‘Gravity’ director Cuaron: Oscar talk premature

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron said Wednesday, October 16, he was surprised by the success of his space thriller “Gravity” and insisted that it was too soon to think about the Oscars.

The film – written by Cuaron and his son Jonas, and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as imperiled astronauts adrift in space after an accident – has garnered rave reviews and a North American box-office record, earning $55.8 million in its debut weekend in October.

“We did not expect such a response,” Cuaron told a news conference during a presentation of his film in Mexico City.

The movie has generated Oscar buzz and drawn comparisons with Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic “2001: A Space Odyssey” since it opened the Venice film festival in August.

But when asked whether “Gravity” could win more than one Academy Award, Cuaron said: “The truth is – thinking, dreaming about it – no. It is too early.”

The film has won plaudits from fellow filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and James Cameron, who called it “the best space film ever done.”

“I understand this coming from those whom I more or less know, but it’s something else [to get calls] from old masters with whom I have no relationship and who suddenly communicate in this way,” the 52-year-old director, accompanied by his 31-year-old son Jonas. said in response. “I can’t ask for more.”

Cuaron shot to fame with the lusty road movie “Y tu mamá tambien” (2001). Since then, he has endeavored Harry Potter (“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”) and apocalyptic Britain (“Children of Men”), among other material outside the Latin-American milieu. – with additional reports by Rappler.com

Also check out the ‘Gravity’ reviews by KD Suarez and Carljoe Javier here on Rappler. – Ed.