2013 Preview: March

Welcome back to the year-long preview into the many films that are set to come out in 2013. This is Part 3 of 12 and today we'll be looking at the schedule for films in the month of March, which from the looks of it seems to be the first big month of the year after two rather slow months in regards to the films that have come out so far.

*The first weekend of the month sees four new releases hitting theaters on March 1^st. The first is a comedy film, '21 and Over', which is written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the writing team behind 'The Hangover'. The film follows three friends who go out for the 21^st birthday of one of them, a straight-A student, on the night before an important school interview. Chaos ensues.

*Also coming out that weekend is 'Jack the Giant Slayer', the latest film from X-Men/X2 director Bryan Singer, and his first since 2008's 'Valkyrie'. The film is also one of the many delayed films of the year, as it was pushed back from an original June 2012 release date in order to have more time for post-production and marketing. Nicholas Hoult stars as Jack, a farmhand who accidentally opens a gateway from the human world to a world occupied by giants. Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, and Ewan McGregor co-star.



*In 'Stoker', which is notably the last film made by filmmaker Tony Scott before his death in August of 2012 (the film is also produced by his brother Ridley through their production company, Scott Free), a young girl named India (played by Mia Wasikowska) and her mother (Nicole Kidman) both become drawn to India's uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) following the death of her father.



*The final release on March 1^st is 'The Last Exorcism: Part II', the sequel to the 2010 film 'The Last Exorcism'. Unlike the first film, it is not presented in a found-footage format. Ashley Bell reprises her role of Nell Sweetzer, the daughter of a farmer who was possessed by a demon in the previous film. As she begins to start a new life, the demon returns.

*A pair of films hit theaters on March 8^th. The first, 'Dead Man Down', is the latest film from director Niels Arden Oplev, the director of the original adaptation of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' (before David Fincher's 2011 American version). Colin Farrell stars as an enforcer named Victor, who works for a crime boss (played by Terrence Howard) who was responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter. As Victor seeks revenge, he is blackmailed into helping a woman named Beatrice (Noomi Rapace (also from the original 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo')), who also seeks revenge against his boss.

*The other major film that weekend is 'Oz: The Great and Powerful', the latest adaptation of author L. Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz' series. This new film, directed by Sam Raimi, follows the man who will eventually become the famous 'Wizard of Oz', a small-time circus magician named Oscar Diggs from Kansas (James Franco) who is whisked away to the land of Oz where everyone has been waiting for a great wizard who will set things right. Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, and Rachel Weisz co-star as the three witches Glinda, Theodora, and Evanora.

*The first of two new releases for the weekend of March 15^th is 'The Call', a thriller film produced by WWE Studios. Halle Berry stars as a 911 operator who must work to save a girl from a killer. For the wrestling fans, wrestler David Otunga stars in the film.



*Also debuting that weekend is 'The Incredible Burt Wonderstone', a comedy starring Steve Carell as the titular Burt Wonderstone, a successful magician who must reunite with his former partner (played by Steve Buscemi) when an up and coming street magician (Jim Carrey) looks to steal his thunder. Alan Arkin and Olivia Wilde co-star.



*Another crowd of films hit theaters on the 22^nd. 'Olympus Has Fallen', directed by Antoine Fuqua ('Training Day') is one of two movies coming out this year based in the White House (the other being 'White House Down', directed by Roland Emmerich). In this film, Gerald Butler stars as a secret service agent who must rely on his inside knowledge to help retake the White House when terrorists take it over. Aaron Eckhart stars as the President while Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, and Angela Bassett co-star.



*In 'Spring Breakers', four friends (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) rob a restaurant in order to finance a trip to Florida during Spring Break. When they are arrested, they are bailed out by a drug dealer named Alien (played by James Franco) who hires them to do some of his dirty work.

