EXCLUSIVE: United Artists Releasing is pivoting its awards season release of MGM’s Joe Wright feature musical Cyrano.
Instead of the Peter Dinklage-Haley Bennett movie going limited on Dec. 31, UAR will qualify the movie for Oscars with a one week run in Los Angeles on Dec. 17. The pic, which already counts 86% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, will then start a platform expansion on Jan. 21 before going wide in early February.
The new release strategy will put Cyrano in a position to capitalize on awards season balloting, i.e. Oscar nomination balloting starts on Jan. 27 and ends on Feb. 1, 2022. Oscar nominations are announced on Feb. 8 with the ceremony taking place on March 27, 2022.
Cyrano was written by Erica Schmidt, based on her 2018 stage musical of the same name, which was based off the 1897 Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac. Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner produced. Wright shot the movie in Sicily during the pandemic. The movie made its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival this fall.
UAR/MGM’s No Time to Die is the second highest grossing movie at the global box office during the pandemic, on its way to cross $700M WW. The studio’s other awards season contenders for 2022 include Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza. House of Gucci opens on Nov. 24 wide, while Licorice Pizza launches limited on Nov. 26. The movie will be booked at the Village Theater in Westwood for a full month as the venue has a 70MM projector.