We spotted something curious the other day when checking the release calendar: the presence of "Scary Movie 5," which was due for release on April 20th this year. While we weren't surprised that The Weinstein Company were planning another sequel to one of their biggest franchises, even if it's six years since the last one, we were surprised because as far as we were aware, the film had never gone into production. Writers were announced last summer, but no directors or cast had been revealed. Had Harvey and Bob managed to make the thing under the radar or had they simply forgotten to adjust the calendar?
Well, it's the latter, as Box Office Mojo indicates that the film has been moved to a new release date of January 11, 2013, where it'll go head to head with fellow horror-comedy "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters." The film remains without any talent attached to it (and probably never will, even once it's been made — hey-o!), but they do at least have eleven months to make the thing, and a half-decade of obvious horror movie jokes to catch up on. Expect "Paranormal Activity" and "Insidious" to figure highly this time around, but we've got five dollars for whichever of the movie's three writers is able to include a "Kill List" reference.
It's not the only Weinstein Company film to get a release date delay, as Jim Field-Smith's political comedy "Butter," which stars Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, Hugh Jackman, Olivia Wilde and Rob Corddry, has been moved from a March 30th release to a new date on October 5th, over a year after it premiered in Telluride to a decidedly lukewarm response. We imagine it's intended to make it a little more timely by moving it closer to the election, rather than an awards play (reviews thus far have been lukewarm). It's up against "Frankenweenie," "Taken 2" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D" on the same date, but will be in limited release, so shouldn't be in competition for the same crowds.
In other release date news, Roadside Attractions has slated a pair of pick-ups in the last few days. According to Indiewire, the company has landed David Mackenzie's music-festival rom-com "You Instead" with Luke Treadaway and Natalia Tena, retitled it "Tonight You're Mine" and set it for limited release on May 11th. The project, shot in only a few days, premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival a year ago, and came out in the U.K. last year under the old title. While we like Mackenzie a lot, we weren't particularly enamored of the film when we reviewed it, so we're sure you'll be able to find better things to do that weekend (hint: Bobcat Goldthwaite's "God Bless America" opens the same day).
Roadside Attractions has also, according to The Hollywood Reporter, set the ensemble drama "30 Beats" for a simultaneous theatrical and VOD bow on June 1st. Adapted by writer-director Alexis Lloyd from Arthur Schnitzler's "La Ronde" (which also inspired Fernando Mereilles' dreadful "360," which hits in August), the film stars Paz de la Huerta, Justin Kirk, Lee Pace, Thomas Sadoski and Jennifer Tilly, among others, as a group of New Yorkers whose sexual encounters overlap during a heatwave. We've heard next to nothing about the film, which shot back in 2009, before today, and that's probably not a good sign, but we look forward to seeing a trailer or something soon.
Finally, Shadow & Act report that the Indomina Group has set their Sundance pick-up "Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap," a documentary on hip-hop from Ice-T, for theatrical release on June 8th. Michael Rapaport had a minor hit with A Tribe Called Quest doc "Beats Rhymes & Life" last year in a similar date, so the company are presumably hoping it'll follow on from that, although we heard more mixed reviews from Sundance on the project.
