Moved to February, Still Think I'm Wrong about 'Shutter Island's Award Chances
Surprised? Not me...
People have been pestering me over and over again about adding Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island into the Oscar Best Picture race in my "The Contenders" section as well as adding
Scorsese into the Best Director race. Well, you can stop pestering me now, it won't be released in 2009. Yup, and it isn't moving to primetime award season contention in 2010 either, instead, it's been moved from its October 2 date and is heading to February 19, 2010 and you can color me one of the few that isn't surprised by the move.
The news comes via Nikki Finke, who's source tells her, "Paramount told the filmmakers it doesn’t have the financing in 2009 to spend the $50M to $60M necessary to market a big awards pic like this." I can only assume the reason for this would be the awards chances weren't that high. Anyone remember a similar move almost exactly a year ago from Paramount with The Soloist?
Now, people are already looking at the move to mid-February and pointing out how it is the slot where Silence of the Lambs debuted in 1991 before going on to win Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Adapted Screenplay in 1992. Well, that is being optimistic in my opinion, but we will have all of 2010 to carry out the debate.
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it's the second "oscar" movie with "the wolfman" out in february;that smells not good
I don't buy that Paramount doesn't have the 50 to 60 million promote a movie with Scorsese and Dicaprio, not one that was this anticipated. Just more and more dissapointing news out of the film industry latley.
It looks like Scorsese's laid an egg with Shutter Island. Dennis Lehane's had an extraordinary run of luck with the screen adaptations of his novels. One great film (Eastwood's Mystic River) & one good one (Gone, Baby, Gone). He was due for a letdown.
Looking at the story Paramount's reasoning doesn't make any sense. They say they can't find $50 million? Come on, if Shutter Island was that sure fire an Oscar pic, even in the current economic climate which is affecting their parent companies so adversely, you can bet they'd find the money somewhere.
And if they can't find the Oscar budget for Shutter Island is Paramount seriously implying that they won't be doing anything in this year's Oscar race? And if they do start promoting some of their other movies as potential Oscar nominees then what does that say about the quality of Shutter Island?
I think the reason they claim not to have the money is because the film evidently ISN'T Oscar quality. Nothing else really makes sense.
Then Paramount claim the film has high test scores in the upper 80's & early 90's. Again, if it's THAT good why are they dumping the film in February? February of all months! Why not open it over the summer if it's such an alleged crowd-pleaser?
I can't say I'm surprised at any of this. Marty's had a dreadful track record over the last decade – yes, even The Departed – & Shutter Island looks like another in a long line of misfires.
WTF! why?
This sucks, I was looking forward to October 2nd. Regardless, at least this and The Wolfman give me something to look forward to in February, a month when most crappy movies of the year come out.
For the record, I thought The Soloist was actually pretty good.
Good call, Brad. I shared your opinion (also having read the book and thought it wouldn't translate well), but I'm still surprised they changed it. It seems like with Scorsese and DiCaprio they would've made some money even if it didn't get great reviews.
@Tel: You can't be so sure about that. Yes, does this mean that it possibly isn't great; yes, but it could still be a very good film. To just write it off would be ridiculous.
Btw, Does anyone know what it cost without whatever the marketting tab would've been?
@Tel: and I'm sorry did you say THE DEPARTED was a part of a bad run?! You are crazy! Scorsese has never had a bad run, he's had some disappointments, but he always comes back. I would be very surprised if Shutter Island did not work on the level of a psychological thriller and wasn't very good. I was very excited for THE SOLOIST when I saw the trailer, but then I heard it was moved back and wasn't as excited, but that film didn't have the best director living behind so it is completely different.
Yeah, I read that blurb from Finke and thought they all sounded like lame excuses, too.
But can I say, that to predict the quality of a film by the date of its release is just effin insane. I'm going with Wolfman for a win regardless of its release. This one, I don't know anything about, except what I saw in the preview which was obscure to say the least.
