Hoping to see Paul Greengrass’ Iraq War drama, “The Green Zone,” starring Matt Damon at one of the fall festivals, preferably the Toronto International Film Festival (as we hoped)? You’re unfortunately not going to get it. Universal is having a tough summer and potentially a bad year. After taking some risks with the bold, but uneven Michael Mann film, “Public Enemies,” and decidedly striking out with the thought-to-be sure-fire hit of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno,” the studio has unveiled their revised upcoming slate and revealed that Joe Johnston’s “The Wolfman” has yet again been delayed while Paul Greengrass’ “Green Zone” won’t be hitting theaters until March of next year.
The delays for the Benicio Del Toro led remake of “The Wolfman” is the fourth significant change after it was originally moved from it’s Feb 13, 2009 date to April 3rd and then once more to November 6th which most assumed would be the final date. This follows several reports of reshoots which were suppose to simply CGI-based that didn’t involve the main players. So what gives? That remains unclear, but four release date change within the span of 12 months (or less) clearly does no augur well and it’s probably fair to say that the picture has been at least somewhat troubled (how does this bode for “First Avengers: Captain America” which Johnston is also supposed to direct and has been also pushed? That’s another story, but apparently that’s not going super well either). It’s new date is Feb 12, 2010, which is just outside dumping ground season, but doesn’t instill a lot of hope or confidence.
“We have seen just how enormous first quarter movies can be,” a Universal rep said in what makes sense, given the success of things like “Paul Blart” and “Taken,” but also sounds like a lot of spin considering the film was set in prime-time Oscar season (not that anyone really thought a Wolfman movie would have much Oscar hopes).
As for “Green Zone”? To us it’s an almost seismic shift in the Oscar landscape as we assumed it was going to be a major player, perhaps one to get one of the newly minted and highly coveted 10 Best Picture Oscar nomination slots. It’s apparently not to be and, like “The Soloist” from last year, the astonishing move of be being bumped from November to March not-so-gently indicates that the Greengrass’ Iraq-set war film (which is evidently not an Iraq War film, and was said to be almost complete in March) is simply not Oscar caliber quality.
A bit of a shame as we were hoping it was going to be a contender, but the upside is that it makes room for a potentially similar film, Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” to have less Iraq-War film competition (to us it seems poised for one of those 10 slots).
Here’s the updated Universal line-up for the rest of the year and 2010.
November 6, 2009: “The Fourth Kind,” a Milla Jovovich led alien-drama
December 2: “It’s Complicated,” directed by Nancy Meyers and featuring Robert Adamson, Blanchard Ryan and with a supporting cast of Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.
February 12, 2010: “The Wolfman”
March 12: “Green Zone”
April 16: The SNL spin-off “MacGruber,” film, possibly the most reprehensible idea for a film announced all year.
First Quarter: “Repo Men,” starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker (formerly known as “Repossession Mambo”)
May 14: “Untitled Robin Hood Adventure” (note this release date hasn’t changed)
July 9: “Despicable Me”
June 11: “Get Him To The Greek”
[Variety]