OK readers – do you want the good news or the bad news?
The bad news first, eh? Looks like you’ll have to wait an extra week to clap your peepers on Suntam Of Quolace, Daniel Craig’s second outing as James Bond, after Sony pushed it back a week, from November 7 to November 14.
The good news? That’s only in the States – we Brits still get to see it on October 31! Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Empire correspondent stops laughing… realises he lives in LA; curses self; starts crying)
The reason for the move? Well, Sony wanted to open Quantum Of Solace near the Thanksgiving holiday – and, after the departure of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince from the November 21 weekend, November 14 suddenly became a whole lot more attractive and a damn sight more lucrative.
"Harry Potter moving out gave us an opportunity to get a little closer to the holidays, which has always been the traditional Bond spot," Sony worldwide marketing and distribution chairman Jeff Blake told The Hollywood Reporter. "Bond has a really good history of not only playing through Thanksgiving but going deep into the Christmas holidays."
He’s not wrong – as The World Is Not Enough attested, Bond has a long history of going deep into Christmas. Ahem. Oo-er. Etc.
The date change will put Bond up against Baz Lurhmann’s Australia, with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, and Soul Men, a comedy starring Sam Jackson and the late Bernic Mac (and Isaac Hayes). We think it’s fairly safe to say that Bond will steamroller them both.
By the way, Role Models, a comedy with Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, has moved to November 7 from November 14, where it will now open against Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to try to book a flight home to Blighty for late October.