That splash you hear is a weighty piece of Oscar bait hitting the water this morning as the first trailer for John Wells’ August: Osage County arrives online via ABC.com (and The Playlist). And it delivers virtually everything that you’d want out of an awards contender: It opens with a T.S. Eliot quote; it ticks off its army of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated contributors; it boasts life-lesson bon mots like “Marriage is hard;” and its gives Meryl Streep a handful of one-liners that she can ride to her next nomination (and possible win).
OK, so we’re jumping the gun, but Wells’ adaptation of Terry Letts’ Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play has all of the pedigree it needs to contend. It co-stars Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Abigail Breslin, Chris Cooper, Juliette Lewis, Dermot Mulroney, Sam Shepard … damn, just let the poster below do the talking:
Oh, and did I mention it’s being distributed by The Weinstein Company? Yes, on the surface, August: Osage County is the closest we can get to calling a film “The One To Beat” in May. But there’s still a TON of ground to cover in the ongoing Oscar race, and we won’t see the finished product on Osage until November. For now, what do you think of the trailer? Does it make you want to plug into this particular brand of familial dysfunction? Share your thoughts on Wells’ vision below.
