"Youth In Revolt" Delayed

By Chase Kahn

The Weinstein Company has delayed the Michael Cera comedy Youth in Revolt from its original October 30^th release date to a January 15^th, 2010 release. The film recently played at the Toronto International Film Festival to a good response, and TWC is hoping that this will be a great counter-programming alternative to the heavier fare of the winter months.

Obviously this isn’t the first film to be pushed back from a late ’09 spot to early 2010. With the economic climate, we’re seeing studios narrow their awards-season slate to just two or three films in order to stay afloat and avoid paying high P&A costs at the same time. Paramount just recently narrowed its contenders down to Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones and Jason Rietman's Up in the Air -- shunning Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island to next year.

The Weinstein Company already has heavy late-season hitters in Rob Marshall’s Nine, John Hillcoat’s The Road and the newly acquired Tom Ford’s A Single Man.

Everyone knows that January/February/March are Sarlac Pit death traps -- usually an amalgamation of PG-13 slasher films, third-rate romantic comedies and Hayden Christensen action movies. But early 2010 is frankly loaded with not just watchable studio fare, but potential awards-season fare -- in February! I would expect 2 or even 3 more films to get the, "we don't have the money to promote you" treatment, as well. Bad times for October, good times for February. Look at this line-up:

Paul Greengrass’ The Green Zone (Bourne director teams up with Matt Damon in Iraq)

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman

Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans

Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island

The Hughes Brothers' The Book of Eli (post-apocalyptic Denzel Washington)

Martin Campbell's Edge of Darkness (Mel Gibson!)