When it came to this year’s awards season, the belt-tightened The Weinstein Company seemed uncertain early on which horse to back. At first, it looked like they were going to push “The Founder,” especially when they moved the McDonald’s movie starring Michael Keaton from its initial August release date into the fall. But when it curiously didn’t show up at any of the fall festivals, “Lion” became their picture after it was warmly received TIFF. As for “Gold,” it seemed they knew they had a dud on their hands and it never seemed to be seriously considered. But as “Lion” became their awards player, “The Founder” was forgotten, shuffling release dates, and never really seeming to have a firm game plan to get it out there. And director John Lee Hancock believes it cost Keaton serious awards contention.
“It’s very disappointing. [Keaton’s] so deserving,” Hancock told Newsweek. “Nobody knew about us. We weren’t in the conversation. The conversation for awards season starts months and months before, and it has to be carefully calculated, and it wasn’t.”
“Different people that were on the [Screen Actors Guild] nominating committee saw the movie and told me: ‘This is my favorite movie of the year. I wish I would’ve known, I would’ve voted for Michael.’ I don’t know how to answer that except nobody knew about us,” he added.
Certainly, “The Founder” received a scattershot marketing campaign and The Weinstein Company never really seemed to rally around Keaton, at least from an outside perspective. However, when asked directly about their approach with the film in December, Harvey Weinstein defended the shuffling release dates.
“Nobody is hiding the salami,” he told the LA Times, when the picture opened somewhat by surprise for a qualifying run in Los Angeles on December 7th. “Nobody is apologizing for this movie. We were thinking about going in August and then we thought Michael’s performance was great. But Michael wasn’t available in August. So we moved it to here, thinking we could qualify him and get a Golden Globe nomination and maybe get an Oscar nomination. That was our strategy.”
Well, it didn’t quite play out that way. Keaton walked away from the awards season empty-handed, despite getting some good notices for his work. And while it’s a disappointment for Hancock, Weinstein is likely quite pleased “Lion” is up for six Oscars at the ceremony later this month.