Cinematical provides a look at the final poster for “The Reader,” the semi-maligned Stephen Daldry (“The Hours”) WWII drama that underwent an controversy earlier in the year when producer Scott Rudin and distributor Harvey Weinstein fought over it, resulting in an ugly custody battle and Rudin eventually taking his name off the film.
Aesthetically it looks nice, but obviously is skewing older.
But most of that storm seems to have passed (until we had to bring it up again). Set for a December 10 release, “The Reader” stars Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and David Kross (an eighteen year-old actor who learned English for this role).
The film is the story of a tawdry affair between a fifteen year-old German boy named (Kross) and an older woman (Winslet). Years later, the now-adult Michael (Fiennes) discovers that Hanna is being tried as a war criminal responsible for the deaths of nearly three hundred women during the Holocaust. Talk about, D’oh!
We get our first crack at it tomorrow. InContention has already had a look and they say it “feels rushed. It’s an oddly disorienting narrative that takes some time settling into an emotional groove, but when it does, it packs affecting punch.”
Hmm, could very well be. The whole argument over the film between Rudin and Weinstein is that the latter wanted to have an Oscar-bait picture for 2008, but Rudin contended the film wasn’t ready and wanted to release it in 2009.
It would really suck for Rudin, having departed or not, if they film felll apart, specifically because Daldry didn’t have enough time in the editing room. Here’s the trailer if you want a second look.