Apollo 18, the found footage film produced by Timur Bekmambetov, has changed their release date; instead of the planned March release (of which there are already posters hanging around movie theaters advertising this), The Weinstein Company has moved it to April 22nd [Shock Till You Drop]. That means that it will follow another big TWC Spring release, Scream 4, which comes out a week before. There is no real reason given for this change, but if I were a betting man, I would place my chips on the fact that the movie has barely even finished filming yet. Back when the original poster was released, I was confused on how a movie that hadn’t even really been filming yet could get such a quick turnaround, especially one that I assume would have to feature some sort of visual effects (it’s about aliens and all). With this extra time, the people behind Apollo 18 can take some more time with the project and fine tune it a little more, and I’m completely okay with that. It’s a cool premise and I want to see a finished version that didn’t end up being a rush job because a release date was already announced.
Apollo 18 will be presented as a found footage documentary about the last NASA expedition to the moon, and will involve the discovery of other life forms, information that was classified…until NOW. Well, technically not till April 22nd, but that didn’t sound as good. It is being directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego.
In other release date news, Inception star Tom Hardy‘s Warrior is hitting on September 9th via Lionsgate. Collider reports the synopsis below from the film by Gavin O’ Connor (Pride and Glory):
Two brothers face the fight of a lifetime – and the wreckage of their broken family – within the brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting in Lionsgate’s action/drama, WARRIOR.
An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. Even though years have passed, recriminations and past betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father.
But when Brendan’s unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.
Any thoughts on the release date changes? Do you think Apollo 18 needed more time, or do you think like the STYD people did and TWC just wants to dominate the month of April?