond Polls Academy Voters

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday February 9, 2011 @ 8:36pm PSTTags: 83rd Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Academy Awards Voters, Annette Bening, Black Swan, David Fincher, Inception, Javier Bardem, Movies, Natalie Portman, Oscars, Pete Hammond Oscar Coverage, The Fighter, The King's Speech, The Social Network
Pete Hammond

With ballots out and not due back until 5 PM on February 22nd, I decided to talk to a sampling of Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences voters directly to see how they’re picking their winners. By doing this very unscientific survey … Read More »

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Sony About To Recapture James Bond #23; UPDATE: MGM Leverages 007 For Deal On Sony’s ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’

By NIKKI FINKE AND MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday February 7, 2011 @ 9:30pm PSTTags: Amy Pascal, Barbara Broccoli, Daniel Craig, Fox, Freida Pinto, Gary Barber, James Bond, Javier Bardem, MGM, Michael Lynton, Michael Wilson, Paramount, Roger Birnbaum, Sam Mendes, Sony Pictures, Spyglass, Warner Bros

2ND UPDATE:  The new MGM brass, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum managed to leverage the James Bond #23 film for a piece of Sony’s in-the-works big movie based on the Stieg Larsson bestseller, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which has already been shooting in Sweden under director David Fincher and starring Rooney Mara. Deadline has learned that Sony Pictures bosses Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton agreed to give MGM a co-financing deal for the big title and possibly other films already shooting, too, to help the reconstituted studio generate quick cash flow. This allows MGM to have revenue which it hasn’t had in a long time, so the books look better, and more funds for production could be forthcoming. (That’s exactly how Birnbaum and Barber built their Spyglass Entertainment in the first place: by investing in films it didn’t make, like the recently rebooted Star Trek.)

UPDATE: We’re told Paramount dropped out of the Bond bidding when MGM insisted on bringing the distribution fee under 8% and when MGM got “grabby” in wanting a piece of a Paramount established franchise that studio didn’t want to give up.

EXCLUSIVE 5 PM: Deadline hears that Sony Pictures is close to landing distribution rights to MGM’s James Bond franchise again, and specifically for the next untitled Bond #23, even though several studios are still very much in the hunt. Sony Pictures chiefs Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton distributed both Daniel Craig 007 pics, Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace, and now have moved into first position to recapture 007. That’s because Sony is agreeing to allow MGM’s new leadership to leverage the next Bond pic, and indeed the Bond franchise, to create more cash flow for the reconstituted studio post-bankruptcy. The new brass, Spyglass Entertainment co-owners Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum who are now the Co-Chairmen andCEOs of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, are finishing negotiations to co-finance a number of films with Sony. Deadline has learned that Pascal and Lynton have already found a title on the Sony slate for MGM to co-finance. That’s exactly how Birnbaum and Barber built Spyglass in the first place: by investing in films it didn’t make, such as The Sixth Sense and the recently rebooted Star Trek.

There’s no doubt this is a shrewd move by MGM, but Deadline also learned it wasn’t sitting well with the majors. Top execs at Sony and Fox and Paramount and Warner Bros were increasingly frustrated with the way that the Spyglass duo were playing one studio off another — “and enjoying it,” in the words of one exec involved. Sony at the time even described its strategy to win Bond #23 as ”pleading”. Now it looks like that worked along with agreeing to much of MGM’s negotiating terms.

Even though MGM holds sway on where Bond #23 lands, a 007 return to the Sony fold would please EON partners Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. Amy Pascal in particular has developed a strong personal and professional relationship with Broccoli when they were making the transition from Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig. Broccoli  and Wilson found Craig among a list of possible 007s, and the choice wasn’t popular at first. But Pascal supported Craig. Also Sony has a reputation for spending big to market Bond: for Casino Royale, Sony spent a humongous sum worldwide to introduce the new Bond. MGM was supposed to distribute the 23rd Bond film itself, until the studio was pushed into bankruptcy. Read More »

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Akiva Goldsman Gets Green Light On ‘Winter’s Tale’ At Warner Bros

