Man Made Movies

Article over on the BBC has just announced Sam Rockwell has been named Best Actor in the 2010 Richard Attenborough Film Awards, for his portrayal of Sam Bell in MOON.

Speaking of working with MOON Director Duncan Jones, the BBC quotes Sam as saying:

“a highlight of my career in every way”

Massive congratulations to Sam, and all involved with MOON, here’s hoping that this is the start of a big MOON roll, that will see you sitting in the Kodak Theatre soon

Happy days Japan as we have received confirmation that MOON will be opening over there, April 10th 2010.

The Japanese MOON site has now gone live, and press screenings will also be occuring during Feb to promote the release. Not much currently on show, but that will change as the release approaches, so bookmark it now in readyness, click on the image above, or >>HERE<<

Please forgive, but my Japanese is a bit rusty these days, so a wee explanation and further details from our honourable correspondent out in Japan @hip_priest_kobe

OK, the Japanese title is:

月に囚われた男

In English it means Man caught in the moon

Caught 囚 kind of give the emotion of imprisonment, which does not come across clearly in an English translation.

Maybe…..Man imprisoned in the Moon is closer, but literally translated it would be caught, or trapped.

Movie roadshow from April, starting at Ebisu Garden place cinema Tokyo.

Which makes it all the more intriguing to those that have not seen the film yet, and have avoided spoilers

How does a St Patrick’s Day screening of Duncan Jones’ MOON starring Sam Rockwell, at the Royal Institute in London sound? Good? Exactly what we thought as well when Ben Mortimer pointed us in the direction of this vote off for the Jameson Cult Film Club >>HERE<<

As you can see from the above image, there is a public vote between ‘MOON’, ‘Donny Darko’, and the 1953 ‘War of the Worlds’ all you have to do, to ensure that it is ‘MOON’ that you want to see, is head over to the site, cast your vote before the closing date of January 25th 2010. Ticket registration will open on 17th February 2010, the venue will be decked out suitably for the winning film, so this promises to be a very special evening for the MOON fans (should we win) as the Jameson Cult Film Club says:

Together with our friends at Empire we have come up with a choice of three cult Sci-Fi movies, to screen at the Royal Institute, in London on St Patrick’s Day, March 17.

Many of you will recognise the venue from their Christmas Lectures, which are televised from the lecture hall every year. What you may not realise is that this fantastic venue has also been the home to some of the most prestigious scientific minds in the UK (including Michael Faraday), and some of the most important scientific discoveries of the last two decades were made within its very walls.

The venue will be dressed to complement the winning film; you will be surrounded by science wonders such as Faraday’s working lab in the basement for pre-screening drinks, before heading up into the famous lecture hall for the screening itself, followed by an after-party in the upstairs rooms of the Institute.

Tippety top night by the sound of it, so, if you want to see MOON, get on over and vote now.

Academy voters, if you were not already aware, MOON is screening at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3, 9036 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, 90211. Further details >>HERE<< you can even take a friend

Poster and details courtesy of @sparrowhall from original blog post >>HERE<<

Last in the rack Twitpic at Best Buy from Laurence Reichman

Duncan Jones’ MOON starring Sam Rockwell, was released on Blu-Ray and DVD in the US & Canada last Tuesday 12th January 2010, and although we have no sales figures yet, from the comments we’ve seen over on Twitter, it seems sales are brisk, and in some cases, it is sold out at branches of major US retailers such as Target and Best Buy. Check out these comments:

Easy day so far. Been trying to buy Moon and Hurt Locker Blu-Ray but it’s sold out. This is bittersweet.

From Matthew Klekner

@ManMadeMoon Went to 2 stores at lunch to buy Blu-Ray MOON for my bro’s birthday – BOTH SOLD OUT!! Frustrated/happy #SamRockwellOscar

From Robert Tarr

WeHo Best Buy & Target both sold out of Blu-Ray. Copies of MOON. Hopefully academy voters got their hands on some… #moon #rockwell

From Aaron B

@ManMadeMoon hey, Moon is sold out at my local Target. I figured that was awesome:)

From Melissa Gill

And this from respected Movie Journalist Scott Weinberg

The big Best Buy in NE Phily = Totally sold out of MOON.

Hopefully all those lovely Academy Voters getting out early to see what all the fuss is about. Not too shabby for a little British Indie Sci-Fi film, not too shabby at all. Also nice to see it flying high in the Tower top 100 Blu-Rays

There is an awful lot of MOON love out there, especially from people that did not get a chance to see it’s limited theatrical release.

