desire to affect some less - nerdy Oscar company guests this weekend ? We ’ve got just the thing .
If you ’re a sci - fi nerd who lives and breathes that superhero , space - adventure , beast - feature film aliveness , the2019 awards seasonhas left something to be desired . Oh sure , most critics would agree 2019 was a very good class for moving picture overall , and yesa DC Comics movieis among the most celebrated movies in the camp , but that ’s it . It ’s nothing like recent years where rightfully weird , tremendous sci - fi fantasies likeThe Shape of Wateror Black Panther were in the mix .
https://gizmodo.com/the-9-best-and-7-worst-movies-of-2019-1840421338
Florence Pugh, Cynthia Erivo, and Al Pacino are all Oscar-nominees this year for roles very unlike these.Photo: (All Disney)
So how do you go about representing that nerd side ? Below , we ’ve broken down the nominees in several of the major class and supply you with some facts , trivia , connectedness , and more that maybe you sleep with , but maybe you did n’t , connect this twelvemonth ’s Oscar nominees to the wide creation of sci - fi , fantasy , and beyond .
Best Picture
It stars Christian Bale , aka the Batman of Christopher Nolan ’s trilogy , for one . That should be the most obvious matter . ( Though Bale , surprisingly enough , was not nominated for an act award this year . ) His co - star , Matt Damon , has nothing but love life for space , starring in both The Martian as well as Interstellar . But conductor James Mangold made not one but two Wolverine movies : The Wolverine andLogan . And if you want to go even further back , Mangold was one of the writers on Disney ’s 1988 exalt film , Oliver & Company .
There are two big sci - fi things going for The Irishman . One : it ’s the movie that get the wholeMartin Scorsese vs. Marveldebate go . But it also uses Delaware - senesce technology in a way that ’s even more significant than what ’s been used in comical book movies like Iron Man 3 or Ant - Man .
Despite itsserious story of war and going , Jojo Rabbit is split with sci - fi and phantasy root . Taika Waititi , of course , directed What We Do in the Shadows and Thor : Ragnarok before this flick , and follow it up by doing the finale of The Mandalorian , as well as playing the amplitude huntsman IG-11 . It co - star Black Widow herself , Scarlett Johansson , and Sam Rockwell go his big faulting in Galaxy Quest before eventually co - star in Iron Man 2 .
What connection does Snowpiercer have with this year’s Best Picture nominees? Hmmm.Photo: (TWC)
Duh . This is the one comic Bible movie in the bunch , even though it ’s not precisely comical script - y in tone . Beyond that though , atomic number 27 - star Zazie Beetz act , and may again play , Domino in the Deadpool franchise ; Brett Cullen , who plays Thomas Wayne , played a congresswoman in The Dark Knight rear ; and this movie will almost surely not plug into withThe Batman moviethat ’s presently filming . Sorry .
https://gizmodo.com/birds-of-prey-is-a-colorful-explosive-comic-book-extra-1841392698
small Women is a small more unmanageable but the sci - fi association are there . The most fun one is that Centennial State - hotshot Timothée Chalamet will be play Paul Atreides , the lead inthe unexampled adjustment of Dune . So if you have n’t seen Chalamet before , here ’s a beneficial chance . Also , younger sister Florence Pugh ( the star of Midsommar ) will act as another younger sister later this twelvemonth , in Marvel ’s Black Widow .
What connection does Attack of the Clones have with this year’s Best Actor nominees? Hmmm.Photo: (Lucasfilm)
It ’s Kylo Ren vs. Black Widow with Vice Admiral Holdo in support . hail on now !
The plot of 1917 has something in vulgar with Avengers : Endgame . Both are about finding Doctor Strange . Meaning , the individual the film ’s main character is look for is played by Benedict Cumberbatch . Along the way they meet Shazam scoundrel Mark Strong . Also , one of its other wiz , Dean - Charles Chapman , wasTommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones .
Of naturally , co - star Margot Robbie is peradventure easily known for play DC villain Harley Quinn — and one of the picture show ’s most famous , and controversial scenes , takes piazza on the band of a comic al-Qur’an show , The Green Hornet .
What connection does Mad Max: Fury Road have with this year’s Best Actress nominees? Hmmm. We think you’ll guess this one.Photo: (Warner Bros.)
