Fox Searchlight has set a November 23 release date for the Sacha Gervasi-directed “Hitchcock,” effectively throwing another contender into the crowded 2012 Oscar race.
The pre-Thanksgiving weekend is already busy with releases big and small: Open Road Films’ “Red Dawn,” Fox’s “Life of Pi” and DreamWorks Animation’s “Rise of the Guardians” on the crowd-pleasing side, and the Weinstein Co.’s “Silver Linings Playbook” and Sony Pictures Classics’ “Rust and Bone” angling for specialty/awards attention. Searchlight itself already has two awards-season hopefuls in Sundance Film Festival pick-ups “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “The Sessions,” which hits theaters in October.
READ MORE: Watch: Trailer for HBO’s Alfred Hitchcock/Tippi Hedren Biopic ‘The Girl’
Anthony Hopkins stars in “Hitchcock” — formerly known as “Alfred Hitchock and the Making of ‘Psycho'” — which is being touted as a biographical comedy-drama that presents a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the classic film. Besides Hopkins as Hitchcock, the film offers an all-star cast that includes Scarlett Johnasson as Janet Leigh, Helen Mirren as Alma Reville, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles, Toni Collette as Peggy Robertson and James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins.
Historical films — especially those that peek at the inner workings of Hollywood mythmaking, the entertainment industry’s more colorful characters and those who circled them — tend to play well with Academy members, as evidenced by Cate Blanchett’s turn as Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator,” or the Oscar noms showered on films such as “Ray,” “Walk the Line” and “Capote.”
It had been unclear whether the film would be finished in time for a 2012 release, but the distributor announced the hard date on its Facebook page today along with this poster:
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