Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln will open limited on 11.9.12 and expand on 11.16, it was announced this morning. A Deadline report says that this decision by Disney, the film’s distributor, “puts Lincoln squarely in the midst of Oscar season”…as if it’s ever been anywhere else in the minds of absolutely everyone including Mohamed Morsi.
It’s been presumed all along that Lincoln would be an end-of-the-year holiday movie — now it’s a mid-fall thing. Which means that early-bird, Josh Horowitz-level New York screenings will start sometime in early October, I’m guessing, with people like me desperately begging and pleading to see it a couple of weeks later please-please-pretty please.
The idea, of course, is for Lincoln to win the Best Picture Oscar and Daniel Day Lewis, naturally, to win for Best Actor. Do you want to hear a bold, bold, bold idea? Show Lincoln to absolutely no one until opening day. Make them scream and pant for it and say “nope…sorry, kids…too bad…this is a really good film, but first and foremost it’s for the people…buy a ticket.”
Bold idea #2: New York Film Festival honcho Scott Foundas needs to rope and tie this steer and debut Lincoln as the NYFF closing night attraction on 10.14.12 — a little more than three weeks before opening day. Would that really be so crazy? If Spielberg has the goods and hasn’t mucked it up by “Spielbergizing” this semi-adaptation of Doris Kerns Goodwin‘s “Team of Rivals” and if DDL has really nailed Honest Abe in some kind of legendary jacklegged way, how can DreamWorks lose by showing it at the end of this highly prestigious festival?