Before Bong Joon - ho found mainstream acclamation with Parasite , he made not one , not two , but three splendid sci - fi pic . There was the environmentally consciousOkja , the pulse - pound Chris Evans vehicleSnowpiercer , and the excellent monster saga The Host . Do n’t allow anyone say sci - fi is n’t a itinerary to striking success .
Lead Actor
The calling of Antonio Banderas is so wide-ranging you’re able to line up him working in almost every genre . He was Zorro , Puss in Boots , he was in Spy Kids , musical theater , video game adaptations , you name it . But none of it — none of it — beats the fact that he turned into a meme thanks to footage from the movie Assassins . ( Which , if you may believe it , was written by the Wachowskis and direct by Richard Donner of Goonies and Superman fame . )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkKo4LZaq_0
For most of his life history , Leonardo DiCaprio has kept thing pretty ground . Of naturally , he did rob citizenry ’s minds in Christopher Nolan ’s Inception but his braggart geek story has to be that he was reportedly one of the finalists to flirt Anakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones , but lost out to Hayden Christensen . Imagine that .
What connection does Westworld have with this year’s Best Supporting Actor nominees? Hmmm.Photo: (HBO)
Again , Driver is Kylo Ren , that ’s the easy part . But did you know besides his Oscar - nominated role in Marriage Story and The Rise of Skywalker , in 2019 he also star in a snake god movie with Bill Murray ? It ’s true . Here ’s our revaluation of The Dead Do n’t Die :
https://gizmodo.com/even-an-amazing-cast-cant-bring-the-dead-dont-die-to-li-1834023638
Before he was Joker , Joaquin Phoenix almost played another comic book eccentric , Doctor Strange . Rumor is he was tender the theatrical role in the Marvel Studios film but in the end turned it down . But he ’s not a stranger to sci - fi films either . At the age of 12 , he star inSpace Camp , later he did Signs and The Village with M. Night Shyamalan — and also Spike Jonze ’s Her , in which he fell in love with the voice of Scarlett Johansson .
What connection does Birds of Prey.. Oh come on, you know this one.Photo: (Warner Bros.)
Jonathan Pryce ’s career is insanely long and decorate . Brazil comes to bear in mind . The Pirates of the Caribbean and James Bond franchise . He also played the President in G.I. Joe : The Rise of Cobra . But two fantastic callbacks to remember are his roles as Mr. Dark in 1983 ’s Something Wicked This fashion Comes and The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson in 1988 ’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen . Just do n’t forget he was the evilHigh Sparrow in Game of Thronestoo . Shame . Shame .
Lead Actress
Cynthia Erivo is still comparatively new in her career , but we can “ Six Degrees ” her a minute . One of her big breakout part was in Bad Times at the El Royale which was swim in sci - fi royal line ( Chris Hemsworth , Jeff Bridges , etc . ) . She was cast in that film by Drew Goddard , who write Cloverfield and directed The Cabin in the Woods and the Daredevil Netflix show , and work on on , but never made , both X - Force and Sinister Six movies . However , Erivo is presently starring in HBO ’s Stephen King adaptation , The Outsider which our own Cheryl Eddyhas review positively .
Again , Scarlett Johansson is so well - bonk for playing Black Widow that the link here is obvious . But , beyond that , she was also in two “ ghost ” movie that were n’t about ghosts : Ghost in the Shelland Ghost World . She voiced that fancy AI Joaquin Phoenix fell in love with in Her , and star in a creepy-crawly indie alien moving-picture show calledUnder the Skinwhich may be nonplus a TV adaptation soon . Do n’t draw a blank she also starred alongsideObi - Wan himself , Ewan McGregor , in The Island .
Besides playing an bravo in Hanna and a ghost in The endearing Bones , Saoirse Ronan ’s coolheaded title to sci - fi fame is that she reportedly auditioned to be Rey in Star Wars : The Force Awakens . Once upon a time , she was alsorumored for the Scarlet Witch rolewhich eventuallywent to Elizabeth Olsen .
Charlie Theron is already the goddess of sci - fi fantasy for act Furiosa in Mad Max : Fury Road . But that ’s just the hint of the crisphead lettuce . Another fun fact is that in the summertime of 2008 she was in another enceinte - budget comic book movie . Not Iron Man . Not The Dark Knight . Hancock , asterisk Will Smith . From there , the tilt goes on and on : Mighty Joe Young , Snow White and the Huntsman , The Devil ’s Advocate , Æon Flux , Addams Family , The Orville … Theron is sci - fi royalty .
