Will Cloud 9 forecast Oscar's Best Picture?

The uncanny Cloud 9 Oscar connections continue! With the Associated Press reporting that “while the cowboy love story ‘Brokeback Mountain’ has been established as a solid favorite for the best-picture Oscar, the ensemble drama ‘Crash’ has an ardent following and some late-season momentum that could make it a surprise winner…" We agree that Crash could be a Best Picture winner-- according to the Cloud 9 crystal ball!

This site has already pointed out the uncanny similarities between Cloud 9, the surprise motion picture sports comedy hit of the 2006 DVD crop (written and produced by Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures and Academy Award winner Albert S. Ruddy) and Best Picture nominee Crash-- and even more outrageously, the two-degrees-or-less-of-separation between Cloud 9 and every single major 2005 Academy Award nominee.

Now, research by the Tabloid Baby staff has revealed an even scarier, more wondrous connection: two degrees of separation --or less-- between Cloud 9 and every Oscar Best Picture winner of the last 10 years.

The research went back more than 30 years. There was the 1972 Best Picture Oscar, given to The Godfather and its producer Albert S. Ruddy, who’d go on to write and produce Cloud 9 with Hudson and Kearns.

In 1974, the Best Picture Oscar went to Cloud 9’s executive producer, Gray Frederickson, for The Godfather: Part II.

But we skip forward to the past ten years, and look at only the most obvious connections between these lauded films, and Cloud 9, the hilarious motion picture comedy now out on Fox DVD:

1995: Braveheart
Braveheart star, director and producer Mel Gibson is an important presence in Cloud 9's script. Billy Cole, played by Burt Reynolds, is supposed to deliver a ficus tree to Gibson's estate, and is constantly berated by Wong, the nursery owner played by Paul Rodriguez, for failing to do so.

1996: The English Patient
Harvey Weinstein of Miramax took home the statuette. Cloud 9 writers and producers Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures worked with--and for-- Harvey when they produced and wrote Miramax’s first reality television project, The Best Money Can Buy (executive produced by ‘Crocodile’ Dundee director Peter Faiman).

1997: Titanic
Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio was the leading contender to star as the boy who masquerades as a girl soccer player in the 1992 comedy Ladybugs, produced by Cloud 9 producers Albert S. Ruddy and Gray Frederickson (Harry Basil, who directed Cloud 9, was associate producer on the project). Leonardo was rejected after it was decided that he was too pretty.

1998: Shakespeare in Love
See “The English Patient.” Cloud 9 writers-producers Kearns & Hudson produced the Miramax TV project while Weinsten bought-- uh, campaigned for-- the Best Picture Oscar that beat Private Ryan. Meanwhile, Cloud 9 movie-stealer Gary Busey and Ben Affleck starred in the 2003 "World Poker Tour" Hollywood Home Game. Ben was featured with Cloud 9 costar D.L. Hughley in Comedy Central’s Last Laugh ’04.

1999: American Beauty
Star Kevin Spacey appeared with Gary Busey in the 2002 television special, Inside the Playboy Mansion and 1999’s Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary.

2000: Gladiator
Star Russell Crowe appeared with Burt Reynolds in the film Mystery, Alaska. Costar Joaquin Phoenix showed up at the book party for Tabloid Baby, written by Cloud 9 writer-producer Burt Kearns, at the Bel Age Hotel on the Sunset Strip in 1999.

2001: A Beautiful Mind
See Gladiator for the Reynolds-Crowe connection. Also, Cloud 9 actor Rick Overton appeared in The Rocketeer with A Beautiful Mind’s Oscar-winning Best Supporting Actress, Jennifer Connelly.

2002: Chicago
Star and Oscar nominee John C. Reilly starred in Boogie Nights with Burt Reynolds (who received an Oscar nomination for his role).

2003: The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King
Cloud 9 star Burt Reynolds directed and starred in the film, The Last Producer, featuring Rings hobbit Sean Astin. Gary Busey’s son, Jake, starred in Rings director Peter Jackson’s film, The Frighteners.

2004: Million Dollar Baby
Cloud 9 writer and producer Albert S. Ruddy won his second Best Picture Oscar for this film. Ruddy signed the Million Dollar Baby deal with director Clint Eastwood on the Cloud 9 set in Pacific Palisades. Cloud 9 actors Ken Garito and Tony Danza appear in Crash, co-written and directed by Ruddy protégé and Million Dollar Baby writer Paul Haggis.

