Reginald Hudlin and David Hill Named Producers of 2016 Oscars Telecast

DAVID HILL AND REGINALD HUDLIN TAPPED TO PRODUCE 88TH OSCARS®

Emmy®-winning live television producer David Hill and Oscar®-nominated producer-director Reginald Hudlin will produce the 88th Oscars telecast, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced.  It will be their first involvement with the Academy Awards®, which will air live on the ABC Television Network on Oscar Sunday, February 28, 2016.

“We’re delighted to have this talented team on board,” said Boone Isaacs. “David is a true innovator with a dynamic personality.  His vast experience as a live events producer, coupled with Reggie’s energy, creativity and talent as a filmmaker, is sure to make this year’s Oscar telecast a memorable one.”

"What a great and exciting honor!  The quest is to honor the year in film, honor the art, and above all, make it fun," said Hill.

“I’m looking forward to working with the Academy again,” said Hudlin.  “I love every kind of film and this year’s awards will be a celebration of the total range of cinema.”

“We’re excited to work with David and Reggie,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson.  “With their enthusiasm and breadth of experience, they will bring a fresh perspective to the Oscar show.”

An executive with the Fox group of companies for more than 25 years, Hill most recently served as the senior executive vice president of 21st Century Fox, overseeing programming, digital initiatives, and other opportunities on five continents. He was previously the chairman and CEO of Fox Sports Media Group, during which time he spearheaded the integration of new technologies and multiplatform programming services across the U.S.  Hill began his career with parent company News Corporation in Great Britain, where he helped launch Sky Television, introduced the multilingual sports channel Eurosport, and created the hugely popular subscription channel Sky Sports.  While he has contributed to hundreds of Emmy nominations and awards for the network, Hill received an individual Emmy for Outstanding Live Sports Special as an executive producer of the 2011 World Series broadcast.  He also served as an executive producer on the last two seasons of “American Idol.”  He recently left Fox to start his own production company, Hilly, focusing on live and reality television.

A writer, director, producer and executive, Hudlin received a 2012 Best Picture Oscar nomination as a producer of "Django Unchained."  Hudlin’s film credits include “Boomerang,” “The Great White Hype” and the award-winning comedy “House Party,” which he also wrote.  He executive produced the hit television series “The Boondocks” and “The Black Panther”; and has directed for “Modern Family,” “Murder in The First,” “New Girl” and “The Office.”  Last year, Hudlin produced the Academy's 6th Annual Governors Awards ceremony and has been the executive producer of the NAACP Image Awards since 2012.  Hudlin was the first President of Entertainment for BET Networks from 2005 to 2009, where he oversaw programming and developed some of the network's highest rated shows during his tenure.  He is a partner in Milestone Media, a multi-ethnic comic book company distributed by DC Comics, as well as New Nation Networks, a premium content provider in partnership with Google.  Hudlin is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, Producers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild.  He serves on the executive board of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and Wasatch.   

The Oscars ranks as television’s #1 entertainment telecast and consistently has drawn an average audience of more than 40 million viewers for the past 10 years.  The 88th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.  The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

--------------------

2013 Oscar Nominations: "Best Motion Picture of the Year"

Best Motion Picture of the Year:

Nominated film: producer(s)

Amour: To Be Determined

Argo: Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Dan Janvey, Josh Penn, Michael Gottwald

Django Unchained: Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone

Les Misérables: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh

Life of Pi: Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark

Lincoln: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy

Silver Linings Playbook: Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, Jonathan Gordon

Zero Dark Thirty: Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison  

Review: "Django Unchained" is Off the Hook

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Django Unchained (2012)
Running time: 165 minutes (2 hours, 45 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic violence throughout, a vicious fight, language and some nudity
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino
PRODUCERS: Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Richardson
EDITOR: Fred Raskin

WESTERN/DRAMA/ACTION

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, James Remar, Walton Goggins, Laura Cayouette, and Samuel L. Jackson

Django Unchained is a 2012 American Western film and revenge movie from Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction). Like his previous film, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained is an alternate-history movie.

