Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ‘Biutiful’ Not Hitting Theaters In 2009?

We always covet what we don’t know and can’t have. We know very little about Alejandro González Iñárritu’s follow-up to 2006’s “Babel” (a stellar picture, don’t even try…), titled, “Biutiful,” and maybe that’s why we want it so badly and anticipate it so much?

Here’s everything we wrote about “Biutiful” in our 60 Most Anticipated Films of 2009.

Synopsis: A man involved in illegal/shady dealing is confronted by his childhood friend who is now a policeman.
What You Need To Know: Produced by the Cha, Cha, Cha team (Guillermo Del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Iñárritu), the Spanish-language film stars Javier Bardem and Rubén Ochandiano (“Che: Part Two,” and also a substantial role as the gay docu filmmaker in Almodovar’s upcoming, “Broken Embraces”), but not too much is known otherwise. However, it does mark the first major screenplay Iñárritu has written without his longtime collaborator Guillermo Arriaga, who felt stiffed of credit and moved on to direct his own mult-tiered narratives (the upcoming “The Burning Plain“; the two infamously fell out over “Babel,” and Iñárritu actually went so far as to — reportedly — ban him from the Cannes screening, ouch).

The film was shot in Barcelona, Spain and two-time Academy Award winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla (Iñárritu’s “Babel”) handled the music chores. Also to add to this info, Bardem injured his back on the set of the film in March, which delayed shooting, but it’s unknown if it hurt the production badly (and it seems like it did not). Additionally, according to IMDB, Blanca Portillo has a significant role in the picture too and she was certainly one of the surprise stand-outs in “Broken Embraces” as well (though she was also fantastic in Almodovar’s “Volver”).

Anywhoo, this is a long-winded set-up to saying: it looks like the picture may not hit in 2009 as previously assumed. When the project was first announced, international sales were handled by Universal Pictures and Focus Features Intl. which led many to assume that like many FF Intl. films, it would be held domestically by Focus Features. However, according to Jeff Wells, who put in some inquiries today, that is not the case and “Biutiful,” does not yet have any distribution.

It’s beginning to appear like we won’t be getting this picture until 2010 — there’s some rumors already about a Cannes debut, but that seems premature — which sucks because 2009 is weak enough as it is. We’re not sure what the hold up is here, but, c’mon, someone get this thing out there.