007 references at the Oscars (R)

"Who's this Sandler kid?"

The Oscars (R) telecast on ABC early in the proceedings had a montage of clips of popular movies of yesteryear. Austin Powers made the cut while 007 got blanked.

Shortly thereafter, there was a montage of actors talking about the first movie they saw. Adam Sandler said his was Diamonds Are Forever when he was 5. He said something about being impressed by Sean Connery’s performance and his chest hair and that inspired him to become an actor. For some critics, that will be seen as another reason why Bond films aren’t good.

UPDATE: Bond film alumnus John Richardson lost out on a visual effects Oscar. He and three others were nominated for Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The special effects team for Hugo won the award.

UPDATE II: Skyfall screenwriter John Logan, nominated for Hugo, loses out on the adapted screenplay award. The writers for The Descendants win.

UPDATE III: The In Memoriam segment had only one person with any major 007 connection, former studio executive John Calley, who was involved in relaunching the Bond series with 1995’s GoldenEye. Barbara Broccoli, co-boss of Eon Productions, reportedly had issues with Calley. Like him or not, he was a major player at a time some questioned whether the series could be revived after a long hiatus.

Syd Cain, who passed away last year and helped sets on a number of 007 films, wasn’t included. In 2011, major actors such as Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Falk passed away as did Gilbert Cates, a director who also produced a number of Oscar telecasts and who first hired Billy Crystal as host of the Oscars telecast.

Skyfall scribe Logan gets Oscar nomination for Hugo

John Logan, one of three screenwriters for Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, picked up a nomination for best adapted screenplay for Hugo. He was previously nominated for Oscars for the original screenplays of The Aviator and Gladiator.

Logan was brought in to work on Skyfall by director Sam Mendes. His involvement was publicly disclosed about a year ago, when Eon Productions announced the 007 film was back on after being indefinitely delayed because of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s bankruptcy. Skyfall’s other screen writers are Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who’ve worked on the series since 1999’s The World Is Not Enough.

Logan’s nomination for Hugo was one of 11 received by the Martin Scorsese-directed film.