{"id":131604,"date":"2024-11-30T01:52:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T18:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131604"},"modified":"2024-11-30T01:52:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T18:52:10","slug":"how-wicked-could-shock-everyone-and-win-best-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131604","title":{"rendered":"How &#8216;Wicked&#8217; Could Shock Everyone and Win Best Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhen <em>The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King<\/em> dominated the 2004 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/academy-awards\/\" id=\"auto-tag_academy-awards_1\" data-tag=\"academy-awards\">Academy Awards<\/a>, winning all 11 of its categories including best picture, it made history. Yes, it was the biggest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/oscars\/\" id=\"auto-tag_oscars_1\" data-tag=\"oscars\">Oscars<\/a> sweep ever. But it also was probably the first best picture winner with its own toy line.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Until then, well-regarded blockbusters like <em>Star Wars <\/em>and <em>Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/em> weren\u2019t able to win the big one.\u00a0 And it hasn\u2019t happened since <em>LOTR<\/em>, despite worthy efforts from <em>Black Panther<\/em>, both <em>Avatars<\/em> and <em>Barbie<\/em> (the only best picture nominee actually <em>based <\/em>on a toy line).<\/p>\n<p>But this year\u2019s best picture winner could finally herald the resurgence of commercial-juggernaut cinema.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0No, not <em>Dune: Part Two<\/em>, though it could earn a picture nomination. In terms of going all the way, it\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/wicked\/\" id=\"auto-tag_wicked_1\" data-tag=\"wicked\">Wicked<\/a> <\/em>of which I speak, that Jon M. Chu <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/wicked-review-cynthia-erivo-ariana-grande-1236062372\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/wicked-review-cynthia-erivo-ariana-grande-1236062372\/\">movie musica<\/a>l about misunderstood witches and talking animals. Though, granted, its toy rollout has not been without its hiccups, as the Mattel toys contained a\u2026.highly unfortunate packaging misprint. (Whatever you do, don\u2019t google \u201cWicked.com\u201d around children.)<\/p>\n<p>Why the fixation on toys? Because it speaks to a number of prejudices that Academy members are assumed to have against a movie like <em>Wicked<\/em>: It\u2019s too childish. Too frivolous. Too commercial. Too plastic.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Perhaps that\u2019s why the\u00a0movie may struggle to earn a spot in the Oscars discussion. In a recent survey of awards insiders by <em>The Los Angeles Times<\/em>, <em>Wicked<\/em> ranked 18th overall in its best picture chances \u2014 three-quarters of those surveyed didn\u2019t cite Wicked at all \u2014 though that was taken before the movie became a phenomenon.<em> The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s<\/em> own Wizard of Odds, Scott Feinberg, <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/2025-oscar-nomination-predictions-feinberg-forecast-1235957278\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/2025-oscar-nomination-predictions-feinberg-forecast-1235957278\/\">ranked it<\/a> a far more optimistic 6th out of his top 10.<\/p>\n<p>A week into its release, however, <em>Wicked<\/em> is starting to shape up as a serious contender. Now, Elphaba isn\u2019t flying off to the Western sky with statuette in hand quite yet. But there\u2019s no denying that <em>Wicked<\/em> has a lot going for it in its bid to win best picture.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the obvious. Academy members don\u2019t just like Wicked \u2014 they <em>love<\/em> Wicked. At the Directors Guild, PGA and SAG screenings in both Los Angeles and New York, as well as at the Academy screening, capacity crowds burst into applause after many songs and gave the film a rapturous standing ovation after the cliffhanger finale.<\/p>\n<p>Guild members are known to give standing Os \u2014 they did last year for <em>Oppenheimer<\/em> when Christopher Nolan emerged for his Q&amp;A \u2014 but according to those in attendance, the effusiveness for Wicked has been at another level.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Then there\u2019s those grosses. We are coming off a near extinction-level event for cinema \u2014 i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic, during which small streaming-friendly films like <em>CODA<\/em> and <em>Nomadland<\/em> won best picture.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0But in the post-plague era, some voters seem to be hungry for spectacle. Last year, Oppenheimer was the perfect mix of IMAX-sized visuals and weighty subject matter \u2014 a billion-dollar earner the Academy could proudly point to and say, \u201cThis is the cinematic gold standard.\u201d That bodes well for <em>Wicked<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0While skeptics and campaigners on other films will cite <em>Wicked<\/em> as inarguably less serious than <em>Oppenheimer<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/universal-2\/\" id=\"auto-tag_universal-2_1\" data-tag=\"universal-2\">Universal<\/a> and its consultants will lean into the material\u2019s darker and politically resonant themes to show that it can hold its own on the substance front.<\/p>\n<p>The film actually has political roots. It began as a best-selling book by Gregory Maguire, who wrote it during Operation Desert Storm in 1990 after seeing the headline \u201cSaddam Hussein: The Next Hitler?\u201d Maguire envisioned a dystopian Oz where the Wizard is a fascist despot.<\/p>\n<p>Some years later, when Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz teamed to adapt the novel into a musical, George W. Bush was in power and beating the drums of war ahead of a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Holzman and Schwartz laced the script with allusions to ideas like \u201cregime change\u201d (how Glinda refers to the house falling on the Wicked Witch of the East).<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, there can be no mistaking who the Wizard is meant to evoke. And while Universal didn\u2019t specifically plan for the film to open just weeks after Donald Trump\u2019s election, here we are nonetheless. And\u00a0if there\u2019s one thing that could unite many members of the disparate and far-flung Academy electorate right now, it\u2019s post-election depression \u2014 and a desire for action. That could lead them to the Emerald City. As at least one voter said, \u201cIf your vote for president didn\u2019t count, you\u2019re going to make it count for Wicked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There will, of course, be buckets of water for <em>Wicked<\/em> to sidestep along the way. One is the preferential voting system, which requires voters to rank best picture choices and generally has enabled smaller films like Moonlight, which presumably draw a broad consensus, to take the big prize. Wicked could end up being too big and splashy and divisive for its own good, resulting in a smaller film winning.<\/p>\n<p>The film is also the first of a two-part series. Voters might think to hold off on feting Chu\u2019s achievement until after the second film\u2019s release, bestowing one best picture prize on the entire vision. That, after all, is what happened with <em>Return of the King<\/em>: All three chapters of Peter Jackson\u2019s fantasy epic were nominated for best picture, but only the final installment won, as voters in a sense rewarded the canon.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the <em>Wicked<\/em> case has its merits. With this year\u2019s Oscars coming off both the devastation of COVID-19 and the SAG and WGA strikes (and the ongoing specter of streaming and AI), it could lead many Hollywood-employed voters to reward a humane (and human-made) blockbuster that validates the traditional studio system.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, it could just be a matter of months before we say \u201cmove over, Mattel\u2019s Glinda and Elphaba Poseable Fashion Dolls \u2014 time to make room for Oscar.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-features\/wicked-win-best-picture-oscars-shock-1236073471\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King dominated the 2004 Academy Awards, winning all 11 of its categories including best picture, it made history. Yes, it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131604\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}