Weinstein bringing "A Single Man" as date to Oscars

After glowing reactions radiating from Venice (and the festival awarding its Best Actor prize to Colin Firth), nearly a week of endless buzz surrounding a certain studio acquisition, and the Toronto screening where potential buyers finally got a look at Tom Ford's directorial debut, "A Single Man" has found a faithful companion in Harvey Weinstein.

Despite the financial woes that have plagued The Weinstein Company for the past year, which caused the notoriously headstrong brothers to bump a pair of Awards Season hopefuls (the John Cusack/Gong Li epic "Shanghai," and Andrew Jarecki's narrative feature debut "All Good Things," starring Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella, his first film since the incendiary 2003 doc "Capturing the Friedmans"), Harvey beat out reportedly thick competition from fellow studio heads to grab U.S. and German distribution rights for Ford's festival favorite.  The deal is estimated between $1 million and $2 million, a modest sum, though we need only glance back at "The Reader" to be reminded how much cash Weinstein is willing to pump into campaigns and court Academy attention for seasonal darlings.

Variety reports the studio plans on a late-breaking platform launch for "A Single Man" to qualify for Academy contention (duh) before rolling the film out into wider release in January.  It remains to be seen whether the recent relocation of "The Road" to November 25, where it joins the Weinstein's own assumed Best Picture frontrunner "Nine," will have an effect on the latter film's release plans.  It's very unusual for a studio to launch competing films, especially in wide release, which is currently the defacto plan for both, and on such a busy weekend for Oscar bait (Paramount also just bumped buzz magnet "Up in the Air" from Dec. 4 to a limited opening on Nov. 13, with a wide expansion scheduled on, you guessed it, November 25).  It's conceivable that "Nine" could open in limited release that weekend, as Bob Weinstein already told Variety he plans on booking 1,200-1,500 screens for "The Road," and "Chicago" received a platform expansion in 2002 under the reigns of a shrwed Weinstein-era Miramax campaign that paid off to the tune of $160 million+ domestic and an eventual Oscar for Best Picture.

With P & A funds strapped to the breaking point, the Weinsteins have a tricky budgeting challenge on their hands to delegate dollars with strategic acuity.  "The Road" has faced wildly mixed reactions from fest audiences, and its bleak, grisly tone was always guaranteed to be a hard sell.  Viggo Mortensen is the film's best bet for Oscar attention, aside from a handful of potential tech notices, but he'll be competing with the more unanimously adored performance Firth has delivered in "A Single Man."

Rob Marshall's star-studded "Nine" is a sure bet to sweep the gamut of kudos categories, though the grab-bag of Best Supporting Actress contenders (Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, and Kate Hudson) will face a challenger in "Single" co-star Julianne Moore, who's gotten charmed notices for her performance as the ultimate fag hag (a boozy extrovert whose obvious desire for her gay best friend pours), and perhaps even Melanie Laurent, the real star of The Weinstein Company's surprise blockbuster "Inglourious Basterds," whose facial expressions alone inject her performance with enough gravitas to mean business with Academy voters.

It's less likely that neophyte director Tom Ford will make the final five for Best Director, as the category seems particularly thick with veterans (Eastwood, Jackson, Campion, the Coens...even
Tarantino and Marshall are proven Oscar favorites with high profile projects up for consideration) and he's a likelier bet to be nominated for adapted screenplay or producer, if "A Single Man" indeed scores a spot among the Academy's newly expanded Top Ten.

While "Nine" lies in wait for its unveiling, critical support for "A Single Man" is already stellar.  Venice crowds were uniformly smitten, with ScreenDaily opening its Lido review with what’s pretty much the critical consensus:  “Fashion designer Tom Ford gets it spectacularly right first time round in his directorial debut.”  Variety’s Leslie Felperin joins the chorus of admirers, albeit taking a more dramatic angle on the film’s merits.  “Like the speck of sand that seeds a pearl, it's the tiny fleck of kitsch at the heart of "A Single Man" that makes it luminous and treasurable."  Felperin gushes about the “just-so exquisteness of the overall look” of the picture, which brings to mind the handful of presence potential tech contenders.

