Though this year’s Oscar race has been rapidly filling up with forceful candidates like Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity and Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, one film previously considered an awards front-runner has proved shockingly silent in recent months. Despite direction from Academy favorite Martin Scorsese and a starring turn from Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street has been largely sidelined by some Oscar forecasters amidst rumors of a troubled post-production period that may interfere with its planned November release.
According to /Film, Paramount’s issues with The Wolf of Wall Street stem largely from a three-hour running time, which Scorsese is currently struggling to cut down to approximately two hours. Though the film, centering on the extravagant life of a powerful New York stockbroker (DiCaprio), was originally slated for a November 15th release date, sources close to the production have predicted that The Wolf of Wall Street may actually bow on December 25th, just in time for awards consideration.
With a top-notch cast including DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin and Margot Robbie, it’s not that surprising that Scorsese and his editor Thelma Schoonmaker are having difficulty with trimming the film’s length. DiCaprio, McConaughey and Hill are all widely tipped to earn acting nominations, so he certainly wants to present their performances as completely as possible. Scorsese himself is expected to receive a Best Director nomination, but even that’s less than certain, given strong potential nominees in that category including Cuarón, McQueen, David O’Russell (for American Hustle), Paul Greengrass (for Captain Phillips) and Joel and Ethan Coen (for Inside Llewyn Davis). It’s fair to say that the veteran director is under a lot of pressure to make his film’s final cut utterly flawless.
Should Scorsese and Schoonmaker succeed in turning in The Wolf of Wall Street in time (Showbiz 411 reports that November 25th is their deadline), Paramount will likely move their Chris Pine-starring spy thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit from its previously planned Christmas release date to January 17th, 2014.
Are you excited to see The Wolf of Wall Street? Do you think that it will be one of the biggest contenders at this year’s Academy Awards? Let us know in the comments section!
If Scorsese and Schoonmaker are able to finish their edits by November 25th, audiences can expect to see The Wolf of Wall Street land on December 25th.