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 5:23pm PSTTags: Akiva Goldsman, Akiva Goldsman Director, Brian Grazer, Javier Bardem, Movie Deals, Movies, Ron Howard, Stephen King
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Akiva Goldsman is set to make his feature directorial debut on Winter’s Tale, the 1983 Mark Helprin novel that Goldsman adapted. Warner Bros has set the picture for a spring 2012 start. Goldsman will make the picture after he, … Read More »

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Javier Bardem Offered Big Bond #23 Role; MGM Leveraging 007 Distribution With Co-Financing Deal To Improve Its Cash Flow: Jockeying Studios “Increasingly Frustrated”

By NIKKI FINKE AND MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday January 30, 2011 @ 1:44pm PSTTags: Daniel Craig, James Bond, Javier Bardem, Sam Mendes

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has just learned that Javier Bardem has been offered a starring role in the upcoming James Bond film recently set for a November 9, 2012, release. Details about the character are being kept under wraps for now. But traditionally the biggest male role opposite 007 is the villain, and Bardem played a truly villainous villain in his Oscar-winning turn in No Country For Old Men two years ago. The EON Productions offer by principals Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to Bardem to join star Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes was made last week, at around the same time that  the WME-repped Bardem received his Best Actor nomination for Biutiful and another high-profile offer of a lead role, that of gunslinger Roland Deschain in the Ron Howard-directed trilogy based on Stephen King’s novel series The Dark Tower. (Amidst all this career activity, Bardem and Penelope Cruz welcomed their first son into the world.) But it should be noted that Bardem was offered the high-profile villain role in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and turned it down.

The other Bond #23 news is this: Deadline has learned that MGM’s new leadership is trying to leverage the next Bond pic, and indeed the Bond franchise, to create more cash flow for the post-bankruptcy studio. The new brass, Spyglass Entertainment co-owners Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum who are now the Co-Chairmen/CEOs of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc, are in the middle of negotiating to make an overall deal for worldwide theatrical and home entertainment distribution of not just Bond but also MGM’s new product as well as its library of films. But what isn’t known is that, as part of that deal, MGM wants whichever studio is chosen to distribute Bond 23 to co-finance a number of films with MGM. ”That would provide MGM quick cash flow,” an insider tells Deadline. “The quick cash flow allows MGM to have revenue which it hasn’t had in a long time. Thereby their books look better, and therefore the possibility of getting more funds for production is increased. So expect whichever studio lands Bond to also announce it is several co-financing deals allowing MGM into other pics that are already shooting.”

There’s no doubt this is a shrewd move by MGM, but Deadline has learned it’s not sitting well with the majors. Top execs at Sony and Fox and Paramount and Warner Bros who are all involved in the negotiations to distribute Bond ”are growing increasingly frustrated with the way that the Spyglass duo are playing one studio off another — and enjoying it,” in the words of one exec involved. One studio even described its strategy to win Bond #23 was reduced recently to ”pleading”. Read More »

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Javier Bardem Wanted For ‘The Dark Tower’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday January 26, 2011 @ 5:00pm PSTTags: Akiva Goldsman, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Brian Grazer, Christian Bale, Erica Huggins, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Peter Jackson, Ron Howard, Sergio Leone, Stephen King, Terrence Malick, Viggo Mortensen
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: After Javier Bardem’s terrifying Oscar-winning turn as the assassin in No Country For Old Men, is there any doubt he’d fit as the gunslinger Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower, the mammoth adaptation of the Stephen King 7-novel series … Read More »

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OSCAR: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Q&A On ‘Biutiful’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday December 19, 2010 @ 3:55pm PSTTags: 83rd Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Amores Perros, Biutiful, Biutiful US Rights, Javier Bardem, Movies, Oscars
Mike Fleming

After Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s electric feature directing debut Amores Perros, the Mexico-born filmmaker became the toast of a specialty film circuit dominated by studios willing to overspend for prestige and Oscars. Top actors lined up to work with Inarritu in … Read More »

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Hot Footage: ‘Biutiful’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday December 16, 2010 @ 4:20pm PSTTags: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Biutiful Javier Bardem, Javier Bardem, Movies, SAG Awards, Video
Mike Fleming

In a week where everyone from the Hollywood Foreign Press to the Screen Actors Guild weighed in with  nominations, perhaps no omission was as glaring as Javier Bardem being ignored for his performance in the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed Biutiful. Playing a street hustler who is desperate to find a place … Read More »

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