— Nikki Finke reported Friday that Martin Scorsese’s thriller “Shutter Island” has been delayed until 2010. Her Deadline Hollywood blog said that the delay stems primarily from Paramount’s financing concerns–the network feared it could not properly market a film of this caliber in the heated fall awards season. Further, star Leonardo DiCaprio was reportedly unavailable to promote the film internationally this fall.
Now slated for February 19, 2010, the film has tested very positively and begun generating serious Oscar buzz, despite the fact that the initial wave of marketing promoted the film as far more of a popcorn mystery-thriller than Scorsese’s most acclaimed previous films. But though it will not be released in time for the upcoming Oscars, studio sources are confident that it will have a presence at the 2011 awards ceremony.
“Now that the Academy has expanded Best Picture to 10 films,” a source told Deadline Hollywood, “it will be easier for a movie that came out in the beginning of the year to get nominated.”
— Zach Galifianakis, whose profile has significantly increased in the wake of successful comedy “The Hangover,” has been booked in “Dinner for Schmucks.” Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Lucy Punch had previously been cast in the Jay Roach-directed remake of France’s “Le Diner de cons.”