Everyone’s Gonna Have to Wait Until November For “J. Edgar”

Will Leitch
·Editor

When you're 81 years old -- seriously, Clint Eastwood is 81 years old -- and one of Hollywood's most enduring icons, you don't have to play any of the dumb Oscar games everyone else has to play. You don't have to do the talk show circuit, you don't have to sit at a table with a bunch of blogger idiots recording you on their iPhones ... and, until the last possible second, you don't have even have to show anybody your movie. It's good being Clint Eastwood. (Other than the fact that you're 81 years old, anyway.)

This Oscar strategy has worked wonders for Eastwood and his films in the past, making them the equivalent of an October surprise in an election. "Million Dollar Baby" is a much-loved film, but the reason it won an Oscar is that no one had seen it until the last possible second ... and suddenly, it was everyone's favorite. Think of Eastwood's Oscar movies as Rick Perry; you don't know anything about them, but if you lack a clear favorite -- which, at this point, we do -- Eastwood can easily fill the void. If the movie's not that great ("Hereafter" being the ideal example), this strategy doesn't work, but if it is, it's gold.

Thus: Once again, 2011's Oscar race will center around Waiting For Eastwood. His "J. Edgar," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the FBI chief, won't hit theaters until November 9, and it won't be shown to critics or exhibitors until ... November 3. The film, which co-stars Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer and Judi Dench, will be the opener of the AFI Fest; for perspective, "The Fighter," another 11th hour entrant, opened there last year.

And until then, it's likely no one but Eastwood and his staff will see the film. We're still a little concerned about "J. Edgar" -- it was a bit alarming that Eastwood said he would leave Hoover's sexuality "vague," considering that's the most intriguing aspect of the Hoover story and it was surely the focus of the screenplay by Dustin Lance Black ("Milk") -- but it's as prestige a production as you'll find (with DiCaprio due for an Oscar, by the way). It'll be now be until at least November 6 that everyone has had a chance to see every Oscar contender, and it could be even longer, depending on when Steven Spielberg shows "War Horse." It is not yet known whether Spielberg will keep the horse's sexuality "vague."

Just because it always makes us giggle, here's Eastwood's first ever screen appearance, from 1955's "Revenge of the Creature."

Clint Eastwood's 'J. Edgar' will premiere at AFI Fest 2011 [HitFix]