Django Unchained focuses on a slave-turned-bounty hunter who, with the help of his mentor, sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. The name “Django” comes from the 1966 Italian “Spaghetti Western,” Django, which inspired Tarantino’s film. Franco Nero, the actor who portrayed Django in the 1966 movie, also has a cameo in Django Unchained.

The film opens in 1858. Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a German dentist turned bounty hunter, buys a slave, Django (Jamie Foxx). Shultz wants Django because the slave can identify the Brittle Brothers, a gang of ruthless killers. Recognizing that the slave’s talents that could make him a good bounty hunter, Schultz offers Django two things: (1) he will free Django and (2) he will help Django find his wife, Broomhilda Von Shaft (Kerry Washington), who is still a slave. In return, Shultz wants Django’s help collecting bounties.

However, Broomhilda is now owned by a charming but brutal slave owner named Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Candie owns the plantation, Candyland, in Greenville, Mississippi. There, male slaves are trained to fight for sport (“Mandingo fighting”) and female slaves are sold into prostitution. Infiltrating Candyland and collecting Broomhilda will be Django and Shultz’s most difficult bounty.

Now that I look back on Inglourious Basterds, I like it now more than I did when I first saw it back in 2009. I gave it a grade of “B” (6 of 10). Tarantino’s screwball take on World War II history in that movie prepared me for the freedom with history that Tarantino takes with Django Unchained. Of the movies released in 2012, Django Unchained is the best one I’ve seen so far.

As in all his works, Tarantino’s imagination, inventiveness, and, of course, his encyclopedic knowledge of films results in a screenplay full of outrageous notions, scandalous scenarios, shocking sequences, and mind-blowing scenes. So we get great cinema. Tarantino makes spellbinding films filled with hypnotic characters, plots twists, and settings. And Django Unchained is no exception; it is simply great

Django Unchained is essentially three movies: a quasi-slave narrative, a gun-slinging Western, and a revenge movie that come together as a Spaghetti Western, more so than as an American Western film, especially the ones made before the 1960s. This film looks and acts like a Western, only, the cowboy hero is a slave-turned-bounty hunter and the Old West town in need of taming is a Mississippi plantation.

The result of Tarantino’s genius screenwriting is that the actors cast in his films have the material to fashion great characters, regardless of the individual actor’s level of talent. When the talent is Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson, magic happens. Foxx reveals the evolution of Django from slave to free man in a way that allows the viewer to share the change; Foxx makes Django passionate, vulnerable, and a true cowboy movie hero.

I initially was not crazy about Christoph Waltz as the Nazi colonel and “Jew hunter,” Hans Landa, in Inglourious Basterds, but I’ve grown to love that performance. Landa was not a fluke; here, Waltz fashions a man of many of colors in Dr. King Shultz, a performance which deserves at least an Oscar nomination. Leonardo DiCaprio is a blazing star as Calvin J. Candie, simply because DiCaprio creates a monster in Candie by not being what people probably expect – over the top and inflammatory. There is some subtlety, grace, and depth in DiCaprio’s performance here.

Sam Jackson won’t get the Oscar he deserves for creating Stephen, the ultimate / major domo “house nigger” and Candie’s right-hand man. As great as Foxx, Waltz, and DiCaprio are, Jackson creates a supporting character that is as good as the best in American cinematic history. Stephen is so reprehensible and is odious to the point of being intolerable, and the character is embarrassingly real in the context of the history of American slavery. Jackson will likely be left out because the Academy that hands out Oscar nominations will likely pay more attention to Waltz and perhaps, DiCaprio than Jackson. Besides, Stephen may be a bit too much for conservative Oscar voters to take.

But that is the magic of what Quentin Tarantino can create. He is the best director of his generation – better than the likes of such stalwarts as Chris Nolan and David Fincher. Django Unchained proves it.

10 of 10

Saturday, December 29, 2012

------------------------