Here's how you know your career's in a good place. You star in a hit film at Cannes and get strong reviews for your work, though it's your co-lead — himself a headline name — who garners the most lavish praise and awards buzz. Yet when the film's first official poster comes out, it's still all about you. Ladies and gentlemen, that's how hot Channing Tatum is right now. The “22 Jump Street” star is the sole presence on the somber, classy new one-sheet for “Foxcatcher” — and while Steve Carell's name appears above his, it's Tatum who is highlighted in the selected critic's quote.
Perhaps Carell will get his own poster later on? November is still some way off. But this is a smart way to go — the studio must know that Bennett Miller's downbeat Cannes winner, for all its strengths, is a tough marketing prospect, so you may as well lead with the guy who's box-office gold at the moment. And as one of the critics who thought Tatum was every bit as remarkable as Carell in the film, and in a less showy role to boot, that's fine by me. It'll be interesting to see how the awards campaign for this one pans out. (For the record, no film has received two Best Actor nods since “Amadeus” 30 years ago — time to break that hex?) I've already plumped for Tatum's work in “22 Jump Street,” but we all know where his Best Actor chips lie.