Straight Outta Compton producer Will Packer has criticised this year’s Oscar nominations via a lengthy Facebook post. The Academy released their nominees lists last week, and as such received a lot of criticism over a lack of diversity, particularly in the Acting categories, which are entirely comprised of white actors.
Packer congratulated his Straight Outta Compton colleagues who were nominated, as well as the other nominees across the other categories. He then gave a list of actors, directors and producers he believed did an incredible job, but were not nominated, including “Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, Will Smith, John Boyega, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tessa Thompson, Audra McDonald, Adepero Oduye, Samuel L.Jackson, Oshea Jackson Jr, Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, F. Gary Gray and Ryan Coogler.”
He responded to those on social media who are driving the #OscarsSoWhite train, and addressed the Academy directly, demanding that changes be made. Finally, he acknowledged those who have attempted to bring more diversity to the ceremony, including Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and producer Reginald Hudlin.
His sentiments are echoed by Ice Cube, who played a heavy role in the film’s production and whose son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., portrayed him in the N.W.A biopic. Cube spoke about his Oscar’s snub in an interview with Wendy Williams, saying “I’m not surprised. It’s the Oscars — they do what they do. The people loved the movie. The people supported the movie. Number one at the box office, over $200 million worldwide, you know? I can’t be mad.”
Straight Outta Compton‘s Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus were nominated for Best Original Screenplay. It was also named one of the highest grossing films of the year and one of the most successful biopics of all time.
Read Packer’s post in full below:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=551197321706947&id=174101652749851
Smashing the box office and soaring to number 1, generating over $200 million worldwide, reinvigorating record sales for N.W.A, delivering an incredible album from Dr Dre in the form of it’s soundtrack, and quickly becoming a favourite in many many fans as well as the most successful biopic of all time – but no Academy Award nomination. Well, one for “Best Original Screenplay”, but like…
This is the news that was announced this week for Straight Outta Compton – the incredible biopic about N.W.A and their rise to fame. Anyone who saw the film was revelling from how great it really was, but it seems the Academy weren’t really feeling it. Picked to be one of the biggest contenders at this year’s ceremony, a lot of people were left scratching their heads at the notable lack of Compton on the list.
However, not everyone is upset. Ice Cube himself doesn’t seem too worried at all actually. Meeting with Wendy Williams yesterday, he said of the snub “I’m not surprised. It’s the Oscars — they do what they do. The people loved the movie. The people supported the movie. Number one at the box office, over $200 million worldwide, you know? I can’t be mad.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoVA56ASZYQ
Well you might not be mad, Cube, but we certainly are. Fuck the police Academy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7-TTWgiYL4
Nobody who saw the critically-acclaimed N.W.A biopic earlier this year came away with it thinking, “that Jerry Heller seemed like a decent bloke.” Essentially pitted as one of the core reasons the group grew distant and eventually disbanded.
Heller, who was played by Paul Giamatti in the film, has now responded to the film with a huge defamation lawsuit against Ice Cube, Dr Dre, Eazy-E‘s estate, NBC Universal and more. He’s suing for $35 million in “compensatory damages” and more than $75 million in “punitives”, on top of the profits fro the wildly successful film
According to TMZ, he has cited a series of events throughout the film that allegedly never actually happened, including withholding a $75 000 check from Cube, fraudulently conning Dre and Cube into signing “unfavourable” contracts, that he “enjoyed lobster brunches”, and that Eazy-E fired him. He goes on to claim he never permitted the film to “use his likeness”, accuses the producers of using excerpts from his book without permission, and more.
As TMZ also points out, Heller and his lawyers sat in the very front row of the film’s premiere in Beverly Hills.
Perhaps the strangest complaint in his long list of issues, is that the film didn’t use a fake name for his character – his suggestion was “Gary Beller”.
It’s not exactly surprising considering the ridiculous hype, but the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton has just smashed all kinds of records at the box office. It hasn’t even been released in Australia yet, and already it’s the most successful music biopic of ALL TIME.
In only two weeks, the film has earned $134.1 million in the USA alone. The film’s opening weekend alone was legendary, to say the least, and the stellar reviews have kept it going into the second – and now third – weeks. In this time alone, it’s stepped ahead of the previous record holder, Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, which earned $119.5 million in its lifetime.
The film was reportedly made in a budget of $28 million, and has thus far earned more than $100 million that’s pure, unbridled profit.
The highly regarded biopic centres on the life of hip hop stalwarts N.W.A – their discovery, their journey and their rise to the top. Co-produced by Dr Dre and Ice Cube, the artists have had a really hands-on involvement in the film, which has received rave reviews in spite of the 2.5 hour length.
Straight Outta Compton comes out across Australia this Wednesday September 2.
In related news, the hype and promotion surrounding the film has led N.W.A to achieve it’s FIRST EVER top 40 single – nearly three decades since Straight Outta Compton was released.
For more, read our review of Dr Dre’s newly released album Compton, reportedly inspired by, and written for, the film.