This is the year no actors want to get an Oscar. It’s a new world, ain’t it? Joaquin Phoenix, so good in “The Master,” rubbished the whole process recently in a magazine interview. Daniel Day Lewis, aka “Lincoln,” does very little to help himself ever. And now Denzel Washington has opened in “Flight” and rocketed right to the top of the list of possible winners. Last night “Flight” opened in 1,884 theaters — still hundreds of theaters are closed, and less than 2,000 is not a wide release– took in over $8 million. A $22 million weekend for a serious film is excellent–and the movie has suffered from Hurricane Sandy.

But as Denzel, who won his last Oscar in 2002 for “Training Day,” vaults to the top of the list, he also is a reluctant participant. At the New York Film Festival he skipped his own premiere party. He also avoided a big digital print junket. He did little on the red carpet. On stage he stood in the background. Since then he’s continued to be low profile. A little too low profile if he wants to win. Of course, with two Oscars, he may not care.

Anyway, it’s so good to see Robert Zemeckis score with “Flight.” It’s a solid studio film, well made, with outstanding ingredients. The opening scenes of the plane in free fall are breathtaking. But later, Washington and the entire supporting cast are just note for note spot on. And Zemeckis never lets up or gives Denzel an out. My favorite scene is Tamara Tunie, as the flight attendant who’s known him the longest– telling Denzel’s pilot that she knows his history and isn’t letting him get away with it. Again. solid.

So watch “Flight” takes its place in a list that includes Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, The Master, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Lincoln, maybe Rust and Bone, and maybe — from what I’m hearing– Hitchcock. And don’t forget my new Best Supporting Actor possibility– Javier Bardem in “Skyfall.” No kidding.

There have been some controversies about “Seal Team Six,” the film being broadcast on Sunday night on National Geographic Channel. “Seal Team Six” tells one version of how US Navy Seals found and killed Osama bin Laden. Harvey Weinstein bought the film directed by John Stockwell and is said to have pumped up the role of President Barack Obama to make him look more heroic and decisive.

If that were true, you’d think “Seal Team Six” would be shown on the Sundance Channel or on PBS–someplace with a more liberal bent. But guess who owns the National Geographic Channel? Why, none other than Rupert Murdoch.

Indeed, National Geographic Channel is part of the Fox Cable Channels. It is directly owned by News Corp, which also owns right wing news org Fox News and reactionary newspapers around the world like the New York Post.

Murdoch is very much in charge of News Corp, and knows what’s going on around him. Certainly, his involvement in the company was born out of the Leveson investigation in Parliament over phone hacking.

So now Murdoch is broadcasting a movie everyone should see on Sunday night. He’s doing it on the National Geographic Channel. Not only does “Seal Team Six” show the bravery of the men and women who found and destroyed bin Laden. It also shows President Obama in archival footage– and lots of it–taking the lead and looking very presidential throughout this momentous and historical episode.

Stockwell was guest of honor at a private screening Friday night put together at the Core Club by Peggy Siegal Company with the usual high end media crowd including Terry McDonell (now the digital whiz of Time Inc), NBC newscaster Felicia Taylor, and many others who’d been displaced in the last few days by Hurricane Sandy.

I asked Stockwell, who brought his investment banker daughter and her Wall Street pals, about all the rumors of Weinstein advancing a liberal agenda in “Seal Team Six.” He got a good laugh, and then reminded me that National Geographic Channel was owned by Fox and Rupert Murdoch.

Something else about “Seal Team Six”: it essentially tells the same story that we’ll see after the election in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty.” That film, which will play in theaters, and “STS” share a producer– Nicholas Chartier, who left the Bigelow film and put his efforts into “STS.” It was definitely worth it!

“Seal Team Six” airs on National Geographic this Sunday at 8pm in all markets. Check local listings.

James Bond– thwarted in the US to premiere this week but he’s kicking butt around the world. “Skyfall” is now circling $100 million from the box office in nine countries including Russia, France and Brazil and of course the United Kingdom. The 23rd James Bond film doesn’t open in the US until November 9th. But following the pattern of many big budget films this year like “The Avengers” and “Battleship,” “Skyfall” is hedging its bets by avoiding too much exposure here and getting its money in quickly. No need to bypass the US though — the press loves “Skyfall” and reviews are the best for any James Bond in the last generation.

News today– while most of us were dealing with Hurricane Sandy–that Lucas Film was sold to Disney for $4 billion. Robert Iger and Alan Horn got a bargain I think. Three more “Star Wars” movies are included– they will each make a billion dollars worldwide with no effort. Lucas will produce them with Kathleen Kennedy, but he won’t direct them. He’s already said he wanted to make smaller films–hopefully unlike “Red Tails,” a disaster by any accounting.

So who should direct the three remaining “Star Wars” installments? That’s the big mystery. We’re already hearing names from Christopher Nolan to David Fincher to Joss Whedon. What about Robert Zemeckis, a Spielberg protege who’s had enormous successes like “Back to the Future” and “Roger Rabbit,” not to mention “Forest Gump” and the upcoming “Flight.” What “Star Wars” needs is heart and character development. Those elements were sorely missing from the three later films like “Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.”

Also, what could Lucas’s outline be for the three “new” movies? Chronologically they follow “Return of the Jedi.” Do we see Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill in their 50s and 60s? Darth Vader with a talk show?

Whatever happens, “Star Wars” has endless possibilities for making more money. And Lucasfilm at Disney is the right fit. As Steven Spielberg takes Dreamworks over to Universal, Lucas arrives at the Mouse House. The cycle of life continues!

“Star Wars” fans– tell us who should steer the final journeys.