Ubiquitous in fashion as much for his handsome, seductive appearance as a singular creative vision, Ford has, not surprisingly, delivered the aesthetic goods. In Contention's Guy Lodge sums up the cream of the "Single Man" crop quite nicely, lauding Arianne Phillips’ costumes design as "immaculate," citing her prestigous credentials as evidence of existing support (Phillips, "a three-time Guild nominee and Oscar nominee for “Walk the Line"...has a strong track record").  Lodge continues, adding that the film's "cinematography and production design (from Dan Bishop of “Mad Men” fame) are no less accomplished and deserving. And Abel Korzeniowski’s [original score] is the best of the year so far. Something to consider." Indeed.

Based on Christopher Isherwood’s tragic, triumphant 1964 novel –
which has become a beloved touchstone of gay literature – Ford’s film takes place over the span of a single day in the life of George (Colin Firth), a British professor living alone in 1962 Los Angeles following the sudden death of his long-term partner (Matthew Goode) in a car accident.   Flashbacks of the couple’s
happy life together lend weight to George’s current dilemma by setting precedent for the unique relationship dynamic forged between the men so that its absence is palpable throughout George’s day, an emotionally authentic void that informs every decision George makes. 

It becomes apparent early on that George is in the middle of planning his suicide, prudently putting things in order at home before leaving to run a few errands and tactfully tie off loose ends at work, finally paying a visit to best friend Charley (Julianne Moore) as his penultimate destination.

Ford gradually illuminates a profound sense of possibility as the picture progresses, keeping thematic pace with George’s day, his revealing encounters with supporting characters, and the incongruent surprises that subtly evoke a genuine recognition of being alive, of feeling.  “For the first time in a long time he is seeing, and he is pulled by the beauty of life,” Ford told the Venice press.  “He has a kind of epiphany where he understands what life was about.”

Fall Back!

Summer is finally fading, the nights are getting cold again, and each new day promises a little less daylight than the one before.  While most people are scrambling to fill prescriptions for seasonal depression before the darkness really sets in, I'd like to take a leisurely stroll through the cinematic pumpkin patch for an early peek at this year's harvest. 2009 is sure to have its share of prizewinners, just as others are destined to rot on the vine.

A proper fall movie preview would have begun its coverage last weekend, as tradition dictates that the cinematic season spans the last four months of each year, excepting Labor Day weekend, which which annually suffers from summer's worst skid marks as studios tend to dump low-risk trash en masse.  When "Tyler Perry's" anything is the most promising title of any given weekend's new releases, it's best to move onto the Oscar bait and pretend "Sorority Row" never happened.

"BRIGHT STAR" (September 18)
Apparition, the earnest studio upstart from Picturehouse topper Bob Berney, begins its maiden voyage  this weekend with platforming flagship "Bright Star" appearing in select cities.  Jane Campion has been sorely missed, with "Bright Star" marking a welcome return to form after the six-year break she took to follow "In the Cut" with something more...coherent, perhaps.

"Bright Star" is as coherent as movies get, depicting the notably clothed romance between tubucular poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and gifted, sensible seamstress Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) without extending artistic license to bodice-ripping lengths.  In Cannes last May, the film was received with nearly religious devotion, the giddy lot of cinéastes dispatching the rapturous collective acknowledgment of Campion's return to the romantic realm of "The Piano," the 1993 masterpiece that made Campion the first ever woman to win the Palme d'Or.

What "Bright Star" keeps buttoned would have been upstaged by the aesthetic splendor on display in the world of Campion's picture, with ordinary landscapes and interiors sumptuously photographed by Greg Frazier to induce spells of sheer visual bliss that echo the impossibly beautiful feelings shared by Keats and his muse. Sure, he's dying of uncurable disease and will be six feet under in a few short years, but just look at that magnificent meadow of lavender!

