133 – The Other Boleyn Girl

Heavily anticipated by Oscar predictors in fall 2007, Justin Chadwick’s historical fiction The Other Boleyn Girl paired Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johnasson as their Oscar stars were rising. But when the film was rescheduled into early 2008, all signs pointed towards a disappointment that the film ultimately proved to be. With Eric Bana as King Henry VIII, the film is a soapy and scattered take on the Boleyn sisters vying for the king’s affections. Even with the beloved Sandy Powell on costuming duties, the film’s poor reception canceled out its chances to make an impact in the 08 Oscar races.

This week, we go into Oscar’s long history of awarding films surrounding the royals and how this film is weighted with historical inaccuracies. We also dive into screenwriter Peter Morgan’s place as current royals’ biographer with an Oscar pedigree and Johansson’s long road to her two first Oscar nominations last year, beginning with her two 2003 competing performances through souring her public favor in later years.

Topics also include the Teen Choice Awards, a cringe-inducing plot turn that turns Jim Sturgess into a royal Kombucha Girl, and the musical Six.

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002 – Tulip Fever

This week’s piece of failed awards bait is the 2017 costume drama/romantic “thriller” Tulip Fever, and by “2017,” we mean “filmed in 2014 and originally intended to be released at various times over the course of the next three years, only to finally limp into theaters after several waves of frantic test screenings, horrid buzz and derisive jokes.” From the director of The Other Boleyn Girl, people! How could it have all gone so very wrong?

Topics include: Dane DeHaan and baby pandas, Judi Dench running Goldman-Sachs-for-flowers, whether we’re living in a post-costume-drama world, whether this would have been Alicia Vikander’s Norbit, and how much would have been different if DreamWorks had been able to make this movie in 2004 as originally intended.