Still going strong after a half century, the James Bond franchise is the longest running movie series ever. Unfortunately, it has never generated that much love with Academy Award voters. But the folks behind the Oscars are looking to perhaps make up for that a bit when they present a tribute to the franchise at this year’s Academy Awards telecast on February 24th.

 There’s no word yet as to what form the tribute will take, but if it is a big dance number set to a medley of Bond title themes, I think I would rather they not even bother.

Previously, only two Bond entries have earned Oscars – Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965), both of which won for Best Visual Effects.

Interestingly, with the inclusion of last year’s Skyfall on the list of nominees for this year’s Producers Guild Awards, there has been some speculation that the film may also be on the list of nominees for the Best Picture Oscar when they are announced next week. Within the last few weeks, Skyfall has become the first Bond franchise installment to pass the $1 billion mark at the box office.

Here is the official Academy press release -

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – The 85th Academy Awards® will include a tribute to the James Bond movie franchise, which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year, the telecast’s producers announced today.

“We are very happy to include a special sequence on our show saluting the Bond films on their 50th birthday,” said producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. “Starting with ‘Dr. No’ back in 1962, the 007 movies have become the longest-running motion picture franchise in history and a beloved global phenomenon.”

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar® Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominees for the 70th Golden Globe Awards today, and the films and actors nominated offer little in the way of surprises. Thought of a precursor to the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe nominations this year feature films many thought would be in awards contention this year, with no obvious outside or unexpected picks in the bunch.

Oscar favorite Lincoln scored seven nominations, with fellow favorites Argo and Django Unchained tied for five each.

The ceremony will air on January 13, 2013 on NBC.

_ Picture, Drama: “Argo,” “Lincoln,” “Life of Pi,” “Django Unchained,” “Zero Dark Thirty.”

_ Picture, Musical or Comedy: “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Les Miserables,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” “Silver Linings Playbook.”

_ Actor, Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”; Richard Gere, “Arbitrage”; John Hawkes, “The Sessions”; Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”; Denzel Washington, “Flight.”

_ Actress, Drama: Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”; Marion Cotillard, “Rust and Bone”; Helen Mirren, “Hitchcock”; Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”; Rachel Weisz, “The Deep Blue Sea.”

_ Director: Ben Affleck, “Argo”; Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”; Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”; Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln”; Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained.”

_ Actor, Musical or Comedy: Hugh Jackman, “Les Miserables”; Jack Black, “Bernie”; Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”; Bill Murray, “Hyde Park on Hudson”; Ewan McGregor, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.”

_ Actress, Musical or Comedy: Emily Blunt, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”; Judi Dench, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”; Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”; Maggie Smith, “Quartet”; Meryl Streep, “Hope Springs.”

_ Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, “Argo”; Leonard DiCaprio, “Django Unchained”; Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”; Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”; Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained.”

_ Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, “The Master”; Sally Field, “Lincoln”; Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”; Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”; Nicole Kidman, “The Paperboy.”

_ Foreign Language: “Amour,” “A Royal Affair,” “The Intouchables,” “Kon-Tiki,” “Rust and Bone.”

_ Animated Film: “Brave,” “Frankenweenie,” “Hotel Transylvania,” “Rise of the Guardians,” “Wreck-It Ralph.”

_ Screenplay: Mark Boal, “Zero Dark Thirty”; Tony Kushner, “Lincoln”; David O. Russell, “Silver Livings Playbook”; Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”; Chris Terrio, “Argo.”

_ Original Score: Mychael Danna, “Life of Pi”; Alexandre Desplat, “Argo”; Dario Marianelli, “Anna Karenina”; Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil, “Cloud Atlas”; John Williams, “Lincoln.”

_ Original Song: “For You ” (music and lyrics by Keith Urban), “Act of Valor”; “Not Running Anymore” (music and lyrics by Jon Bon Jovi), “Stand Up Guys”; “Safe & Sound” (music and lyrics by Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams and T Bone Burnett), “The Hunger Games”; “Skyfall” (music and lyrics by Adel and Paul Epworth), “Skyfall”; “Suddenly” (music by Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyrics by Schonberg and Alain Boublil), “Les Miserables.”

