Weinsteins Throw ‘The Reader’ into Oscar Pool

The Oscar race may have gotten a bit wider with the recent inclusion of the Weinstein Co.’s The Reader. Not wanting to get left out in the cold, the Weinsteins had zilch projects to count on for this year’s race, and Variety reports that after some test screened sampling and positive audiences responses that the Stephen Daldry directed and Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet starring project will be released in theaters this year…and since the production was an European one, perhaps a Rome FIlm Festival showcase beforehand.

I’m anticipating a late December release, IMDB lists a Dec.12th date which falls in line with the notion that they might want to get the ball rolling earlier in order to receive critic associations kudos. This is good news for fans of the Bernard Schlink novel, and will fit well with Oscar night’s final salute to Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, the film’s producers passed away this year.

Now the bad news…

Kate Winslet and Dreamworks might not be too happy with the above mentioned plans. On the 26th of December, Winslet will be supporting the work she did on hubby Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road. The actress has been nominated three times in the last decade or so (Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children) and add to that two Best Supporting Actress nods, and has come home empty. A split vote between her efforts in Revolutionary Road and The Reader may indeed be counter-productive especially in a year where we have serious contenders in Streep in Doubt, Jolie in The Changeling, Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky and perhaps Kidman in Australia. 

Scripted by David Hare, this tells the tale of fifteen-year-old Michael Berg who is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover–then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.