Miramax going for awards with BECOMING JANE
Variety reports that Miramax is refocusing on small specialty films and positioning them for awards.
In fact, with a small staff comprising of Weinstein holdovers, Battsek intimates and new hires, Miramax is trying to avoid trends at other specialty divisions.
“Not to be all retro about it, but we really want to get back to what specialty units used to be,” Battsek says. He defines that especially through a push for awards, which he calls “a vital part of our DNA.”
With his fashionable sweaters and refined mannerisms, the British Battsek cuts an elegant figure.
And his two big fall releases are true to those roots: They center on British themes and star British actors. (Besides “The Queen,” there’s Peter O’Toole topliner “Venus,” which involves O’Toole playing a thesp whose life is changed by a teenager.) But company’s upcoming slate is a mix of the refined and the commercial.
Next year, the company will release Lasse Hallstrom’s “The Hoax” (about a fake bio of Howard Hughes, starring Richard Gere and Marcia Gay Harden) and the Italian Oscar submission, Emanuele Crialese’s immigration drama “The Golden Door.”
There’s also thriller “The Lookout,” starring Isla Fisher and Jeff Daniels, as well as “Becoming Jane,” in which Anne Hathaway plays the young Jane Austen, before she became a famous author.
What does this mean for the rank-and-file Janeite? Expect a lot of very positive media about the film. In itself that is not a bad thing; but keep in mind that a bunch of Middle Aged Austen Whores pointing out that it’s really a Made Up Story might get lost in the roar.
Don’t believe everything you read in the papers. Or on the Internets, for that matter. And yes, that includes this blog. Question! Think! Debate!
(That being said, we can heartily recommend THE QUEEN. Great flick, and Helen Mirren is, as always, spectacular.)
December 17th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
… before she became a famous author.
Well, at the very least that means she is up and alive in the film.
December 20th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
If someone gets hold of this weeks Grazia magazine ( with Angelina Jolie on the cover ) there is a small article on Becoming Jane in it. The movie is featured in The Hotlist and some people at the magazine saw it and loved it.
Atleast thats a nice start.
December 20th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
what is written in it?
December 21st, 2006 at 5:11 pm
You can choose the poster of Becoming Jane here: http://filmick.blogspot.com/2006/12/anne-hathaway-becoming-jane-four-times.html