If you’ve been reading the latest issue of Empire, readers (and if you haven’t, go out and buy a copy now; it’s really awfully good), then no doubt you’ve read our first look at Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie, the World War II thriller starring Tom Cruise as a German general heading up a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
And there’s also no doubt that you’re probably chomping at the bit to see it. And quite rightly so, too - it's one of the projects we're most looking forward to.
Well, the bad news is that you’re going to have to wait a little longer, as the movie has been pushed back – for the second time – and will now be released on February 13, 2009.
Now, when a movie gets pushed back once – in this case, from June to October to allow Singer time to finish the film, which also stars Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp and Eddie Izzard – there’s nothing unusual in that. But when a movie is pushed back twice, people might begin to speculate – especially when, as has happened here, the release date change takes this seemingly Oscar-friendly flick out of consideration for little gold statues.
However, United Artists and MGM insist that they still have high hopes for the true-life tale, and that the move to February was taken because of an opening on the lucrative Presidents’ Day weekend, suggesting that Valkyrie – for which Singer has to shoot three final scenes in the next month or so – is a more commercial prospect than initially believed.
Now, bear in mind that this release date change might not apply to the UK, but we wouldn’t be surprised if 20th Century Fox followed suit and shifted the date. After all, it would be unusual for us to get such a major movie four months before the States. As soon as we get confirmation on that, we’ll let you know.