As the flurries fall this January, you can now curl up with Joe Carnahan‘s thriller The Grey. Returning to his lower-budget Narc roots, the story follows “an oil-drilling team attempting to survive the Alaskan wilderness,” who have to deal with both the cold and the wolves of the area. Starring Liam Neeson, James Badge Dale, Dermot Mulroney, Joe Anderson, Dallas Roberts, Nonso Anozie and Frank Grillo, Deadline reports a wide release date has now been set. Open Road will release it wide on January 27th, 2012.

It is a perfect date, with only The Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes and One For the Money opening alongside it, but what does this mean for possible Oscar consideration? We previously reported a 30-minute reel set distributors on fire, mostly regarding Neeson’s performance. Mike Fleming reports that the distributor is thinking about a qualifying run in two theaters before time is up, so Oscars are still possible.

The film will be skipping festivals like TIFF, Telluride, Venice, and NYFF though, since Carnahan is still finishing it up. We’ve been quite eager to see what Carnahan has in store for this one and while I find it a stretch that Neeson could get awards recognition, we’ll have to wait and see. With this announcement, we’ll be able to sooner rather than later.

Are you looking forward to The Grey? Is this a good release strategy?