Will Zwick do it in 2010 with Love & Other Drugs?

Edward Zwick is this director on the fringe.

Not because he's overly "artsy" or makes irrelevant films, rather his fringe status in my mind comes from the fact he's never been nominated for best director.

Yet at the same time I have this feeling that there's been years where he's been a close runner up to the top 5 for Oscars.

In 2008, I began to speculate about whether Edward Zwick would get an Oscar nomination for his film Defiance.

Zwick, did not.

In fact, Defiance only received 1 Academy Award nomination, and that was for Best Original Score (James Newton Howard).

Zwick has received two nominations (including 1 win) as a producer for Traffic and Shakespeare and Love, which went on to win the Zwick an Oscar. But still he's never received a nomination for one of his own films, or for his directing.

Other Zwick directed films and there Oscar pedigree includes

• Defiance (nominated for 1 Oscar, neither best pic or director)
• The Blood Diamond (nominated for 5 Oscars, but not for pic or director)
• The Last Samurai (nominated for 4 Oscars, but not for pic or director)
• The Siege
• Courage Under Fire
• Legends of the Fall (nominated for 3 Oscars, 1 win, but nothing for pic or director)
• Glory (won 3 of it's 5 nods, but no nod for picture or director)

Will Zwick finally join the director's club in 2010 with his film Love and Other Drugs?

Love and Other Drugs is based on Jamie Reidy's memoir Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman.

This film is set to be released around Thanksgiving, not because November is a favorite time of year for film about male performance enhancing drugs, but rather because its seems pretty clear that expectations are high for this to be one of this year's must see award caliber films.

The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the blue pill peddler, Jamie Reidy. Other co-stars include Anne Hathaway, Oliver Platt, and Judy Greer.

This could be Zwick's year, and with a 10 picture Oscar field, the picture nomination is certainly on my radar for one of my current predictions.

Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Pittsburgh addicted to Gyllenhaal's 'Love and Drugs'"