The Reader

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Post by ITALIANO »

It's definitely a leading role.
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Post by Penelope »

To me, it is. There are two Lead characters in The Reader: Hanna, the Winslet character, and Michael, a young boy who has an affair with Hanna and is reunited with her years later as an adult--he is played by two actors, David Kross and Ralph Fiennes. To put Winslet in Supporting, based on a reading of the book, is ridiculous. But I've stopped fighting against this stupidity. What can I do?
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Post by OscarGuy »

So, for those who are familiar with The Reader, is this slumming?
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Post by rolotomasi99 »

Sabin wrote:Dave Karger is reporting that the Weinsteins are campaigning Kate Winslet for 'The Reader' for Best Supporting Actress, which means she could be poised for a double nod.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

yay! i am so happy. winslet is a goddess, and deserves to join the small group of actors who have double nominations (some more deserving than others).

i am so happy harvey is not trying to make kate compete with herself.

with the bad reviews for CHANGELING pouring, i am starting to think THE READER has more of a chance in best picture.
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Post by Sabin »

Dave Karger is reporting that the Weinsteins are campaigning Kate Winslet for 'The Reader' for Best Supporting Actress, which means she could be poised for a double nod.
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Post by OscarGuy »

Looks like this is going to end badly for Weinstein. I am sensing a severe lack of Oscar nominations for this film simply by rote of people wanting to ignore the film after such an event.


Scott Rudin leaves 'Reader'
Producer departs Weinstein Co. film
By ANNE THOMPSON

Weinstein and Rudin have never gotten along. They clashed over Daldry's 2002 "The Hours," also written by David Hare, and again over the post-production schedule of "The Reader."

Rudin, the winner of the best picture Oscar for last year's "No Country for Old Men," had first tried to push the World War II romance starring Kate Winslet back to 2009, because he didn't want to campaign for an Oscar along with "Doubt" and "Revolutionary Road," which also stars Winslet.

Rudin fought hard to get more post-production time and support for his director, who is prepping the November 13 opening of the musical "Billy Elliot" on Broadway. When Weinstein insisted on holding Daldry to his promise to release the movie in 2008 if it tested well enough in previews, Rudin and Daldry finally agreed to deliver the film for a Dec. 12 release.

The battle over getting Daldry more weeks of editing time and moving scoring sessions to New York grew so intense that both sides hired top-notch legal counsel, who sent a series of high-pitched letters that were leaked to the press, along with Daldry's heartfelt pleas to Weinstein for more editing time.

"We have given Stephen Daldry every resource to finish the picture and will continue to do so," said one Weinstein Co. spokeswoman.

During the battle, both sides have tried to invoke the post-mortem support of late producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella.

The Weinstein Co. described the situation as "unfolding" and said that another producer on the pic, Donna Gigliotti ("Shakespeare in Love") was "capable of finishing the movie."
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Post by Sabin »

Daldry's last movie 'The Hours' was pushed back an entire year. I don't think Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein should ever be in the same room, let alone the same kitchen. The Weinsteins have nothing this year and Scott Rudin had two Academy Award contenders, a Best Picture Oscar, and two serious contenders: 'Revolutionary Road' and 'The Reader'. If 'Revolutionary Road' test screens as a turkey, then 'The Reader' is in. It just might not be soon enough.
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Post by Big Magilla »

I agree. If it gets strong reviews it could well be nominated for, and win, a slew of Oscars with AMPAS voters denying Harvey a best picture trophy.
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Post by flipp525 »

I don't think this necessarily "kills" The Reader's Oscar chances, either. If Kate's performance is that good (which having read the book is a distinct possibility), she could be recognized for it come award time, no matter what backstage crap finally brought it to the screen. As Penelope has stated in the past, the role offers such a huge departure for her in terms of character type, it could be just the one to finally bring her to the podium.
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Post by Penelope »

I don't know that it "kills" the movie's chances at the Oscars, though it probably has considerably hurt Harvey's chances; voters might find this additional sympathy and/or incentive to vote for Daldry and Winslet.

A fascinating story, nonetheless.
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Post by Big Magilla »

From Nikki Finke's Deadlien Hollywood:

He was once The Big Macher and now is The Big Loser. This is Part 1 in a series I'm calling Harvey Weinstein vs The World. This post goes behind-the-scenes of Weinstein's desperate attempt to roll over The Reader's director Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot) even though the helmer had final cut approval and other contractually guaranteed rights. And I am in possession of plaintive emails from Daldry, and angry letters from entertainment law pitbulls, all attacking Weinstein's disgusting behavior.