Whilst mooching about on Twitter yesterday (a very rare occurrence I can assure you) I noticed that film lover, David Sugarman, had tweeted a pic to MOON Director Duncan Jones ( @ManMadeMoon ), so I thought I’d share it with you, I also asked David to tell us about the pic & his thoughts on MOON:

Moon is a film that means a huge amount to me. Science-fiction is so often divided into two camps: one high and intellectual, distanced from the characters; or simply brainless action. Moon delivers the intelligence, the human ethical fallibility, the questions of progress and technology. It also engages with the character(s) of Sam Bell so that I care vastly more about him than I can recall any other space-based sci-fi character meaning to me.

While I cannot claim to have seen every film released in 2009, Sam Rockwell’s performance is almost certainly one of, if not the best screen performances I have ever seen. It’s not possible to discuss this film without raving about it and sounding generally too enthusiastic for it to be genuine, and a huge part of those ravings revolve around Sam’s acting.

Good luck to the whole campaign,

David Sugarman (@ShugZ)

We have been campaigning long and hard to get the attention we feel is deserved for Sam Rockwell’s performance as Sam Bell in Duncan Jones’ debut feature MOON.

I am well aware of the hard work that went into bringing MOON to the screen by the whole cast, crew and production team at Liberty Films, and am still amazed that they all managed to produce such a stunning movie, with very limited time and budget.

That said, even I was moved by this heartfelt appeal from personality Brick Hardmeat on behalf of the Sam Rockwell Oscar Campaign, I was actually moved (from the sofa, to the kitchen actually, needed some tea, dry throat) and at one point I think my eye leaked, it would be unfair of me to prattle on, so please watch, listen, take notes, and act upon the:

Brick Hardmeat Sam Rockwell Oscar Appeal

This appeal was lovingly created by Chris Trevarthen and features the sad faces of MOON lovers all over the world, who face the thought upon waking every day, that Sam Rockwell may not get a nomination at this years Academy Awards. We get through the pain, one day at a time, please help us, make tomorrow a better day, for MOON lovers everywhere.

Many thanks to you all, for your support, your best wishes, your encouragement, and your car, I just borrowed it while you were sat reading this, will return it later with a full tank of Helium 3.

For those of you who are thinking “Did I leave the gas on when I left home this morning”?, pull yourself together, you should be thinking “Is that MOON DVD & Blu-Ray out to buy in the United States of America-ca-ca yet”? and that I can answer in upper case YES! MOON IS NOW AVAILABLE TO BUY TODAY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA-CA-CA, go grab a copy, pop round to your local Academy voter, and watch it together, as there is the slight chance, that they did not receive one themselves.

Academy Awards voting ballots deadline approaches (Jan 23rd), let’s do all we can to get the word out on #SamRockwellOscar, and as Sam would say (if he were me paraphrasing himself) “Just under two weeks to go buddies! Rock ‘n’ Roll, God bless America-ca-ca”

Nominations have been announced for the 7th Annual Irish Filum & TV Awards, and once again, Sam Rockwell’s stunning performance as Sam Bell in Duncan Jones’ MOON has been nominated, this time in the Best International Actor category.

The full list of nominees is as follows:

• Sam Rockwell – MOON
• Vincent Cassell – Mesrine: Killer Instinct
• Robert Downey Jnr – Sherlock Holmes
• Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones

The awards take place on Saturday 20th February at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin.

Once again (must be a keyboard shortcut for this) Good Luck Sam

Superb obama-rama Sam Rockwell Oscar HOPE poster thingy from twitter chap TizzyEnt aka R. Michael McWhorter, click the image to go through to the original source on TizzyEnt’s Twitpic account.

The longlist for the Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2010 has been announced this morning, and MOON features in 10 categories!! Full list can be view on the BAFTA site HERE

The Long List

Over 6000 members of the Academy vote in three rounds to decide the winners of the Orange British Academy Film Awards. The Long List is the result of Round One voting by members of the Academy. With 220 films entered this year, the first round of voting reduces the films down to fifteen in each category. Round Two voting will reduce these fifteen contenders down to the five nominations in each category.

The full list of nominations will be announced on Thursday 21 January at BAFTA Headquarters.

MOON has been nominated for:

• Best Film
• Director
• Original Screenplay
• Special Visual Effects
• Sound
• Editing
• Production Design
• Cinematography
• Music
• Leading ActorSam Rockwell (Sam Bell)

No nomination for Supporting Actor for Sam Rockwell though, what does a man have to do??

So there we go, a 2 week wait until we discover whether MOON makes it into the final nominations, fantastic showing for a debut Director so far though