Warner Bros. Calls Off Aniston-Jolie Face-Off
Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston’s box-office face-off has been called off.
The big-screen showdown (and de facto blogger field day) was originally set for Oct. 24, the day both Changeling, starring Jolie, and He’s Just Not That Into You, starring Aniston and a host of other A-listers, were set to open.
Which means Brad Pitt will remain the only person forced to choose between the two.
Warner Bros. confirmed today that it has bumped the release date of Aniston’s vehicle back several months, to Feb. 6, 2009.
No reason was given for the delay, the film’s second overall, though it wouldn’t have been much of a battle to begin with.
Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, is only scheduled to open in limited release, while the bonanza that will be He’s Just Not That Into You will no doubt be theatrically unavoidable.
Cruise’s Valkyrie Ride Delayed—Again
Tom Cruise's mission to return to the big screen is beginning to seem impossible.
For the second time, MGM and United Artists have pushed back the release date of the WWII epic Valkyrie, a film that has been plagued by an inordinate number of problems over the course of its production.
The thriller's new release date, Feb. 13, 2009, falls a full eight months after it was originally scheduled to hit theaters.
In December, the studios postponed the film from June 27 to Oct. 3 to allow director Bryan Singer additional time to shoot a key battle sequence.
Producers have offered no such explanations for the delay this time around, instead chalking up the pushed-back date, usually a red flag, to a tactical move designed to make the most of the movie's opening weekend, which now falls on the Presidents Day holiday.
"MGM is proud and excited to be presenting Valkyrie, and because of that we want to give it the best launch possible," Clark Woods, MGM's domestic distribution president, said.
"When an opening became available for Presidents Day weekend, we seized the opportunity. Having seen a lot of the film and how great it is going to play once it's finished, moving into a big holiday weekend is the right move."
According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, Valkyrie will now face off against potential heavy-hitters Confessions of a Shopaholic, Pink Panther 2, The Wolfman and, apropos of the date, the anticipated Michael Bay remake of Friday the 13th.
In the film, Cruise affects a German accent and a historically accurate eye patch to play Claus von Stauffenberg, a Nazi colonel who plotted the only known assassination attemptan obviously unsuccessful oneagainst Adolf Hitler.
The delay is just the latest bit of bad luck to hit the production since filming kicked off in Germany last summer.
Shortly after the project began, some of the more vocal members of the von Stauffenberg family publicly called out the casting of Cruise, claiming he lacked the requisite gravitas. Before their protests had a chance to quiet down, German officials piped up, refusing to grant filmmakers permission to shoot at a memorial site that was to house a pivotal scene in the movie.
Following that hiccup, Germany's defense minister complained about Cruise's ties to Scientology, which has been labeled a cult by the German government.
To top it all off, nighttime footage shot last summer was irreversibly damaged last year after being developed with the wrong chemicals, necessitating costly reshoots.
A Shot at Love specials announced
MTV is serving up some special programming to go along with the season finale of A Shot at Love 2 with Tila Tequila. Every Tuesday for three weeks, MTV will give fans updates on their favorite and least favorite contestants and talk to everyone about this past season.
June 24th: It’s reunion time! Find out what the contestants have been doing since the show. Jersey Jay will talk about his controversial elimination. Also, Bo and Chad will face off for the first time since the “punch heard round the Valley.”
July 1st: It’s the finale! After narrowing it down to two contestants, Tila Tequila will pick a winner. (I can hardly contain myself.)
July 8th: It’s a one-hour special where Tila and her finalists make their first public appearance since the show. Find out if Tila will arrive with her winner hand-in-hand. Find out if the runner-up is resentful of Tila’s choice.
All shows will air at 10 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
No more frakking BSG until 2009?!
I mean seriously, what the frak? Why the frak do we have to wait until frakking 2009 for the final frakking season of Battlestar frakking Galactica. Those motherfrakking skinjobs, and I know they’re Cylons or they wouldn’t do this to us, really like to frakking torture us diehard frakking fans, don’t they. Frakkers! Wow, that does make it incredibly frakking easy to drop frakking curse words all the frakking time without really frakking cussing. How frakking liberating is that!
But back to business. Executive producer Ronald D. Moore spoke at a Wednesday night screening of this Friday’s summer finale and broke the news that the remainder of this fourth and final season of BSG probably wouldn’t air until early 2009. The show just doesn’t want to have to face off against the new fall slates on the networks or football and baseball, which I guess I can understand. Why not wait until January so all you have to deal with is those crappy shows nobody watches like American Idol and 24? And nobody will be interested in the build-ups to the season finales of shows like Lost and Heroes. It’s a frakking no-brainer!