By Katey Rich
Every Friday, in addition to wading through all the reviews for new releases, I look over the list of changes in release dates for upcoming projects. A lot of it involves adding tiny little movies to our Bluesheets listing, and then trying to come up with a funny blurb to describe them. Sometimes, though, I get to second-guess the studios' motivation in pushing a certain film back, or removing another from their roster altogether. It's a remarkably good and candid look into a film's quality and the studio's hopes for it.
The most notable change for me this week is the disappearance of I Could Never Be Your Woman from Freestyle Releasing's slate. The film has been kicked around forever, a classic example of a "trouble" project that no one wants to deal with releasing, and was slated for release on November 9 before being yanked. It's already debuted in several other countries, and got middling reviews in Spain (at least, what I can tell from the Google-translated HoyCinema.com, which is not that much). The trailer available on YouTube paints it as a fairly typical romantic comedy, with Michelle Pfeiffer as an older woman coping with dating a younger man (Paul Rudd), but entirely leaves out Tracey Ullman, who plays Mother Nature meddling in their lives. Maybe that indicates that Ullman's the marketing issue here? It's probably smart not to release a mediocre romantic comedy at the height of awards season (it would have been up against Lions for Lambs, No Country for Old Men, and oh yeah, Fred Claus), but who knows if this one's dropped off the planet for good. Pfeiffer is hot right now, Paul Rudd always is, and Saiorsie Ronan, who stars in December's Atonement, is on the rise. Can it really be so bad that star power won't at least draw some eyeballs?
Two new projects set for early spring release also made their way onto the calendar. First up is the pre-Valentine's Day release The Hottie and the Nottie, which is off to a bad start based on the title alone. Add in Paris Hilton as the star and, well, you don't really need to know anything about this one, do you? (In case you're still curious, Paris plays the "Hottie.") And Tyler Perry will be back on the big screen before we know it, directing and starring in another adaptation of one of his plays, opening March 21. This one is Meet the Browns, starring Angela Bassett as a citi-fied woman who travels to the South for a funeral with her father's side of the family. Perry, unlike his last two films, will be appearing in drag as Madea, the sassy matriarch of the family. After Why Did I Get Married? opened at #1 a few weekends ago, people seemed to be paying more attention than ever to Perry; my guess, though, is that Madea's appeal will probably stick within her defined demographic.
And finally, Juno is opening a week earlier than planned, on Wednesday, December 4, exclusively in New York and L.A. It looks like they'll be trying an even longer platform release strategy with this one, giving it more time to catch on before Christmas and duke it out with the huge number of big releases coming out that month. Not that Juno is any competition to The Golden Compass, or the other way around, but the battle for butts and seats will be pretty fierce once the Christmas decorations are up.
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