It has been a bit of wild awards season as we head into the closing months. Bennett Miller‘s “Foxcatcher” got pushed to 2014, while there has been a continual question mark around Martin Scorsese‘s “The Wolf Of Wall Street,” and whether or not it would be ready in time. But it looks like yet another movie is bowing out of the season.
The LA Times reports that George Clooney‘s star-studded, WWII caper/drama “Monuments Men,” originally slated to open December 18th, is now headed to 2014, and the co-writer/director/star is coming right out front and taking ownership of the delay. “We just didn’t have enough time,” Clooney told the paper, stressing that the extensive visual effects work and the score still needed to completed. “If any of the effects looked cheesy, the whole movie would look cheesy. We simply don’t have enough people to work enough hours to finish it.”
And it’s easy to understand the time crunch. Production only started in March, filming wrapped in July, giving Clooney less than six months to pull it all together. And while he put his best foot forward ultimately, “It wasn’t going to be finished, and I wouldn’t want to have my name on it,” he said of cranking it out without getting the visuals right. “You don’t want it to look like a film that was all done in the computer.”
But what about all those potential Oscars? As it turns out, Clooney never was really thinking in terms of statues, but a December date was selected because of previous success with the first two “Ocean’s Eleven” movies in that frame. “All we’ve ever said, from the very beginning, is that we wanted to make a commercial, non-cynical piece of entertainment,” Clooney stated. For now, a potential February 2014 date is being eyed, but where one movie exits, another comes in.
The LA Times also confirms that Martin Scorsese‘s “The Wolf Of Wall Street” will indeed make the 2013 calendar, with a Christmas Day release penciled in. And while that’s good news, Paramount has decided to push “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” to an unspecified early 2014 date. Not a terrible loss, and perhaps even a smarter play giving ‘Jack Ryan’ a bit more breathing room, particularly in the dead early months of the new year. Updated: All, but 99% confirmed, THR solidifies the Xmas 2013 release date. What’s more the movie will now run 165 minutes, or 2 hours and 45 minutes.
So adjust your calendars and Oscar predictions accordingly…
