'VALKYRIE' RELEASE DATE MOVED BACK - AGAIN - THIS TIME TO FEBRUARY (VAR, THR, GD)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

Tom Cruise and United Artists said Monday that they will wait until 2009 to release “Valkyrie,” the Cruise-starring World War II thriller. The film, now scheduled for Feb. 13, is UA's next release after last year's "Lions for Lambs." Studio executives said the change was prompted by the recent exit of two rival films from the lucrative Presidents Day weekend.

Cruise and partner Paula Wagner’s stepped up at UA last year with plans to release four films a year on budgets upward of $40 million. Their first release was "Lambs," the Robert Redford-directed drama about the war in Afghanistan that grossed less than $15 million domestically.

Bryan Singer directed "Valkyrie."

The two films that moved from the President’s Day weekend were Sony's "The Pink Panther 2," which moved up one week to Feb. 6, and Universal's horror thriller "The Wolfman," which shifted from Feb. 13 to April 3.

"When an opening became available for Presidents Day weekend, we seized the opportunity," MGM distribution president Clark Woods said, according to The Hollywood Repoter. "Having seen a lot of the film and how great it is going to play once it's finished, moving into a big holiday weekend is the right move."

"Valkyrie" previously was moved from June to October to allow more time for additional footage to be shot.

The remaining Presidents Day openers are Disney's romantic comedy "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and the Paramount horror film "Friday the 13th."

In the meantime, there's talk that the shift from fall to next winter gets UA's all-important "Valkyrie" out of the home stretch of the presidential election, a period when prospective moviegoers might be difficult to pry away from television newscasts, notes THR.

The pic has also moved out of awards season consideration, notes Variety.

Gold Derby thinks the move is a smart one. “Sure, October may have seemed like a shrewd time to open such obvious Oscar bait (it's based upon a real-life, heroic figure) starring a superstar ridiculously overdue for academy gold, but that was probably heaping too much pressure on “Valkyrie.’ At this point in his fragile career, Cruise just needs to crank out a successful film taken seriously by film critics and moviegoers. Oscar voters can wait,” writes Tom O’Neil.