No Longer a Contender: 'Grace of Monaco' Bumped to 2014

One of the films many were expecting to be a major Oscar contender this fall was Grace of Monaco, which certainly would have had The Weinstein Company putting all of their marketing muscle behind Nicole Kidman for her performance as Grace Kelly. The film was given an Oscar-qualifying limited run beginning November 27th, and the push began with the first trailer arriving just a few days ago. But it turns out that Weinstein no longer wants to look at this as just another prestige entry, they want to actually make some money off it. Go figure. So to do that they've bumped it out of the Academy Awards race and into 2014.

THR reports that Grace of Monaco is being moved to some time next spring in order to make it more of a commercial film. They've found success with a similar tactic before on Best Picture winner The King's Speech, but it's surprising to see them do it at such a late date. The other reason given for the move is to provide director Olivier Dahan, who helped take Marion Cottilard to a Best Actress win for La Vie En Rose, ample time to finish the film.

The most recent teaser trailer may have been Weinstein's first attempts to make the story more accessible as it leaves out much of the plot and settles for glamorous mood. Grace Kelly's superstar career as one of Hollywood's top actresses isn't the film's focus, instead centering on the role she played in settling a tax dispute between her husband Prince Rainier III of Monaco and France's Charles De Gaulle, a feud that could have led to invasion.

So knock one major Oscar threat off the list, and look for Grace of Monaco to be a player next year.