And a final note. I look forward to the day, should it ever come, that films are not being made to be "award winners." "The Soloist" would have benefited from being a much smaller film with less expectations that were beyond its means. But with the expansion of the Oscar Best field from 5 to 10, we're going to get more, not less.
There was a day when films were made for entertainment. Some rose above the crowd and were nominated, even won, awards. Now we make a lot of crap for the doe ray me and a few artsy fartsy pix. Why was I screaming on my couch when "Crash" won? Because it came from behind with absolutely no expectations. I believe all the actors in it worked for a pittance of their usual wages out of devotion to the film. It was an absolute fluke. I loved it.
On one hand, bah.
On the other hand, this never looked like an Oscar film to begin with. Scorsese doesn't really make Oscar pictures (and the few times he has, he's made superb ones…that didn't win Oscars) and now that he's won that long overdue Best Director gong, we can kinda look at his films without the stigma of "Will this be the one?" I mean, I've seen all of Scorsese's narrative films bar Bringing Out the Dead, and not a single one of them is even remotely close to being a bad film. There are those less interesting, and less polished, but they're never, ever bad. I see no reason to believe that Shutter Island will be otherwise. Not in the Oscar race? Well, meh. I've lost a lot of interest in the Oscars after the overall awfulness of last year's race, and in light of the fact that Green Zone's no longer upcoming, I think I've lost a lot of interest in the rest of 2009 as well.
Why I always thought is was odd have a contenders list for movies not yet seen. Kind of like a college football top 25 before a game has been played.
I started losing interest in awards season last year (funny it happened during the season my favorite actress won). It seems like people don't care about enjoying films anymore it's all about the Oscars. All this talk about District 9 getting a nomination it's like who the F cares. If you liked the movie buy it when it comes out on DVD. A nomination is not going to change that. I just wanted to see the film and looks like Shutter Island and the Wolfman will both be at the top of my list next year.
All due respect, Steve, but football games aren't based on playbooks that we can read in advance. I have no doubt Shutter Island will be a terrifically enjoyable genre film along the lines of Cape Fear, but this was never going to be BP material.
@beautifulm: exactly my thoughts, i have been dreading the award shows lately too, people see the movie that appeals to them regardless of its award winning capability, and after watching TDK not get a nom at the oscars, and losing to twilight at the mtv awards, suddenly im losing respect for the people who run these shows.
this sucks
Much like Brad, I've never considered this a possibility for best picture. The trailer looked astounding. But this is the first time I've heard the excuse "We don't have the money in marketing." Um, isn't Paramount leading or at least the top two studios in market share right now? What are they going to spend the money on? Seems lame, sort of like their G.I. Joe not being screened for critics excuse earlier. I kind of want to know what's wrong with it. And I'm curious to see what films take over that spot, since it is now virtually empty (Toy Story and Whip It shouldn't have the weekend to themselves.).
dang. i guess i won't be seeing the new coen and scorsese movies on the same day after all
The same thing happened to Zodiac & Jesse James and they both got great reviews.
Maybe Paramount feels that something is going to sweep and so they moved it out to next year. Soemthing like a particular movie with blue people in it.
@ddurden33: @Rob: It's more likely that Rob Marshall's Nine would sweep any award Shutter Island would have been nominated in. At least that's one serious movie The Hangover won't have competition from.
what kind of idiot goes ape shit about a tarantino movie but isn't excited about a scorsese film?
I dunno, colin. Maybe someone who can step back objectively and compare Pulp Fiction and The Color of Money side by side?
(nothing against Color of Money, but a milestone in film history, it ain't.)
Maybe the relative levels of excitement are not based on Tarantino vs Scorsese, but something more relevant. Maybe it's a function of having read the terrific script for Basterds and weighing it against a rather junky novel like Shutter Island — with a screenplay that matches it step by step, cliché for cliché.
I think Shutter Island will be great fun, and I'm still excited, even though it's a blind hope. But anyone who's not excited about the known quantity of Inglourious Basterds is another sort of idiot altogether.