With Rent and The Producers coming out this year, what do you think are their Oscar chances? Could one of them get a Best Picture nod, or both, or none? Will they settle for just the technicals? Which one is more likely a hit or and which one is a miss?

I'm not convinced either of them has a chance yet, though I don't know much anything about Rent. I really am not entirely sure musicals are back though. There was Moulin Rouge and then Chicago, but since then, the only musicals that I can think of were the bombs Delovely and Beyond the Sea.

Rent is fanatically successful. The appeal of it is also much wider than that of The Phantom of the Opera, which still scored a decent $50M around Christmas.

Rent could go over $100M.

Rent has a better chance, though I'm not exactly sure if musicals will be recognized anytime soon after Chicago cleaned up. Rent's a Pulitzer and Tony award winning musical, and it even deals with Aids, so I'd guess that would be looked at before The Producers. I'm not sold on Chris Columbus, but I do think he's a competent director.

The biggest strike against The Producers is it's director.

I think next year's Dreamgirls will probably be more successful. Then there's Hairspray, All You Need Is Love, and a few other untitled musicals.

Nice to see musicals make a comeback.

Well, horror can't be the only genre making a comeback...

Can I credit Baz with this one? Sure can. I think it's roots are in Strictly Ballroom actually. But Dancer in the Dark was a good film for lending some new direction and credibility to the genre.

I'm starting to like musicals. Not all of them, and I don't think making everything into a song and dance number works, but when they're done right they're pretty good.

Rent will get nothing. The last thing the Academy wants to do is feel indebted to Broadway, and Rent is too fresh off the theatre stage. Remmeber Moulin Rouge was for movies, and Chicago had long left the stage and was only resurrected after the movie. Rent's still too big on stage for movies to love it.

Or maybe the Academy will throw them a bone and nominate them in their token categories of Sound and Cinematography.

I wonder if Original Musical or Comedy Score would be resurrected. The award was only given four times in the 90's I think and none so far in the... uh... "aughts?" I don't know what the heck to call this decade.

Dozens of comedic films have original scores, what gives?

It's buried in this forum somewhere but I talked about maybe one day the AMPAS digging up the Best Musical category.

I still say South Park was the movie that brought back the musical, not Moulin Rouge. :mrgreen:

Nah. Both weren't pure musicals. Both were nice made and to certain heights entertaining biopics. I don't consider them as musicals.

When is 'Brokeback Mountain' coming out... or is it still not in production???

Brokeback isnt a musical, its coming out this year in time for Oscar consideration, though there's conflicting reports about quality since it was rejected for Cannes.

I meant 'Southland Tales'.