When we received a press release from MGM and United Artists announcing that the release date for Valkyrie had been pushed back, it felt sorta familiar. That’s because it was just four short months ago that we reported the original release date of the Bryan Singer thriller had been moved from June 2008 to October 2008. Deciding that neither the big summer movie season or the Oscar heavy fall were good fits for the movie, the studios have settled on the coveted President’s Day Weekend of 2009.

That’s right, is being moved so it can take advantage of what the MGM Distribution President called “a big holiday weekend.” Clark Woods also said that “MGM is proud and excited to be presenting Valkyrie, and because of that we wanted to give it the best launch possible.” Somehow, I’ve never equated February as being commensurate with the best possible time to release a movie. I think it’s more often referred to as a “dumping ground” or perhaps “the anus of the movie release schedule.” Ok, the anus reference isn’t regularly used, but I don’t think February is often considered prime release real estate.

United Artists, which is co-owned by Valkyrie star Tom Cruise, is, of course, thrilled that their movie won’t be seen until early next year rather than this summer. Marketing President Dennis Rice said “We're delighted that MGM has agreed to hold the release until the very strong holiday weekend.” I think that’s looking on the bright side of things; Dennis is clearly a glass is half full kinda guy. It’s not clear what is really driving these delays, but obviously the movie isn’t going the way its creators had hoped. Perhaps more re-shoots are on the way, or maybe MGM didn’t want to waste a good release date on a stinker. Either way, we’ll see for ourselves next February, unless the whole thing gets put off until 2014.

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