.gif)
Wonder Boys (film)
Encyclopedia
Wonder Boys is a dark comedy film based on the 1995 novel of the same title
by Michael Chabon
. Directed by Curtis Hanson
, it stars Michael Douglas
as professor Grady Tripp, a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh
university. He has been unable to finish his second novel, his young wife has left him, and he is sleeping with the Chancellor of the university (Frances McDormand
), who is the wife of the chairman of his department. Grady's editor (Robert Downey, Jr.) is in town to take a look at the book and becomes interested in a book that a student (Tobey Maguire
) from Grady's creative writing class has just completed.
Wonder Boys was filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
, including locations at Carnegie Mellon University
, Chatham University, and Shady Side Academy
. Other Pennsylvania locations included Beaver
, Rochester
and Rostraver Township
. The film reunited Holmes and Maguire, who had appeared together three years earlier in The Ice Storm
.
After Wonder Boys failed at the box office, there was a second attempt to find an audience with a new marketing campaign and a November 8, 2000, re-release, which was also a financial disappointment.
) is a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh
university (the movie was shot chiefly in and around Carnegie Mellon University
). He is having an affair with the university chancellor, Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand
), whose husband, Walter, is the chairman of the English department in which Grady is a professor. Grady's third wife, Emily, has just left him, and he has failed to repeat the grand success of his first novel, published years earlier. He continues to labor on a second novel, but the more he tries to finish it the less able he finds himself to invent a satisfactory ending - the book runs to over two and a half thousand pages and is still far from finished. He spends his free time smoking marijuana.
His students include James Leer (Tobey Maguire
) and Hannah Green (Katie Holmes
). Hannah and James are friends and both very good writers. Hannah, who rents a room in Tripp's large house, is attracted to Tripp, but he does not reciprocate. James is enigmatic, quiet, dark and enjoys writing fiction
more than he first lets on.
During a party at the Gaskells' house, Sara reveals to Grady that she is pregnant with his child. Grady finds James standing outside holding what he claims to be a replica gun, won by his mother at a fairground during her schooldays. However, the gun turns out to be very real, as James shoots the Gaskells' dog when he finds it attacking Grady. James also steals a very valuable piece of Marilyn Monroe
memorabilia from the house. Grady is unable to tell Sara of this incident as she is pressuring him to choose between her and Emily. As a result, Grady is forced to keep the dead dog in the trunk of his car for most of the weekend. He also allows James to follow him around, fearing that he may be depressed or even suicidal. Gradually he realizes that much of what James tells him about himself and his life is untrue, and is seemingly designed to elicit Grady's sympathy.
Meanwhile, Grady's editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.
), has flown into town on the pretense of attending the university's annual WordFest, a literary event for aspiring authors. In reality, Crabtree is there to see if Tripp has written anything worth publishing, as both men's careers depend on Grady's upcoming book. Terry arrives with a transvestite whom he met on the flight, called Antonia Sloviak (Michael Cavadias). The pair apparently become intimate in a bedroom at the Gaskells' party, but immediately afterwards Terry meets, and becomes infatuated with, James Leer, and Sloviak is unceremoniously sent home. After a night on the town, Crabtree and James semi-consciously flirt throughout the night, which eventually leads up to the two end up spending an awkwardly intimate night together in one of Grady's spare rooms.
Tired and confused, Grady phones Walter Gaskell (Richard Thomas
) and reveals to him that he is in love with Walter's wife. Meanwhile, Walter has also made the connection between the disappearance of Marilyn Monroe's jacket and James Leer. The following morning the Pittsburgh Police arrive with Sara to escort James to the Chancellor's office to discuss the ramifications of his actions. The jacket is still in Grady's car, which has conspicuously gone missing. This car had been given to him by a friend as payment for a loan, and over the weekend Grady has come to suspect that the car was stolen. Over the course of his travel around town, Grady has been repeatedly accosted by a man claiming to be the car's real owner. He eventually tracks the car down, but in a dispute over its ownership the majority of his manuscript blows out of the car and is lost. The car's owner gives him a ride to the university with his wife, Oola, in the passenger seat, wearing the stolen jacket.
Remembering James Leer's distress at how lonely the jacket looked in its own special closet, Grady finally sees that making things right involves having to make difficult choices. Grady tells Oola the story behind the jacket and allows her to leave with it. Worried that Grady's choice comes at the expense of damaging James Leer's future, Crabtree convinces Walter not to press charges by agreeing to publish his book, "a critical exploration of the union of Joe DiMaggio
and Marilyn Monroe and its function in American mythopoetics", tentatively titled The Last American Marriage.
The film ends with Grady recounting the eventual fate of the main characters - Hannah graduates and becomes a magazine editor; James wasn't expelled, but drops out anyway and moves to New York with Crabtree to rework his novel for publication; and Crabtree himself "goes right on being Crabtree." Grady finishes typing his new novel (now using a computer rather than a typewriter), then watches Sara and their child arriving home before turning back to the computer and clicking "Save."
