Update: The Weinstein Company Buys Tom Ford’s ‘A Single Man’ With Oscar Hopes In Mind

Fashion designer and perpetual chest hair-exposer Tom Ford has ignited a bidding war in Venice over his directorial debut, “A Single Man,” starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. Adapted by Ford from a Christopher Isherwood autobiographical novel, “A Single Man” is set in 1962 and features Firth as a gay British professor in Santa Monica, mourning the death of his lover, and Moore as his best friend Charlotte, a boozy British divorcee.

Roger Friedman reports that every major distributor was in attendance at the screening, and that both Harvey Weinstein and Miramax pres Daniel Battsek were wooing Ford at the after party.

The film nabbed the Queer Golden Lion award (unofficial and independent of the festival, it awards gay-themed movies at the fest), and Firth was awarded Best Actor at the festival. Friedman postulates that whoever gets the movie, “picks up Oscar noms for at least Best Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Score, Set Design, Costumes, and Make Up. Best Director is not outside the realm of possibilities.” Wow, color us surprised. Ford is a talented guy, but this is heavy stuff for a first time writer/director coming into film from another medium. Firth and Moore are consistently kick-ass, Friedman says Moore is a “knockout” and that, “the centerpiece sequence, when [Firth] goes over to her house for dinner, is an instant classic.” The film is supposed to be in the vein of “Far From Heaven,” “Gods and Monsters,” and “The Hours,” and Jon Hamm even makes an uncredited voice cameo on a phone call, making it even more “Mad Men”-y. Can’t. wait.

This throws a new player into our Oscar predictions, but its great to hear about new, promising stuff to look forward to. And a little healthy competition always works out for us, the viewers, the best.

Update: And The Weinsteins win this round, reports Variety, in one of those legendary all-night negotiating sessions, and they will be releasing “A Single Man” for the 2009 awards season. With all the positive Oscar buzz surrounding this film, this is a major coup for them.