At issue superficially was whether The Reader could be properly done on time for distribution this fall or even for awards consideration this year by Daldry who had sole discretion to determine when the picture could be released. The film already had been delayed by 8 weeks because of Nicole Kidman's pregnancy. Then the pic had to wait for a a minor to turn 18 so the actor could be old enough to engage in some on-screen sexual activity. So the shoot that was supposed to end in February didn't finish until July. And the $22 million budgeted movie climbed in cost to $30 million.

Despite all that, Weinstein was still pushing Daldry to lock in the film as soon as September, or October 7th at the latest, in order to meet the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's delivery date of November 7th. But Stephen was simultaneously in post-production on The Reader and also preparing the Broadway production of Billy Elliot under a Working Title contract that gave it the director's exclusive services from June 30th through November 13th. (Ironically, The Weinstein Co has a piece of that musical.)

That made for an impossible situation for Daldry, whose August 29th email (which I've seen) to The Weinstein Co explains that plaintively. I've excerpted it below:

"I am unable to deliver the film for release this year...

"I simply cannot -- and will not -- do that work in the very short time that remains. You are asking me to cram months of work into perhaps 24 hours of editing time. It can't happen. It won't happen. I will not be able to work with the composer. I will not be present at the recording of the score. I will not be able to mix the film. This work is my job...

"I cannot be party to a process that strips me of my ability to make my work good. That is not something you can require of me. I am desperately committed to finishing this movie well so that it is worth the pain that this process has been for all of us. Believe me, nothing would make me happier than to fulfill the obligation I made to you -- and done with the anguish that this release date has put us squarely in the middle of. But I cannot work this way. I need time with the movie -- concentrated tome, I need momentum and a clear head. I have neither.

...I have to call a halt to this process, this arguing over a date, and simply say that there is a line I will not cross, and this is it. We have reached it. I am not able to continue in this process this way. I cannot make this date -- and it's not for a lack of desire or a lack of effort. It's for a simple finite, irrefutable lack of hours -- and a dangerous lack of self-possessoom. Nobody but me knows what my personal limits are but I will -- in fact, I must -- tell you that I am perilously close to mine. That's bad for me but it is a disaster for the movie...."

Producer Scott Rudin took the director's side against Weinstein to ensure Daldry could obtain a workable post-production schedule. Rudin by most accounts withstood a tirade of abuse from Weinstein and gave it right back at him. The two men were evenly matched in bad temperament and reputation, that's for sure. One battle broke out at an August 26th preview of Daldry's first pass at The Reader which Harvey arranged but which Scott alleged was rigged to get artificially high scores. When Rudin told Weinstein he had hired litigator Marty Singer to protect his own rights and at the same time stop The Reader from being released before Daldry thought it ready, Weinstein screamed, "You're fired! Get the fuck out of the screening." Weinstein took it back later.

Weinstein even stooped so low as to publicly invoke the names of the film's deceased producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella by claiming to reporters that his releasing the pic in 2008 was what they would have wanted. But Rudin, as the duo's personal pal and professional partner and surviving producer on the film, told Hollywood this is Weinstein's "blatant attempt to ride the coattails of the deaths of two beloved guys".

A Rudin email I've seen claimed that:

"HW went to Minghella's widow and tried to insert himself into Mirage's editorial rights so as to insist the film be released this year -- which Sydney stopped just before he died. Harassed Sydney on his deathbed until the family asked him to stop because he wanted Sydney to warrant that we would deliver for release this year."

Rudin also is telling Hollywood that Weinstein "once said to me [about The Reader], 'If I can't get a movie nominated that has Sydney's and Anthony's name on it this year, I should leave the business.' "

Of course, the ever compliant Hollywood trades were also suckered by Weinstein's other spin that Rudin was fighting The Reader's fall release because Scott already has two Oscar contenders, Doubt and Revolutionary Road, which also stars The Reader's leading lady Kate Winslet (Kidman's replacement), and didn't want his actors or his pictures competing against themselves. But that's a ridiculous argument. Everyone knows Rudin is a volume producer and often has many Academy Awards contenders in a year. The trades also tried to minimize any machinations by Harvey by postulating this was merely Weinstein vs Rudin Redux -- "two alpha males who have faced off many times before, and in the case of The Hours, it was also over a Stephen Daldry movie."

Instead, this conflict has everything to do with Weinstein and little to do with Rudin. Many Hollywood bigwigs are making serious allegations about The Weinstein Co's financial troubles, and the U.S. and international business media are increasingly repeating them. I myself have only anecdotal evidence. Like I'm told that when the film's British writer David Hare, who adapted the WWII-era romance from Bernhard Schlink’s novel, was flown across the Atlantic recently, he was startled to see that his ticket was issued using Harvey's personal frequent flyer mileage. "I think we may be in worse trouble than we thought," Hare said to people with the film.

