Director: Bennett Miller
Stars: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave, Anthony Michael Hall
Release Date: TBD, but late 2013
Festival Speculation: Venice, Telluride, Toronto
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Why: Bennett Miller is two-for-two with the Academy: both his directorial efforts to date, “Capote” and “Moneyball” earned Best Picture nominations. Like those films, “Foxcatcher” is a biopic, and one that reunites him with Oscar-nominated “Capote” scribe Dan Futterman on a study of a highly publicized murder case from the 1990s. Steve Carell plays John du Pont, the millionaire wrestling enthusiast and paranoid schizophrenic convicted of killing his friend, Olympic gold medallist Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo). Channing Tatum, looking to consolidate his breakout year in 2012, plays Schultz's younger brother Mark, from whose autobiography the screenplay is adapted, while Carell stands to benefit from the Academy's frequent admiration for funnymen turned serious (and with a mental disability to boot). Further gilding this one's prospects: the presence of Hollywood's hottest new producer, the notably discerning Megan Ellison (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Master”).

- Guy Lodge