Kristin Scott Thomas – This Had Oscar Buzz

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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123 – Life As A House (with LaToya Ferguson)

This week, we’re looking back at Oscar buzz molded from the success of American Beauty and the (new) hope of an incoming mega-franchise star: 2001′s Life As A House. Writer and podcaster LaToya Ferguson joins us to talk about the film that stars Kevin Kline as a dying man building a dream house with his estranged troubled son, played by Hayden Christensen. The film stayed long in season thanks to precursor attention for Christensen, recently announced as the next Anakin Skywalker – but Oscar wasn’t quite so eager to herald him as the next big thing before seeing his Darth Vader.

Much more unwell than you remember it, Life As A House features a slew of no-boundaries behaviors that we unpack including shower intrusions, milfs, toilets next to kitchen sinks, and going postal at the office. But this episode finds us in nostalgia mode as we look back at Entertainment Weekly’s It List, pre-movie trailer reels on VHS, and the WB’s “Oh What A Night” promo.

Topics also include the 2001 Supporting Actor race, Fred Durst’s directorial oeuvre, and “Anatomy 101 with Professor D’Angelo.”

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061 – Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

A title that became a punchline all its own, this week we are discussing 2012′s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. A light romantic drama about project management and Western relationships with the Middle East, Lasse Hallström’s film accidentally stumbled into the Oscar race when the Golden Globes decided the film was a comedy and gave the spring release three surprise nominations.

This episode, we discuss the career and outsider awards trajectory for Salmon Fishing star Ewan McGregor and how the film’s Globes nomination tally ultimately meant nothing for the film as an awards player. Get ready for lots of Globes talk as we spotlight 2012′s most glaring comedy omission by the Globes and recall perhaps the greatest presenter duo of all time: Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell. You get outta here, listeners!

Topics also include movies narrated by dogs, left-field Globes Comedy picks both good and bad, and assassination attempts thwarted by fishing hooks.

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053 – Random Hearts

Get ready for another Movie That Does Not Exist – except evidence of this week’s film is provided in one of the most iconic EW Fall Movie Preview covers! Yes, in 1999 Random Hearts promised us sexy Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas in a pool and instead it gave us… a creepy dry hump sequence in a car and a lot of lethargic half-musings on infidelity, politics, and grief. Not to mention breakdowns in department stores and a comical litany of familiar faces in tiny roles.

The film follows a cop and a senatorial candidate who begin a relationship after their cheating spouses die in a plane crash, and it’s as much of a bummer as you might expect. Despite the pedigree (including Hollywood legend Sydney Pollack in the director’s chair) was a box office and critical bomb long forgotten come Oscar nomination morning.

This week, we take a look at the 1999 Oscar race and imagine what a Best Picture Ten might have looked like. We also discuss Ford’s shockingly anemic Oscar history and potential contractual obligations for his famous earring.

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