The soloist

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/working_title_history/

A few movies that were early Oscar contenders may be dropping out of the race.

Paramount Pictures, facing a crunch in its advertising budget, has decided to move "The Soloist" - a drama starring Jamie Foxx as a homeless musician and Robert Downey Jr. as the journalist who befriends him - to next March. Paramount has also pulled "The Soloist" from its opening-night spot at the AFI Film Festival, slated to start Oct. 30.

"The Soloist" may have represented Downey's best shot at an Oscar nomination, since it's unlikely that he would get a nod either for "Iron Man" or his supporting role in "Tropic Thunder."

Paramount is also moving "Defiance," a Holocaust drama starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, to 2009 - though it will get a platform release in December to qualify for the Oscars.

Rumors are swirling, according to Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger, that the Weinstein Company will move "The Road," the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer-winning and Oprah-endorsed novel about a man (Viggo Mortensen) and a boy in post-apocalyptic America, to a 2009 release. UPDATE: Weinstein has confirmed it is moving "The Road" to 2009.

And, according to Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere, Weinstein is also pushing "Hurricane Season" - an inspirational drama about a Louisiana basketball team (coached by Forest Whitaker) that played without a home court after Katrina - back to March '09.
This text is from: http://blogs.sltrib.com/movies/2008/10/oscar-watch-09-thinning-herd.htm