On 'The Reader,' a debate on when to open the book

By Steven Zeitchik

A past king of the Oscars and last year's king of the Oscars are in a heated skirmish over -- what else -- a potential Oscar movie.

Harvey Weinstein and Scott Rudin are jockeying over when to release the Rudin-produced "The Reader," the postwar romantic drama that's earned buzz both for itself and star Kate Winslet.

The movie rides into the fall on the wind of strong test screenings, which is propelling Weinstein's desire to release the pic in December. The mogul also thinks it's the proper moment for a movie that has the late Anthony Minghella and the late Sydney Pollack on as producers (Minghella actually helped develop the script).

But Rudin, already with two Oscar contenders this year ("Revolutionary Road" and "Doubt") is said to be favoring an '09 release. "Road" also stars Winslet, which would mean if "The Reader" came out this year Rudin would not only compete against two of his other movies but Winslet would compete against herself too.

The battle is turning pitched, with lawyers apparently being called in to determine respective rights/wiggle room.

It's not the first time that the two New York film lions have tussled -- and on a Daldry movie, no less. On "The Hours" about six years ago, their disagreement spilled over to a number of areas, including but not limited to Nicole Kidman's prosthetic nose. That pretty much worked out well in the end for everyone. -- Kidman won an Oscar for best actress and Daldry was nominated for best director. (Poor Stephen Daldry -- he's worked often with Rudin but is also a friend of Weinstein's -- and is trying to prep a Broadway adaptation of the "Billy Elliot" film as all this is going on.)

Still, that doesn't mean anyone is backing down. So who wins? A distributor tends to have the edge in these instances, some legal experts we talked to said. But the movie isn't delivered yet, with Daldry still working on it in post. So chalk one up to an '09 release.

It should be noted that it's not clear that vote-splitting is an issue with these movies -- both "No Country" and "There Will Be Blood" garnered their share of Oscars last year, after all. What is clear is that one of the best dramas this Oscar season may unfold off the screen.