From: Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere. To: Dreamamount publicity/ marketing. Re: An open letter about the selling of David Fincher's Zodiac (currently set for release on 1.19.07).

Greetings and salutations, guys: I'm writing to ask what the upside is in not platform-releasing Zodiac at the end of December, which is what certain Dreamamount parties are apparently against at this stage. A late December release, obviously, will put Zodiac into the derby and make it eligible for whatever possible critic awards and or Academy nominations that may result. This, obviously, would fortify the 1.19 general release to some extent.

Not putting Zodiac<em> out as an '06 platform end-of-December release strikes me as nonsensical, certainly from the standpoint of Zodiac's admirers or from the standpoint of any kind of opportunistic, fair-shake approach to creative marketing. Clearly, going out cold on 1.19 without the buildup of a December platform opening isn't going to help.

Zodiac is, I'm hearing, a serious quality-level piece. It's also a longish cerebral procedural, a '70s period dramae, a non-conventional cop thriller. It needs some media massaging to help prime the pump.

The word around town is that there are two reasons that certain parties with Dreamamount may be against the platform-release idea:

(a) Dreamamount will have four films in Oscar contention by the end of the year (Flags of Our Fathers, Dreamgirls, Babel, World Trade Center) and some p.r. and marketing people think that a fifth film in the hopeful-Oscar-pipeline will strain the resources of Dreamamount marketing/publicity and cause this or that film to receive less of an Oscar push effort (in terms of manpower and/or ad dollars), and...

(b) DreamWorks honcho David Geffen wants an all-out, balls-to-the-wall Oscar push for Dreamgirls, which is his pesonal baby, and he doesn't want to hear about a fifth film potentially sapping the energy or marketing budgets allocated for Dreamgirls, let alone the other three.

What does Paramount/DreamWorks think about all this? What do readers think? Is there merit to the David Geffen theory? This issue has been festering for a long while and I'd like to get some reactions from all corners.

DreamWorks honcho David Geffen wants an all-out, balls-to-the-wall Oscar push for Dreamgirls, which is his pesonal baby, and he doesn't want to hear about a fifth film potentially sapping the energy or marketing budgets allocated for Dreamgirls, let alone the other three.

Oh boy, now I hope even more than ever for Dreamgirls to disappoint. Seriously if it does, I'll be in utter joy.

A filmmaker friend has passed along some info about David Fincher and Zodiac, by way of an editor pal who knows a sound mixer who worked on Zodiac a while back.

"This girl is very smart and cool," this guy says. "She's very much the San Franciso arty girl who hates a lot of Hollywood shit and is funny talking about working on all the shit she does. Anyway, she said Zodiac is fucking brilliant and so amazing and smart. I really, really trust this girl. She says the movie is great and that George Lucas was blown away by it.

"She also said that Robert Downey, Jr. gives an incredible Oscar-level performance.

"But here's my favorite detail. The first half of the movie, which takes place in the late '60s, is mixed mono when all of radio was AM and with the advent of FM, in the chronology of the film as the calendar moves into the '70s, the movie turns stereo. Such a great idea. She said that Fincher has the best ears of anyone other than David Lynch.

"The other point to make here is that if Zodiac sucked there's noway Dreamamount would ever greenlight Fincher's Benjamin Button project, which will star Brad Pitt."

Oh boy, now I hope even more than ever for Dreamgirls to disappoint. Seriously if it does, I'll be in utter joy.

I think everyone here (or at least 99% of the people) is hoping for a disappointment (including me)

The more the merrier

Sadly there are still folks like Loyal and Libs here hoping for the opposite

I think everyone here (or at least 99% of the people) is hoping for a disappointment (including me)

I don't get the hate but whatever

It's simple.

They don't like black people.

I however LOVE black people. except Tyler Perry

Funny you say that Roo. Harry over at AICN has a theory that his readers are racists and homophobic because of their Dreamgirls dislike.

I'm fine with being considered a homophobic racist (hey I could star in the Crash sequel!) as long as Dreamgirls fails.

Two years ago, eventual Best Picture Oscar victor, ?Million Dollar Baby? had not even been officially announced as a 2004 release. Warner Bros. didn?t do that until September 30th and the film wasn?t screened for select press until mid-November when its heavy courtship with Oscar began in earnest. Ever since then, crafty producers have dreamed of coming up with their own ?Million Dollar Baby,? a stealth campaign that takes the media and industry by surprise and upsets the entire rhythm of the awards dance.

Is that scenario in the cards for David Fincher?s ?Zodiac?? This adaptation of the Robert Graysmith book about the notorious Zodiac serial killer who roamed San Francisco in the 60s and 70s is currently scheduled to open through domestic distributor Paramount on January 19, 2007 (Warner Bros. is handling the international release).

Fincher is now completing editing and mixing and the film should be pretty much wrapped in a couple of weeks. Sources are saying it is brilliantly made with great performances across the board. The cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards. And even though Fincher?s hard edged previous films (?Fight Club,? ?Panic Room,? ?Se7en?) have received a grand total of 2 Academy nods in tech categories, this is said to be the one that could change that pattern.

That is, if ?Zodiac? receives a qualifying run in December ahead of its wide January release. If it has to wait until next year, the odds are long since January films are a distant memory come nomination time. But hope remains that Fincher?s film will still be a part of this year?s kudos story. We have been told that it is a complex situation and there are ?discussions that are probably going to take place.?

One hurdle may be that Paramount really doesn?t need another picture going for the gold this year since they already have ?World Trade Center? and the upcoming Dreamworks?films ?Flags Of Our Fathers? (Oct 20) and ?Dreamgirls? (Dec 21). And although it is a completely separate entity, specialty division Paramount Vantage has a major contender in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu?s ?Babel? (Oct 27).

Further, ?Zodiac? co-producer Mike Medavoy who runs Phoenix Pictures, the production entity behind the movie, has two other films of his own to deal with in this week?s ?All The King?s Men? and December?s anticipated Renee Zellweger drama, ?Miss Potter? for The Weinstein Company.

But if ?Zodiac? really does deliver the goods as those few who have seen it believe, then how can it be denied a passport to the Kodak? After all, remember 1974. One studio accounted for three, count ?em , ?three? of the five Best Picture Oscar nominations. The movies were ?The Godfather Part II,? ?Chinatown? and ?The Conversation.? The studio was, you guessed it, Paramount.