Devin Faraci from CHUD admits he was wrong… Dark Knight does have a shot at Best Picture Oscar.

by Blair on Nov.26, 2008, under NEWS

In a tongue in cheek titled article “How Many Times Can Devin Be Wrong About The Dark Knight,” Devin Faraci of CHUD weighs in on admitting that despite the long odds a perfect storm is forming. After retracting his prediction the film would suck, and then retracting his box office estimation that it would never top 300 million, today he admits it might be getting more than just a supporting actor nod:

It takes a big man to admit that he’s wrong, and many of our delightful, anonymous commenters will be happy to tell you that I am, in fact, a big man. So here I am, eating some crow about The Dark Knight.

Lastly, I dismissed all talk of Oscars. I accepted a possible ‘Sorry about being dead, guy’ nom for Heath Ledger, but that was about as far as I was willing to go with it. And while I obviously haven’t been proven wrong yet, things don’t look good for me. What’s ended up happening is that The Dark Knight has found itself at the center of a perfect storm: a weak year for Oscar contenders, a dead star who turned in a legitimately great performance and a mandate from both the box office and the critical community. While still facing a major uphill climb, the fact that the movie made a mint while being well-respected by the snobby media elite gives Batman a serious shot at being the first superhero to get real Oscar consideration.

Warner Bros certainly believes there’s a real chance. At the end of the year many studios will take out For Your Consideration ads for many films and actors that would make you scratch your head. It’s part of the keeping the talent happy game, and the studios don’t really put much muscle behind these campaigns - an obligatory ad in the trades and that’s it. But the studio is spending on The Dark Knight, and I don’t think they would be bothering if they didn’t think it would pay off. Sure, the movie earned enough money to buy itself every single ad in Variety, but unless they’re serious that would be nothing but fronting (which is something that happens in Hollywood all the time).

A lot can change between now and the nominations, but I think that The Dark Knight has a decent chance at taking one of the five Best Picture slots. My guess is that it takes a slot but that Christopher Nolan gets snubbed for Director; Heath Ledger gets a Best Supporting Actor and, from the looks of things right now, has a large chance of winning the award. The question, should The Dark Knight get a nomination, is whether the Academy can stomach giving an Oscar to a superhero movie. It’ll make for an interesting Oscar night, at any rate.

Let’s hope that Devin is right this time around.

Full article here.

3 comments for this entry:

Cisco01
December 3rd, 2008 on 12:33 pm
I’m going to say this right now.

There are a number of valid reasons on why we should push hard for TDK to be nominated for at least the two major categories with Best Picture and Best Director.

This is a just cause and it would push the negative biased opinions about comic based genre films away. If films like Gladiator, The Departed, and Lord of the Rings can be nominated and recognized, then TDK certainly deserves the same recognition.

TDK is easily the best comic genre film off all time and it is DEFINITELY one of the top 5 overall films of 2008. This masterpiece of Chris Nolans is much more than just a comic genre based film….without a doubt. It had it all!

The quality of the movie, its’ direction, the production, the acting, along with it’s critical and of course huge box office success speak for themselves! If TDK does not get nominated in the Best Picture and Best Director categories, then the Academy will prove that it has a serious problem.
vampyra
December 7th, 2008 on 11:57 pm
Look it would be just sheer snobbery on behalf of the Academy if they don’t nominate The Dark Knight.
Costantinos Sozou
December 29th, 2008 on 4:32 am
The video on the homepage of the website should be emailed to A.M.P.A.S and ask if it could be given to all academy voters. Because that video has made alot of people think.