Comic book movies might be slicing their way into the upper crust of motion pictures. A couple of months ago, word had it that Warner Brothers was planning to push ‘Wonder Woman’ as a nominee for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Patty Jenkins as Best Director. But they have been beaten to the super powered punch by 20th Century Fox, who have officially kicked off the Oscar race by mailing out screener copies of its summer hit ‘Logan‘.
The screeners only bear the inscription “For Your Consideration” meaning that this film could be nominated in a number of categories including Best Picture, Best Director for James Mangold, Best Actor In A Lead Role for Hugh Jackman and Best Actor In A Supporting Role for Patrick Stewart.
Of course, ‘Logan’ marks Jackman’s farewell performance as Logan/Wolverine, a role that first made him a star in 2000’s ‘X-Men’. Likewise, it’s believed this will be Stewart’s final appearance as Professor Charles Xavier. Fox has never made an awards push for any of its eight prior ‘X-Men’ films… nor did any of them deserve it. But by most accounts– 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes– ‘Logan’ transcends not just the X-films, but comic book movies as a genre, functioning like a modern take on classic westerns. (According to Deadline, Fox didn’t put ‘X-Men’ in the title to help distinguish ‘Logan’ from other popcorn sequels.)
For such a distinguished actor with such a long career, Stewart has never been nominated for an Academy Award. Jackman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Lead Actor for ‘Les Misérables’ and won the Golden Globe for the same role. However, Jackman has another film coming out later this year, ‘The Greatest Showman’. Both that film and ‘Logan’ are from Fox and ultimately, it will be up to Jackman to decide which performance he wants to throw his support behind. ‘The Last Showman’, a musical biopic about the life of P.T. Barnum, is much more up the Academy’s alley, so that could be a safer bet for him.
Incidentally, Jackman has won awards for playing Wolverine before– the 2000 Saturn Award for the first ‘X-Men’, and the 2009-10 SFX and Spike Video Game Awards for ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’. Earlier this year, Jackman and co-star Dafne Keen (X-23) won the MTV Movie + TV Award for Best Duo.
Do you think ‘Logan’ deserves Academy Awards recognition? If it comes down to it, do you think ‘Logan’ or ‘Wonder Woman’ is more worthy?
Source: Deadline
