Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘Wall Street 2′: Could Be Cannes Closing Night

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20th Century Fox has suddenly sent Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps” to a Sept. 24 opening instead of its planned April 23th release.

There are two reasons for this: one is that they’ve submitted the film to the Cannes Film Festival and are awaiting word. It’s more than likely that Cannes will take it, especially with Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Josh Brolin, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, and Charlie Sheen in the Oliver Stone cast. What a group for the red carpet !

Second, Fox feels that Sept. 24th is a better bet for Oscar nominations. This may be true, but as long as I’ve been writing about Hollywood, September has been a toss off month. Last year these were the movies released during that week: “Capitalism A Love Story,” “Rage,” “Fame 2009,” “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” “The Boys Are Back,” “Coco Before Chanel,” and “Paranormal Activity.” Only the latter had a pulse, but it was a genre film. No Oscar touted film is released in September. Period.

This turn of events throws a monkey wrench into publicity already churning for “WS2.”. Michael Douglas is on the cover of Vanity Fair right now promoting both “Wall Street 2″ and his excellent indie film “Solitary Man” which also costars Sarandon and Danny DeVito. (This is a must-see film.)’ There’s also a Lincoln Center tribute scheduled for him on May 24th. The publicity and marketing are in place now for “Wall Street 2,” not next fall.

“Wall Street 2″ is indeed a perfect Cannes opening night ‘ the glamour quotient alone will have the place in an uproar. But to make a closing night film might be problematic since the Lincoln Center event would be the next day in New York. Sacre bleu!

Now that they’ve opted for September, Fox might just be better off and wait for the Toronto Film Festival (Sept. 9-18).

(P.S. Those Toronto planners did a great planning job ‘ Rosh Hoshanah is Sept. 9 and 10; Yom Kippur is Sept. 17-18. Whoops!)

Meanwhile: there’s now a rumor that Julian Schnabel may take his new film, “Miral,” to Cannes as well. His “Diving Bell and the Butterfly” started there, and the results were both Best Picture and Best Director nominations at the Academy Awards. Schnabel and Stone at one Cannes ‘ it’s too much to think about!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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