Insiders insist to me that Harvey's desperation to release The Reader this year is because of The Weinstein Co's money woes. One of my sources heard Harvey say that he can't afford to hold The Reader and, if he can't get it out this Christmas, then he'll dump it in February. Yet puzzled insiders tell me three other film companies want to buy the pic and release it properly in 2009.

Today's announcement of an agreement by all the parties to move The Reader's release date all the way to mid-December seems to end what was shaping up as both an Oscar campaign embarrassment and a long legal siege. Insiders have told me that Rudin and Daldry and Winslet were all threatening The Weinstein Co not to support the film. That would have been a TKO for Harvey's Academy Award dreams.

Also, The Weinstein Co was threatened with multiple lawsuits. I have seen letters to Weinstein's superlawyer Bert Fields from legal pitbulls Marty Singer (repping Rudin), Melanie Cook (repping Daldry), and the most serious of all from Reed Smith, the London lawyer repping Working Title which was ready to file a UK lawsuit alleging The Weinstein Co was inducing Daldry to breach his Billy Elliot contract.

I'm told the new deal gives Stephen 5 additional weeks for post production on The Reader and a December 12th release date. But I bet all this bad publicity kills its Oscar chances.
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Post by Penelope »

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Weinstein and Rudin fight over release date for The Reader

NEW YORK -- Two titans of the indie film world are in a heated disagreement over distribution plans for one of the fall's biggest releases -- a film that might not turn out to be a fall release at all.

The Weinstein Co. chief Harvey Weinstein and uber-producer Scott Rudin are in an intense back-and-forth over whether to release the Weinstein Co. war-crimes drama "The Reader" in 2008 or wait until next year.

Weinstein is pushing for a December release for the movie, which director Stephen Daldry is working on in post. The romance set in postwar Germany and based on Bernhard Schlink's novel already has buzz from strong test screenings, though there are post elements left to be completed.

The Weinstein Co. has other awards hopefuls in the mix: Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," already in release; a film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," starring Viggo Mortensen, scheduled for Nov. 14; and the World War II spy drama "Shanghai," starring John Cusack, which is promised for Dec. 25. But "The Reader," starring Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet, boasts the sort of pedigree -- A-list talent, period setting, respected and Oprah-endorsed book -- that could thrust it into the center of the awards race.

Rudin, however, has been lobbying hard for a 2009 release. The producer already has two Oscar candidates -- "Revolutionary Road," with Leonardo DiCaprio and Winslet as a married couple in the 1950s, at Paramount Vantage, and the Broadway transfer "Doubt," toplining Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, at Miramax -- and a third would mean he is vying heavily against himself.

The producer faced a similar scenario last year when his "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" competed against each other for Oscar kudos.

The fact that Winslet stars in both "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader" would mean the actress too could wind up competing against herself.

Further adding to the intrigue is that "The Reader" was produced by the late Anthony Minghella and the late Sydney Pollack. Weinstein worked closely with both filmmakers during their careers and is convinced that this fall is the ideal window for the movie's release.

Speaking through their reps, both Weinstein and Rudin declined comment.

Rudin and Weinstein have clashed before on their collaborations -- most notably on production elements in 2003's "The Hours," also directed by Daldry.

Insiders familiar with this situation were split on who would prevail. What is clear is that the tussle can't drag on indefinitely as release options become slimmer as the season progresses.

On the one hand, Rudin could take the position that the movie simply won't be ready in time; for one thing, Daldry also is prepping "Billy Elliot: The Musical" for its Broadway bow Nov. 13.

But there also are contractual clauses that could give Weinstein the edge if he wants to push it further. Said one person familiar with the discussions, "Harvey is probably going to win this one, but Scott isn't going to go down without a fight."

Lawyers on both sides purportedly are amassing for a skirmish.
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Post by Okri »

My apologies. I'm sure she'll forgive me.
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Post by Penelope »

Okri, you forgot to capitalize the "T" in The Goddess! :p
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Post by Okri »

Penelope wrote:I know I'm hitting my head against a wall, but I hope that doesn't happen. They're both Lead roles and she should be nominated and win as such. Sorry, I don't want The Goddess slumming in Supporting just to win an Oscar.
Meh - I don't like this "slumming in supporting" talk, especially since the Goddess doesn't seem to care about the size of the role, only its quality. Also, if they end up both being lead (and it strikes me that The Reader will be a Scott Thomas/The English Patient or Weisz/The Constant Gardener), she can't be nominated for both.
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