Opening Friday in limited release with gradual expansion plans extending well into October, "Bright Star" looks to remain a bright fixture in the specialty market all season long.  Powered by pleasant buzz from amorous audiences to keep it sailing until it gets its second wind from critics' groups and precursory awards attention, Apparition's first feature won't be disappearing until the long winter has passed and spring fever begins anew with Academy accolades.

Life After Death: "This Is It" Opens October 28

Now that MJ has finally been laid to rest -- physically, at least -- there's just enough time to put finishing touches on his comeback. Set to storm theaters worldwide on Wednesday, October 28, "This is It:"
Sony forked over a reported $60 million to distribute a theatrical version (in 3D, obviously) of Jackson's ultimate comeback performance, which would have launched July 13 in London after years of preparation but was infamously derailed by the June 26 death of its star and mastermind. The summer stint at London's O2 Arena, which had already sold out 50 concerts, would have been the first in a long line of globetrotting performance stops for Jackson's ambitious, three-year "This Is It" tour.

The concert's director Kenny Ortega, who reigned supreme over Disney's cash cow "High School Musical" franchise, is finishing out his vested commitment to bring Jackson's visionary comeback to audiences worldwide by translating "This is It" from stage to screen. Ortega's pivotal participation in the movie, given the years of investment he'd already put into Jackson's "This Is It" tour, effectively snuffs out the reasonable fear of a quickie commercial exploitation.

Expect legions of crying devotees to line up worldwide, with a box office ceiling that's hard to predict given the unique nature of the project. There's really no precedent for the media circus and public frenzy that ensued during the aftermath of Jackson's death, so "This Is It" is one to watch.

Telluride Gets High on "Up in the Air"

Last year's Telluride "secret" was "Slumdog Millionaire" (and we all know how that story goes), so this year's selection has big shoes to fill.

"Up in the Air" is living up to its name to the point of self-parody, winning unanimous buzz as the first major studio title to really take off, bolting to the tops of precursory Oscar charts and Best of 2009 lists within hours of receiving rapturous reception by the Telluride crowd.

George Clooney is in rare form, nicely liberated from the politically charged routine of recent roles to play a lonely, privileged business traveler whose extistential crisis becomes a layered with reluctant romance and the personal impact of economic decline.

Basking alongside Clooney and Farmiga under Telluride's showers of praise is 24-year-old Anna Kendrick, a familiar face to the legion of "Twilight" junkies who will recognize her as Bella's BFF from last fall's ludicrous box office phenom. Otherwise, Kendrick remains a stranger to the moviegoing public, who almost unanimously ignored the 2007 art house also-ran "Rocket Science" (one of the final nails in the Picturehouse coffin) and are seriously missing out on a rare high school comedy with a uniquely measured comic bite and just enough quirky intellect to compliment the genre's typically angsty dramatic heft without stealing its thunder.

New Line's doomed boutique division paid $6 million for distribution rights at Sundance, as "Rocket Science" sparked the same obligatory bidding war between indie big guns and the studio boutiques that predicated hitting crossover paydirt for prior Park City hot tickets like "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Garden State." Those few sparks were about it for "Rocket Science," which barely grossed $700,000 before ending its theatrical quickie just four weeks after opening, sealing the deal for Picturehouse.

Still, the lucky handful that actually saw the film handsomely rewarded with Kendrick's dynamite performance the razor-sharp debate team dame. While Kendrick continues to sleep through the franchise as second banana ("New Moon" rises on November 20, with "Eclipse" to follow on June 30), she's on the fast track to a great career.

Kendrick has been a slealth buzz-magnet for Oscar-watchers since news broke last spring that a relative unknown had been cast in the role that every starlet in Hollywood quickwitted counterbalance to the quintessential leading man. She's instantly magnetic and wildly funny, just the sort of Supporting Actress roles voters eat up en masse.

After marking his directorial debut with the snarky social commentary of "Thank You for Smoking," Jason Reitman (son of Ivan, natch) took just one read through the sharp script he'd been handed on the street that afternoon by some stripper named Diablo he knew the hyper-articulatethe cultural phenomenon would becomethinthat was "Juno," something notably grown-up.

It safe to say the youunger Reitman successfully stuck his landing.