One for the road clears the path

ONE boy's misfortune is another's opportunity. Eleven-year-old AFI award-winner Kodi Smit-McPhee has had to drop his role as the young Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Confirmed to replace him in the film, now shooting in Sydney, is 13-year-old singer Troye Mellet. And Mellet looks and sounds the part to play the young Hugh Jackman. Yes, he's from Perth (Jackman trained there) and yes, he can sing. Perth already knows Mellett as a singer from local telethons. Others have noticed him on YouTube with a charming webcam solo filmed at his house (try the tag, TroyeSivan18). But no, Hollywood casting agents didn't find him on the internet. Mellet is yet to join his co-stars Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston and the Black Eyed Peas' Will i Am on set in Sydney. It's not all bad for Smit-McPhee though; he had to move on to shooting the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's moving novel, The Road, with Aussie director John Hillcoat. He'll star opposite Viggo Mortensen in the post-apocalyptic two-hander that has somehow squeezed in a starring role for Charlize Theron (she's the mother seen inflashback).

WINNERS are grinners and nominees are has-beens, it appears. The Academy Award best picture, No Country for Old Men, was the only Oscar winner to surge at the Australian box office the weekend after the Oscar ceremony. Admittedly all nominees have been on screen for at least three weeks, and Juno and Atonement passed $10 million on the weekend: astounding results for both films. Box office for No Country rose 90 per cent to $5.2 million in the week after its wins. By comparison, Juno fell 19 per cent that week but still earned $405,310. The top three films last weekend were parody Meet the Spartans with $1.3 million, Bucket List ($1.2 million) and Jumper ($908,929). And we won't have to wait too long for the next film from Joel and Ethan Coen. Their spy comedy, Burn After Reading, is likely to open here in the last quarter of 2008. It stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton.

THE post-Academy Awards recriminations have begun with critics suggesting a telecast overhaul to reignite interest in the event. But Reel Time prefers to look ahead and several prognosticators have already assembled their lists of likely Oscar contenders next year. These lists are notoriously flawed: remember Charlie Wilson's War, Lions for Lambs and Hairspray were all considered award certs this time last year. But as a primer on potentially attractive cinema, such lists are fun. "Oscar-worthy" new films include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road, The Soloist, and the adaptations of stage plays John Patrick Shanley's Doubt and Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon. I'm tempted to dismiss the last two films because plays invariably fall short on screen (Proof, anyone?) And the adaptation of the novel Revolutionary Road is directed by Sam Mendes and re-teams Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time since Titanic. How could one film match those expectations? The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher's adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald story, stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton. Then there's the latest from Atonement's Joe Wright, The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. It's about a homeless musician who dreams of playing a major concert hall. Hmm. I'd be punting on Baz Luhrmann's Australia or Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, starring Russell Crowe and DiCaprio.

IT'S not like Italians to argue but the announcement of a list of 100 films from Italy's "golden age" considered to be cultural treasures and worthy of restoration has unleashed a brouhaha. The Venice Film Festival initiative includes many of the predictable directors - Federico Fellini has seven films in the 100, Luchino Visconti six, Vittorio De Sica, Francesco Rosi and Mario Monicelli five each - but that's the problem. The list focuses on a handful of directors while other notables are missing, including the first woman nominated for a best director Oscar, Lina Wertmueller (for 1977's Pasquino Settebellezze, Seven Beauties) and Liliana Cavani, a three-time nominee for Cannes's Palme d'Or.