, Curtis Hanson was working on a screenplay of his own and reading other scripts with a keen interest for his next film. Actress Elizabeth McGovern
advised Hanson to work with screenwriter Steve Kloves
. When he was given the writer's script for Wonder Boys and was told that Michael Douglas was interested in starring, he "fell in love with these characters - and they made me laugh". Hanson also identified with Grady Tripp and the "thing building up inside him: frustration, hunger, yearning, et cetera".
, returned to the film business after a self-imposed seven-year retirement to adapt Michael Chabon's novel for the money and because he identified with Grady. He was originally going to direct the film as well but bowed out and Hanson came on board. Kloves had never adapted a novel before but was encouraged by Chabon to make the material his own. Additional changes were made once Hanson came on board. For example, he felt that James Leer would be a fan of Douglas Sirk
's films as opposed to Frank Capra
as he is in the novel.
was not interested in making a quirky, character-driven comedy/drama until Douglas agreed to work well below his usual large fee. The actor gained 25 pounds for the film by eating pizza, subs and drinking a lot of beer. One of the challenges for Hanson was to take a plot that, as he put it, "is meandering and, apparently, sort of aimless", and a character that "does things that even he doesn't really know why he's doing them", and try to create a "feeling of focus" to keep the audience interested. Another challenge the director faced was working in actual locations in very cold weather that was constantly changing.
Robert Downey Jr. was on probation during the winter of 1999 when Hanson considered him for a role in Wonder Boys. Hanson was cautious because of the actor's drug history and concerned because it would be a tough film shot in sequence in Pittsburgh in the winter. Downey flew to Pittsburgh and had a long dinner conversation with Hanson where they addressed his problems. The actor demonstrated a commitment to the project and Hanson hired him. Reportedly, Downey acted in a professional manner for the entire four-and-a-half month shoot but after it ended, he returned to Los Angeles
and violated his parole.
Hanson contacted Dante Spinotti
about working on the film in November 1998. They had worked previously together on L.A. Confidential. Spinotti had six weeks of pre-production, which he used to perform a variety of tests and shoot a number of important background plates for several scenes that take place at night, in cars. He knew that these scenes included some very critical acting and suggested using the green screen process for greater control. During pre-production, Hanson and Spinotti used the Kodak Pre View System to storyboard complicated sequences by altering digital still images in a way that simulated the imaging characteristics of camera films. Hanson suggested Spinotti see The Celebration
for its technique of keeping the camera extremely close to the actors and carrying deep focus from one actor to the other. Spinotti suggested using a hand-held camera so that the film would not look static. On the first day of shooting, they incorporated some hand-held shots. Hanson liked the results and they used the technique extensively for the rest of the shoot.
's music since childhood and a great admirer of his soundtrack for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
. Dylan admired Hanson's previous film, L.A. Confidential and after much convincing, screened 90 minutes of rough footage from Wonder Boys. Hanson picked Dylan because, as he said, "Who knows more about being a Wonder Boy and the trap it can be, about the expectations and the fear of repeating yourself?"
In addition to Dylan, Hanson built the score around nine singer-songwriters including Leonard Cohen
and Neil Young
. The entire soundtrack is integrated into the film with Hanson playing some of the songs for the actors on the Pittsburgh set to convey a scene's "aural texture", as he put it. The soundtrack features several songs by Bob Dylan, including one new composition, "Things Have Changed". Hanson also created a music video for the song, filming new footage of Bob Dylan on the film's various locations and editing it with footage used in Wonder Boys as if Dylan were actually in the film. According to Hanson, "Every song reflects the movie's themes of searching for past promise, future success and a sense of purpose".
and a 73 metascore at Metacritic
. Roger Ebert
, a film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times
, praised Wonder Boys as "the most accurate movie about campus life that I can remember. It is accurate, not because it captures intellectual debate or campus politics, but because it knows two things: (1) Students come and go, but the faculty actually lives there, and (2) many faculty members stay stuck in graduate-student mode for decades". Emanuel Levy of Variety
wrote, "The movie's frivolous touches and eccentric details emphasize its dry, measured wit and the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas. Massively inventive, Wonder Boys is spiked with fresh, perverse humor that flows naturally from the straight-faced playing". A.O. Scott from The New York Times
wrote, "The problem is that everyone involved seems to have agreed that it was a great idea for a movie and pretty much left it at that". In his review for Time
, Richard Corliss
wrote, "Wonder Boys reminds us of a distant age (the '70s) when bad movies were better: not stupid teen romps but sad, off-kilter studies of adults adrift. It is a rare current example of that endangered species, the honorable failure". Entertainment Weekly
gave the film a "C+" rating and Owen Gleiberman
wrote, "Curtis Hanson may have wanted to make a movie that gleamed with humanity as much as L.A. Confidential burned with malevolence, but he's so intent on getting us to like his characters that he didn't give them enough juice". Looking back in his Salon.com review, critic Andrew O'Hehir felt that Hanson, "and cinematographer Dante Spinotti
capture both Pittsburgh (one of the most serendipitously beautiful American cities) and the netherworld of boho academia with brilliant precision. If you went to a liberal-arts college anywhere in the United States, then the way Grady's ramshackle house looks in the wake of Crabs' enormous all-night party should conjure up vivid sense-memories".
