2002 Fall and Winter Film Preview: December Releases
The month of December. It has always ended up being the biggest month for the highest film quality, as the major studios save their "best" films for that last month of the year, to stay fresh in Academy member's minds.
No wonder so many of our Best Picture contenders and winners come from December. December 2002 looks to be more of the same, with some incredibly anticipated films being released, and it's very possible that the most serious Oscar contenders for the 75th Annual Oscars will end up coming from that month. So now, I conclude my three part series previewing the 2002 Fall and Winter motion pictures with the month of December.
Well, probably the most highly anticipated film in December is a film we were expecting to anticipate last winter. Martin Scorsese wanted to make this dream project for 25 years. He first started trying to put the film together in 1977, just as he was becoming a hot director. But the project never took off, and when it finally began with Miramax, budget overruns, a delayed schedule, and rumored fights between Miramax head honcho Harvey Weinstein and Scorsese threatened to sink the production again. But on Christmas Day, hopefully, we will finally see Gangs of New York, Martin Scorsese's epic period drama detailing the rise of early immigrant gangs in New York.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz will star. A couple of weeks ago I predicted that this could be the film that finally brings Scorsese the Oscar, and it still could happen. This film's making has a lot of the earmarks of another certain "project doomed to fail", Titanic. It certainly will not do the kind of box office or the kind of numbers of Oscar nominations that that film had, but I think this film will end up delivering (or maybe it's more of a hope). In either case, at this point, Gangs of New York looks like one of our strongest Oscar contenders.
It should also give DiCaprio his first real major role since Titanic, and brings Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis back to movies after a five year hiatus. Let's just hope that another delay does not occur to keep this film from completion.
Summertime is usually the time for sequels, but we actually have four sequels coming out in December. Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal will re-team for the sequel to Analyze This with Analyze That, with Harold Ramis returning to direct. Should do well at the boxoffice.
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