Does The New Paramount Have Any Oscar Contenders? Maybe

More from the Oscar front at CinemaCon.

At the recently concluded 98th Academy Awards Paramount Pictures had exactly zero Oscar nominations. That is not a great lead into David Ellison’s Skydance takeover of the fabled studio behind such Best Picture winners as The Godfather, Terms Of Endearment, The Godfather Part II, Titanic, Forrest Gump, and even the first Oscar winning Best Picture, Wings.

So, as the studio says they are still in a state of transition and getting new slates together, I did not walk into this morning’s presentation at CinemaCon expecting much of anything, other than a bunch of sequels and revived IP to try to get the exhibition crowd excited by something they know. And yes Paramount did deliver on that with footage from another Scary Movie, another Jackass, another Street Fighter, another Paw Patrol, another Sonic The Hedgehog, as well another Paranormal Activity, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and various other iterations of Par IP promised for the future including a third Top Gun, following in the footsteps of their last Best Picture nominee, Top Gun: Maverick.

But Oscar stuff — which as I keep writing, has been my primary mission to sniff out at CinemaCon this week? Well I have to say, based on the footage and the stellar ensemble of a who’s who in Black cinema, plus the special treatment it received at the show’s big finale, Children Of Bone And Blood just might be Paramount’s ticket back to the Big Show this year. The Gina Prince-Bythewood film was adapted from the novel by Tomi Adeyemi and is set in an African fantasy kingdom where a young woman goes on a quest to reclaim the magic that was violently stolen from her people. She and her brother ally with the daughter and son of the king to fight back against his brutal rule.

Stars out in force this morning at the Caesars Palace Colosseum were Thuso Mbedu, Damson Idris, Amandla Stenberg, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Regina King, who are in the film along with Tosin Cole, Cynthia Erivo, Lashana Lynch, Zackary Momoh, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Idris Elba and Viola Davis, plus many others. It looks strong and has been dated for January 15, 2027. Of course that date would not make it eligible for the 99th Oscars and other awards but does seem a nice fit for MLK day weekend, and also a good date for a movie to go wide after getting a bunch of Oscar nominations. So I was told by sources initially involved with it that a platform break in December has been the plan talked about since the movie came into Paramount’s orbit. Though Paramount made no mention of it, and only are touting the January 15 opening, sources tell me it is still likely the plan.

One former top Paramount executive who was at the studio when the film came along said it is just such a “fantastic” story, loved Prince-Bythewood’s take on it, and called it a cross between Black Panther and Lord Of The Rings. This executive said passionately at the time that if Paramount didn’t go with this film they might as well not even be in this business. The main reason not to go wide with it at the end of this year is the intense competition for premium screens with all the blockbusters coming down the pike, notably Dunesday (Dune and Avengers: Doomsday) on the same date of the 18th.

In addition to Oscar potential, this film with this cast could be a big contender at SAG’s Actor Awards where films like Black Panther, Hidden Figures, The Help, and most recently Sinners all took the top Cast Award on their way to Best Picture Oscar nominations. Prince-Bythewood and Sony’s Tri Star Pictures were very disappointed when their 2022 film, The Woman King (also with Davis, Lynch, and Mbedu) got no Oscar love, not a single nomination despite a robust campaign. (They were robbed.)

However, Sinners provides the counter argument. It was big movie with a predominately Black cast that got more nominations that any single film in Oscar history, and went on to four wins. If Paramount is waffling about launching a big Oscar campaign they should just look at that little fact, not the snub for The Woman King. I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot of Children Of Blood And Bone come awards season. Stay tuned.

Also from Paramount’s presentation this morning I was impressed by Fall release The Heart Of The Beast starring Brad Pitt and a German Shepherd trying to survive after a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness.

Man (Jacob Elordi) and dog trying to survive is what is also at the center of Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic movie, The Dog Stars that launched a powerful trailer at the Disney presentation this afternoon and could, with a August 28th opening be primed for some awards action for Disney if it is as good as it looks.

Back to Paramount, also with some awards potential possibly is Johnny Depp’s “comeback” as Scrooge in Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol. It is obviously a great juicy role for any actor, and so many have played him from George C. Scott to Michael Caine to Christopher Plummer, but only Albert Finney in 1970’s Scrooge musical got a Best Actor nomination for it. Depp however gave props to the great Alastair Sim who probably delivered the most-acclaimed Scrooge ever in 1951’s A Christmas Carol. Whether this is a role to bring Depp back to the Oscars is another question altogether.

The highlight though of the entire well-produced Paramount CinemaCon show was how it started with an exceptionally fine film touting the studio, its history, its stars, and its Hollywood lot. It all ends with Tom Cruise sitting atop the Paramount water tower. It was created by Wicked director Jon M. Chu, who now has a deal with Paramount. As someone who worked on that iconic lot for 12 years, it brought tears to my eyes.