Release Date: October 8, 2010
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Directed By: Randall Wallace
Quick Thoughts: Oscar nominated screenwriter Randall Wallace (Braveheart) steps back into the director’s chair for the third time following up The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and We Were Soldiers (2002) with Secretariat, the life story of Penny Chenery, owner of the racehorse Secretariat, starring John Malkovich and Diane Lane. With the film at Disney there is no telling just how watered down it will turn out.
Release Date: Release date not yet set
Distributor: Still looking for distribution
Directed By: Lee Daniels
Quick Thoughts: Will Lee Daniels’s follow-up to Precious be ready for the 2010 Oscar race? It begins shooting in May, which leads me to doubt it since if it’s any good I would guess they would want it to begin at Sundance just as did Precious. However, with Daniels lining up a cast made of Hugh Jackman and Robert De Niro (rumored) so far this Civil Rights feature can’t be ignored.
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Directed By: David Fincher
Quick Thoughts: David Fincher’s Zodiac was loved by critics but ignored by the Academy and audiences. His next film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, made $127 million at the domestic box-office and received mixed reviews from critics and earned 13 Oscar nominations from the Academy winning three. So what will happen with his Facebook project The Social Network, which doesn’t have a Brad Pitt sized star but does have plenty of reason to be a great film. The script by Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson’s War) is already earning a lot of praise, plus rising stars Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield make up the young cast. Fincher’s using his Fight Club cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth as well as his Oscar-nominated Benjamin Button editors Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall.
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