Two Oscar hopefuls have had their December theatrical debuts cancelled after they were tepidly received at last month’s film festivals. The Weinstein Co. yanked Julian Schnabel’s “Miral” from a Dec. 3 limited opening and will dump, er, release this decades-spanning drama improbably starring India’s Frida Pinto as a Palestinian in March.

Meanwhile the Weinsteins’ former associates at Disney have pulled the plug on plans to release on John (“Shakespeare in Love”) Madden’s “The Debt,” a remake of an Israeli film with Helen Mirren as a guilt-stricken Mossad agent, on Dec. 29.

That uneviable duty will go to the suckers who bought the overpriced Miramax; they reportedly have yet to close a deal. Disney is proceeding with plans to release their other Miramax title with Mirren, the Shakespearean adaptation “The Tempest,” which earned critical groans in Venice and at the New York Film Festival.

This may be a favor to director Julie Taymor, who helped pour millions into the Mouse House coffers as the director of the stage production of “The Lion King.”

New distributor Wreckin Hill will open Peter Weir’s Siberian adventure “The Way Back” with Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell and Ed Harris on Dec. 29 in Los Angeles only for a one-week Oscar qualification run.

That means it will be ineligible for the New York Film Critics Circle awards. The Weinstein Co. learned this the hard way a few years ago when it mistakenly assumed that a screening or two before the Circle’s deadline would make the hapless Sienna Miller eligible for her “Factory Girl” performance without an actual run by year’s end.