With just six months to go to it's June release date and having debuted no official stills, posters or clips, 20th Century Fox have pushed back
Rise of the Apes, one of their biggest 2011 Summer spectacles - into a
November 23rd opening slot. Apes will now open on the lucrative Thanksgiving weekend but will find itself under stiff competition from the biggest star-studded movie version of
The Muppets we've seen in years,
Arthur Christmas and a mysterious comedy from
Todd Phillips at Warner Bros. It also means the Apes reboot will play just one week after the next
Twilight movie and the
Happy Feet sequel. I'm guessing the reason for the delay is simply to give director
Rupert Wyatt and the WETA crew more time on what will be a CGI heavy movie as it only began production late last summer, and also to get it out of June where things were looking awfully crowded. I'm not that much worried about the move yet, but if it comes to June and we still haven't seen anything on this movie - that's the time to panic. Fox have made the decision to bump up
Jim Carrey's comedy tentpole
Mr. Popper's Penguins from it's original August 12th release to June 17th, where it will go up against
Green Lantern and Sony's
Bad Teacher. I can't help but feel like that movie is been thrown to the wolves, somewhat, especially when Carrey hasn't had a hit movie in years. We had a first look at the comedy this week;
Based on the popular children's book and directed for the screen by
Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), the movie finds Carrey as a businessman who inherits six penguins and transforms his apartment into something of a winter wonderland.
Carla Cugino, Ophelia Lovibond, Philip Baker Hall, Andrew Stewart-Jones, James Tupper, Clark Gregg, David Krumholtz and
Angela Lansbury co-star.
Further release date changes; Anna Faris/Chris Evans' romantic comedy
What's Your Number has moved from April 29th to September 30th, possibly to benefit from the
Captain America buzz Evans is sure to get this summer. Andrew Niccol's
Now, one of my personal
most anticipated films of the year, has shifted back a month from September 30th to October 28th.
Rom-com
Monte Carlo moves from July 1st to August 12th.
Jack Black and Owen Wilson's birdwatching comedy
The Big Year lands an October 14th date.
David Gordon Green's other release this year (i.e. not Your Highness) is a Sam Rockwell and Jonah Hill
led comedy titled
The Sitter (yes, about a babysitter) which has been pushed back a few weeks from July 15th to August 5th. And yesterday of course,
Fox announced Ridley Scott's Alien prequel would now be an original film titled
Prometheus which will open in March 2012. Busy Friday for the studio yesterday.