Spielberg in Oscar scam

Saving Private Ryan, the critically acclaimed World War II drama from Steven Spielberg, has been pulled from U.S. movie theatres in a sneaky marketing move to bag itself plenty of Oscars next year. The Spielberg epic, currently the second highest grossing U.S. film of the year behind Armageddon, will be yanked from all but two of its current 502 screens across America this month. Two remaining screens, aptly situated in Los Angeles and New York, will continue to run the D-Day drama. Tellingly, Spielberg plans to re-launch the movie before the Oscar nominations are announced on 9th February. Ryan, which has grossed $190m at the domestic box office so far, will continue to run as normal worldwide. The marketing scam is nothing new to Hollywood. Studios have been pushing and pulling "product" movies to tie in with the Oscar nominations since the awards began. Yet Spielberg has disappointed many with this blatant marketing tactic. Before the film's release in July, the director was at pains to point out that Ryan was an emotional, spiritual and tortured film to make. Such qualities, it seems, have vanished in the wake of the Academy Awards. Hollywood insiders agree that Ryan will garner many nominations come Oscar night, including a nod for actor Tom Hanks and another for Spielberg himself. The Dreamworks team, however, have serious competition on their hands in the form of Peter Weir's Truman Show and the soon to be released war drama The Thin Red Line. Directed by Terence Malick, the legendary recluse idolised throughout the film world, The Thin Red Line doesn't open until next month but is already receiving ecstatic praise. Red Line is Malick's first movie in twenty years (it stars John Travolta, Sean Penn, George Clooney, John Cusack and Woody Harrelson all working on union rate) and the Academy will be sure to honour its expertise. Malick, lest we forget, doesn't need publicity gimmicks . . .