While certain parts of the world are gearing up for the release of Andrew Dominik's crime parable "Killing Them Softly," which picked up mostly stellar reviews when it premiered at Cannes back in May — the film opens in the U.K., Ireland and Spain on September 21st, (he said smugly) — it looks like U.S. audiences are going to have to hang on a little while longer to see the Australian director's follow-up to "The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford."
Originally set for a September 21st release, the film was delayed to October 19th when The Weinstein Company decided they wanted to roll out Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" close to its fall festival premieres. But now, it seems that Harvey & Bob have pushed the film back even further, as Deadline report that the film's been delayed again, to November 30th, with only the competition of shonky-looking Nic Cage/John Cusack thriller "The Frozen Ground."
The report says that the move is partly in the hopes of placing the picture better for award season, as well as the advantage of being the only film in wide release that weekend. The film had generally been seen as not being an Academy kind of picture, bar a possible Supporting Actor nomination for James Gandolfini, and the Weinsteins have a number of films challenging for Oscars, including "The Master" and "Silver Linings Playbook," so we suspect that, as with "Lawless," the studio feel they might make more money by pushing it into wide release as a starry crime genre picture. But then, maybe Harvey's feeling bullish and is intending to grab all the Best Picture slots this year…
Either way, there's no cause for concern if our rave review from Cannes is to be believed, it's more just a frustrating wait for those who are looking forward to the picture. But you'll finally be able to catch up with "Killing Them Softly" when it opens on November 30th.