Many critics blamed Paramount's initial ad campaign for the film not finding a mainstream audience. The Wall Street Journal' s Joe Morgenstern praised Douglas' work in the movie, but criticized the movie poster, which featured a headshot of Douglas: "a raffishly eccentric role, and he's never been so appealing. (Don't be put off by the movie's cryptic poster, which makes him look like Michael J. Pollard
.)" The Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan also slammed the poster: "The film's ad poster brings Elmer Fudd
to mind." Hanson said that the poster made Douglas look "like he was trying to be Robin Williams
". In an interview with Amy Taubin, Hanson said, "The very things that made Michael and I want to do the movie so badly were the reasons it was so tricky to market. Since films go out on so many screens at once, there's a need for instant appeal. But Wonder Boys isn't easily reducible to a single image or a catchy ad line". Hanson felt that the studio played it safe with the original ad campaign. They also released it a week after the Academy Award nominations were announced and the studio spent more money promoting the films of theirs that were nominated and not enough on Wonder Boys. The studio pulled the film out of theaters and quickly canceled the video release. Hanson and the film's producer Scott Rudin
lobbied to have it re-released. They designed a new campaign including posters and a trailer for the re-release that emphasized the ensemble cast.
Wonder Boys
Wonder Boys is a 1995 novel by the American writer Michael Chabon. It was adapted into a film in 2000.-Plot summary:Pittsburgh professor and author Grady Tripp is working on an unwieldy 2,611 page manuscript that is meant to be the follow-up to his successful, award-winning novel The Land...
by Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review....
. Directed by Curtis Hanson
Curtis Hanson
Curtis Lee Hanson is an American film director, film producer and screenwriter. His directing work includes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , L.A...
, it stars Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
as professor Grady Tripp, a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
university. He has been unable to finish his second novel, his young wife has left him, and he is sleeping with the Chancellor of the university (Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
), who is the wife of the chairman of his department. Grady's editor (Robert Downey, Jr.) is in town to take a look at the book and becomes interested in a book that a student (Tobey Maguire
Tobey Maguire
Tobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has achieved his greatest fame for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.-Early life:...
) from Grady's creative writing class has just completed.
Wonder Boys was filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, including locations at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
, Chatham University, and Shady Side Academy
Shady Side Academy
Shady Side Academy is a private, secular coeducational PK-12 preparatory school located on three campuses in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, established in 1883.- Campuses :Shady Side Academy has three campuses in Pittsburgh....
. Other Pennsylvania locations included Beaver
Beaver, Pennsylvania
Beaver is a borough in and the county seat of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, at the confluence of the Beaver and Ohio Rivers. As of the 2000 census, the borough population was 4,775, having dropped from 5,641 in 1940....
, Rochester
Rochester, Pennsylvania
Rochester is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located northwest of Pittsburgh, it is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 4,014 at the 2000 census....
and Rostraver Township
Rostraver Township, Pennsylvania
Rostraver Township is a township in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 11,634 at the 2000 census.-History:Rostraver Township is the location of the Household No. 1 Site, which was once occupied by a Monongahela village....
. The film reunited Holmes and Maguire, who had appeared together three years earlier in The Ice Storm
The Ice Storm (film)
The Ice Storm is a 1997 drama film directed by Ang Lee, based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Rick Moody.The film features an ensemble cast of Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, and Sigourney Weaver...
.
After Wonder Boys failed at the box office, there was a second attempt to find an audience with a new marketing campaign and a November 8, 2000, re-release, which was also a financial disappointment.
Plot
Professor Grady Tripp (Michael DouglasMichael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
) is a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
university (the movie was shot chiefly in and around Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
). He is having an affair with the university chancellor, Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
), whose husband, Walter, is the chairman of the English department in which Grady is a professor. Grady's third wife, Emily, has just left him, and he has failed to repeat the grand success of his first novel, published years earlier. He continues to labor on a second novel, but the more he tries to finish it the less able he finds himself to invent a satisfactory ending - the book runs to over two and a half thousand pages and is still far from finished. He spends his free time smoking marijuana.
His students include James Leer (Tobey Maguire
Tobey Maguire
Tobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has achieved his greatest fame for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.-Early life:...
) and Hannah Green (Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
). Hannah and James are friends and both very good writers. Hannah, who rents a room in Tripp's large house, is attracted to Tripp, but he does not reciprocate. James is enigmatic, quiet, dark and enjoys writing fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
more than he first lets on.