I’ll admit that this is a choice I didn’t see coming, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane will be the host of next February’s 85th Annual Academy Awards.

You can read all the promotional quotes from MacFarlane, whose feature film directorial debut Ted earned over $420 million at the world wide box office this summer, and others in the press release below, but it should be noted that Deadline is reporting that MacFarlane’s recent hosting of Saturday Night Live was seen by the Oscar’s telecast producers as a bit of a tryout for the gig.

Personally, I think it is an inspired choice and MacFarlane’s love of the bygone era of Hollywood and show business in general that occasionally rears its head on Family Guy will serve him well here.

Now I know that there are some who are not fans of the general humor of Family Guy and MacFarlane’s other shows American Dad and The Cleveland Show who are going to automatically have a negative, knee-jerk reaction to this. They will decry his hiring as a harbinger of an awards show that will be nothing but wall-to-wall crass humor. And I think that these people couldn’t be further wrong about what MacFarlane will do if they tried.

Much like Howard Stern did with his judging stint on this past season of America’s Got Talent, I believe that MacFarlane knows what an appropriate level for the awards show is and will keep his material there. Look at the seriousness he brought to his album where he sang various big band hits. I guarantee you that he won’t be as raunchy as he got when he was hosting roasts over on Comedy Central.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Seth MacFarlane will host the 85th Academy Awards®, telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today. This will be MacFarlane’s first appearance on Oscar’s stage. The 85th Academy Awards will be broadcast live on Oscar® Sunday, February 24, on the ABC Television Network.

“We are thrilled to have Seth MacFarlane host the Oscars. His performing skills blend perfectly with our ideas for making the show entertaining and fresh,” said Zadan and Meron. “He will be the consummate host, and we are so happy to be working with him.”

“It’s truly an overwhelming privilege to be asked to host the Oscars,” said MacFarlane. “My thoughts upon hearing the news were, one, I will do my utmost to live up to the high standards set forth by my predecessors; and two, I hope they don’t find out I hosted the Charlie Sheen Roast.”

“Seth is unbelievably talented,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “We couldn’t be happier with the creative team we’ve assembled. With Craig, Neil, and now Seth, we’re off to a great start.”

MacFarlane made his feature directorial debut this summer with the box office success “Ted. “He also co-wrote and produced the film, and voiced the title character. “Ted” has brought in over $420 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of the year.

MacFarlane is the creative force behind the television series “Family Guy” and co-creator of “American Dad!” and “The Cleveland Show. “In September he hosted “Saturday Night Live” for the first time, for the show’s 38th season premiere. An accomplished live performer, MacFarlane has played to sold-out audiences at London’s Royal Albert Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall. In 2011 he released his debut album, “Music Is Better Than Words,” which earned two Grammy® nominations. He also has earned 13 Emmy® nominations and won two for his work on “Family Guy.”

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®. Don Mischer will direct the telecast for the third consecutive time. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Joan Crawford’s Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in the 1945 film Mildred Pierce sold yesterday at auction for $426,732.

Since it was won before 1950, the Academy Award statue did not fall under the stipulation that Oscars must first be offered back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences before they can put up for sale. Last December, Orson Welles’ Best Screenplay Academy Award for Citizen Kane sold for over $800,000.

When nominated for her role as a restaurant owner struggling to raise her daughter in Mildred Pierce, Crawford’s career was on the skids. A string of several bombs had earned the actress a reputation as box office poison. Seeing Ingrid Bergman’s performance in The Bells Of St Mary’s as the surefire winner in the category, Crawford elected to skip the March 1946 Academy Awards ceremony and just stay at home, excusing herself by saying she was sick. Mildred Pierce director Michael Curtiz accepted the award for that evening.

When she found out of her win, Crawford summoned reporters to her home where they photographed her accepting her Oscar statue while still in bed. She was quoted as saying, “Whether the Academy voters were giving the Oscar to me, sentimentally, for Mildred or for 200 years of effort, the hell with it — I deserved it.”