*The final release of the week is Dreamworks Animation's first project of the year, 'The Croods'. The film follows a prehistoric family who are forced to leave their home and go out into the dangerous world to find a new one. Nicolas Cage stars as the patriarch of the family and Emma Stone plays his eldest daughter. Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, and Clark Duke co-star. The film is co-directed by Chris Sanders, who created Disney's Lilo and Stitch and Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon.



*Four films close out the month on the 29^th. The first, 'G.I. Joe Retaliation', is the sequel to 2009's 'The Rise of Cobra'. As I've mentioned before, out of all the delayed films of 2013, this one is probably the most intriguing to talk about. Originally scheduled for a June 2012 release, the film was pushed back nine months to its current release date. While the official report has stated this delay was done in order to post-convert the film to 3-D, there are other reports saying that the real reason was for re-shoots to give more screen time to Channing Tatum, whose character Duke was apparently killed off in an earlier cut.

*In the wake of the Twilight series comes 'The Host', also written by Twilight's Stephanie Meyer. In the film, aliens called 'souls' invade Earth and begin to inhabit the minds of humans. Saoirse Ronan stars as Melanie Stryder, who is one of the humans whose mind is taken over by one of these 'souls'. The film is directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca).



*'Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor' is the latest film from director Tyler Perry based off of his play of the same name. In the film, a marriage counselor falls in love with one of her patients after being neglected by her husband.



*'The Place Beyond the Pines' reunites director Derek Cianfrance with star Ryan Gosling after they previously collaborated on the 2010 drama 'Blue Valentine'. Gosling plays a motorcycle stunt rider who turns to a life of crime in order to support his family. Bradley Cooper plays the cop that Gosling's character comes into conflict with.

And that's the lineup of films for March 2013. Check back in next month for Part 4.

The Many Delayed Films of 2013

2011 was the year of sequels; a year that saw a record 28 sequels come out. You could call 2012 the year of the superheroes, as Marvel and DC brought out their big guns in 'The Avengers' and 'The Dark Knight Rises'. 2013 is shaping up to be... an interesting year in movies but not for the reason you think. In reality, 2013 will be the year of the delayed movies. This year, there are 27 films, 2 of which have already been released ('Gangster Squad' and 'Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters'), that are set to come out after they were pushed back from an earlier release date. There could be a few reasons why a film got pushed back. It might have had to go into re-shoots or the studio backing it decided to push it back a bit because there was too much competition from other films. Either way, a lot of films this year ended up with that fate so now let's look into some of the most notable delayed films of 2013.

Probably the most common reason for a film's delay would be if the film goes through re-shoots, which leaves a bit of doubt over whether or not the original product was any good. But would you ever believe it if a film was pushed back just a few weeks before it was originally supposed to come out because one of its stars suddenly became an A-Lister in Hollywood and the first version of the film killed his character off at the beginning? That is the case with 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation', which is probably the most intriguing delayed film of this year. The sequel to 2009's 'G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra' was first set for a June 29^th release date. But just five weeks before the film was to hit theaters (press junkets had been planned and toys were already on store shelves), it was suddenly pushed back to March of 2013. There are a few conflicting reports as to why this happened.

When the delay was first announced, it was reported that the film was going to be post-converted to 3-D. But then, there were new reports that the film was to go through re-shoots Apparently, in the original cut of the film, the character of Duke (played by Channing Tatum, reprising his role from the previous film) was to be killed off early in the film, something that was clearly evident from the first trailer that was released before the film's delay. The re-shoots were done with the intent of strengthening the relationship between Duke and the new lead Roadblock (played by Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson) but more importantly to avoid the early death as this was right around the time that Tatum had become a huge star with box-office hits 'The Vow', '21 Jump Street', and 'Magic Mike'. In fact, the latter film was released the same weekend Retaliation would have come out.



