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Tag: Alfonso Cuarón

  • Alfonso Cuarón Wins Best Director BAFTA Award For Gravity

    Alfonso Cuarón, who directed such films as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, A Little Princess, and Y Tu Mama Tambien, has just won the Best Director award at this year’s BAFTA ceremony for the science-fiction space drama, Gravity.

    It is the director’s first BAFTA win for the category. Cuarón beat major talents in the directing field including Martin Scorsese, Paul Greengrass, David O. Russell, and Steve McQueen. He also produced the film with his Harry Potter co-producer, David Heyman.

    Cuarón worked with Framestore, a visual effects studio in London, for Gravity’s special effects that took more than 3 years to complete. The director wanted to depict a realistic view of outer space but also stated that the scientific inaccuracies in the film were needed to keep the story intact. Besides, he was doing a work of fiction and not a documentary.

    The screenplay for the Gravity movie was written by Cuarón and his eldest son, Jonas. The film features Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts on a Space Shuttle mission on board the Explorer. The shuttle is destroyed by space debris, and the two fight to survive.

    The film was nominated for 11 categories including Best Actress, and Best Picture. Gravity bagged 6 awards total: Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Music, Best Direction, and Best British Film. The film also got praises from veteran director James Cameron who says that it’s the best space film that has ever been done.

    Cuarón was in disbelief over his win and saluted his son for being his inspiration and teacher in life. During his speech, the award-winning director also praised the artistic and technical staff that helped make the film possible.

    Cuarón seems to be on a bit of a winning streak. In January, he also won Best Director for Gravity at the Golden Globe Awards.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • George Clooney Pals Around with Sandra Bullock’s Son

    George Clooney Pals Around with Sandra Bullock’s Son

    Sandra Bullock’s son Louis may have a future in casting. He’s selected Bullock’s Gravity co-star, George Clooney, as a positive male role model. During press conferences at the Toronto International Film Festival, Bullock revealed, “My son thinks he’s (Clooney) a very cool dude.”

    Louis, 3 ½ years old, will apparently seek out George and other men involved in the film for a little male-bonding-time, leaving doting mom Bullock to the side until they’re finished. “If there was a choice between me and George and Alfonso (Cuarόn), my son will leave to go with George and the guys.” Cuarόn is the film’s director and writer.

    Bullock, 49, is appreciative of the 52-year-old’s willingness to indulge Louis, “George is a good man, and I’m really proud to have known him for this time and the human being he’s become… He’s a good egg.”

    Though the superstars have been long acquainted—pictured here at the Venice Film Festival—this is their first film foray together. “George and I have known each other for over 20 years,” Bullock says, explaining that they share a group of friends since they exited college and, “since we had no work.”

    Bullock also opened up about the experience filming the space thriller, during which she spent long, lonely hours by herself on a sound stage surrounded only by cameras. She said she got to be best friends with the sound man who, “If I was cracking under the pressure he would radio someone to go get Louis to come in.”

    Gravity premiered Sunday at the Festival to rave reviews and awards predictions—as have other TIFF premieres, Dallas Buyers Club for one.

    Clooney was conspicuously absent from the TIFF 2013, at which he’s been a regular installment over preceding years, promoting such films as Up in the Air, The Descendants and Argo. This year, the star is busy filming Tomorrowland, a new Walt Disney Pictures sci-fi mystery by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol).

    [Image via Venice Film Festival Official Facebook.]

  • Gravity Continues To Impress With Full Length Trailer

    Yesterday, word hit the trades that James Cameron absolutely loved Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming movie, Gravity. So much so, in fact, he offered this lofty praise: “I think it’s the best space photography ever done, I think it’s the best space film ever done, and it’s the movie I’ve been hungry to see for an awful long time.” The last time Cameron gushed so much about a movie, he was probably talking about his own creation, Avatar. While it’s doubtful Gravity gets the same kind of box office Cameron is used–although, one can hope–it’s hard not to share in the excitement, especially after the trailers are viewed.

    Thanks, however, to the new 2-plus minute trailer and Cameron’s reaction, it’s hard not experience something of an excitement increase for Cuarón’s new movie. Gravity looks like it was a visually stunning exercise in storytelling, complete with Cuarón’s signature long shots. According to Sandra Bullock, who plays Ryan Stone, some new techniques had to be used for the film:

    “There was no way to rely on anything we knew before this film,” Bullock says. “No character was like Stone, no film set was ever like these sets, not one member of this crew had ever done this before. We all were doing something that had never been done before.”

    While that may read like typical movie promotion hyperbole, another quote from the movie’s director reveals making Gravity was a long process:

    As fellow director David Fincher warned Cuarón and his cinematographer, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki, the technology to make that movie simply didn’t exist yet. He advised them to wait five years. “We were stubborn, (and) said we’re going to make it work,” Cuarón tells Variety. “But you know what? David was right. It took us 4 [and a half] years.”

    With that in mind, perhaps Cameron’s glowing report isn’t just hyperbole after all. Gravity will be in theaters on October 4th.

    [Lead image via YouTube]

  • Newly Released ‘Gravity’ Trailer Gets a Second Act

    Yesterday, the first official trailer for Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón’s long-awaited follow-up project since he wowed movie fans with his incredible Children of Men, hit the tubes, and all was right with the world. While Cuarón has had his hand in some documentary pieces since 2007’s Men, Gravity is his first full-length theatrical release, and the anticipation is high. The director has proved to be a masterful storyteller who has a penchant for shooting hard-to-forget scenes that resonate with hardcore movie fans.

    In the first trailer, Sandra Bullock’s Dr. Ryan Stone and George Clooney’s Matt Kowalsky was introduced in the middle of a spacewalk that went horribly wrong. It ended with Bullock’s character spinning out of control as she disconnects from the spacewalk tether that was keeping her near the now-damaged shuttle. The second trailer picks up where the first left off, and it does a fine job of conveying a very real sense of helplessness:


    Not sure what I would do in that situation, to be honest. I’d probably just remove my helmet and let the vacuum of space take its course. Because that’s not the way Hollywood works, and, to be honest, that probably wouldn’t make a very good film, it doesn’t look like Gravity will be ending in such a manner. Instead, the description indicates the two stranded astronauts–well, one astronaut (Clooney), and one scientist–have to go further into space for a chance of surviving. While this is pretty dubious, it stands to reason to stranded spacewalkers are going to try to make it to another spacecraft, be it the International Space Station, or something similar that was created for the movie.

    Gravity will be in theaters on October 4 of this year.