If you were scratching your head last February over why there were only two nominees in the Best Original Song category of the Academy Awards you weren’t the only one. There was a lot of questioning as to what quirk of the rules allowed such a low number of competing songs in the first place. And the Academy has heard these complaints and has moved to update the rules of the category so that now there will be a total of five nominees. Here is the pertinent section of the Academy’s press release issued last night with the announcement and the method for which those five nominees will be chosen.

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has approved additional rules for the 85th Academy Awards. The most significant changes affect the Original Song category, in which there will now be five nominees.

During the nominations process, all voting members of the Music Branch will receive a Reminder List of works submitted in the category and a DVD copy of the song clips. Members will be asked to watch the clips and then vote in the order of their preference for not more than five achievements in the category. The five achievements receiving the highest number of votes will become the nominations for final voting for the award.

I have to say that this is a pretty good move on the Academy’s parts as this is one of the categories that tend to bring in viewers. Now if they could just perhaps reinsert the performances of the nominated songs back into the ceremony. (Yes, I’m still bummed we didn’t get a performance of “Man or Muppet” at this year’s show.)

The 85th Academy Awards will be presented on February 24, 2013.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the tweaking of rules for four Academy Awards categories. The rules affect the eligibility for films in four categories – Best Visual Effects, Original Song, Makeup and Foriegn Language film. The changes were approved earlier this week by the Academy’s Board of Governors and will take effect for the 85th Academy Awards scheduled for February 24.

Starting with next year’s Oscars, the final nominees for the Best Visual Effects category will be chosen from a shortlist of ten films where as previously the shortlist could consist of anywhere between seven and ten films.

The Academy has modified the rules of the Best Original Song category to allow a fourth songwriter for an individual song “in rare and extraordinary circumstances.” The last time the eligibility rules for this category were modified was in 2005 when it allowed two writers per song to be eligible with the possibility of a third under extraordinary conditions.

The Makeup Category is being expanded to include hairstyling as well and will be known as, appropriate enough, the Makeup and Hairstyling Category.

And while entrants for the Best Foreign Language Film must continue to be submitted to the Academy in either 35mm or DCP formats, they do not necessarily have to have been exhibited in either of those formats in their home country.

Interestingly, the Academy did not make any changes in the way that eligible songs receiving nomination into the Best Original Song category. Last year’s Academy Awards generated some controversy when only two songs received the required voting score to compete for the Oscar statue. The Academy stated that it would examine the rules to see if a change was necessary. Unfortunately, it appears as if they have decided to keep the status quo.

The Associated Press is reporting that music recording superstar Whitney Houston has died. She was 48.

With Cissy Houston as a mother, Dionne Warwick as a cousin, and Aretha Franklin as a godmother, you can say Whitney Houston was fated to become a singer. Signed to Arista Records in 1983, Houston would sing duets on albums by Teddy Pendergrass and Jermaine Jackson while the best production teams and songwriters were being assembled for her debut album. That self-titled album was released in 1985, would feature four top ten singles–three of which made it to number one, and made Houston and international superstar.

Houston would put out two more, multiple-times Platinum albums–1987′s Whitney and 1990′s I’m Your Baby Tonight–before making the jump to the big screen. In 1992, Houston starred in a role seemingly custom made to ease her transition into the world of acting, that of a international recording artist whose life is threatened in The Bodyguard. Actually, the project had been in development since the mid-1970s as a vehicle for Diana Ross, with first Steve McQueen then Ryan O’Neal playing opposite in the role that would eventually be played by Kevin Costner.

Houston was nominated for a 1992 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her role in the film, but this didn’t stop the film from becoming a worldwide smash, earning over $410 million at the international box office. The success of The Bodyguard would lead to two more roles in front of the screen for Houston, in 1995′s Waiting to Exhale and  1996′s The Preacher’s Wife and one behind the scenes as a producer on The Princess Diaries franchise.

The late 1990s marked the begin of a downward slope in Houston’s career. A contentious marriage to Bobby Brown, admitted drug use, and erratic behavior damaged her reputation and her popularity. She was fired from an appearance at the 2000 Academy Awards due to attitude problems and unprofessional behavior.

