The poor reception that surrounded the recent Venice premiere of Madonna‘s W.E. has been well-documented — hardly any critics or journalists in attendance had anything legitimately nice to say about the romantic period drama. But apparently Harvey Weinstein hasn’t given up on the film’s prospects just yet — it’s now been confirmed that W.E. will go through a phase of re-editing before being released stateside on December 9. [The Guardian]
It surprises me that this step has been taken, if only because the buzz seemed so drastically negative. I can hardly imagine some reassembling will turn the tables on the film’s Oscar prospects — a Best Makeup nod looks feasible, but not much else — nor do I have a hunch that it’ll influence the film’s commercial potential in any way.
From a marketing perspective, there’s not much to allure general audience members other than Madonna‘s involvement. It’s unlikely, too, that the re-editing will alter critical reception enough so as to allow the film to be pitched as a critical darling.
Nevertheless, Harvey usually has a good instinct with these sorts of things, so I’m interested to see how it plays out. If anything, this announcement might convince people like me — people who weren’t going see the film — to consider giving it a look and seeing what Harvey has up his sleeve.
Do you think the re-editing will have any influence on the film’s commercial or critical prospects?