AWARDS 2011: DGA Does Directors Good

I haven't done too well to keep up with the pace of the Guild awards, and in fact this awards season has been an uncharacteristically weak one for me. I guess I'm just not that invested in it. I rather respect all of the directors on the list of Directors Guild nominations, but two of them just don't deserve to be here. I'm not at all talking about Woody Allen or David Fincher, as both earned their stripes pretty well this year by my standards. I'm talking about Martin Scorsese and Alexander Payne, who are both rather fine directors who misfired drastically this year. Payne seemed to lose any strong and dramatic bone in his body with "The Descendants", and Scorsese's passion was diluted by a supremely lacking story in "Hugo". This is quite a strong list of directors, but they just shouldn't be here now.

• Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris")
• David Fincher ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo")
• Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist")
• Alexander Payne ("The Descendants")
• Martin Scorsese ("Hugo")

Catching Up With 2010

As was obvious when I published my list of the best films of 2010, I still need to see quite a few films from last year. There are a few that I'm willing to leave behind like Cyrus, but I still missed out this year. Had I seen all the films I wanted to, Easy A, Winter's Bone, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 would've easily slid off my list. However, I am making the resolve to catch up with these films before they're lost to the wind. I've had some trouble seeking out Exit Through the Gift Shop, and I've missed out on A Prophet and The Secret in Their Eyes out of benign neglect. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again this year. I'll have no more missed opportunities this year, so here's the list of films I still need to catch up on.

-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
-Fair Game
-A Prophet
-The Secret in Their Eyes
-Blue Valentine
-Another Year
-I Love You Phillip Morris
-Rabbit Hole
-Exit Through the Gift Shop
-127 Hours

Most Anticipated Films of 2011

Well, it's about time that I look past the awards season and into the horizon of what I hope will be worthwhile films in 2011. I can't know for sure, because barely any trailer at all has been released for any of my picks, and most of them don't come out until after the start of the summer movie season. So I'm not going to elaborate on my anticipation, but I'll give a brief reason why. I wasn't one of the people who thought that The Hangover was overrated, but I also wasn't one of those crazies pushing it for Best Picture. That was never going to actually happen. The upcoming sequel should provide what was so entertaining the first time through, and the Godfather-ish Part II slapped at the end of the title makes it that much more intriguing.

Contagion, directed by Steven Soderbergh, has a typical name and a typical premise, but it's from the writer of films like The Bourne Ultimatum and The Informant, and it has an all star cast of Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, and Bryan Cranston. Unless it was fabricated from someone's awesome imagination, Contagion is a must-see film. Sherlock Holmes 2 is another story. I'm one of the people who appreciated the first film as a fun and enjoyable detective film with a bit of action, but it was ultimately just a set-up for this sequel. Now that sequel is on its way, with Noomi Rapace, Stephen Fry, and Jared Harris joining the cast in major roles. Lets just hope that Rachel McAdams is put on the back-burner this time out.

X-Men: First Class is a bit of a fascination for me at the time, because I find the vintage superhero approach that director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) seems to be going with to be intriguing at the very least. They've got James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in the leading roles, which seems like the perfect formula to restart the series. On the smaller side of things, I'm desperately looking forward to Thomas McCarthy's next film, Win Win, which does sound like some cheesy romantic-comedy, but I expect it will be far more than that. McCarthy has written some great films like The Visitor and Up, so I don't expect he's about to disappoint us.

One of the films that's a little bit further off the radar is 30 Minutes or Less, the upcoming comedy about a pizza boy who has a bomb strapped to his chest and is told to rob a bank. By the way, the main character is played by Jesse Eisenberg. I need not say more. The rest are rather self-explanatory, with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol being Brad Bird's live-action debut, The Tree of Life being Terrence Malick's most highly anticipated film ever, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo coming right off the book phenomenon and director David Fincher's own phenomenon with The Social Network. Oh, and there's also Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, but whatever. What are you most looking forward to seeing this year? Comment below and let me know!

10. The Hangover: Part II
9. Contagion
8. Sherlock Holmes 2
7. X-Men: First Class
6. Win Win
5. 30 Minutes or Less
4. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
3. The Tree of Life
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Craig and Mara Officially Cast in "Dragon Tattoo"!

I assume that you've heard of or read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and by now you know that David Fincher is making an American adaptation of the book. Well, a great deal of time has been spent on speculating who will play Lisbeth Salander, the tatted girl of the title. Even though I was personally hoping for Ellen Page, I'm finely satisfied with who they picked. Rooney Mara has been cast in the title role, and while she isn't a house hold name, she may soon be. She's already had experience with Fincher, having appeared in this October's The Social Network.

As for the male lead, Daniel Craig has been officially confirmed for the role. Not that that wasn't already obvious, but at least we have confirmation. Word still has yet to come on filling the supporting cast, but I trust that they will do as good a job as they've done here.

Daniel Craig to star in "Dragon Tattoo"!

The other day at Comic Con, Daniel Craig spoke about wanting to get back to the James Bond franchise as soon as possible. Right now, it doesn't seem like that will happen any time soon, if ever. So what is an actor to do besides play a cowboy? Play the male lead in David Fincher's interpretation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I've been pretty quiet about casting rumors regarding Fincher's adaptation of the book, because I don't want to make too much hype about something that may not happen. However, I do hope the rumors that Ellen Page might take the title role, because that would be the greatest casting decision ever. After Inception, I want to see Page go the distance.

So now that Craig has been signed on for the film, it's only a matter of time before all the other cast members come into place. There are plenty of roles to fill, and if they're filled with actors as phenomenal as Daniel Craig, we may have yet another David Fincher film nominated for several acting awards come awards season two years from now. Right now, the only things set are Craig, Fincher, and the release date of December in 2011. On a semi-related note, Awards Circuit just posted a review of Aaron Sorkin's script for Fincher's The Social Network, and it's definitely something to check out. Follow this link!