OUCH - 'Sweeney' Shut Out of the SAG Awards

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:17am

http://www.sagawards.org/PR_071220

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:27am

im not to surprised, the reviews have not been the out and out raves that people expected.If you look at rotten tomatoes Hairspray landed far better reviews ahead of its release

[silversurfer2]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:32am

And the best new show to hit TV in years, "PUSHING DAISIES" was also shut out...WTF!!!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:34am

How is this Broadway news?

Off-Topic Board

Updated On: 12/20/07 at 09:34 AM

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:36am

Maybe - and this is a long shot - someone wanted to punish Depp for winning a SAG for Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (instead of Bill Murray or Sean Penn). But that's being maybe a titch too paranoid.

I think Depp's only hope now is the Academy's famous sentimentalism, which gave Judi Dench an Oscar for an 8-minute role, which gave Nicole Kidman an Oscar for a role that shouldn't have even been considered Leading, etc.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:37am

How is this Broadway news?

Because we all love SWEENEY 'round here, and we want to see our baby do well, you see.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:38am

Your baby did well in a Broadway revival last year.

It's a movie. It's a movie awards show. The movie board is the Off-Topic board.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:40am

I like when Foster gets surly. It's sexy.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 9:54am

Well, gosh, Phyllis.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 10:06am

Now tell me what you hate about TV, baby. Mmmmm.

[tazber]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 10:13am

As Besty said on another thread, I don't think that the SAG voters have had a chance to see Sweeney yet.
I'm sure by the time Oscar ballots are mailed they will have seen it though.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 10:13am

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 10:18am

Yeah, this is pretty bad for Sweeney (and Atonement, what happened there?). I'm hoping that the release of the film this weekend will put the film back on the map. I'm surprised Hairspray got a nod over Sweeney. I haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know how Johnny-central it is, which may have hurt its chances in the Ensemble category.

~Steven

[tazber]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 10:22am

I'm pretty sure it's gonna do well Oscar-wise. Many of those award prognostication sites seem to think it will get at least pic/dir/actr nods.

As far as opening this weekend, check out this:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=952298&boardname=off&dt=4

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 10:56am

It's possible that not that many SAG nominating committee members have seen 'Sweeney' yet. Also, it's been reported on one movie site, that screeners were not sent to SAG nominators (unlike many movies). Seemingly some of the major movies that didn't send screeners, also didn't get nominations.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:03am

Not only were screeners not sent to SAG voters, there were only two designated screenings for SAG nominating committee members to attend.

I'm still not convinced that SWEENEY will be a huge awards player, but it's chances for Oscar recognition aren't going to necessarily be affected by the SAG Awards.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:06am

That's what happened to Dreamgirls last year. The major guilds didn't get DVD screeners prior to the nominating ballots. I asked around with friends who were in the guilds and not one got a Dreamgirls screener prior to nominating. And all five of the films that WERE nominated were sent to Academy members on DVD.

And it's a sad, hard fact now, that most voters will pass a film by if they can't see it first from their living room couches.

If Paramount/DreamWorks makes the same mistake this year with Sweeney, and holds out on DVD screeners to Academy members, Depp still MIGHT sneak in with a nod, but I could see it costing the movie a Best Picture nom. Very easily. And in many other categories as well.

Can't they figure it out?

Updated On: 12/20/07 at 11:06 AM

[fflagg]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:17am

I am listening to the ST CD soundtrack and am bored with it already. Depp and HBC have no vocal color whatsoever.

Lovett should have been Emma Thompson!

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:36am

"I'm pretty sure it's gonna do well Oscar-wise. Many of those award prognostication sites seem to think it will get at least pic/dir/actr nods."

You have to remember that the awards predictions sites change on a daily basis.They all predicted around this time a few years ago that Rent would be in for a nod for Best Picture to.

[sondhead]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:36am

Wait till you see it. All that goes away.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:40am

fflagg--Even Sondheim will tell you this film isn't about vocal performance. It's about acting performance, which he himself has said he prefers.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:41am

If you are looking for vocal color, I'm not sure Emma Thompson is the first actress that pops to mind. Have you heard her singing voice on the ME AND MY GIRL cast recording? Its just as small as Helena Bonham Carters...

That's a good point Best12, but that is assuming that Warner Brothers/Dreamworks are heavily campaigning SWEENEY as an Oscar film. Frankly, they aren't - or at least haven't been. Not in terms of the traditional things that typically signal an active Oscar campaign (screeners, FYC ads, multiple Q&A screenings).

But maybe the awards expectation is simply something that has been largely generated by message boards and Oscar prediction sites.

A film can be a great film and a great time at the movies without being Oscarbait. There is no real correllation between the two in truth. I'd much rather TODD do "popcorn flick" business at the Box Office than score a Best Picture nomination...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:53am

Was it the lack of screeners that really caused Dreamgirls to not get a best picture nod or was it that voters just kinda realized that the movie wasn't nearly as great as its marketing machine told us it was?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 11:58am

I think its a mixture of both, Phyllis. The reviews for DREAMGIRLS certainly didn't live up to early expectations. I think a lot of people liked the film, but didn't love it enough to pick it as their top pic or two of the year (and you have to have that kind of really crazy loyal support from at least a small faction of AMPAS to get a Best Picture nomination).

The same thing could happen with SWEENEY, but the difference again, is that even if they didn't send out screeners, DREAMGIRLS launched a very big Oscar campaign. They tried to make the film feel like an event, but Oscar voters just didn't go for it. SWEENEY has actually unrolled fairly quietly. Most of the marketing hasn't been angled at critics groups and AMPAS voters but towards the internet and the loyal fan base of the musical.

[Brick]

Posted: 12/20/07 at 12:16pm

per tom o'neill at gold derby:

"No ensemble nods (the SAG equivalent of best picture) for "Atonement," "Charlie Wilson's War," and "Sweeney Todd" could be due to the fact that these films, still not in wide release, had not been seen by some of the 2,100 members of the SAG nominating committee spread out across the country. Granted, most members are clustered in Los Angeles and New York where frequent Q&A screenings take place in theaters where stars drop by afterward to riff with the audience, but some members are scattered elsewhere on the U.S. map. Thus DVD screeners play a big role.

'"Atonement" did send out DVDs, but not till the tail end of the race and it opened late in the calendar year in theaters (December) and so managed to get skunked. Late-breaking "Charlie" and "Sweeney" did not send out DVDs and paid a high SAG price."