George Clooney’s “The Ides of March” is set for a Venice premiere in September. It may or may not make it to Telluride, but in any case, I’ve been hearing lately that Evan Rachel Wood and Philip Seymour Hoffman are killer in the film. (Marisa Tomei, I’m told, doesn’t figure in as much.) Anyway, judging by the new trailer at Yahoo! Movies, it has me at “Hello.” We might be talking about this one throughout the season.
It felt really good to duck out of the looking-ahead business after last year’s fairly contentious (both amongst the films and their supporters) Oscar season. I didn’t saddle up to the upcoming season until a few weeks ago, hammering out preparations for this column, and even this, most would tell you, is too early.
But at the start of July, in the midst of an interesting (critically speaking) summer movie season, and with half the year behind us, it seems a decent time to take stock of 2011’s Oscar business. And Disney may have gotten the conversation going just in time with last week’s debut of the trailer for Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse.”
With the influx of film awards coverage this last decade, Oscar strategists have switched gears in how they campaign for the gold. With a cycle that chews and chews and chews on whatever is available to digest, being the early frontrunner has become the kiss of death. Films like “The Aviator,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Dreamgirls,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Up in the Air” failed to reach the winner’s circle in recent years after being hailed as tough cookies early on. Some of them put up better fights than others, some of them didn’t even manage to rise up to a nomination, but all of them looked formidable at one point or another before having their legs knocked out from underneath them.
Once again this year, Guy will be covering the Venice Film Festival while I’m up in the Colorado mountains catching this and that at Telluride. Today, via Variety, the former’s opening night film has been announced:
George Clooney’s “The Ides of March” has been tapped as the opening film of the 68th Venice Film Festival on Aug. 31. Fest hasn’t made an official announcement but a source not authorized to speak for the event confirmed the selection Monday. Sony’s dated the political thriller for an Oct. 7 limited release.
Clooney directed from a script he co-wrote with Grant Heslov. He also stars in the film, which is based on the Broadway play “Farragut North,” written by Beau Willmon.
It goes without saying, this one could be a big player on the circuit this year. Which reminds me, mark your calendars because July 4 I’ll finally dip my pen in the prediction ink this year with a new column and reassessment of the Contenders section.
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]