Actors ready to rush awards season

The actors strike is (tentatively) over, and we’re cycling through some serious mixed emotions — elation, relief and, yes, resentment that it took studios 118 days to offer a deal that would address fair pay and clearly stated union concerns.

But it’s over ... just in time to think about thawing the Thanksgiving turkey. Yay. I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter and the guy almost ridiculously happy at the prospect of again enjoying some long conversations with actors.

‘A bad game of duck, duck, goose’

An hour into the posh cocktail party that Warner Bros. hosted for Greta Gerwig a couple of weeks ago, the sun was setting, the Wagyu beef sliders were cooling and the view of L.A. was turning golden. Gerwig was off in a corner of Harriet’s Rooftop, a bar atop West Hollywood’s 1 Hotel, laughing with Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa, while her husband, filmmaker and “Barbie” co-writer Noah Baumbach, smiled wanly and tried to look like he was enjoying himself.

And maybe he was. The cheery evening was ostensibly a celebration of Gerwig’s selection as guest artistic director at AFI Fest, though in reality it was part of the beginning of an awards season push for “Barbie.” Not that you’d know it from the surroundings. The only fuchsia on display was musician Mark Ronson (who co-wrote and co-produced five “Barbie” songs and co-wrote the film’s score) sporting a vintage pink Led Zeppelin T-shirt under his navy jacket. Near him, Jay Roach and Susanna Hoffs (married for 30 years!) talked Beatles; Judd Apatow solicited movie recommendations.

The only thing missing? Actors. But now that SAG-AFTRA and the studios have reached a tentative agreement to end the long, costly work stoppage, Warner Bros. could very well throw another party, this time with the magic hour providing a perfect environment for stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to mingle and boost the voter turnout.

With both the holidays and awards season nomination voting fast approaching, the SAG-AFTRA settlement is set to unleash a backlog of pent-up personal appearances for actors from movies that opened during the strike and those with projects now arriving in the usual year-end crush. For instance, just hours after the settlement, Focus Features revised its holiday-themed “mix and mingle” event for “The Holdovers” to include actors Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa. (God bless us, everyone!)

Aside from the Writers Guild moving its ceremony until after the Oscars, the awards season calendar hasn’t changed. It has just compressed, creating an environment that Oscar consultants describe, voices tinged with dread, as “pandemonium,” “bedlam” and a “mad f— dash to the finish.”

“It’s going to be like a bad game of duck, duck, goose,” one Oscar consultant says, describing the challenge ahead to entice voters in a time that will be crowded with holiday parties and actors and movies vying for attention.

The SAG Awards made a couple of small changes to its voting windows and boosted the number of screening slots for members of its nominating committees. (Rise and shine, campers, for those 9 a.m. start times.) But the nominations will still be announced Jan. 10, with the ceremony set for Feb. 24.

So, yes, pandemonium ... but a good tumult. It has been an exceptional year for movies, and having stars like Emma Stone (“Poor Things”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”) go out and promote them will help stoke interest, sell tickets and prod studios to, hopefully, keep making ambitious, original movies. Bring on the bedlam.

Nicolas Cage is ‘pure nightmare fuel’

About a month ago, I wrote about how much I enjoyed Nicolas Cage in “Dream Scenario,” an absurdist comedy that has him playing an ordinary man who begins turning up in random people’s dreams. The movie opens today, and Times film critic Justin Chang mostly enjoyed it too, calling it a kind of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” as reimagined by Charlie Kaufman. If that sounds like your jam (and, admittedly, Justin’s description kind of narrows the audience pool), “Dream Scenario” is worth checking out. It’s playing in just a few theaters now but will be expanding its run in the coming weeks.

Nicolas Cage stars in “Dream Scenario.”

(A24)

Tarantino bringing back the Vista Theatre

My colleague Jen Yamato has some good news, reporting that the historic century-old Vista Theatre in Los Feliz will officially reopen on Nov. 17 following more than two years of ceased operations.

Tarantino revealed in 2021 that he’d purchased the theater from longtime operator Lance Alspaugh, whose Vintage Cinemas group also owns the nearby Los Feliz 3 and the Village Theatres in Coronado. Among the Vista’s updates are a state-of-the-art sound system and renovated interiors. Tarantino, as I’m guessing you know, also runs the New Beverly Cinema, one of the city’s best repertory theaters.

The biggest difference between the two Tarantino-owned cinemas, per Jen: The Vista will primarily program new movies, projecting them on film using only its Norelco 35/70-millimeter dual projector setup.

“It’s a good thing for possibly the world, but certainly America, that he has taken that position,” Alspaugh said of Tarantino’s plan to make the Vista an all-film-print venue. “In a way, his stance is going to help the whole film [movement] because it could wake some of the studio heads up a little bit and put a little pressure on the industry to remember the art of the actual film print.”

The Vista Theatre on Sunset Drive in Los Angeles will soon reopen.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)