If you live in a place where 'Alexander' is opening on November 5th, don't plan on going to the movies to see it that day. It's been delayed for 3 weeks. The new release date is now November 24th, the day before Thanksgiving. Dates in other parts of the world will be pushed back, as well.Make of it what you will. I think it's a good move, considering.Here is the article from Yahoo News:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... _delayed_1
'Alexander's' war delayedMon Sep 20,10:21 PM ET Michael Fleming, Cathy Dunkley, STAFF Warner Bros. has pushed the opening of its Oliver Stone-directed "Alexander" from Nov. 5 to Nov. 24, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Move was confirmed by Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures, which is releasing the film in the U.S. for Intermedia Films.
When Oliver Stone showed up at the San Sebastian Film Festival days ago to unspool his docu "Looking for Fidel," the director told Daily Variety he was working 100 hours a week editing "Alexander." Speculation was that the date switch was partly to give Stone extra time to lock his film, which features several sweeping battle scenes.
Campaign competition
Fellman said the studio had a variety of reasons for the date switch, but insisted Stone would have had the film ready for the original date.
More pressing reasons for the switch, he said, was the fear it would be difficult to gain marketing momentum amidst a blizzard of final campaign ads before the Nov. 2 presidential election.
Another consideration was a desire by WB to put the film and performances by Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins and Val Kilmer, in closer proximity to other Oscar contenders.
"We took a good look at the movie in rough form, and if it's not the best film he's ever directed, it's close," Fellman said. "It has a lot of Academy potential that will be enhanced by the change in timing, and we will also have the ability to focus better on an adult audience. Our advertising and publicity departments would have had to compete against the elections, and you don't want to lose to the presidential candidates."
Fellman said he was confident Stone will stay close to schedule and deliver the film with enough time to properly screen it for critics. That would have been a closer call with the Nov. 5 date.
Dodging Pixar
The film had been expected t
Delay in the release of Oliver Stone's 'Alexander'
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Re: Delay in the release of Oliver Stone's 'Alexander'
Here is the rest of the article:Dodging Pixar
The film had been expected to go head-to-head with Pixar's "The Incredibles," and Fellman didn't regret avoiding that battle. He noted that while the G-rated film would seem to pose little competition for an R-rated film, Pixar offerings traditionally dominate their opening weekends, with adults taking their kids to the theater.
"Alexander" now will square off against the Fox drama "Flight of the Phoenix," the Revolution comedy "Christmas with the Kranks" and the national rollout for Miramax's "Finding Neverland." Fellman predicted other pieces on the chessboard might move as a result of the date switch for "Alexander," an epic that will clock in at around two hours and 45 minutes and likely will bow on about 2,500 screens.
"Thanksgiving is traditionally a competitive period, but we've given our marketing department a chance to be in the trenches longer and work harder on the picture," Fellman said. "We'll be ready to play in the big game."
The move will affect the overseas openings of "Alexander" in several territories, including Germany and Latin America. Plans to open in those countries in mid-November will be pushed back, since WB has always been guaranteed first crack in the U.S.
The film had been expected to go head-to-head with Pixar's "The Incredibles," and Fellman didn't regret avoiding that battle. He noted that while the G-rated film would seem to pose little competition for an R-rated film, Pixar offerings traditionally dominate their opening weekends, with adults taking their kids to the theater.
"Alexander" now will square off against the Fox drama "Flight of the Phoenix," the Revolution comedy "Christmas with the Kranks" and the national rollout for Miramax's "Finding Neverland." Fellman predicted other pieces on the chessboard might move as a result of the date switch for "Alexander," an epic that will clock in at around two hours and 45 minutes and likely will bow on about 2,500 screens.
"Thanksgiving is traditionally a competitive period, but we've given our marketing department a chance to be in the trenches longer and work harder on the picture," Fellman said. "We'll be ready to play in the big game."
The move will affect the overseas openings of "Alexander" in several territories, including Germany and Latin America. Plans to open in those countries in mid-November will be pushed back, since WB has always been guaranteed first crack in the U.S.
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Re: Delay in the release of Oliver Stone's 'Alexander'
Greetings birdloverThis article appeared on 9/20/04 but the trailers shown today(9/22/04) on MSNBC still claim the opening on 10/5/04, obliviously this network hasn't got the drift.Do you know how you came about the wide sentencing in your first post with this thread?Thanks, unfortunately my cats are also bird lovers
Re: Delay in the release of Oliver Stone's 'Alexander'
Hi Andrew,I guess this article was out a few days ago. I didn't see it until today. Yes, the trailers still do say November 5th. I guess that is something Warner Brothers has to take care of. Hopefully they will take care of it quickly. I am not sure what you mean by "wide sentencing". If you are talking about the article, that is the way it was formatted. I just copied and pasted it. I probably shouldn't have posted it that way, then I could have put the whole article on one page. Oh well!I do like cats, too. I just don't like them near birds.Dara