As for 2005? Now of course, there are connections between Cloud 9 and Brokeback Mountain, which were pointed out on this site (as well as the new screenplay by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures that has its own place in the Brokeback trend), so anything goes when it comes to Oscar voting.

But for now, the Cloud 9 Magic Volleyball is pointing toward Crash.

Can you find more Cloud 9 Oscar connections? Send them here!

And see clips from Cloud 9 here!

View Cloud 9 bonus feature & clips online!

The Cloud 9 DVD bonus featurette, Burt Reynolds' Fight Club: Directing A Rumble, can now be seen online, along with four hilarious clips from the movie, written and produced by Brett Hudson & Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures, and Academy Award winner Albert S. Ruddy.

Ifilm is running the DVD extra, one of three produced exclusively by Frozen Pictures for the Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD version of the motion picture starring Burt Reynolds as a Malibu conman who starts a beach volleyball team comprised of strippers.

Costars include D.L. Hughley, Paul Rodriguez, Angie Everhart, Gabrielle Reece, Kenya Moore, Patricia de Leon, Kathryn Winnick, Marne Patterson, Paul Wesley, Ken Garito, Tony Danza, Tom Arnold and Tony Danza.

Burt Reynolds' Fight Club documents the technique, staging and unexpected drama behind the scenes as the star conceives, choreographs and directs an action-packed fight scene featuring himself, Angie Everhart and Hollywood stuntman and action star Casey Hendershot.

Cloud 9 ifilm clips:


“Party Planner”


“Teamwork”


“The Best”


“Bonsai!”

From Seventh Python to Sweetzer Avenue

Looks like Ben Tierney may have found his breakthrough ticket to Hollywood.

The same week the Oscar nominations are announced, the cool young director’s new short film has spread across the Internet—and it’s not a parody of Brokeback Mountain.

Some might say that Sweetzer Avenue is the flip side of Crash. It tells a lonely story that unspools behind the closed doors of one of those apartment buildings we drive past on the way to the studio, and along the way finally puts Coldplay’s music in its proper shaggy context.

We know Ben, a tall, lean talented lad who came to L.A. a few years back by way of Edinburgh, Tokyo, Sydney and the recommendation of Aussie TV titan Linn Taylor.

He landed in the Frozen Pictures office, and worked on Frozen projects like The Seventh Python, the musical documentary feature about chief Rutle and Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes, that’s in post production and coming out soon.

Ben’s got all the right UK credentials. He’s worked on music video projects with Talvin Singh, is developing a film based on a (Tabloid Baby favorite) Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette, The Buddha of Suburbia) story, and he’s directing a new video for the band Pariah’s The Sound of The Beat.

Keep an eye out for Ben Tierney. Take a couple of minutes and watch his new short film. It’s his giant step to features.

Note: You need Macromedia Flash to see the ifilm. Get it here.

Exclusive! Oscar's Two Degrees of Cloud 9

Slide over, Kevin Bacon! Cloud 9 is the new hub of Hollywood connections.

And who needs Six Degrees?

With Cloud 9, it’s two degrees— at the most!

Hollywood has been buzzing this week about the eerie similarities between Cloud 9 and Oscar-nominated picture, Crash. But there are even closer connections to each nominated director and every actor and actress nominated for starring and supporting roles!

When it comes to Cloud 9 and the 78th Annual Academy Awards Nominations, the links go far beyond The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the popular parlor game in which the actor is connected to other actors he worked with in six steps or less.

Kevin is left in the dust by Cloud 9, the ensemble comedy motion picture written and produced by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures and Oscar winner Albert S. Ruddy (for Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood, director of Mystic River, which starred—Kevin Bacon).

Take any of nominee. Take two steps or less—and you land on Cloud 9!

The smart, raucous comedy premiered on Fox Home Entertainment DVD in January, thereby missing the Oscar qualification by only days and format. But a quick look at this year's crop of talented nominees shows that Cloud 9, its actors and producers, had a great influence on getting them there!

And by the way, Oscar host Jon Stewart is in the book, Tabloid Baby!

What follows is a quick run through of the more obvious Cloud 9 connections:

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) worked with Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights.

Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow) worked with Cloud 9’s Ken Garito and Tony Danza in Crash.

Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) co-starred in Four Feathers with Kate Hudson, the niece of Cloud 9 co-writer and producer Brett Hudson.

Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line) showed up at the publication party for the book, Tabloid Baby (written by Cloud 9 writer and producer Burt Kearns), at the Diaghilev Bar in the Bel Age Hotel in November 1999.

David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) worked with Cloud 9 movie-stealer Gary Busey in The Firm.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents) starred with Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road. Hopkins is not actually in Cloud 9, but plays a pivotal role, as Burt Reynolds’ character breaks into “Anthony Hopkins’ house” and borrows his clothes for a wild Cabo Wabo party after DL Hughley, playing a chauffeur, drives Hopkins to the airport.

Felicity Huffman (Transamerica) is married to William H. Macy, who appeared in Boogie Nights with Burt Reynolds.

Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice) played a former stripper and performs a lap dance in Domino. Cloud 9 features strippers and a lap dance by Angie Everhart as a stripper who becomes a beach volleyball star.

Charlize Theron (North Country) appears with Mel Gibson (whose ficus tree is a key element in Cloud 9) and Anthony Hopkins in the documentary, Cinema Mil. In 2002, she was nominated for a Razzie award for her performance in Sweet November, the same year Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone were nominated as Worst Screen Couple in Driven.

Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line) starred in Legally Blonde with a small dog named Moonie. Moonie appears as Gary Busey’s dog in Cloud 9.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

George Clooney (Syriana) appeared with Cloud 9 costar Paul Rodriguez appeared on the 2003 TV special, Playboy’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. He also appeared in the TV series Baby Talk, in which Tony Danza supplied the voice of a baby.

Matt Dillon (Crash) appeared in Crash with Tony Danza and Ken Garito from Cloud 9.

Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) played Pig Vomit in the Howard Stern movie, Private Parts. Cloud 9 star Angie Everhart dated Howard Stern.

Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) starred in Day After Tomorrow, which featured Ross King in the role of a TV reporter. Ross, now a weatherman and show biz correspondent for KTLA News in LA, was in the running for the role of Tommy Z in Cloud 9.

William Hurt (A History of Violence) was featured along with Burt Reynolds in the video documentary, Sex at 24 Frames Per Second, The Ultimate Journey Through Sex in Cinema.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams (Junebug) has wrapped a new movie, Standing Still, which also stars Cloud 9 starlet Marne Patterson.

Catherine Keener (Capote) starred with the late Vincent Schiavelli in Death To Smoochy. Schiavelli, of course, starred in Cloud 9 director Harry Basil’s notorious Rodney Dangerfield flick, The 4th Tenor.

Frances McDormand (North Country) appeared with Barbra Streisand and Mel Gibson at the 69th Academy Awards, when she won an Oscar for Fargo. Streisand and Gibson are referred to and the subject of important plot points in Cloud 9.

Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) appeared with Cloud 9 star Tom Arnold on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on February 22, 2005.

Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) and Cloud 9 actor Jeff Altman, appeared as guest stars on the series Baywatch in the early 1990s.

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) co-wrote the screenplay for Tortilla Soup, which starred Paul Rodriguez, who coincidentally plays an Asian character, Wong, in Cloud 9.

Bennett Miller (Capote) attended NYU Film School. It was at NYU, where he became captivated by a poster of Gabrielle Reece on the wall of his son’s dorm room, that Albert S. Ruddy got the idea of a movie about beach volleyball. His partners Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns added the stripper element when they developed the treatment.

Paul Haggis (Crash) wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, the film that won Albert S. Ruddy his second Best Picture Oscar. He also worked with Ruddy on the TV series, Walker, Texas Ranger.

George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck) appeared with Gary Busey in the 2002 television special, Inside The Playboy Mansion.

Steven Spielberg (Munich) directed Minority Report, which featured Paul Wesley, who plays Jackson Fargo in Cloud 9, in an uncredited role as “Nathan with bicycle.” And Cloud 9's executive producer Gray Frederickson appeared as Lt. Bressler in Spielberg's 1941.

Amazed? Stunned at the power and influence of a small ensemble comedy about beach volleyball strippers? So are we.

Send in your own Cloud 9 Oscar connections, and get the chance to win a copy of Cloud 9!