Taraji P. Henson, left, and Brad Pitt, who plays the title role in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a Paramount film set for December release.LOS ANGELES — Like its namesake character, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Hollywood’s take on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been aging in reverse.
Related Trailer: 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
François Duhamel/DreamWorks
Related Trailer: 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
François Duhamel/DreamWorks
Jamie Foxx, left, and Robert Downey Jr. in “The Soloist,” from Paramount’s DreamWorks unit.
Fitzgerald’s tale begins in 1860 and stretches through the First World War. The version set for release by Paramount Pictures on Christmas Day kicks Button’s life span all the way forward to Hurricane Katrina and uses computer wizardry that could make the author’s Jazz Age fable feel almost young.
If it is all that Paramount executives hope, the movie, directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, will also mark the birth of the next phase at the aging studio. Brad Grey, Paramount’s chairman, has been eager to show that he can sell tickets and win Oscars without the help of his DreamWorks partners — Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Stacey Snider — who are leaving to form a company of their own.
Mr. Grey is not the only studio chieftain chasing Oscar glory. This year a clutch of late-season releases promises to push several big studios heavily into the Oscar fray, as they move to fill space left by the closing or reorientation of specialty divisions like Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse and Paramount Vantage, which had come to dominate the awards race in recent years.
Fitzgerald’s tale begins in 1860 and stretches through the First World War. The version set for release by Paramount Pictures on Christmas Day kicks Button’s life span all the way forward to Hurricane Katrina and uses computer wizardry that could make the author’s Jazz Age fable feel almost young.
If it is all that Paramount executives hope, the movie, directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, will also mark the birth of the next phase at the aging studio. Brad Grey, Paramount’s chairman, has been eager to show that he can sell tickets and win Oscars without the help of his DreamWorks partners — Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Stacey Snider — who are leaving to form a company of their own.
Mr. Grey is not the only studio chieftain chasing Oscar glory. This year a clutch of late-season releases promises to push several big studios heavily into the Oscar fray, as they move to fill space left by the closing or reorientation of specialty divisions like Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse and Paramount Vantage, which had come to dominate the awards race in recent years.
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