2013 Preview: July

2013 is now halfway over, but there’s still six months of movies left to go before 2014. Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s year-long preview of the films coming out during 2013. This is Part 7 and today we’ll be looking at the films that will hit theaters during the month of July, which include a couple of sequels and some big blockbusters.

JULY 3- A pair of blockbusters hit theaters during Fourth of July Weekend, both of which will be opening early on the Wednesday before July 4^th.

*The first major release of the month is ‘Despicable Me 2’, the sequel to 2010’s surprise hit ‘Despicable Me’, which followed a super-villain named Gru (Steve Carell) who adopted three girls (Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher). These four return for the sequel, which sees Gru recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help deal with a powerful new super-villain. The rest of the voice cast includes Kristen Wiig (in a different role than the one she played in the previous film), Benjamin Bratt (who replaced Al Pacino, who left the project due to creative differences), and Steve Coogan.

*The other release that week is ‘The Lone Ranger’, the newest film from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The project was plagued by budget concerns but is now finally set to come out this week after being pushed back from a 2012 release. Armie Hammer stars in the main role of John Reid, a Texas Ranger who survives an ambush from a bunch of outlaws and takes on the new identity of ‘The Lone Ranger’, fighting crime alongside an Indian warrior named Tonto (Johnny Depp).

JULY 12- This weekend sees an Adam Sandler comedy and a big-budget sci-fi film from Guillermo Del Toro coming out.

*The follow-up to 2010’s ‘Grown-Ups’, ‘Grown-Ups 2’, will hit theaters this weekend. The majority of the main cast from the previous film (save for Rob Schneider) and director Dennis Dugan return for this new film, which sees Adam Sandler’s Lenny move back to his old hometown with his wife and their kids. Some new members of the cast include Andy Samberg, Taylor Lautner, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, and Shaquille O’Neal.



*The latest film from director Guillermo Del Toro, ‘Pacific Rim’, is the other major release of the week. This film takes place in the near future, where giant monsters known as ‘Kaiju’ emerge from a ‘portal’ in the Pacific Ocean and begin to wreak havoc on the planet. Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, and Rinko Kikuchi star as members of a Defense Corporation that builds giant robots called Jaegars to take on the invading Kaiju.

JULY 17- While there are quite a couple of films coming out only 2 days later, one film will hit theaters early on the Wednesday before July 19^th.



*After grossing more than 576 million worldwide with ‘The Croods’, DreamWorks will release their second major release of the year, ‘Turbo’. Ryan Reynolds (who also starred in ‘Croods’) stars as the titular ‘Turbo’, a garden snail who dreams of becoming a famous racer. This dream starts to come true after a freak accident gives him super speed. This movie will soon be followed by a TV series, Turbo F.A.S.T. (Fast Action Stunt Team) that will debut exclusively on Netflix in December.

JULY 19- Not including Turbo, a staggering 4 films will hit theaters this weekend (plus one for those in the U.K.).



*Speaking of Ryan Reynolds, another movie of his, R.I.P.D., will hit theaters two days after ‘Turbo’.  This film, based off of the Dark Horse comic ‘Rest in Peace Department’ by Peter M. Lenkov, follows a cop (Reynolds) who is killed in action and is then ‘enlisted’ in a ‘dead’ police department known as the R.I.P.D. He is then partnered with Roy (Jeff Bridges) and the two officers team up in order to take on evil spirits. The film is directed by Robert Schwentke (‘Red’) and also stars Mary Louise Parker and Kevin Bacon.



*Meanwhile, Schwentke’s 2010 action comedy ‘Red’ will get a sequel in ‘Red 2’, which hits theaters the same weekend. Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) takes over for Schwentke behind the camera for this film, which finds ex-CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) on the run from Interpol. John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, and Brian Cox reprise their roles from the previous film alongside newcomers Catherine Zeta Jones, Lee Byung-hun, and Anthony Hopkins.



*For the horror crowd, ‘The Conjuring’ hits theaters this weekend. The film is directed by James Wan (‘Saw’, ‘Insidious’, and the latter’s sequel, which comes out in September) and stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as a pair of paranormal investigators that try to help a family deal with a dark presence that is in their farmhouse.



*Finally, in the U.S. (in a more limited release), there’s ‘Only God Forgives’, which reunites Ryan Gosling with ‘Drive’ director Nicholas Winding Refn. In this film, Gosling plays a drug smuggler in Bangkok, Thailand who is compelled to find out who is responsible for the death of his brother. The film was previously screened at Cannes, where it was actually booed by the Festival audience.



*For those in the U.K., ‘The World’s End’ will be released this weekend. The final film in Edgar Wright’s ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ will be released later in the U.S. in August (more on the film next month).

JULY 26- This weekend, there’s one release in the U.S. and another in the U.K.



*Hugh Jackman will reprise his role as Wolverine in two movies that are set to come out; 2014’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ and ‘The Wolverine’; the latter hitting theaters this year. Based off of the 1982 limited series ‘Wolverine’ by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, the film follows Wolverine as he travels to Japan, where he comes across a mysterious figure from his past and ends up losing his immortality. James Mangold (the 2007 remake of ‘3:10 to Yuma’) directs this film, which is set after the events of ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’.



*The latest adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ will be released in the U.K. this weekend. The first since Baz Luhrmann’s modern day remake in 1996, this version is a traditional take on the story (similar to Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film adaptation). Hailee Steinfeld (2010’s ‘True Grit’) and Douglas Booth star as Romeo and Juliet, along with Damian Lewis (Homeland) as Lord Capulet, Paul Giamatti as Friar Laurence, and Kodi Smit-McPhee (‘Let Me In’, ‘Paranorman’) as Benvolio.

JULY 31- The final release of the month is another early Wednesday release, two days before the first releases of August.



*Two years after 2011’s ‘The Smurfs’ grossed over 500 million worldwide, the miniature blue creatures return for a sequel, ‘The Smurfs 2’. The main cast from the previous film returns for this film along with director Raja Gosnell. In this film, the Smurfs’ nemesis Gargamel kidnaps Smurfette after creating two ‘evil’ Smurfs called the Naughties.

And that’s the lineup of films hitting theaters during July. Check back next month for Part 8, where we’ll be looking at the film lineup for August.

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/