UPDATE: The Soloist has officially been moved to March 13, 2009 and Defiance has been moved from December 12 to December 31 with a wide release on January 16, 2009.
Today Tom O’Neil at the LA Times announced the New York Film Critics Circle will vote for their awards on Dec. 10 and the National Board of Review is planning on voting on December 2. How can this happen with so many films yet to screen? Well, with buzz spreading that the Weinstein Co. will delay The Road until 2009 and now Nikki Finke claiming big Paramount and little Paramount are delaying The Soloist and Defiance until 2009 perhaps there won’t be too many Oscar style flicks left to screen.
Finke reports the news today, but admits she was unable to confirm with Paramount as to whether the moves are assured. However, Paramount Vantage still has Defiance listed on their For Your Consideration site and the official website for The Soloist still has it listed for November 21. Of course this could change in an instant, but that’s where we stand.
Finke approached one unnamed source with the question as to whether this was to help bolster the chances of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Revolutionary Road and was told, “It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the metrics of managing its numbers.”
The news of the shifts was apparently mentioned in an in-house Paramount memo. I am sure we will know for sure quite soon.
