The New Studio Strategy

In recent years more and more independent films and smaller productions hit the Oscar spotlight, and often ended up winning the most coveted awards. Not surprisingly: as many academy members simply would never vote for a "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3" as Best Picture (apart from the fact that most of these films do sell, but are just not overwhelmingly good). Now the majors seem to change their strategy ... and here's what this has to do with David Fincher:

The last few weeks saw a surprising number of articles popping up, already predicting next year's Oscar favorites. One film that consistently keeps showing up is David Fincher's next, "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button". A new Variety article by Timothy M. Gray now suggests even more artistically and commercially potent productions lined-up for a 2008 release ... and in line for next year's awards season: Baz Luhrmann's "Australia", "Seven Pounds", "The Soloist", Sam Mendes' "Revolutionary Road", Ed Zwick's "Defiance" and an untitled Ridley Scott epic.

What these films have in common is the studio's "new approach", according to Gray, to try and turn back to epic stories that are not necessarily vfx spectacles and to try and reclaim the Oscar spotlight.
Whether that strategy will work out, I am not so sure: "Zodiac" seemed to have every ingredient a Best Picture could ever wish (or a Best Director and Best Cinematography for that matter) -- but to this day it has 22 nominations at festivals all over the globe ... and not one win.

What's great about "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" is that it may very well appeal to a whole different audience than "Zodiac", with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett set up for a perfect romantic drama, Eric Roth handling the screenplay and an epic love story its center. Then again there was "Meet Joe Black", so I guess you never know.

Make of this what you want. Here's the Variety article:
Majors Vow To Reclaim Oscar Spotlight, by Timothy M. Gray

... and as a little bonus, here's a photo gallery with David Fincher apparently having a lot of fun:
Variety Photo Gallery For "Zodiac"

3 comments:

  1. Hi ya ,( sorry for my english!i m french')
    So what i wanted to talk about the idea you have about the david fincher s film "the curious case of benjamin button" ..
    let me tell you , david fincher did , do and will never do a love story /happy endind movie , dav' is never going another titanic .
    lets remind ourself how dav' finch' dislike the idea of fammily , love affair , children in thise movie . it s exactly the opposite actually . from alien 3 to Zodiac , so far , there were no familly story ,so it s not in these movie CCOBB that things will change , at contrary , he will show how life is difficult when you create a familly/ when you are in love and when you a child, he will show that familly , love affair , childhood are equale to pain , soffer, and unhappiness, there you go, voila !

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  2. Hi,
    you are absolutely right that certain things we should probably not expect from "Benjamin Button" -- I would not say there is anything I would never expect from David Fincher. As for "Benjamin Button" I certainly don't expect to see a new "Titanic", while I am personally a big fan of that film, and it will certainly not be a chick-flick or romantic comedy. As David Fincher has said before in interviews, the main themes in the story will be life, love and death. What I meant by "romantic drama" was really that I believe this film obviously will have a strong "love story" side ... but it's dead-certain from the premise, this love story will not have a happy ending.
    What I am not so sure of is that Fincher will go to greater lengths to show that "family, love affairs and childhood are equal to pain, suffering and unhappiness" -- that sounds a little too one-dimensional.

    Thanks for your comment.

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  3. Hi ya ,
    ( sorry for my english!i m french', sorry for that too!)
    okay ,
    let s talk about his first movie Alien3 , you know the movie about this woman who s pregnant with a Alien inside her , the movie where there a dead child girl , the movie where men are trying stop having any sexual intercourts .
    and what about se7en , the movie where the wife of the hero finish dead and pregnant ...
    i can do that forever !(i didnt eaven talk about Fight club! daam that movie s good!)
    and i love his work for that: no woman , no child , no love affair ,no familly ,no fear, no bla'bla'bla' , no " bullshit* " .David Fincher has got the Buddha's eye .
    hope you understand me
    if not , just let me know

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