Madonna's W.E. gets January UK release date
The pop singer's directorial debut W.E. will premiere in December in the US, a timing that usually indicates a film is being prepped for an Oscars run. The Academy awards take place in March each year, but the preceding months play host to a slew of awards ceremonies which studios often use to hype their product before the big event at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
"Madonna beautifully interweaves past and present in W.E. It's a very smart film, and a stunning feature directorial debut," Weinstein said. "I'm incredibly excited about this movie and I wanted to give it a prominent release date."
Through The Weinstein Company, the producer was responsible for bringing British Oscar-winner The King's Speech to audiences last year. Weinstein's time at previous company Miramax saw such films as Shakespeare in Love and The English Patient perform spectacularly at the Academy awards. Madonna's W.E. gets January UK release date,
Weinstein's confidence about Madonna's feature-directing debut stands in sharp contrast to a report in the Daily Mail this week which suggested the producer appeared "thunderous" and "sour following a poorly received screening of W.E. in New York. The newspaper's spy said the film "tries to suggest that Wallis Simpson gave up a lot to be with Edward in 1936, particularly her chance to have children, but the idea is never developed. It's all about the surface and the styling," adding: "There's no real narrative, and no heart."
W.E. stars Andrew Riseborough as Simpson, with Australian actress Abbie Cornish as a modern-day New Yorker who becomes fascinated by her life. James D'Arcy portrays Edward VIII, later Edward Windsor following his abdication, with James Fox as George V and his son Laurence as Bertie, Edward's younger brother (who later became George VI). Many of the same historical figures appeared, of course, in The King's Speech, which won four Oscars in March.
A wider US release for W.E. is planned for the middle of January.
Source: guardian
