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Oscar Watch: 'Wolf of Wall Street' stays in contention with second trailer

Posted Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 9:59 AM Central

by John Couture

It's been a wild couple of months for Martin Scorsese and The Wolf of Wall Street. First, the teaser trailer gave from June gave them early Oscar buzz for all involved and then the rumors started to spread.

First, there were unspecified editing delays and then a reported three hour plus cut of the film that Paramount refused to release. Whispers were circulating that The Wolf of Wall Street wouldn't be making its November 15 release date.

Those rumors turned out to be true. Given that there would only be six weeks left in the year to qualify for Oscar consideration, people started to wonder if The Wolf of Wall Street would even make it out in time to be invited to this year's Oscar party.

And then things started to look up for the Leonardo Dicaprio film. There were little clues that something was afoot. The first being a notice that we received from Paramount that they were delaying the release of DVD/Blu-ray product with movie cash in it for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. This could only mean one thing, that Jack Ryan was being bumped back (you don't want movie cash sitting around on shelves with no chance to exploit it), but we hadn't heard anything regarding delays in post on that film. It was an odd move to say the least.

And then it clicked. Paramount needed a date to release The Wolf of Wall Street before the end of the year and they didn't want to compete with themselves at the box office. Since Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit isn't an Oscar bait film, it was an easy move. So, it wasn't surprising to hear a few weeks later that Jack Ryan had indeed moved to a January 17, 2014 release date and that The Wolf of Wall Street would be taking its place on Christmas Day.

Well, I guess that's not technically official yet, but it is the worst kept secret in Hollywood right now. One thing is certain, Paramount just released the second trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street and this time it's Jonah Hill stealing the show.