the road
How Did Viggo Mortensen’s 2008 Oscar Boom Go Bust?
4:44AM STV | Four months ago we suggested that Viggo Mortensen had three chances in 2008 to repeat as an Oscar nominee. As the last of those chances expires today, all we can say is, “Maybe next year?”
Empty Desks, Fire Sales, and Other Signs of the Weinstein Apocalypse
3:50AM STV | There aren’t a lot of wheels left to fly off at the Weinstein Company, where as many as five executives are now expected to have made their exits by the end of the year. Add on the news that its previous Oscar hopeful The Road is officially shelved until 2009 while Bob Weinstein reportedly invests upward of $US60 million in straight-to DVD releases for next year (a market he badmouthed as recently as last week), and your Weinstein DeathWatch countdown may have just acquired new, accelerated momentum. Watch the casualties mount after the jump.
The Road to Oscar Hell is Paved With Dead Paramount Movies
6:25AM STV | What a mess: Paramount’s reshuffling of 2008 awards bait including Defiance and The Soloist — the latter of which now won’t open until next March — has left devastated Oscar watchers (including us) tossing out their carefully wrought Trophynomics™ calculations for the American fall movies season. Few are more dismayed than the DreamWorks gang, whose hopes that The Soloist might at least cover the cost of hiring movers were met with the reality check that the ‘Mount has more important, Brad Pitt-y things to do before year’s end. We think this, along with other traumatic developments elsewhere over the last week, calls for an all-new Oscar scorecard; start over with us after the jump. More »
Play Along in the ‘Road’ Release-Date Sweepstakes!
6:41AM STV | Word has it that the Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road is soon to land on the Weinstein Company shelf, thus vanquishing 1/3 of Viggo Mortensen’s 2008 Oscar dream and reviving rumours of TWC’s solvency a mere day after Harvey flaked out on a Midtown crowd that couldn’t wait to hear his plans for pulling a 2009 release slate out of his hat. At the least, the post-apocalyptic drama — once expected by Nov. 14 — was moved back to December shortly after the Weinsteins reclaimed the distribution duties from MGM, it still faces hassles with the Scott Rudin-less The Reader, and one blogger writes today of his test screening of a film isn’t even close to finished (spoilers follow): More »
