News
'Crazy Heart' Defies Odds for Oscar Run
By Robert Marich
Nov. 19, 2009 – Crazy Heart travelled an unlikely path to the silver screen and Oscar contender, says a New York Times article.
Starring Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart is a $7 million drama about a down-and-out country music singer that Fox Searchlight will premiere Dec. 16 (the film sports an all-star supporting cast with Colin Farrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal & Robert Duvall).
The R-rated movie is getting Oscar buzz after industry screenings (Bridges has been nominated for four Oscars though never has been a winner) and its history is quite a Hollywood tale. Crazy Heart was produced by Country Music Television, which is a unit of Viacom that also owns Paramount Pictures. However, Paramount wasn’t interested in the film and it took hectoring by a talent agent to allow the film to be placed elsewhere for theatrical release, resulting in the Fox Searchlight deal at rival 20th Century Fox.
“One immediate result of the Oscar push: The original backers of Crazy Heart asked its producers to remove all Viacom-related credits, according to a person who was briefed on the situation but spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict,” notes the New York Times article by Michael Cieply. “In a nervous corporate world the only thing worse than losing money on a worthy little movie might be having one’s name on a film that scores for a competitor.”
Another unlikely turn is that Fox Searchlight originally planned to introduce Crazy Heart via festival appearances in 2010, but then changed course by moving up its release in what qualifies personal drama set in the music industry for the 2009 Oscar race.
The Oscar race is shaping up to be insane this year. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences opened the Best Picture category to 10 nominees instead of five—probably too many. That ramps up pressure on film studios to spend for Oscar campaigns because five nominee slots opened.
But a reverse pressure is a play. Last year, heavy promotional pushes for Universal’s Frost/Nixon and gay activist drama Milk – both winners of nominations and Oscars – resulted in poor box office and financial returns. That makes film companies cautious about spending heavily to pursue awards.
Decision making is whip-sawed further because there are blockbusters to be found in the “rejects” pile. That always leaves studio execs second guessing themselves. Oscar Best Picture winner and box office sensation Slumdog Millionaire also travelled a zigzag path to the silver screen and almost became a direct-to-video release, like Crazy Heart.
For full text, click link below:
www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/movies/19crazy.html
www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-6-publicity/
www.marketingmovies.net/news/ad-spending-restrained-for-oscar-leaders/