Hey, remember “Leaves Of Grass,” the comedy about a pot dealer and his philosophy professor twin brother both played by Edward Norton? We’ll forgive you if you forgot because sadly, this well received, somewhat challenging film that we called “complex….unexpectedly violent, then funny and then totally tragic” (read our review here) seems to have been all but buried by the film’s distributor, First Look Pictures.
The film starring Norton (x2), Keri Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Melanie Lynskey, Susan Sarandon and Tim Blake Nelson (who also wrote and directed the film) was originally slated for a release on April 2nd and then….nothing really happened. Well, it now looks like the film is going to quietly hit DVD as the studio’s own website lists an October 12, 2010 release date with Amazon ready for pre-orders.
It’s a total bummer the film isn’t getting a theatrical run as it really does deserve better. This only continues Norton’s string of bad luck after getting booted by Marvel as The Hulk in “The Avengers” and with his next film to hit theaters being the awful looking thriller “Stone” with Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich. Here’s hoping 2011 is a bit better for the actor. Full synopsis for the film after the jump:
Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass is a comic thriller seen through the dual perspectives of identical twins Bill and Brady Kincaid (both played by two-time Academy Award® nominee Edward Norton). Bill, a classical philosophy professor at Brown University, returns home upon news of his brother Brady’s murder in a drug deal gone awry. Bill quickly learns that Brady’s death has been grossly exaggerated, as he’s swept up into one of his brother’s crazy schemes. Alongside his eccentric mother (Susan Sarandon) and a beautiful woman named Janet (Keri Russell), Bill participates in his brother’s wild plan, leading him on a twisted path filled with unique characters and life’s most challenging questions. Also starring Richard Dreyfuss and writer-director Nelson, Leaves of Grass merges crime drama, drug comedy and classical philosophy, as it attempts to answer one of the oldest questions in the world: What does it truly mean to be happy?
Ebert's gonna be pissed.
With this and Cemetery Junction being put straight to dvd, are we entering an era where good movies will sometimes premiere on DVD? (Or Download, or streaming or whatever)
Is that dvd cover for real? It's one of the most awful dvd covers I've ever seen – it looks like it belongs on a copy you'd find at a market in Hong Kong.
Nick have you watched either of these movies? Cemetery Junction and Leaves of Grass are bloody mediocre…totally deserving direct-to-dvd fates.
Man, this sucks! Leaves of Grass was a solid movie, I really liked it, doesn't deserved to be screwed with a straight-to-DVD release like this. Especially considering they were building buzz saying that they were going to hold it for a theatrical release later in the summer… What the heck!
Really sucks for Edward Norton, too. He's awesome in it and I was really hoping a lot of people would be able to discover this once it was out. Now it's just going to be quietly dumped. Damn them!
This is one of the very best movies this year, and this is bullshit.
While a big supporter for this film. I'm not sure it's quite the best of the year (though it was in our honorable mention section). That said, yes, this sucks and it deserves, far, far better.
Would love to hear the story what happened here since it was supposed to be released elsewhere and in theaters.