the soloist
2:52AM STV | Soloist Silenced Even Longer: Paramount announced Tuesday that it’s pushing back The Soloist yet again, this time to April 24. The studio surprised even its former DreamWorks partners last month by drop-kicking the Robert Downey Jr./Jamie Foxx drama into 2009, culminating in an unceremonious dump-and-run in March and its withdrawal from the opening-night slot at last month’s AFI Fest. The move is yet another slap in the face to the ‘Works, whose loss of an ‘08 Oscar contender is only compounded by The Soloist’s new, utterly insurmountable April competition Vanilla Gorilla. Insult, meet injury. [Variety] More »
4:24AM STV | Soloist Silenced Yet Again: AFI Fest is scrambling this morning after Paramount yanked The Soloist from the event’s opening-night premiere slot — not a totally unforeseen move considering the film’s recent bump to 2009, but one the festival and studio had both maintained would not happen so close to AFI’s Oct. 23 bow. For now, anyhow, the studio’s other awards-season dumpee Defiance is still on the fest slate for closing night. We actually wouldn’t be shocked to see that film named the new opener and something like Frost/Nixon or Twilight moved into the closing-night spot, but who knows — festival reps are mum for now, saying only that the new selection will be announced later today. Call your shots. [AFI Fest] More »
Robert Downey Jr. Saved, Jamie Foxx Doomed in ‘Soloist’ Oscar Oblivion
6:18AM STV | The fallout from Paramount’s recent release-date shuffle continues today, with agents and saber-rattling DreamWorks brass continuing their protest over The Soloist’s move to 2009. While we sustain our first impression that the Jamie Foxx/Robert Downey Jr. tearjerker will in fact be better than the diabetic-coma inducing trailers already in circulation, that’s not much comfort to those who fear the bump from November to March will impugn Soloist’s profile among critics and audiences alike. But now, as a peace offering to the angry gods at CAA who packaged the film for the ‘Works with its clients Downey, Foxx and director Joe Wright, Paramount has forged a silver lining for one-third of that jilted braintrust. More »
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 »