But recently there has been reports that contradict what has been said. In an interview with Collider in late January (link will be provided below), director John M. Chu mentioned that “We didn’t re-shoot anything. We didn’t go in and [add] Channing. I’m not going to say what happens to Channing in the movie. You have to watch the movie.” Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura also added that “We never shot another frame.” But I don't know... something tells me that they did do re-shoots for two reasons. First of all, Dwayne Johnson did mention in a May interview (right around the time the delay was announced) that re-shoots did happen in order to design “new scenes to enhance 3-D”. Plus, take a look at two posters for the film, one that was released when it was coming out in June and the other one for its current March date. Notice a certain person who is on one poster and not the other? Really, if they didn't do re-shoots, than I feel Paramount just wasted nine months just to convert the film to 3-D.

Pre-delay poster without Tatum

Current poster with Tatum



While it's questionable whether or not GI Joe 2 went through re-shoots, there is one film coming out this year that has gone through re-shoots, showing signs of a rather troubled production. The film in question is 'World War Z', directed by Quantum of Solace's Marc Forster, starring Brad Pitt, and based on the popular book of the same name by Max Brooks. Originally the film was set to come out in December 2012, but then re-shoots were announced. However, probably the biggest news from this delay was that it was also reported that Damon Lindelof (Lost, Prometheus) was hired to do rewrites for the final act of the film. However, due to scheduling issues, Drew Goddard was hired instead. This is easily one of the riskiest films this year because if these writers were brought on just to re-write the ending, then this movie might be in trouble even before it comes out.



Disney's 'The Lone Ranger' is another film that had a few problems during its production. The film was originally supposed to be released during the summer of 2011 but was shelved and replaced by Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Ironically, the director of the first three 'Pirates' films, Gore Verbinski, was hired to direct and the film was then set to hit theaters in December 2012. However, the film went through a production delay when concerns began to arise over the budget because in the wake of 'John Carter', Disney was trying to scale down the budget of 'The Lone Ranger' in case of another flop. But then, once production began, the film went over budget. The current budget is reportedly 250 million, and The Lone Ranger will finally hit theaters during this year's Fourth of July weekend.

Re-shoots aren't the only reason why a film is pushed back. It could be because the studio decided to release it at a later date in order to have less competition. After all, in today's age of movies, films don't have much time to get their money back at the box office. One of these films was director Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel 'The Great Gatsby'. It was originally supposed to be released on Christmas Day in 2012 but was then pushed back to May 10^th, 2013 because another film starring star Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained) was set to hit theaters the same day. The remake of Stephen King's novel 'Carrie' starring Chloe Moretz was moved from its original March date to October in order to capitalize on the Halloween box office. This was also around the time of another horror film, the remake of director Sam Raimi's 'The Evil Dead'.

Some films could be pushed back just so that the filmmakers could have more time to complete the film. Three films this year went through such a situation. 'Star Trek Into Darkness' was pushed back from a 2012 release date because director J.J. Abrams had not yet committed to the project and a script had not been completed yet. 'Jack the Giant Slayer', originally named 'Jack the Giant Killer' (the name of the original source material the film is based off of) was moved from a June 15^th release date in order to have more time for post-production and marketing (tough competition could also be a reason for the film's delay). Finally, there was 'Man of Steel', which was originally supposed to be released the same year as its fellow DC film 'The Dark Knight Rises' but it was then moved to Summer 2013. This delay occurred before filming even began.



Those are just a few of many films that will come out this year after they were pushed back from their original release dates. In the end, I can't really say much else about a film if it is delayed aside from the fact that it could either help or hurt a movie. For me, whenever a film gets delayed, I always want to hear the reason why the studio made this decision because that is a sign as to how the movie may turn out. Films like 'The Lone Ranger' and 'World War Z' may be in trouble due to the production troubles that both films came across. As for 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation', I'm just interested to see if the rumors were true and the film went through re-shoots to feature more of Channing Tatum. But it's going to be a while before some of these movies come out, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Collider Interview with Jon M Chu: http://collider.com/jon-m-chu-gi-joe-retaliation-interview/