'Gravity' steals the show at the Oscars

While 'American Hustle' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street' couldn't register a single Oscar win despite multiple nominations, 'Gravity' stole the show with seven gongs

No sci-fi film has ever won an Oscar for Best Picture. The tradition continued at the 86th Academy Awards as well. Nevertheless, the space epic, 'Gravity', swept the board with seven Oscars - out of the possible 10 nods - including Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron. It also won almost all of the technical categories, that includes categories like Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. On the other end, 'Dallas Buyers Club' and '12 Years a Slave' both won three Oscars each.


Pic Courtesy: Warner Bros  

1. The film is 90 minutes long. In real life, the International Space Station travels at approx. 17,500 mph and orbits the earth every 90 minutes. The debris field also circles the earth every 90 mins.

2. After Robert Downey Jr. left the project, several high profile actors were considered including Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington, before George Clooney was cast.

3. While filming an underwater scene, Alfonso Cuaron held his breath along with Sandra Bullock to make sure he wasn't asking too much of her. He soon found he couldn't match 49-year-old lung power.

4. Angelina Jolie was originally cast but she decided to drop out later. Natalie Portman too turned down the role shortly before she announced her pregnancy. Sandra Bullock entered later.

5. The entire film took 4.5 years to be made - from conceptualisation to execution - with animation process lasting 2.5 years. This was before the production team even began to shoot with actors on the sets.

6. After watching the film, James Cameron, director of Avatar and a close friend of Alfonso Cuarón , said, "I was stunned, absolutely floored. I think it's the best space photography ever done."

7. The off-screen voice you hear belongs to Ed Harris. The 4-time Oscar-nominee has earlier played real-life mission director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13 (1995) and John Glenn in The Right Stuff (1983).

Money matters
Gravity has given Sandra Bullock the biggest payday of her career after she negotiated a 15 per cent cut of the box office takings in addition to her USD 20 million fee. Made at a budget of USD 100 million, the film has exceeded industry expectations to take USD 700 million worldwide so far.

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