Accent: check. Impersonation of famous person in biopic: check. Forbidden love: check. Wheelchair: check. It looks like Bill Murray is ready for his Oscar moment. The actor was seen as a favorite for the award in 2004 for his performance in "Lost In Translation," but was beaten at the last by Sean Penn in "Mystic River." He's continued to make quirky, picky choices ever since, but no film seems to have a better chance of giving him another run at awards gold than period drama "Hyde Park on Hudson," a trailer for which has just debuted over at Yahoo.
The film, directed by Roger Michell ("Notting Hill," "Changing Lanes"), sees Murray play the great President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and tells the story of a weekend when FDR and his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) went to a country retreat on the Hudson with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (Samuel West and Olivia Colman, playing the same roles that Colin Firth and Helena Bonham-Carter did in "The King's Speech"), as he considers whether to enter the war that Britain are about to enter. But there's more; Roosevelt's cousin and rumored mistress Margaret Stuckley (Laura Linney) is there as well, sure to cause trouble and heartache.
You can't fault a cast like that, and going by the trailer, this looks to be a solid piece of drama with some seemingly fun comedic elements thrown in. It's very much carved from the mold of "The King's Speech," but for all the subsequent backlash, that film was a pretty decent time at the movies. And Murray certainly seems, as we've always suspected, to have the right stuff for an Oscar run on the back of this, and some of his supporting cast may well end up coming with him. Of course, that's all a ways off yet: Focus Features aren't releasing the film until December 7th, but are clearly trying to get the buzz out early. Check the trailer out below.
Was just talking the other day about how little Bill Murray has been around lately. Thought his career was really over when he was in the tree agent in "Get Smart" Great to see him in a dramatic roll tempered with comic relief. I thought his first attempt back in the early eighties movie about an Italian world war one medic was just to dry for him. It would be great to see him take this one all the way for the gold.
Looks like Bill is sick of trying to get an Oscar by doing his own thing and decided to go full-on Oscar bait. Can't really blame him considering how biased the Academy is towards these kinds of roles.
About time a good movie about FDR was made.
I didn't know Olivia Williams was in this. Rushmore reunion!
I like the Avengers approach to this film getting FDR from Pearl Harbour and King George VI from Kings Speech
I love Bill and take his work seriously but just came off this with sense he may
have been over his head a little on this one. Hopefully will play better in full piece.