In recent years, Houston seemed poised for a comeback. her 2009 album, I Look to You, was released to good notice. She was set to return to the big screen this year in a remake of 1976′s Sparkle. In a now morbid case of art imitating live, the film is about the downfall of a sibling singing group when on sister break sout as the star and one sister falls prey to the evils of drugs.  The film is listed on IMDB as being in post-production with a scheduled release date of August 10, 2012.

It’s that time of year again when studios start promoting their various films for Academy Awards consideration. And if you like to read screenplays, that means getting access to the scripts that are being pushed for possible nomination in the Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay categories through the studios various “For Your Consideration” websites. Well, most studios, as Paramount is being a bit stingy and have restricted access to the website that holds their screenplays.

Here are links to the awards sites and screenplays that we have already found, sorted by studio. All screenplays are available in .pdf format, so you can download them to virtually any e-reader that Santa may have brought you this year.

Dreamworks Pictures
The Help
War Horse

Focus Features
Beginners
The Debt
Hanna
Jane Eyre
Pariah
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Fox Searchlight
The Descendants
Margaret
Martha Marcy Mae Marlene
Shame
Win Win

Lionsgate
Warrior

Relativity Media
Machine Gun Preacher

Roadside Attractions
Margin Call

Universal
Bridesmaids

Walt Disney/ Pixar
Cars 2

The Weinstein Company
The Artist
Coriolanus
The Iron Lady
My Week With Marilyn

Unlike the previous time it was up for auction, Orson Welles’ Academy Award for co-authoring the screenplay to Citizen Kane not only met but exceed its reserve price and ultimately went under the gavel for $861,542.

Although magician David Cooperfield was one of the bidders, the final purchaser chose to remain anonymous.

“This is a testament to the popularity of Orson Welles and his magnum opus Citizen Kane,” auction house owner Nate D. Sanders told the Hollywood Reporter.

Thought lost for decades, Welles’s Oscar was revealed to be in the possession of cinematographer Gary Graver, who stated that the director had given him the statue as payment for working on Welles’s unfinished 1974 film The Other Side Of The Wind. Graver tried to auction the Oscar through Sotheby’s, but was sued by Welles’ daughter Beatrice Welles, who was eventually awarded ownership of the Academy Award by a California court.

Beatrice Welles put the Oscar up for auction herself, but was sued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences. The Academy had enacted a stipulation that the Oscar statues could not be resold without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for the nominal sum of $1.00. However, a California court ruled that as this rule was enacted in 1950, the Citizen Kane Oscar was not covered by the policy. The auction went ahead in 2003, with the Oscar being acquired by the Dax Foundation, who has decided to resale the statue and use the proceeds to help fund the non-profit organization’s charitable works. However, the statue failed to move at the 2007 auction and it appears that the Dax Foundation has sold the Oscar privately to an anonymous purchaser who had put the statue up for auction this week.

Twentieth Century Fox Studio chief Tom Rothman once again voiced his intention of giving actor Andy Serkis a push for a Best Supprting Actor Academy Award nomination for hismotion capture performance work in this past summer’s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter at the Gotham Independent Film Awards on Monday, the studio exec confirmed what had been reported at the beginning of the month.

I think we may be at the place where we will see a first-ever in Hollywood this year, which is to see Andy Serkis get nominated for a best supporting actor for Planet of the Apes, even though his face never actually appears… But his performance appears, so we are going to push that hard.

Serkis has been at the forefront of the motion capture performance wave. His work as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy was noted by fans and critics but ignored by the industry at awards time. A similar fate awaited his work on Jackson’s remake of King Kong when he played the titular giant gorilla.

But Roth man thinks that the Academy is smart enough to recognize that the computer generated image placed over a motion captured performance is no different than an actor’s use of costuming or make-up. They just need a little education.

I think part of what we have to do is help educate people to understand that that is 100 percent his performance. It is great emotional acting. Tom Hanks didn’t have to say any dialogue in Castaway for it to be a great performance… The emotionality – what you see and what you feel – he did it. I saw him. I watched him. Then they digitally overlaid – you can think of it as a costume – the skin and the hair of an ape. But I tell you the thing that people felt – and a lot of people where moved when they saw the movie – is because of his performance.

As we head into the awards season, it should be interesting to see how people react.