"No Country," "Blood" lead grim Oscar field

By Dean Goodman

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood," two violent portraits of moral decline, led the Oscar race with eight nominations each

on Tuesday, but the main drama was whether a Hollywood writers strike would cancel the awards show altogether.

The British period romance "Atonement" and the legal thriller "Michael Clayton," both dealing in lies and deceit, picked up seven nominations each.

All four films were nominated for best picture, along with the quirky teen comedy "Juno," a rare showcase for levity in a field packed with heavy material.

"These are grim pictures for grim times," said Robert Wilonsky, movie critic with Village Voice Media and the Dallas Observer.

Indeed, the main question in Hollywood was not who would win the entertainment industry's most coveted awards, but whether the ceremony would take place at all.

Hollywood has been crippled by a writers strike now in its 12th week. If the walkout is not settled by the time the awards take place on February 24, the Writers Guild of America has threatened to protest at the ceremony, and the Screen Actors Guild vowed its members would not to cross any picket lines.

"I don't think anybody is going to go (to the Oscars ceremony)," Oscar-nominated "Michael Clayton" writer-director Tony Gilroy told Reuters at a union rally in New York. "It won't be a decision I'll be taking individually. It's one of these situations where you just don't cross a picket line, and I think everybody knows that."

Oscar organizers insist the show will go on one way or another as scheduled.

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"No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" each got only one acting nomination. Spanish actor Javier Bardem was cited for his supporting role as a cool-headed killer who cuts a random swath of destruction across small-town Texas in "No Country For Old Men."

British actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who previously won an Oscar for 1989's "My Left Foot," was cited for his lead role as a misanthropic oilman in "There Will Be Blood."

Both movies were set up as co-productions between Walt Disney Co's Miramax Films and Viacom Inc's Paramount Vantage by producer Scott Rudin.

"No Country," directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a gory meditation on slipping moral values presented within the framework of a highly stylized chase movie.

"People are living with a certain amount of fear and don't quite know what it means to feel safe anymore. And I think that's really what this movie is describing," Rudin said.