During a party at the Gaskells' house, Sara reveals to Grady that she is pregnant with his child. Grady finds James standing outside holding what he claims to be a replica gun, won by his mother at a fairground during her schooldays. However, the gun turns out to be very real, as James shoots the Gaskells' dog when he finds it attacking Grady. James also steals a very valuable piece of Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
memorabilia from the house. Grady is unable to tell Sara of this incident as she is pressuring him to choose between her and Emily. As a result, Grady is forced to keep the dead dog in the trunk of his car for most of the weekend. He also allows James to follow him around, fearing that he may be depressed or even suicidal. Gradually he realizes that much of what James tells him about himself and his life is untrue, and is seemingly designed to elicit Grady's sympathy.
Meanwhile, Grady's editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
), has flown into town on the pretense of attending the university's annual WordFest, a literary event for aspiring authors. In reality, Crabtree is there to see if Tripp has written anything worth publishing, as both men's careers depend on Grady's upcoming book. Terry arrives with a transvestite whom he met on the flight, called Antonia Sloviak (Michael Cavadias). The pair apparently become intimate in a bedroom at the Gaskells' party, but immediately afterwards Terry meets, and becomes infatuated with, James Leer, and Sloviak is unceremoniously sent home. After a night on the town, Crabtree and James semi-consciously flirt throughout the night, which eventually leads up to the two end up spending an awkwardly intimate night together in one of Grady's spare rooms.
Tired and confused, Grady phones Walter Gaskell (Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas (actor)
Richard Earl Thomas is an American actor, best known for his role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama The Waltons.- Early life :Thomas was born Richard Earl Thomas in New York,...
) and reveals to him that he is in love with Walter's wife. Meanwhile, Walter has also made the connection between the disappearance of Marilyn Monroe's jacket and James Leer. The following morning the Pittsburgh Police arrive with Sara to escort James to the Chancellor's office to discuss the ramifications of his actions. The jacket is still in Grady's car, which has conspicuously gone missing. This car had been given to him by a friend as payment for a loan, and over the weekend Grady has come to suspect that the car was stolen. Over the course of his travel around town, Grady has been repeatedly accosted by a man claiming to be the car's real owner. He eventually tracks the car down, but in a dispute over its ownership the majority of his manuscript blows out of the car and is lost. The car's owner gives him a ride to the university with his wife, Oola, in the passenger seat, wearing the stolen jacket.
Remembering James Leer's distress at how lonely the jacket looked in its own special closet, Grady finally sees that making things right involves having to make difficult choices. Grady tells Oola the story behind the jacket and allows her to leave with it. Worried that Grady's choice comes at the expense of damaging James Leer's future, Crabtree convinces Walter not to press charges by agreeing to publish his book, "a critical exploration of the union of Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
and Marilyn Monroe and its function in American mythopoetics", tentatively titled The Last American Marriage.
The film ends with Grady recounting the eventual fate of the main characters - Hannah graduates and becomes a magazine editor; James wasn't expelled, but drops out anyway and moves to New York with Crabtree to rework his novel for publication; and Crabtree himself "goes right on being Crabtree." Grady finishes typing his new novel (now using a computer rather than a typewriter), then watches Sara and their child arriving home before turning back to the computer and clicking "Save."
Cast
- Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
as Prof. Grady Tripp - Tobey MaguireTobey MaguireTobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has achieved his greatest fame for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.-Early life:...
as James Leer - Robert Downey, Jr. as. Terry Crabtree
- Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
as Chancellor Sara Gaskell - Katie HolmesKatie HolmesKatherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
as Hannah Green - Rip TornRip TornElmore Rual "Rip" Torn, Jr. , is an American actor of stage, screen and television.Torn received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1983 film Cross Creek. His work includes the role of Artie, the producer, on The Larry Sanders Show, for which he was nominated...
as Quentin "Q" Morewood - Richard ThomasRichard Thomas (actor)Richard Earl Thomas is an American actor, best known for his role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama The Waltons.- Early life :Thomas was born Richard Earl Thomas in New York,...
as Walter Gaskell - Jane AdamsJane Adams (actress)Jane Adams is an American film, television and theatre actress.- Early life :Adams was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Janice, an administrative assistant, and William Adams, an engineer. She has a younger brother, Jonathan, and was raised in Wheaton, Illinois and Bellevue, Washington...
as Oola - Alan TudykAlan TudykAlan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
as Sam Traxler - Michael Cavadias as Miss Antonia 'Tony' Sloviak
Production
After L.A. ConfidentialL.A. Confidential (film)
L.A. Confidential is a 1997 American film based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same title, the third book in his L.A. Quartet. Both the book and the film tell the story of a group of LAPD officers in the 1950s, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity...
, Curtis Hanson was working on a screenplay of his own and reading other scripts with a keen interest for his next film. Actress Elizabeth McGovern
Elizabeth McGovern
-Early life:McGovern was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Katharine Wolcott , a high school teacher, and William Montgomery McGovern, Jr., a university professor. Her paternal grandfather was adventurer William Montgomery McGovern and her maternal great-grandfather was U.S. diplomat...
advised Hanson to work with screenwriter Steve Kloves
Steve Kloves
Stephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
. When he was given the writer's script for Wonder Boys and was told that Michael Douglas was interested in starring, he "fell in love with these characters - and they made me laugh". Hanson also identified with Grady Tripp and the "thing building up inside him: frustration, hunger, yearning, et cetera".
