'Harry Potter': Oscar will come calling says Rotten Tomatoes head

During promotions for Rotten Tomatoes’ new weekly online series Adam Carolla’s Rotten Tomatoes Review, Tomatoes’ Editor-in-Chief Matt Atchity spoke with EW about what it was like to work with the “rowdy” funnyman and shared some of his picks for the buzziest films of fall and Oscars 2012. For starters, he thinks 2012 is going to be a golden year for the Harry Potter franchise. See what else he say on everything from Potter to 3-D to other Oscar picks below:

On his new co-host, Atchity said, “Adam’s rowdy, he’s funny, and he’s very opinionated…. He sort of fulfills that role of being the Everyman, the voice of the people.” Atchity did admit he appreciates the chance to express his own opinions (and boy does he have a few — keep reading), since his day job usually calls for him to serve as the herald of others’. He hopes more celebrities will follow in Carolla’s footsteps and bring their own two cents to Rotten Tomatoes. “The great thing about working with somebody like Adam is that it opens all kinds of doors.” See the first installment of Adam Carolla’s Rotten Tomatoes Review here.

But first! One of Atchity’s opinions focused squarely on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows–Part 2: “Harry Potter’s definitely going to be seen as one of the biggest movies of the year,” said Atchity. “And I think that’ll get reflected at Oscar time. We’re going to see some Oscar nominations. As we all know, the Academy votes with their hearts as much as anything else, and there will be some last-chance nominations that happen with that one.” He suspected the film could even get some acting nods.

What other films have a shot? He thought there were a few “hidden gems,” including Moneyball and Warrior. “I’d be really disappointed if we didn’t see nominations for both Nick Nolte and Tom Hardy [from Warrior],” he said. He’s also looking forwarding to upcoming Brit espionage flick Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and David Fincher’s version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. “I hope that we get a similar thing to Let the Right One In and [its English-language remake] Let Me In, where they actually managed to make a really solid, really exciting remake of a movie that had only been out about a year earlier.”

Perhaps Atchity’s biggest prediction of all was for the impending demise of 3-D. “The elephant in the room of the movie industry is that people are going to less movies,” he said. “[The reason] why we’re getting so many 3-D movies is because theater owners are desperate to get people out to the theaters for an experience that can’t be replicated at home.” But with news that those nose-pinching specs will not longer be subsidized as of next summer, Atchity is hopeful that “we’re starting to see people abandon 3-D. I’d love to see us collectively, as a society, stop going to 3-D movies that are needlessly in 3-D.”