Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Release Date Changes: Zombieland and Whip It Move; Fantastic Mr Fox Goes Wide For Thanksgiving

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Last week Paramount surprised quite a few people by moving Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island from early October of this year to mid-February of 2010. In the wake of that change, a few other studios have shuttled release dates as well; everyone loves a slightly more empty weekend in October.

First up, Sony has moved Zombieland to the former Shutter Island date, so you'll now see Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg battling the undead starting on October 2. (Instead of October 9.) Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It has also moved to October 2, making that quite a packed weekend. You'll have to choose between Ellen Page's roller derby, zombies, the limited initial release of A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Coen, and the Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D release. Meanwhile, Fox Searchlight has seemingly tweaked the release for Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox. Details on that move are after the jump.

We'd known that Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox would get a released on November 13. Now it seems like that is just a limited release (which we already more or less knew) and that the film will go wide just in time for Thanksgiving, on November 25. That suggests a lot of confidence in the film on the part of Fox Searchlight. If the studio thinks the film can do well over the family holiday weekend, then they're under the impression there's a good thing there. Which, for me, is a great note, as I have yet to be fully convinced by the materials so far, and I want the film to be good.

The film will still premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 14. Whip It is also having a festival debut; that will preimere at the Toronto International Film Festival, which begins in a mere two and a half weeks.

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