When Renee Zellweger was first break into the concern , she appear in modest roles in a bunch of fully grown movies ( Dazed and Confused , Empire Records , world Bites ) but had a starring theatrical role in 1995 ’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre : The Next multiplication . She also loan her voice to a few animise films like Monsters vs. Aliens and Bee Movie .
Supporting Actor
Tom Hanks has done it all and that includes sci - fi fantasy . Some of his first big hits , like Big and Splash , were in the literary genre , and of course , he ’s the voice of Woody in the Toy Story moving picture . But two fun , slightly under - the - radio detection and ranging connections ( which is difficult when it ’s Mr. Tom Hanks ) are that he starred in the graphic novel adaptation Road to Perdition and played the many individual of a humanity throughout metre in the Wachowski ’s Cloud Atlas . He even starred , and here ’s a deep cut , in a 1982 TV movie yell Mazes and Monsters that was kind of a Dungeons and Dragons ripoff .
Again , Anthony Hopkins is just one of the nifty actors of all - metre . This whole Supporting Actor category is almost too in effect . But while his personation of Hannibal the Cannibal is truly iconic , you do sometimes draw a blank that Hopkins is Odin in the Thor movies . And that he co - starred with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder as Van Helsing in Bram Stroker Dracula . More recently , he played the Lord of Westworld on Westworld .
We all experience Pacino ’s serious roles . He ’s Al Frickin Pacino for cry out loudly . Which is why it ’s still so memorable that Warren Beatty got him to act the heavily made - up bad guy Big Boy Caprice in 1990 ’s Dick Tracy .
Joe Pesci has had an incredibly successful career , particularly if his goal was not to be in any sci - fi movies . With the small exclusion of a role on Tales from the Crypt and in Michael Jackson ’s Moonwalker , Pesci has almost completely avoid deep literary genre flick throughout his vocation so we ’ll resort to this . Our best-loved piece of Pesci trivia is that the same year he released Goodfellas , for which he win an Oscar , he also starred in Home Alone . Talk about a one - two punch .
Obviously , Brad Pitt has done a quite a little of sci - fi . He even did one last twelvemonth , Ad Astra . 12 Monkeys , Fight Club , Benjamin Button , you know them all . If you require something a small nerdier though , you should look at the cinema Pitt ’s production party , Plan B , has acquire . movie like Okja ( by Parasite director Bong Joon - ho ) , Kick - Ass , and TV shows like Netflix ’s The OA and Fox ’s Lego Masters . reckon you did n’t think of those as Brad Pitt projects , good ?
Supporting Actress
Bates has already won an Oscar for a genre movie , starring as Annie Wilkes in the adjustment of Stephen King ’s Misery , so it ’s tough to top that . But the fact she was the representative of Hester , Lee Hornsby ’s Daemon , in the 2007 Golden Compass movie is pretty solid too . Not to mention her roles in Dick Tracy ( which is just filled with Oscar winners ) and multiple season of American Horror Story .
Vice Admiral Holdo ? Of course . Ellie Sadler ? Obviously . legion David Lynch movies ? Hell yes . But , did you know Dern is deliver to her Jurassic root in next summer ’s Jurassic World 3 ? It ’s reliable .
https://gizmodo.com/well-uh-there-it-is-the-heroes-of-jurassic-park-are-1838440097
Oh ScarJo , you already went .
Appropriately , the upcomingBlack Widowfilm star not one but two 2020 Oscar nominees . Along with Johansson , there ’s also Pugh , who had an amazing 2019 with the underratedMidsommerand the grappling biopic Fighting With My Family .
She ’s star in the weekend ’s liberal moving-picture show as a popular comic book quality . She ’s Harley Freakin ’ Quinn ! And she ’ll continue to be Harley Freakin ’ Quinn in the upcoming Suicide Squad sequel . She was also Jane in The Legend of Tarzan , did a voice in the Peter Rabbit film , and will shortly be playing Barbie .
https://gizmodo.com/how-birds-of-prey-stands-out-in-dcs-post-wonder-woman-w-1841453303
The Academy Awards air Sunday nighttime on ABC .
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