Oscars: Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott Race to the Finish 

It wouldn’t be awards season without a little bit of drama around last-minute contenders sprinting to the finish line. This year, there are three major prestige projects based on true events from powerhouse directors that could really shake up the race.

Steven Spielberg’s “The Papers” — about the Washington Post, the Pentagon Papers, and a watershed moment in the history of press freedom — wasn’t even a go until a week after “Moonlight” won the best picture Oscar earlier this year. The Fox production shot throughout the summer and wrapped in July, aiming for a Dec. 22 limited release. It’s packed with an all-star cast, including Meryl Streep (as Post publisher Katharine Graham), Tom Hanks (as editor Ben Bradlee, a role that won Jason Robards an Oscar in 1977 for “All the President’s Men”), and Carrie Coon (as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Meg Greenfield), among many others.

Meanwhile, Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World” — about the 1973 kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III — was still casting a week after Spielberg signed on to direct his film. It wasn’t on the 2017 radar at all until last month when Sony planted a flag for a Dec. 8, hoping to finally net Scott his first Oscar. The project just wrapped production and is, along with “The Papers,” in the editing room now. It features Michelle Williams, as Getty’s fretful mother Gail Harris, and Kevin Spacey, said to be unrecognizable behind considerable makeup prosthetics as Getty’s patriarchal grandfather (who infamously charged his son, Getty Jr., interest on a portion of the ransom money). Mark Wahlberg also stars as an ex-CIA agent dispatched to Italy to deal with the situation.

That would all be exciting enough, but sources say a third entry could be set to make a cannon ball splash, and it should really come as no surprise.

Clint Eastwood Casts Real-Life Heroes in Next Film ‘The 15:17 to Paris’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Clint Eastwood is well known for his economy and expedition in pulling movies together. “Million Dollar Baby” wrapped in the summer of 2004 before going on to spoil the season for Martin Scorsese and “The Aviator,” for instance. He pulled another sneak attack two years later with “Letters from Iwo Jima,” which came together quickly in the wake of production on “Flags of Our Fathers” (a companion piece released two months prior).

In late April of this year, the four-time Oscar winner announced “The 15:17 to Paris” — about the 2015 Thalys train attack in France and the childhood friends who thwarted it — as his next project. He set off to make the film only weeks ago, but he’s already closing in on a wrap and will likely have it in and out of the editing suite in no time. I’m told it will be ready for release this year, if Warner Bros. wants to roll it out.

The Burbank studio already has a slam-dunk Oscar contender in Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” as well as high hopes for summer superhero hit “Wonder Woman.” But Eastwood could offer something more traditional to work with. That said, there is an unusual flourish to this project:

broke the news last month that the director had taken the extraordinary step of casting real-life heroes Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, and Spencer Stone as themselves in the picture. Eastwood’s expediency on the set — one or two takes before moving on — can sometimes work against non-actors; “Gran Torino” certainly appeared to suffer from that somewhat. Nevertheless, it’s a splashy decision that, in this case, could give the movie some built-in goodwill.

Warner Bros. had no comment about the release plans for “The 15:17 to Paris” at this time.

Monday will mark two years since Sadler, Skarlatos, and Stone charged gunman Ayoub El-Khazzani on a Paris-bound Amsterdam train, preventing him from carrying out his planned massacre. It’s a story that, for obvious reasons, could resonate in the modern climate. Though one wonders how Eastwood himself would register; it’s a very different atmosphere now than it was a year ago when he voiced his support for then-presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Filmmakers like Spielberg, Eastwood, and Scott are able to squeeze big projects like these in under the wire because they’re seasoned veterans. They don’t try to find their movies in the editing room. They find them in the script, in pre-production, and then execute a clean production plan that allows for a tight post schedule. Any one of them contending in an Oscar race alone would be reason to take note, but all three potentially mixing it up together could make for an exciting December.

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The Papers is the first Spielberg film in quite a while that I have been excited to see.

Cannot wait to see The 15:17 to Paris! What an encouraging story giving todays climate.

Clint Eastwood is a treasure. He is a LEGEND and maybe the best director alive. He is 87 and his last 2 movies grossed 500 million dollars domestically. What a successful career. he is a no nonsense, economical and master director who can stick you on the edge of your seat by every movie he makes. 15:17 to Paris is one of the most anticipated movies of year and I’m extremely looking forward for it.

