‘Fisher King’ Pushed Back for the Oscars

The 1990 Oscar show is still two weeks away, but Tri-Star Pictures has already started a campaign for next year.

Anticipating both hot summer competition and the short memories of Oscar voters, Tri-Star announced on Thursday that it is pushing back its release of Terry Gilliam’s “The Fisher King,” a comedy-drama starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, from May 10 to Sept. 27.

“We’re very high on it and fall is the time of year when the more substantial films generally receive greater notice for awards consideration,” said Stephen Randall, Tri-Star’s senior vice president of production. “We don’t want ‘The Fisher King’ mixed up with the slam-bang summer pictures. A fall release will also give our marketing people more time to give it the careful attention it deserves--arranging for magazine features and for special screenings for college campuses and the press.”

Given Gilliam’s past experiences with major studios--his fight with Universal over the editing of “Brazil” and the runaway production costs on “The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen”--the shift in dates on “The Fisher King” will be seen as a red flag going up by many people. But both the studio and Gilliam insist the movie’s in good shape and that there’s harmony between them.

“Terry was responsible and brought this film in on budget,” said Randall, “and the reaction at our four previews has been sensational. We look forward to being in business with him in the future.”

“I think (putting the film back) is a good call,” said Gilliam, in a phone interview from his home in London. “I’ve thought of it as an autumn film all along. People have said this is the best acting they’ve seen in a long while, and performances in films released in the first half of the year tend to be forgotten. The attention span of the Academy (members), apparently, is only a couple of months. This will definitely increase our Oscar chances. The studio is thinking: let’s go for it.”

“In the summer, ‘Fisher King’ would be pitted against two or three new films each weekend,” says Tri-Star distribution chief Bill Soady, who while in that same job at Universal was one of the studio’s most outspoken opponents of Gilliam’s “Brazil.” “In the fall, with the terrific word of mouth we expect, it could easily play straight into Thanksgiving.”

Gilliam says his experiences with “The Fisher King” and Tri-Star have revived his passion for filmmaking.

“By the end of ‘Munchhausen,’ I never wanted to make a film again,” he says. “The process was too painful and consumed too much of my life. I took on ‘The Fisher King’ because it was a small film, without all those elaborate special effects. Also because it gave me a chance to scotch Hollywood’s notion that I’m inherently irresponsible.”