adaptations – This Had Oscar Buzz

We’re going back further than ever before this episode and we’ve got writer/critic/author Emily St. James along for the ride! After a consecutive run as an Oscar favorite in the late 1940s to early 1950s, director John Huston gave us 1956’s Moby Dick, an adaptation of perhaps the greatest novel of all time and often seen as unadaptable. With Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab and a cameo performance by Orson Welles, the film earned Huston favor at the DGA Awards, but even with its (then) technical feats, the film did not continue Huston’s Oscar streak.

This episode, we talk about the impossible task of bringing Herman Melville’s novel to the screen and the perception of Peck as miscast. We also discuss the 1956 Oscars, Peck’s run as Academy president, and outrage over Home Alone‘s underwhelming Oscar nomination tally.

Topics also include the Grumpy Old Men blooper reel, Reba McEntire as Trish, and we also announce the return of Vulture’s Movies Fantasy League! Join the rest of the Garys with league name AllOfUsGarys!

And don’t forget to sign up for our Patreon, This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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Francis Ford Coppola is a legendary director among Oscar lore thanks to the Corleone family, and this week’s episode pairs him with a name that resulted in much ‘90s cinematic prestige: John Grisham. After a string of hit adaptations that danced with major Oscar consideration, Coppola took his shot at Grisham’s The Rainmaker. But despite good reviews (and a Globe nomination for supporting actor Jon Voight), the film earned mild box office that halted the Grisham hot streak. Led by an emerging Matt Damon, the film was also overshadowed just one month later by the release of Good Will Hunting.

This episode, we revisit the box office success and Oscar near-success of films adapted by the mega-popular works of the legal thriller / airport staple John Grisham. We also discuss Coppola’s late career phase of largely unseen and unheralded films, the stacked 1997 Best Actor field, and The Rainmaker’s bursting cast list of glorified cameos and supporting players.

And this episode brings the return of two of our favorite topics: Claire Danes and the Entertainment Weekly Fall Movie Preview.

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Tag: adaptations

253 – Moby Dick (with Emily St. James!)

089 – The Rainmaker