“The best director alive”????? Eastwood???. Please expand your horizons and watch more movies from other filmmakers.

Dunkirk will be pushed and made to win by pseudo intellectual critics who want to prove that they matter.

“Gran Torino” was a terrible movie on every level.

I still don’t understand what made it so successful…it’s an enigma to me.

Lazy writing, directing, acting, scoring and cheap melodrama.

For every 3 good films, Eastwood made at least 1 bad one.

Oh joy, another dank, gray Eastwood movie about military/political material. And even worse, using non-actors in the role. Given his Grand Borino track record, as Tapley mentioned, he and his one/two-take style pretty much force these bad actors to flop on the big screen. Can’t he just retire completely already? He’s been mostly miss lately since 2008 (delicious snub, since GT is awful), with the exception of American Sniper of course. But he was rightfully overlooked in the Director category and I hope history repeats itself unless it’s truly one of the best and not a legend getting an undeserving nomination.

Same goes for Spielberg with The Papers. I’m not exactly sure about this one. I mean, with its release date, is it all assumption that it’s a hit, or is it overestimating based upon status of talent? Hard to say. The biographical and political angle, of course, lend us to suspect this one, unlike 15:17, is a more likely Oscar contender. If it’s at least good, it’ll be a BP nominee and probably for Hanks and Streep (ugh, not again). But I’m kind of rooting against it? Maybe it’s because I’m such a fan of All the President’s Men. Or maybe it’s the “not Streep again” factor. Then again, Bridge of Spies did surprise me. I quite liked that one. In spite of any of my comments here, I will ALWAYS give each and every film a fair chance. That doesn’t mean I hope it’s DOA until that time comes.

Finally, All the Money in the World is more interesting to me. I’ve always felt this story was ripe for a cinematic yarn. I wonder if Scott has any shot….Too soon to really tell, until we see a trailer and get a sense of his film. But even if it doesn’t become a frontrunner, I can see it figuring into the acting races, primarily with Kevin Spacey and Michelle Williams. Perhaps Williams finally wins (but I’m hedging my bet that the Janis Joplin biopic will finally be her solicitation of the golden boy). But I do have the most confidence in this film, followed by The Papers, with The 15:17 to Paris bringing up the rear.

WB really wants to support another generic Eastwood movie instead of Dunkirk???? By the way, we live in an era in which Clint Eastwood has 2 oscars for directing and Nolan hasn’t even been nominated. The academy is a joke.

You’re way under predicting The Papers if you think it’s just another nomination for Meryl.

A supporter of directors with true talent…many directors at bat swing at the fences before hitting a homerun. Ridley’s “Martian”, for example. This makes viewing the Oscars more probable than gifting a film like “MOONLIGHT” as Best Picture of the Year which it was not.

Eastwood and Scott are past their prime, so i don’t hold out any hope for their films. Spielberg is another one who lost his edge long time ago and this project seems the typical oscar-bait bullshit. Overall these 3 old-timers have done recently uninteresting and paint by numbers work, i don’t expect them to be at the center of the oscar race this time. The only interesting work that will be released in December will be the PTA/ Day-Lewis movie.

Have you read anything about The Papers? You have to be living under a rock if you think it’s not a major player.

The Papers isn’t even close to just a auto-nom, it literally has everything going for it. Again, if you think it’s anything less than a major contender, Meryl included, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Right, I don’t want it to be because it looks basic and some will inevitably compare it as inferior to All the President’s Men. Plus, I don’t want another Streep auto-nom, because quite frankly I’m sick of it. She hasn’t deserved her last 3 nominations or her 2011 win. It’s just autopilot at this point and it’s gross.

I didn`t even know Ridley Scott had made a film this year,they`ve been flying under the radar with this one.

Wow! I had Spielberg down for Ready Player One (loved the novel, liked the trailer), wasn’t expecting him to finish the Papers that quickly. Same is true for Eastwood. His movie was on my radar, but so far, it does not show up on release shedules. Scott is a complete surprise. Nice to see that interesting movies do not rely on a number after the title…