Danny Boyle’s next movie Sunshine was slated for a release on March 16. In accordance with that, the marketing campaign for it had just started heating up. We’ve gotten posters, trailers, and all kinds of clips from the film in the past week. It looks fantastic. Too bad we won’t be seeing it, at least not any time soon.

Earlier this week we pointed out that the new trailer for the film didn’t have a release date on it, and that this might mean bad things for the impending release of Boyle’s movie. We were, unfortunately right. Sunshine has been bumped off it’s March 16 release date. Not by a week or two, or even a month or two. No, it’s been bumped all the way to the end of 2007.

BoxOfficeMojo now has it listed as a Fall release, and Coming Soon pegs it as a December 2007 release. Fox Searchlight is, quite frankly, a cock tease.

So forget about all the cool trailers and video clips you’ve been watching in ever-growing anticipation. Sunshine is now a long, long way off. Is it because the movie sucks? Probably not. March is the perfect time to release a garbage movie, while December and the Fall is usually reserved for Oscar bait or big, quality blockbusters. A move like this is usually because the film needs more time to finish effects work or, even better, because the studio thinks it has awards potential and wants it fresh in the minds of awards voters.

This isn’t bad news for Boyle and Sunshine, but it is bad news for anyone like me, who’s burning to see his new flick. And if you really want to be driven nuts, consider this: According to Film Rot, it's April 5th release date in the UK will happen as planned. Anybody got a passport I can borrow?