THE WAY BACK is Apparently on Oscar's Path: U.S. Trailer for Peter Weir's Latest

A couple weeks back the first trailer (from the UK) for Peter Weir's latest landed, and it was a big, barrage of clips set to typical "epic" trailer music. I noted it was quite unlike a Weir film, but that really isn't a surprise... And neither is the almost identical US trailer which premiered over at Yahoo (and in much higher quality). The big angle this one pushes is (surprise, surprise), Weir's Oscar nominee pedigree, and while I am all for the film to get some nominations, I'm not sure if the current Academy will bend to distributor New Market's ways. Or if they're in fact doing a particularly good job of Oscar baiting. 

The Way Back looks like a film that in times past would have been a shoe-in for the Academy --- a survival-adventure film based in fact. Nowadays I'm not so certain... then again when was the last time I was excited about the Oscars? At any rate Newmarket will release the film in LA on December 29th for a qualifying run, before it goes wider on January 21st.

Judging by that, the painfully generic poster, and this trailer I can't help but feel this is all being done with eyes closed, and with the most minimal of efforts. There looks to be a really good film amidst all this paint-by-the-numbers auto-piloting. As a massive fan of Weir I guess I feel if you're going to push the film for awards at all, you might as well do it right; Get some eye popping adverts out there, and release the film in the top 15 markets by year's end. Build buzz, get people excited. Then again maybe that is mighty difficult in this economic climate, and this is all they can in fact muster.