Indiewire’s Top 9 Stories of the Week: ‘True Detective’ News, Oscar Predictions and More
1. ‘True Detective’ Season 2: Everything We Know Right Now (Almost)
Part of why “True Detective” Season 1 worked so well was that no one knew what to expect. So we here at Indiewire have chosen not to reveal anything deemed “too spoiler-y” for our readers. What makes something too much of a spoiler? Well, there are certain things you want to know, and other things you want to know but don’t need to know.
2. 2015 Oscar Predictions
Awards season is underway, and here’s our best stab at how it might culminate in this year’s Academy Awards, with predictions in multiple categories updated each week.
3. Watch: Neil deGrasse Tyson Explaining the End of ‘Interstellar’ Might Make Your Brain Explode
Love it or hate it, the end of Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” was complicated. Previously, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson praised the film via Twitter for its accurate and creative depiction of outer space. Now, via a video from Business Insider, Tyson puts his multiple degrees to work to explain to us how and why the end of “Interstellar” could totally be plausible.
4. Free Scripts! Download Oscar Contenders ‘Boyhood,’ Gone Girl,’ ‘The Theory of Everything’ & More
One upside of awards season is that studios often share scripts for awards contenders in hopes it will bolster their shot at nominations. One fringe benefit of this practice: it gives screenwriters (or aspiring screenwriters) a chance to analyze the craft that goes into a thriller like “Gone Girl” or a tearjerker like “The Fault in Our Stars.”
5. 10 Films That Went Through Hell To Get Made
Filmmakers have been torturing themselves (and their crews) for our satisfaction for decades. If filming a movie over 12 years or in one seemingly continuous shot sounds insane, check out these 10 films that, with a combination of creativity and masochism, were able to push it to the limit.
6. Here’s What’s Wrong With the American Film Market — and Hollywood, Too
AFM, as it turns out, tells you absolutely nothing about the quality of cinema today — and, by extension, tells you everything that’s wrong with it. While dozens of titles, big and small, screened about 45 minutes across town at the AFI Fest, AFM’s heavy lineup featured nearly 700 screenings of 400 films, by its own estimate. But AFI carefully selected its program from hundreds of possibilities. At AFM, the gateway to entry is a checkbook, as only exhibiting companies at the market may screen their titles.
7. All of Last Year’s Oscar-Nominated Documentaries are Streaming on Netflix
The 87th Academy Award nominations won’t be announced until January 15th, 2015.In the meantime, you’ve got months to catch up on all five of last year’s Academy Award-nominated documentaries now on Netflix, including the Oscar-winning “20 Feet from Stardom.”
8. Review: ‘Homeland’ Season 4 Episode 8, ‘Halfway to a Donut,’ Take Carrie Back to Zero
Thank God Saul didn’t pull the trigger. I saw my life as it relates to watching “Homeland” flash before my eyes when he nestled the barrel of the pistol to his thicker-than-ever beard, and I couldn’t imagine a future without him. His decision, heavily influenced by Carrie’s misdirection, means a lot for the future of the show, whether he survives or not.
9. DOC NYC Review: Amy Berg’s ‘An Open Secret’ Is a Devastating Exposé of Hollywood’s Sexual Abuse Problem
In an ideal world, Amy Berg’s daring exposé “An Open Secret” will launch uncomfortable conversations and start an intelligent, long-overdue dialogue about sexual abuse in Hollywood. The media buzz ahead of its premiere means it has already started to achieve those goals, which may explain why the documentary is having a tough time finding distribution. But the future of the conversation is a different story. As DOC NYC co-founder Thom Powers put it at the movie’s premiere last Friday, a wall of silence has been erected around long-circulating molestations charges in Hollywood, and Berg’s film acts as a sledgehammer.
