Oscar Outlook 2012: Savages

Oliver Stone was huge in the 1980s and early 90s ... And, then, after JFK, Stone started to lose his mojo.  His fall from grace wasn't as long as Francis Ford Coppola or Brian De Palma, as he's maintained enough of a degree of respect that he turns out prestige-lite films like Any Given Sunday, World Trade Center, and W.  He can survive created a high-budget bomb like Alexander by doing a film like Wall Street 2.  He's still the go-to director for historical conspiracy theory and political touchstones.  Middling would be the best way to describe the consensus of the last fifteen years of his directing efforts.  Yet, the anticipation for his upcoming Savages is riding high.  My spidey sense tells me this is going to crash and burn, but, I have to leave room for error ...

He adapted Don Winslow's crime thriller along with the author and Shane Salerno and loaded up his cast with a bunch of hot, sexy, young actors.  When a druglord (Benicio Del Toro) kidnaps the girlfriend (Serena from Gossip Girl Blake Lively) of two pot-growers (rising stars Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson), they must hunt her down and save her.  Also in the cast is John Travolta, Emile Hirsch, Salma Hayek, Uma Thurman, Demián Bichir, and Trevor Donovan.

Other credits include film editors Joe Hutshing, Stuart Levy, and Alex Marquez; cinematographer Daniel Mindel (Abrams' Star Trek franchise, John Carter, The Skeleton Key); Rob Marshall's production design/art direction team of Tomas Voth and Lisa Vasconcellos; set decoration Nancy Nye (Oscar nod for Gattaca); costume designer Cindy Evans; and composer Adam Peters.

Filmed last summer in the LA-area, Universal drops it in the US on the 6th of July.

Click here for photographic magic

Also on the Radar:

Anna Karenina     Argo     Beasts of the Southern Wild     The Bourne Legacy     The Dark Knight Rises     Dark Shadows     Django Unchained     Gangster Squad     Great Expectations     The Great Gatsby     The Hobbit     Hope Springs     The Hunger Games     Hyde Park on the Hudson     Killing Them Softly     Lawless     Lincoln     Lola Versus     Lovelace     Low Life     Magic Mike     The Master     Les Misérables     Life of Pi     Moonrise Kingdom     The Paperboy     People Like Us     Prometheus     To Rome with Love     Ruby Sparks     Savages     Seeking a Friend for the End of the World     The Silver Linings Playbook     Smashed     The Surrogate     Trouble with the Curve     Won't Back Down 


The Avengers     The Amazing Spider-Man     Men in Black III