You can tell it’s getting closer to Oscarbait season when the trailers start popping up in mid- to late-summer.
This one, for Hyde Park on Hudson features Bill Murray doing a charming (but not slavish) take on FDR. Knowing the Academy’s love for impressions over proper acting, this mix of both will likely draw some attention. Surely Focus Features is counting on that, with its December 7th release date — just a week before The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. (Fortunately, it has little competition, with only Playing the Field opening that weekend, a comedy starring Gerard Butler as a former athlete turned kids’ soccer coach who finds it a little too easy to score with his players’ moms.)
Samuel West stars as King George VI, though he looks a bit more like Colin Firth (who won the Best Actor Oscar for playing George VI in 2010’s The King’s Speech) than the real King, if you ask me. That can’t be a coincidence. Anyway, check out the trailer below:
Hyde Park on Hudson was directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill) and stars Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Olivia Colman, Samuel West, Elizabeth Marvel, Elizabeth Wilson, Eleanor Bron, and Olivia Williams.
The official synopsis follows after the break:
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