Better late than never for Halle Berry, who officially threw her wig in the Oscar race yesterday on behalf of the indie Frankie & Alice. The "'70s-set psychological drama," which the actress co-produced, features Berry as a woman battling multiple-personality disorder; photos snapped on the set months ago showcase her half-nude character raving through the streets, so you know she's not messing around. Except, that is, when it comes to distribution.
Berry and her team have reportedly entered a pact with Freestyle Releasing to launch a New York and Los Angeles qualifying run on Dec. 17 (the same day Lionsgate plans to open its own Best Actress contender Rabbit Hole in those very markets, but hey). Freestyle, of course, is the service-deal outfit whose previous claim to fame was opening Fathom Studios' infamous Delgo to the lowest per-screen average of any wide release in movie history -- $237 -- and just two weeks ago opened the anti-Obama doc I Want Your Money to a $464-per-screen average. The company's first foray into acquisition-releasing arrives this week with the Bill Nighy/Emily Blunt/Rupert Grint hit-man caper Wild Target, a nice-enough film that nevertheless will fare about as well the Rent is Too Damn High Party when moviegoers vote with their dollars come Friday.
In other words, this isn't quite the same thing as last year's Crazy Heart gambit, which saw the awards wizards at Fox Searchlight wait until the first week in November to slot its own eventual double Oscar-winner. In fairness to Freestyle, the producers are on the hook for their films' P&A budgets, and according to Pete Hammond, Berry & Co. have raised money independently for precisely this occasion. Additionally, he writes:
10,000 DVD screeners will go out to the entire Academy, critics groups, SAG Nominating Committee and others. As one of the more visible aspects of the campaign, Berry will be a prominent part of this year's AFI Fest on November 9 in "A Conversation With Halle Berry." [...] Tom Ortenberg's One Way Out Media is reportedly consulting on marketing plans. Ortenberg worked with Berry on the successful Monster's Ball campaign when he was at Lionsgate.
On the one hand, I love that Berry is coming out as aggressively as she is for what she wants. On the other, as we all know after last year, doing nothing can sometimes be the best strategy of all. To that end, Freestyle should deliver. But it's going to require some time -- and some kind of Oscar-race genius, with Searchlight's Black Swan front-running all the way in the Best Actress category -- before anyone can take this campaign too seriously.
ยท OSCAR: Halle Berry's Last-Minute Entrance Into Race With Frankie & Alice [Deadline]
[Photo via Flickr]