Screenplay
Kloves, best known for writing and directing The Fabulous Baker BoysThe Fabulous Baker Boys
The Fabulous Baker Boys is a 1989 American romantic drama musical film written and directed by Steve Kloves, and starring real life brothers Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges as two brothers struggling to make a living as lounge jazz pianists in Seattle...
, returned to the film business after a self-imposed seven-year retirement to adapt Michael Chabon's novel for the money and because he identified with Grady. He was originally going to direct the film as well but bowed out and Hanson came on board. Kloves had never adapted a novel before but was encouraged by Chabon to make the material his own. Additional changes were made once Hanson came on board. For example, he felt that James Leer would be a fan of Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.-Life and work:...
's films as opposed to Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
as he is in the novel.
Casting
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
was not interested in making a quirky, character-driven comedy/drama until Douglas agreed to work well below his usual large fee. The actor gained 25 pounds for the film by eating pizza, subs and drinking a lot of beer. One of the challenges for Hanson was to take a plot that, as he put it, "is meandering and, apparently, sort of aimless", and a character that "does things that even he doesn't really know why he's doing them", and try to create a "feeling of focus" to keep the audience interested. Another challenge the director faced was working in actual locations in very cold weather that was constantly changing.
Robert Downey Jr. was on probation during the winter of 1999 when Hanson considered him for a role in Wonder Boys. Hanson was cautious because of the actor's drug history and concerned because it would be a tough film shot in sequence in Pittsburgh in the winter. Downey flew to Pittsburgh and had a long dinner conversation with Hanson where they addressed his problems. The actor demonstrated a commitment to the project and Hanson hired him. Reportedly, Downey acted in a professional manner for the entire four-and-a-half month shoot but after it ended, he returned to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and violated his parole.
Principal photography
Paramount suggested shooting Wonder Boys in Toronto or New York City but after reading the book, Hanson realized how important Pittsburgh was to the story, that it was a "wonder boy", much like the film's main protagonist Grady Tripp, it's a city that had this glorious past of wealth and success that ended. And then it had to deal with figuring out what's next. What happens after triumph?" Wonder Boys was filmed in Pittsburgh, including locations at Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham College, and Shady Side Academy. Other Pennsylvania locations included Beaver, Rochester, and Rostraver Township. Hanson felt that Pittsburgh was "right, emotionally and thematically" for the film. The city was experiencing a mild winter during the film's shoot and they had to use a lot of artificial snow.Hanson contacted Dante Spinotti
Dante Spinotti
Dante Spinotti, A.S.C., A.I.C. is a cinematographer.Spinotti was born in Tolmezzo, Italy. Among the more notable films he has worked on are The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, and L.A. Confidential...
about working on the film in November 1998. They had worked previously together on L.A. Confidential. Spinotti had six weeks of pre-production, which he used to perform a variety of tests and shoot a number of important background plates for several scenes that take place at night, in cars. He knew that these scenes included some very critical acting and suggested using the green screen process for greater control. During pre-production, Hanson and Spinotti used the Kodak Pre View System to storyboard complicated sequences by altering digital still images in a way that simulated the imaging characteristics of camera films. Hanson suggested Spinotti see The Celebration
The Celebration
The Celebration is a 1998 Danish film, produced by Nimbus Film and directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Its original Danish title is Festen , and it was released under this title in the UK....
for its technique of keeping the camera extremely close to the actors and carrying deep focus from one actor to the other. Spinotti suggested using a hand-held camera so that the film would not look static. On the first day of shooting, they incorporated some hand-held shots. Hanson liked the results and they used the technique extensively for the rest of the shoot.
Soundtrack
Hanson had been a fan of Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's music since childhood and a great admirer of his soundtrack for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. Co-star Bob Dylan composed multiple songs for the movie's score and the album Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was released the same year.The film was noted for...
. Dylan admired Hanson's previous film, L.A. Confidential and after much convincing, screened 90 minutes of rough footage from Wonder Boys. Hanson picked Dylan because, as he said, "Who knows more about being a Wonder Boy and the trap it can be, about the expectations and the fear of repeating yourself?"
In addition to Dylan, Hanson built the score around nine singer-songwriters including Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
and Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
. The entire soundtrack is integrated into the film with Hanson playing some of the songs for the actors on the Pittsburgh set to convey a scene's "aural texture", as he put it. The soundtrack features several songs by Bob Dylan, including one new composition, "Things Have Changed". Hanson also created a music video for the song, filming new footage of Bob Dylan on the film's various locations and editing it with footage used in Wonder Boys as if Dylan were actually in the film. According to Hanson, "Every song reflects the movie's themes of searching for past promise, future success and a sense of purpose".
Track listing
- Bob Dylan - "Things Have ChangedThings Have Changed"Things Have Changed" is a song from the film Wonder Boys, written and performed by Bob Dylan. The song was released as a single on May 1, 2000...
