Clint Eastwood’s supernatural drama “Hereafter” will now hit theaters October 22nd through usual Eastwood collaborators, Warner Bros.
The film, starring Matt Damon, Cécile de France and Bryce Dallas Howard among others, was scribed by Peter Morgan and follows three concurrent stories involving an American factory worker with the ability to communicate with the dead; a young British boy looking to contact his deceased twin; and a French journalist coping with a near-death experience from the 2004 tsunami.
A pre-Halloween release alongside “Saw VII 3D” and “Paranormal Activity 2” seems odd considering the studio’s recent confidence in Eastwood, dropping his last two efforts (“Invictus,” “Gran Torino”) right in the Oscar-contending window. Then again, 2008’s “Changeling” was released on October 31st and ended up earning three Academy nominations including a nod for Angelina Jolie so perhaps it’s just a clever bit of counter-programming.
That being said, the October release date could indicate that Warner Bros. has a bit more awards-season faith in Todd Phillips’ road-trip comedy, “Due Date.” That film is already developing strong buzz, and it has Golden Globe-winning talent from last year on board (Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr.) so it wouldn’t be too surprising if it trumped a film described as “in the vein of ‘The Sixth Sense'” for award-season prioritization. And we wouldn’t be surprised if the Academy tries to amend shutting out “The Hangover” by tossing a few nods to Phillips and co. this time around.
Other quality WB works potentially include Chris Nolan’s “Inception” and Ben Affleck’s “The Town” but they’re already hitting in July and September respectively so unless “Yogi Bear” — due out December 17th — is the studio’s Oscar weapon, the late fall award season releases may be surprisingly without Eastwood and WB this year.
