Just in case you didn’t think this coming Oscar season was going to be crowded enough, we have yet another contender throwing their hat into the ring. Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher has finally been given a prime release date at the end of the year that positions it right where you would expect an Oscar contender to be.
The film, which stars Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Carell, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave, and Anthony Michael Hall, sounds rather bizarre, but judge for yourself from the following synopsis:
The wild, true story of John du Pont (Carell), a multimillionaire and paranoid schizophrenic who built a wrestling training facility, Team Foxcatcher, on his 800-acre Pennsylvania estate. In 1996, he shockingly murdered Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler David Schultz (Ruffalo), a longtime friend, who du Pont believed (as was discovered during the trial) was part of an international conspiracy to kill him.
The film was originally set up at Columbia Pictures, but has recently been moved to Sony Pictures Classics, Sony’s arthouse branch. You’re probably asking yourself why Columbia Pictures would give it up. Well, one possible explanation is that they already have a lot on their plate with George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, David O’Russell’s American Hustle, and Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips. I did mention that it was a crowded awards season, right?
The film comes to us from director Bennett Miller, who previously gave us the outstanding baseball drama Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. Now I’m not a baseball fan by any means, nor am I usually a fan of sports films, but even I enjoyed it quite a bit, so much so that it earned a spot on my top ten list of 2011.
Will Foxcatcher be just as good? We’ll just have to wait until it hits theaters on December 20th to find out, though don’t be surprised if the film hits a festival or two before arriving nationwide.
Do you think this will be an Oscar-worthy pic? Let us know in the comments below!
(Source: The Playlist)