" 5:10 - Buffalo SpringfieldBuffalo SpringfieldBuffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
- "A Child's Claim to Fame" 2:12 - Tom RushTom RushTom Rush is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.- Life and career :Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His father was a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after...
- "No RegretsNo Regrets (Tom Rush song)"No Regrets" is a song by folk and blues singer/songwriter Tom Rush. It is the final song on his 1968 album The Circle Game.His 1968 composition has become an acknowledged standard, with numerous cover versions having been recorded...
" 3:52 - Neil Young - "Old ManOld Man (song)"Old Man" is a song written and performed by Neil Young on his 1972 album Harvest.The song was written for the caretaker of the Northern California Broken Arrow Ranch, which Young purchased for $350,000 in 1970. The song compares a young man's life to an old man's and shows that the young man has,...
" 3:23 - Bob Dylan - "Shooting Star" 3:09
- Tim HardinTim HardinJames Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...
- "Reason to BelieveReason to Believe"Reason to Believe" is a song written and first recorded by American folk singer Tim Hardin in 1965, which has since been recorded by a number of other artists, the most known of which is by Rod Stewart in 1971 and 1993...
" 2:00 - Little Willie JohnLittle Willie JohnWilliam Edward John was better known by his stage name Little Willie John. Many sources erroneously give his second name as Edgar...
- "Need Your Love So BadNeed Your Love So Bad"Need Your Love So Bad" sometimes known as "I Need Your Love So Bad", is a blues song first published in 1955 and written by Mertis John Jr....
" 2:17 - Bob Dylan - "Not Dark YetNot Dark Yet"Not Dark Yet" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his 1997 album Time Out of Mind and also as the first single on March 2, 1998. It appears on the album The Passion of the Christ: Songs Inspired By, and also features on the Wonder Boys soundtrack. "Not Dark Yet" is also played in the ending part...
" 6:30 - Clarence CarterClarence CarterClarence Carter is a blind American soul singer and musician.-Life and career:Born in Montgomery, Alabama on 14 January 1936, Carter attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, Alabama, and Alabama State College in Montgomery, graduating in August 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree...
- "Slip Away" 2:32 - Leonard CohenLeonard CohenLeonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
- "Waiting for the Miracle" 7:43 - Bob Dylan - "Buckets of RainBuckets of Rain"Buckets of Rain" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1975 on his critically acclaimed album Blood on the Tracks.In the officially released studio recording, "Buckets of Rain" is played in the key of E major. Instrumentally there are only two: acoustic guitar and bass guitar...
" 3:23 - John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
- "Watching the WheelsWatching the Wheels"Watching the Wheels" is a single by John Lennon released posthumously in 1981 after his murder. It was the third and final single released from Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy album, and reached #10 in the U.S and #30 in the UK....
" 3:32 - Van MorrisonVan MorrisonVan Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
- "Philosophers Stone" 6:03
Box office
In its opening weekend, the film opened at #7 in the North American box office and grossed a total of USD $5.8 million in 1,253 theaters. It went on to gross a total of $33.4 million worldwide.Reviews
Wonder Boys currently holds an 83 percent "fresh" rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and a 73 metascore at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, a film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, praised Wonder Boys as "the most accurate movie about campus life that I can remember. It is accurate, not because it captures intellectual debate or campus politics, but because it knows two things: (1) Students come and go, but the faculty actually lives there, and (2) many faculty members stay stuck in graduate-student mode for decades". Emanuel Levy of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
wrote, "The movie's frivolous touches and eccentric details emphasize its dry, measured wit and the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas. Massively inventive, Wonder Boys is spiked with fresh, perverse humor that flows naturally from the straight-faced playing". A.O. Scott from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, "The problem is that everyone involved seems to have agreed that it was a great idea for a movie and pretty much left it at that". In his review for Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
Richard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
wrote, "Wonder Boys reminds us of a distant age (the '70s) when bad movies were better: not stupid teen romps but sad, off-kilter studies of adults adrift. It is a rare current example of that endangered species, the honorable failure". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the film a "C+" rating and Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
wrote, "Curtis Hanson may have wanted to make a movie that gleamed with humanity as much as L.A. Confidential burned with malevolence, but he's so intent on getting us to like his characters that he didn't give them enough juice". Looking back in his Salon.com review, critic Andrew O'Hehir felt that Hanson, "and cinematographer Dante Spinotti
Dante Spinotti
Dante Spinotti, A.S.C., A.I.C. is a cinematographer.Spinotti was born in Tolmezzo, Italy. Among the more notable films he has worked on are The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, and L.A. Confidential...
capture both Pittsburgh (one of the most serendipitously beautiful American cities) and the netherworld of boho academia with brilliant precision. If you went to a liberal-arts college anywhere in the United States, then the way Grady's ramshackle house looks in the wake of Crabs' enormous all-night party should conjure up vivid sense-memories".
