Though it’s considered to be full-on fall season Oscar-bait material, Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road,” starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio (you may remember them from that big boat movie), will not premiere during the upcoming film festival season (Toronto International Film Festival, Telluride, Venice, NY Film Fest, etc.). Why? Mendes is busy film that comedy co-written by Dave Eggers, starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph and it won’t be ready for that early September/October timeframe. The Eggers-penned film is tentatively called “Farlanders,” and is set for a summer 2009 release.
The fall film fest season is generally when Oscar-bait hype starts to build to annoyingly loud levels. Mendes will have to hope that Xmas season critics and audiences still care by then. The Scott Rudin produced adaptation of the Richard Yates novel will come out via Dreamworks/Paramount in late 2008 and Mendes won’t return to the editing room until after Labor Day. [Anne Thompson]