Grace of Monaco Moves to 2014

In a sudden move this week, Grace of Monaco, the Nicole Kidman-starrer about the tumultuous life of actress Grace Kelly and her ascension to royalty was abruptly pulled from The Weinstein Company’s fall slate and shuttled to a Spring 2014 release.

This news comes after a recent test screening in New York City last week (attended by members of AwardWatch) in which there were reports that the film felt incomplete and was often dragged down by too much attention to politics.  The Weinstein Company themselves reportedly said the move is to give director Oliver Dahan (La Vie en Rose) more time to complete the film.

Harvey Weinstein himself has been touting the film and the performance from Kidman in since debuted parts of it at the Cannes Film Festival this year and it appeared she was going to be one of his main pushes for Best Actress this year. But that brings up what is becoming a problem for Harvey this year – who to push when you have too many contenders? It’s no secret that Harvey is Hollywood’s Oscar Maker but this year he has more contenders than he knows what to do with. In Best Actress alone he has Judi Dench in Philomena, Meryl Streep in August: Osage County and possibly a lead push for Julia Roberts for August as well. This could be a reason closer to the truth than simply an unfinished film. Getting Julia Roberts in for Lead would be a great feat for Harvey since there hasn’t been double Lead Actress nominations from the same film since Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis for Thelma & Louise in 1991.

When all is said and done, the move to 2014 for Grace of Monaco doesn’t kill its awards chances. The Weinstein Company also has the recently acquired Colin Firth/Nicole Kidman film The Railway Man. Kidman would be pushed in Supporting for that and it’s a film that will likely get a fall Oscar release and push. By virtue of potential Oscar talk for this role, Kidman’s Monaco would inevitably come back into the conversation, making her a Lead contender again as well.