Category: oscars

Gus Van Sant pulls into the Oscar race with ‘Promised Land’

The Portland filmmaker, who contented for Oscars last with "Milk," is back in the award season-mix.

van-sant.JPGView full sizeGus Van Sant on the set of 2008's "Milk," for which he received an Oscar nomination as best director.
Portland director Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land," a drama about a shady salesman trying to capture the drilling rights to an economically troubled Pennsylvania town, will be released by Focus Features on December 28.  The film had originally been intended for a 2013 release, but the new date indicates that the distributors believe it can be a contender in the Oscar derby for the coming winter.

The film stars Matt Damon and John Krasinkski, who co-wrote the script, as well as Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook and Lucas Black.  Van Sant shot it near Pittsburgh.  It is not currently scheduled to play at any of the fall's film festivals, which often launch movies into awards season.  

Damon and Van Sant previously worked, of course, on 1997's "Good Will Hunting," for which the actor shared a screenwriting Oscar with his friend and co-star Ben Affleck and Van Sant received an Oscar nomination.

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