Re-release
Michael J. Pollard
- Early life :Born Michael John Pollack, Jr. in Passaic, New Jersey, he is the son of Sonia and Michael John Pollack. He attended the Montclair Academy and the Actors Studio.- Career :...
.)" The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Kenneth Turan also slammed the poster: "The film's ad poster brings Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
to mind." Hanson said that the poster made Douglas look "like he was trying to be Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
". In an interview with Amy Taubin, Hanson said, "The very things that made Michael and I want to do the movie so badly were the reasons it was so tricky to market. Since films go out on so many screens at once, there's a need for instant appeal. But Wonder Boys isn't easily reducible to a single image or a catchy ad line". Hanson felt that the studio played it safe with the original ad campaign. They also released it a week after the Academy Award nominations were announced and the studio spent more money promoting the films of theirs that were nominated and not enough on Wonder Boys. The studio pulled the film out of theaters and quickly canceled the video release. Hanson and the film's producer Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin is an American film producer and a theatrical producer.-Early life and work:Scott Rudin was born in New York City, NY, on July 14, 1958, and raised in the town of Baldwin on Long Island. At the age of sixteen, he started working as an assistant to theatre producer Kermit Bloomgarden...
lobbied to have it re-released. They designed a new campaign including posters and a trailer for the re-release that emphasized the ensemble cast.
Awards
- Toronto Film Critics Association AwardsToronto Film Critics Association Awards 2000The 4th Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2000, were held on 17 December 2000.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Benicio del Toro – TrafficRunner-Up: Mark Ruffalo – You Can Count on Me*Best Actress:...
(2000)- TFCA Award - Best Supporting Male Performance: Tobey MaguireTobey MaguireTobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has achieved his greatest fame for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.-Early life:...
- TFCA Award - Best Supporting Male Performance: Tobey Maguire
- Los Angeles Film Critics AssociationLos Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2000The 26th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2000, were given in December, 2000.-Winners:*Best Picture:**Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon **Runner-up: Wonder Boys...
(2000)- LAFCA Award - Best Actor Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- LAFCA Award - Best Supporting Actress: Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
- LAFCA Award - Best Actor Michael Douglas
- Boston Society of Film CriticsBoston Society of Film CriticsThe Boston Society of Film Critics is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts, United States, based publications.The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make "Boston's unique critical perspective heard on a national and international level by awarding commendations to the best of the...
(2000):- BSFC Award - Best Screenplay: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- BSFC Award - Best Supporting Actress: Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
- BSFC Award - Best Screenplay: Steve Kloves
- USA Golden Globes (2001):
- Golden Globe - Best Original Song: Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- Golden Globe - Best Original Song: Bob Dylan
- USA Academy Awards73rd Academy AwardsThe 73rd Academy Awards honored the best films of 2000 and was held on March 25, 2001. It was the last Academy Awards to take place at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium...
(2001):- Academy Award - Best Original Song: Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- Academy Award - Best Original Song: Bob Dylan
- Broadcast Film Critics Association AwardsBroadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2001The 7th Critics' Choice Awards, honoring the best filmmaking of 2001, were given on 11 January 2002.-Top 10 Films:#Ali#A Beautiful Mind #In the Bedroom...
(2001):- Critics Choice Award - Best Screenplay: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- Critics Choice Award - Best Supporting Actress: Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
- Critics Choice Award - Best Screenplay: Steve Kloves
- Florida Film Critics Circle AwardsFlorida Film Critics Circle Awards 2001The 6th Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, given 2 January 2002, were announced on 3 January 2002.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Billy Bob Thornton - Bandits, The Man Who Wasn't There and Monster's Ball*Best Actress:...
(2001):- FFCC Award - Best Supporting Actress: Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
- FFCC Award - Best Supporting Actress: Frances McDormand
- L.A. Outfest (2001):
- Screen Idol Award - Robert Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr.Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
- Screen Idol Award - Robert Downey Jr.
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society AwardsLas Vegas Film Critics Society Awards 2000The 4th Sierra Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2000, were announced on 21 December 2000 and given on 23 February 2001.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Geoffrey Rush - Quills*Best Actress:**Ellen Burstyn - Requiem for a Dream*Best Director:...
(2000):- Sierra Award - Best Screenplay: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- Sierra Award - Best Song: Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- Sierra Award - Best Screenplay: Steve Kloves
- Satellite Awards (2001):
- Golden Satellite Award - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- Golden Satellite Award - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical: Michael Douglas
- Southeastern Film Critics AssociationSoutheastern Film Critics Association Awards 2001The 10th Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2001, were held on 27 December 2001.-Top 10 films:#Memento#The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring#Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain ...
(2001):- SEFCA Award - Best Actor: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- SEFCA Award - Best Actor: Michael Douglas
- USC Scripter AwardUSC Scripter AwardUSC Scripter Award is the name given to an award presented annually by the University of Southern California to honor screenwriters.-1987:*84 Charing Cross Road**Hugh Whitemore and Helene Hanff -1988:...
(2001):- USC Scripter Award - Michael ChabonMichael ChabonMichael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review....
