If giving the top 1000 voters too much power is the price to pay to keep Clerks II off the top 250, then that is what must be done.

eheh

It's a high-profile picture in early October. I don't know.

I'm starting to come around slightly on Flags, but my gut still tells me no no no.

Flags, The Departed, The Prestige, The Fountain... WB has their hands in all of them to an extent.

I have a hard time believing that Flags and The Departed, two movies released in October, will be nominated, but of course it's not impossible.

My only sure bet at this point is Dreamgirls.

When was the last time a Scorsese film wasn't a major player? Bringing out the Dead? Scorsese, like non-popcorn Spielberg, are automatically in the game when they release a fall film.

Flags has an advantage come January and it's called Letters from Iwo Jima, so for Flags it REALLY doesnt matter if it's coming out in October. WB is distributing Flags overseas. It's a DreamWorks film.

Casino & Kundun

Oh and Age of Innocence

Yeah, Casino didn't really get any Oscar love, but it was still a player during the season. Marty even got a GG nom, and I think Sharon Stone won, plus she was nominated for an Oscar.

Even his lackluster efforts like GONY draw the attention from the right circles. He generally has the critics in the palm of his little hands. After the crushing defeat of the Aviator, I would think that The Departed would have to really be a misfire for it not to get *some* attention.

"It's Marty directing a film starring Jack Nicholson" is a helluva attention getter.

I don't think The Departed has a shot in hell in winning (I hate saying that sight unseen but you know, LOL).

But I think Marty directing a crime drama with Oscar nominee Leo, Oscar winners Matt and Jack, is difficult to ignore.

Just an FYI for everyone. The man that took the famous Iwo Jima picture died yesterday... and also...

I hope everyone realizes the picture WAS staged.

I needed another reason to dislike this film like I needed a hole in my head.

You canadians make me sick

Ok... ok... well, it is not really known if the photo was staged or not... BUT it caused alot of controversy...

The Wiki link to more info Staged?

ImO, it was staged. Mainly because of how the flag is waving...

But who knows!!!

NOT CANADIAN!!!

American all the way.

Whether it was staged or not, it is still a BEAUTIFUL photo.

I'm just skeptical. Like I am with the moon landing.

It certainly was not staged. But that won't stop the usual idiots from claiming otherwise.

whoa whoa whoa, many things are allowed here. But never NEVER NEVER are you to use

just kidding.

But call Chip an idiot again and I'll eat you.

You most certainly will not!

He eats people daily...

He'll probably eat you even if you don't call me an idiot...

I think it's close to dinner time...

Chip is an idiot though.

WB still has their hands in it. It's still important to them. It's still money. If it's a DreamWorks only film, I still feel that brings up the conflict with Dreamgirls.

If they Academy screen Iwo Jima, it could cause problems for the campaign for both films (but hey, I like this... Iwo Jima looks better IMO). It's possible, but I doubt we're going to have a Soderbergh situation where a Director gets nominated twice. If they wait until January without screeners (which I doubt, it would be weird) it would be too late to affect the nominations which are due around Jan 20, but are usually submitted by most of the Academy by early Jan.

I'm sure they won't make the final decision of how to play this until they know how Flags is going to play in October.

IMO, worst case scenario is that Flags does nothing and they drop Iwo Jima screeners at the end of Nov/Dec and try to push it, or Flags does well and they use Iwo Jima as like a giant campaign tool in order to get Flags a win (if nominated).

Yup, thats exactly what I was trying to get at with my post.

Has Dreamworks come up with an official US release date for Letters From Iwo Jima this year? I notice some mention now on a couple of sites of Dec 9th. If so, this would mean two movies about the battle of Iwo Jima released within roughly six weeks of each other with a big Oscar campaign for one (Flags) and the other presumably underlining for critics/audiences how big a deal this is. Anybody else heard anything about this?

Yar, your post changed.

If indeed it's Dec 9th, two things could happen. Both are nominated ala Erin Broc/Traffic. Or one cancels the other out.