If there is one person who knows the ins and outs of any award season, it’s Harvey Weinstein. The producer extraordinaire has been behind countless campaigns, and knows how the system works backwards and forwards, and more than any prognosticator, his feelings on the 2013 race certainly carry with them some tremendous weight. And if Harvey is sensing the field is one of the toughest he’s been part of, then you know it’s going to be an interesting few months leading up to the Oscars.
“This is the most competitive [Oscar] season I’ve ever seen,” Weinstein recently said at the Zurich International Film Festival. “And if you aren’t ready, don’t get in it.” And he’s applying that firm rule to himself. Harv has already pushed the Nicole Kidman-starring “Grace Of Monaco” to 2014 refusing to rush the movie that “just wasn’t finished, the sound, anything.” That said he promises a full blown campaign for the movie next year, and it’s one he expects to do even better than “My Week With Marilyn.”
So, what is he doubling down on? Well, it might not be the last you’ve heard of “Fruitvale Station” as he plans to get behind the Sundance sensation in a big way. “[The film] did $16 million, which is very good for a film that size but there’s going to be another round with this,” he explained. “He’s [director Ryan Coogler] a boxing fan and he’s going to get a round two.”
As the competition he’s facing, Weinstein took a moment to single out “Prisoners” as “the best film I’ve seen all year. I don’t know why I’m praising a Warner Bros. movie after what they did to us on ‘The Butler‘…but they are good people and they made a good movie,” he said. Zing.
It seems Harvey is carefully surveying the board and plotting his next month as he sees contenders from rival studios start to make their play, but if one thing is for certain, never count out a Weinstein. [THR]