(writer) and Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
(screenplay)
- USC Scripter Award - Michael Chabon
Nominations
- Teen Choice AwardsTeen Choice AwardsThe Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with...
(2000)- Teen Choice Award - Choice Liar: Tobey MaguireTobey MaguireTobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has achieved his greatest fame for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.-Early life:...
- Teen Choice Award - Choice Liar: Tobey Maguire
- USA Grammy Awards (2001):
- Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: Bob Dylan
- USA Golden Globes (2001):
- Golden Globe - Best Motion Picture
- Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- Golden Globe - Best Screenplay: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- USA Academy Awards73rd Academy AwardsThe 73rd Academy Awards honored the best films of 2000 and was held on March 25, 2001. It was the last Academy Awards to take place at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium...
(2001):- Academy Award - Best Editing: Dede AllenDede AllenDorothea Carothers "Dede" Allen was an American film editor, well-known "film editing doctor" to the major American movie studios, and one of cinema's all-time celebrated 'auteur' film editors....
- Academy Award - Best Writing: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- Academy Award - Best Editing: Dede Allen
- Art Directors GuildArt Directors GuildThe Art Directors Guild is an American labor union and branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees representing almost 2,000 motion picture and television professionals....
(2001):- Excellence in Production Design Award - Feature Film
- BAFTA Awards (2001):
- BAFTA Film Award - Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- BAFTA Film Award - Best Adapted Screenplay: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- BAFTA Film Award - Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role: Michael Douglas
- Broadcast Film Critics Association AwardsBroadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2001The 7th Critics' Choice Awards, honoring the best filmmaking of 2001, were given on 11 January 2002.-Top 10 Films:#Ali#A Beautiful Mind #In the Bedroom...
(2001):- Critics Choice Award - Best Picture
- Chicago Film Critics AssociationChicago Film Critics Association Awards 2001The 14th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, given on 25 February 2002, honored the finest achievements in 2001 filmmaking.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Gene Hackman - The Royal Tenenbaums*Best Actress:**Naomi Watts - Mulholland Dr....
(2001):- CFCA Award - Best Actor: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- CFCA Award - Best Picture
- CFCA Award - Best Screenplay: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- CFCA Award - Best Actor: Michael Douglas
- GLAAD Media AwardsGLAAD Media AwardsThe GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives...
(2001):- GLAAD Media Award - Outstanding Film
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society AwardsLas Vegas Film Critics Society Awards 2000The 4th Sierra Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2000, were announced on 21 December 2000 and given on 23 February 2001.-Winners:*Best Actor:**Geoffrey Rush - Quills*Best Actress:**Ellen Burstyn - Requiem for a Dream*Best Director:...
(2000):- Sierra Award - Best Actor: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- Sierra Award - Best Editing: Dede AllenDede AllenDorothea Carothers "Dede" Allen was an American film editor, well-known "film editing doctor" to the major American movie studios, and one of cinema's all-time celebrated 'auteur' film editors....
- Sierra Award - Best Supporting Actress: Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
- Sierra Award - Best Actor: Michael Douglas
- London Critics Circle Film Awards (2001):
- ALFS Award - Actor of the Year: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- ALFS Award - Screenwriter of the Year: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- ALFS Award - Actor of the Year: Michael Douglas
- Online Film Critics SocietyOnline Film Critics Society Awards 2001The 5th Online Film Critics Society Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2001, were given on 2 January 2002.-Top 10 films:#Memento #Mulholland Dr....
(2001):- OFCS Award - Best Actor: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- OFCS Award - Best Ensemble Cast Performance
- OFCS Award - Best Screenplay: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- OFCS Award - Best Actor: Michael Douglas
- Phoenix Film Critics Society (2001):
- PFCS Award - Best Actor in Leading Role: Michael DouglasMichael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
- PFCS Award - Best Actor in Supporting Role: Tobey MaguireTobey MaguireTobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has achieved his greatest fame for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.-Early life:...
- PFCS Award - Best Actress in Supporting Role: Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
- PFCS Award - Best Director: Curtis HansonCurtis HansonCurtis Lee Hanson is an American film director, film producer and screenwriter. His directing work includes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , L.A...
- PFCS Award - Best Original Song: Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- PFCS Award - Best Picture
- PFCS Award - Best Screenplay: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- PFCS Award - Best Actor in Leading Role: Michael Douglas
- Satellite Awards (2001):
- Golden Satellite Award - Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
- Golden Satellite Award - Best Original Song: Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- USA Writer's GuildWriters Guild of America Awards 2001The 54th Writers Guild of America Awards, given in 2002, honored the film and television best writers of 2001.-Best Adapted Screenplay: A Beautiful Mind - Akiva Goldsman*Black Hawk Down - Ken Nolan...
(2001):- WGA Award - Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Steve KlovesSteve KlovesStephen Keith "Steven" Kloves is an Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter mainly renowned for his adaptations of novels, especially for the Harry Potter film series and for Wonder Boys...
- WGA Award - Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Steve Kloves