Scorsese’s ‘Shutter Island’ Bumped to February 2010

It’s been touted as a major Oscar contender for the coming awards season.   It was number 8 on WAMG’s most anticipated films for the second half of 2009.   It had an all-star cast and a newly Oscar winning director.   So, why, with all of this going for it, would Paramount decide to push Martin Scorsese’s new film, ‘Shutter Island,’ to February 19th, 2010?   In a word: MONEY.

According to Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood, which broke the news this afternoon, Paramount suggested to the people behind the film that they didn’t have the $50 or $60 million to market a “big awards pic like this.”   However, according to Finke, it’s deeper than that.   A studio source explained to her that Paramount has the money to market the film, it just doesn’t have the home video sales.

“Given where the DVD business is in 2009,  our only hope is the economy and  the retail business  rebounds in 2010 because the hardest hit segment  has been movies that play to an older adult audience,” said the source.

Another reason given for the delay is due to star Leonardo DiCaprio being unable to promote the film internationaly until the beginning of the new year.   This doesn’t completely rule out the film’s chances of being nominated for Academy Awards come the 2010-2011 season.   As Finke states, February was when ‘Silence of the Lambs’ was released in 1991, and, with the number of Best Picture nominees being raised to 10, the chances of a film released early in the year getting a spot have been greatly increased.

As it stands, ‘Shutter Island’ is set to be released against the remake of ‘The Crazies,’ the comedy ‘Hot Tub Time Machine,’ and the new Kevin Smith-directed buddy cop movie, ‘A Couple of Dicks.’