Paramount Studios Gives THE SOLOIST And DEFIANCE The Heave-Ho!
Is there trouble over at Paramount Studios? It was recently announced that the film with the corniest trailer I’ve seen in ages, The Soloist, and the new Daniel Craig movie (no, not that one) Defiance, are being shoved back to 2009! According to the press release, the studio is trying to consolidate the amount of films that are released every year in order to save money. Word around the campfire has it that Dreamworks, the studio behind The Soloist, is pissed that Paramount is taking their potential Oscar bait flick out of Oscar contention releasing it on March 13, 2009.
I don’t get why Paramount is putting the brakes on this film, especially considering the hot streak that Downey is on right now. I thought it was a genius idea to release the film this year after the 1-2 punch of Iron Man and Tropic Thunder, despite how made-for-TV it looks. Downey would have brought in some folks that wouldn’t have thought twice about seeing this thing, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the real reason that the film is being taken out of the Oscar race is because something is wrong with the picture. The reaction to the trailer hasn’t been as rapturous as the studio was hoping for, so they would rather take their dog out of the fight rather than watch their dog get torn to shreds.
As for Defiance, I have no clue why they pushed that one back as well, but they are at least giving that film a brief run before December 31th to qualify it for Oscar consideration. This is just the latest in an increasingly shuffling film season, with Harry Potter booted to next July and Valkyrie playing musical chairs before landing on Christmas Day, a horrid strategy in my book. Nobody wants to spend Christmas Day watching a movie about an attempt to assassinate Hitler. When I hear that a film is being moved around, especially after the release date has been publicly touted already, I immediately go to the worst-case scenarios: either the film sucks, or it isn’t finished. Since The Soloist and Defiance aren’t big-budget blockbusters with special effects, I’m leaning toward the first scenario. How ’bout you?
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2 Responses to “Paramount Studios Gives THE SOLOIST And DEFIANCE The Heave-Ho!”
This premise reminds me of The Caveman’s Valentine. Though I doubt it’ll be as entertaining, Robert Downey Jr. not-with-standing.
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