It’s release date shift a go-go over at Warners today. With word already arriving that the Lego movies are being juggled in terms of release date order, now comes news that Joe Wright’s Pan is being unhooked from its summer date to an October release in the States{
The move is, according to the studio, intended to help the movie find, and hold, an audience. “We wanted to give Pan the space to extend its theatrical run, so taking it out of the cluttered summer season made the most sense,” domestic distribution head Dan Fellman says in a statement carried by The Hollywood Reporter. “Moving the film to the heart of the fall will allow us more time to screen the picture, enabling us to capitalise on what we anticipate will be strong word of mouth.” The delay will also allow Wright the time he needs to finish post-production. “As you might expect, the fantastical story of Peter Pan involves very complex effects and I did not want to compromise on quality in finishing the film,” he says. “This allows me and my team the time to complete the movie and tell the story the way it should be told.”
Pan aims to put a new spin on J.M. Barrie’s story, exploring how Neverland’s most famous young resident came to be. In this version, Peter (Levi Miller) is a lad in an orphanage abandoned by his mother, who has nevertheless left a note saying she hopes to come and reunite with him – cryptically in this world or another.
But before that can happen, our hero is indeed whisked off to another world, as he’s kidnapped by the dread pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman). Put to work in the mines, he meets a charming, cocky, Indiana Jones-style rogue named James Hook (Garrett Hedlund) and the pair escapes, only to land in the clutches of the local natives, led by Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara). And that’s just the start of Peter's adventures.
Originally set for July 17 here (a few days before the original US date of July 24 opening), we’ll have to see where Pan lands.