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Apple is reportedly split on the looming release of Will Smith‘s Civil War drama, Emancipation. The film, which was considered major award bait before Smith’s Oscars slap controversy, is now posing issues for Apple TV+, a new report published by The New York Times yesterday (September 18) suggests.

While Variety reported that Emancipation was pushed to a 2023 release after Smith struck Chris Rock across the face at the Academy Awards in March, sources tell the Times that the film could be released by the end of this year, within the window of awards consideration.

If Apple releases Emancipation in 2022, “Audiences could be turned off by Mr. Smith’s presence, perhaps taking some gloss off the well-polished Apple brand,” the Times reports. But the studio also risks irking academy members with an Oscar campaign for the film after Smith was banned from the Academy Awards until 2033.

Apple remained tight-lipped when probed by the Times, declining to comment on the release plan for Emancipation — and it’s easy to understand why. As Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts Stephen Galloway told the outlet, Apple is in a “lose-lose” situation with Smith’s Emancipation.

The film stars Smith as escaped slave “Whipped Peter,” and is directed by Antoine Fuqua and features a script by William Collage. Filming on Emancipation wrapped a month before the fateful Oscars ceremony — which both Smith and Rock are still talking about months later.

Apple clearly bet big on Emancipation from the very beginning, when news first broke in 2020 that they had acquired the film for $120 million. But years later, after the fallout from the Oscars slap, the Times reports “the Oscar chances for Emancipation have dimmed exponentially.”

One industry expert predicts that dropping Emancipation before the end of the calendar year would ensure the movie gets more slap-centric press that would detract from the actual story unfolding onscreen.

“There’s a very high risk that the film will not get judged on its pure merit. It puts it into a very untenable context,” former co-chief executive of Fox Searchlight Stephen Gilula told the Times.

But according to early screenings, Emancipation could be good enough to push aside all the gossip. A screening in Chicago earlier this year brought plenty of praise for the film, especially Smith’s work, sources told the Times, and viewers said their perception of the film wasn’t affected by Smith’s Oscars antics.