"Brothers" is bumped

"Jim Sheridan's Brothers, which I've been very much looking forward to, being a fan of Jim and Susanne Bier's original 2004 film, is being bumped into '09 -- possibly a late summer release, or possibly one in the fall. MGM had planned it to open it on 12.4.08, but now they'll be taking it to next May's Cannes Film Festival. Draw whatever conclusions you want, but the implication is that it's not a quality issue as much as a concern that it might suffer against the heavy year-end competition.

This despite test-screening responses that seemed (emphasis on the "s" word) to indicate possible Oscar contention. Particular praise has gone to the performances of costars Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman.

The MGM team wasn't in the building from 9:15 to 10:45 am (even the receptionists didn't answer) so I called Brothers producer Mike DeLuca, who confirmed the news. The decision to hold was basically due to the "crazy full fall for serious movies" this year, he says. "We love Brothers and want to blitz in Cannes, but it's just too crowded this year for a wide fall release and an Oscar campaign." A key factor in the decision, he says, is that costar Jake Gyllenhaal is unavailable for year-end p.r. due to filming on Prince of Persia and "we can't promote this movie without Jake. So Cannes makes most sense. I'm super proud of the movie and a major unveiling on the Cote d'Azur with all cast present is too good to pass up."

MGM source said that a mid to late summer release could conceivably happen due to next summer looking relatively weak,

As noted three or four times before on HE, Brothers is a remake of Susanne Bier's 2004 Danish-language original about a younger "bad" brother (Gyllenhaal in Sheridan's version) stepping into the familial shoes of his older "good" brother (Maguire) after the latter disappears during an enemy skirmish in Afghanistan.

Natalie Portman plays the wife-mother whose loyalties shift, or at least adapt to new realities. Sam Shepard plays the gruff and disapproving pater familias, the father of Gyllenhaal and Maguire. David Benioff (The Kite Runner, The 25th Hour) adapted the screenplay". Source: hollywood-elsewhere.com

"A further complication had developed when Warner Brothers acquired Mr. Fincher’s “Zodiac” project, leading to a showdown between Warner and Paramount over conflicting claims to the director’s attention. They solved the problem by agreeing to share rights on each, with Warner getting international rights (and sharing costs) on “Button.”

So far the people who made the movie, at least, think it was worth the bother. Mr. Roth, who has an obvious stake in the matter, said he was choosing to believe the audience would follow". Source: www.nytimes.com

Read this interesting article about the road to the Oscars.