Oscar Contenders No More, The Road and The Soloist Get Bumped to 2009

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 19, 2008

This year’s crowded Oscar race just got substantially lighter. Two high profile films, both expected to be strong contenders for the Academy Awards, have been moved to early 2009 release dates.

The Road is a post-apocalyptic drama from The Weinstein Company, directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition), based on the best-selling novel by Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men), and starring Viggo Mortensen (nude steam-bath wrestling) as a father wandering a desolate America with his son. It was unofficially pushed back from November to December just this past week, but now it appears to be heading for a release in February or March. Initial reports alluded that the film was still in post-production and probably wouldn’t make a 2008 date, but the problem may actually be one of quality (perceived quality anyway.)

A recent test screening in NYC resulted in several negative comments from folks who supposedly saw the film in it’s admittedly unfinished state. Quiet Earth collects several of them, but the gist of it all can be summed up with the words “awful, repetitive, awful, annoying, awful, disjointed, awful.” They liked Nick Cave’s score though. So that’s something. One commenter also noted that Harvey Weinstein left the screening early… for whatever that’s worth.

The Soloist is a pre-apocalyptic drama from Dreamworks Pictures, directed by Joe Wright (Atonement), and starring Robert Downey Jr. (Weird Science) and Jamie Foxx (Booty Call) as a Los Angeles journalist in need of a story and homeless schizophrenic in need of a, well, a home I guess. Adding to the Oscar-bait vibe is it’s based on a true story. The release date is now set for March 13th. Paramount is handling the distribution and depending on who you ask their reasoning is either based on competition or box-office potential.

Some believe they’re moving the film back to avoid competing with two of their own preferred Oscar contenders, David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road. The semi-official insider line however appears to be that aside from simply thinning the holiday season herd, Paramount believes the film can simply earn more money from a less crowded March schedule. Until the move, Downey and/or Foxx seemed to be a sure bet for a Best Actor nomination.

Of the two, I’m more annoyed by the delay of The Road. I’m reading the book now and it’s spellbinding, raw, and punctuated with real brutality. Hillcoat’s a master of all things sparse and bleak, and I was looking forward to the this being the perfect antidote to holiday cheer. The Soloist delay? I’m okay with that. Downey is always impressive, and I’m sure he does a great job, but Foxx is supremely annoying when he’s in award mode. He’s second only to Sean Penn when it comes to Oscar pandering, and he’s in desperate need of a sit-down chat with Tropic Thunder’s Kirk Lazarus.

Are you upset by either of these release date changes?

Related Reading:

Comment Policy: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Film School Rejects reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. We also reserve the right to modify any curse words in your comments and make you look like an idiot. Thank You!

Davebaxter1989

You know what gets my goat? "Lobbying for nominations"

Why do these moves mean no Oscars? They should just mean no Oscars until next year, you know when there eligible if there good enough. but that's not what the Oscars are now. Don't get me wrong I think that Best Picture winners are generally fantastic but why should summer films be frowned upon? and films that the studio dumped early? If there good enough then they should get a shot and if vote lobbying was banned then voters would choose what they think is the best film of the previous year not which studio was nicest to them in the run up.

Nick

The Road is such a terrific novel and I'm really psyched for the film. Personally I liked The
Road better than No Country..so seeing as that No Country was so friggin awesome it goes
without saying I think The Road is gonna blow my mind. Just looking at the production still
gives me goosbumps. I'm willing to wait a few more months.

Chris

Wow way to choose the two worst films those amazing actors ever made.

(Booty Call, Weird Science)

Jonathan

Chris, I'm fairly confident that was done tongue-in-cheek.

And I am devastated by this news about The Road. I hope and pray it isn't true.

Test audiences are, as a whole, ignorant of good cinema. Using them is such a joke. Did Da Vinci have people look over the Mona Lisa before he completed it and take their advice? Bah.

Ross

I agree that of the two, The Road push-back is the bigger disappointment. I've read the novel and as for McCarthy's novels being adapted into movies, I'm not a fan of All The Pretty Horses, but No Country For Old Men was great and I was really looking forward to The Road's adaptation. But I'll take a quality February or March release rather than have it be sloppy and rushed to theaters too soon just so it can be considered for the Oscars.

As for the test audiences who allegedly said it was awful with a side of awful, I can understand that. The problem The Road will have no matter when it's released is the majority of probably won't have read the book so they won't know to expect a lot of "nothing." They won't understand those "nothing" sequences where it's just The Man and The Boy are so much more important than the so-called "action" scenes. Asking the average movie audience today to actually appreciate two people on screen doing nothing - not fighting, f-ing, or frolicking in a music montage - is a bit much.

You might as well ask them to read the book beforehand.

Sam

Wait, I thought they could still contend if they were released before the Academy
Awards. Guess I'm an idiot.

Davebaxter1989

You know what other film was "dumped" from the Oscar race?

The Godfather - So it went on to win at the NEXT Oscars a year later.

Keith

Unfortunately a March release is a death sentence for Oscar potential. There are too many films released toward the end of the year as Oscar bait and they only nominate 5 to 6 in each category. Most early release fall off the radar unless the film is absolutely amazing or the performances are. Movies must be release by christmas to be considered tfor the following Oscars which is why you see films like "The Curious Case..." and Australia. The studios are blaming the writers' strike for the push backs. They have nothing to release in 2009 because of the strike.

Davebaxter1989

The Godfather - 24 March 1972

Drew

I'm having a tough time taking this article seriously. For one, it has not been confirmed
that The Road has been moved til 2009, all we know for sure is that it's not ready for its
intended Nov 24 release. In addition, I've read as many reviews from the NYC test
screening as possible and as a whole the positives clearly outweigh the negatives,
whereas here you quote yourself (without seeing the film) with â€œawful, repetitive, awful,
annoying, awful, disjointed, awful.â€ Besides, this is a very rushed, rough cut for a test
screening, which is not supposed to be cinema gold. Maybe you don't understand this,
after all you're writing for "Film School Rejects". I would expect a film school reject to
connect Downey, Foxx and Mortensen (Nice job spelling 'Mortensen' wrong by the way) with "Weird Science", "Bootie Call" and "nude steam-bath wrestling" respectively. Any
other sensible person would equate Foxx with say his Oscar win or nomination? Or
Mortensen with his Oscar nom? I also expect you'll delete this post, but I don't see why
since I followed your comment policy by arguing intelligently. Maybe you should take
some of your website's advice, after all your article is more opinionated than factual.

Oscar Contenders No More, The Road and The Soloist Get Bumped to 2009

Related Topics:

Related Reading: