Somebody's been listening
I have been writing for a week about the Oscar fate of Flags of Our Fathers. It seems others have been doing the same. Tom O'Neil of the LA Times summarizes a conversation with Edward Douglas of comingsoon.net and Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com about this very topic.
Edwards declares, "Flags is out. I just think there are way too many stronger movies out and on the way."
Gitesh responds, "I think Clint Eastwood is academy royalty and the box office performance will mean little. Oscar members will judge it based on its merits."
Edward seems to harbor my belief: "I don't think it will make back its $90 million budget. Theaters are going to start dropping it like a hot potato in November with things like Casino Royale and Happy Feet offering guaranteed business. It will be hard for DreamWorks to get it back into theaters after that."
As a result, he adds, "I don't think it will be a big player in the Oscars (maybe for cinematography, sound design, production design, etc)."
Tom O'Neil clearly wants this film considered, for whatever reason. I still have not seen it, but based on box office numbers, reviews, and other films looming on the horizon (or still in limited release . . .more on that later) I think the film is in serious trouble. We'll see. Here's a link to the conversation.
