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 The Publicity Poster for Spielberg's MunichEric Bana, under the guidance of Steven Spielberg, has emerged as a favourite to claim the best actor Academy Award, with an Oscar campaign so quiet it is deafening.
A cloak of secrecy hangs over the Bana-Spielberg movie collaboration, Munich, with only a select few allowed to watch the drama before its US release on December 23.
The clandestine nature of the project, combined with an almost non-existent promotional campaign instead of the usual $US20 million blitz for a Oscar hopeful, have many in Hollywood desperate to see Munich - creating just the type of buzz Spielberg was probably after.
Already, bookmakers have Munich listed as the outright favourite to win best picture at the 78th Annual Academy Awards on March 5. "Munich has Oscar written all over it," Hollywood-based box office expert and president of Exhibitor Relations, Paul Dergarabedian, said.
"They are releasing it in the US just before the end of the year so it will be fresh in the minds of Academy voters, it's Spielberg, it has Eric Bana in it and it has a story with important subject matter about a major event."
Munich - based on the murders of 11 Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terrorist group at the 1972 Munich Olympics - is set for release in Australia in February. Bana plays an Israeli Mossad agent and family man who battles moral issues while tracking down and assassinating the terrorists.
He faces strong opposition for the best actor Oscar, including countrymen Heath Ledger for his role as a gay cowboy and Russell Crowe for Cinderella Man, and some of Hollywood's best known leading men, including George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Viggo Mortensen and Joaquin Phoenix.
The only hints offered so far about Munich is the film's trailer that can be found on the internet and promotional material such as movie posters tucked away in cinemas. Both centre largely on Bana. In the posters he sits in near darkness, head bowed and his right hand holding a revolver.
An Oscar would cap a startling rise to the top of Hollywood for Bana, who made his name in Australia in the 1990s in comedy skit shows.
"One performance that has an excellent shot at a nomination and even a win is given by Eric Bana in Munich," Oscar expert, Tom O'Neil, wrote on his website Goldderby.com.
"Steven Spielberg's drama about the 1972 Olympic Games is already considered a best picture frontrunner and, as all Oscar nuts know, voters like to pair up lead-acting awards along with the top trophy (think Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby, or Russell Crowe in Gladiator)." Munich also could score Australia a second nominee, with Geoffrey Rush, a former Oscar winner, playing a key supporting role in the film.
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