Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Aw, come on: Killing Them Softly delayed - yet again

Deadline reports that Andrew Dominik's upcoming film "Killing Them Softly" is being delayed - again - from mid-October to November 30th. If you may remember, its original release date was Sept. 21st and now it's been pushed back a full two months, presumably, for maximum Oscar buzz (really?)

To me, Killing Them Softly looks more like a potentially superb genre film, but The Weinstein Company apparently want ALL of their films to have an endless amount of Oscar buzz. They want to go into Oscar season with potentially four films that could be nominated for Best Picture: The Master, Silver Linings Playbook, Killing Them Softly, and maybe even Django Unchained. Does it really make a difference if Killing Them Softly is released in October than if it's released in November?

On the other hand, I was wondering why there were essentially zero releases for the weekend of November 30th. But, I was hoping maybe one of the many Christmastime releases could wind up getting pushed forward to that weekend. I disagree with the Weinstein's move. Killing Them Softly is apparently a difficult film to swallow for some and so if you keep delaying the film's release, you're not giving it enough time to really resonate with critics when it comes time to hand out awards. Plus, you gotta bunch of films coming out mere weeks after November 30th that could drown out Killing's chances. I would think Killing Them Softly would need to be screened at New York Film Festival or something, in order to justify this push back. As it is, I don't really understand this move. Then again, I don't understand why there needs to be 20 films all waiting to be released around Christmas. That makes no sense either.

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