Filling 'Prince of Persia's place

"OK, last week, Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer moved Prince of Persia back almost a year. The film was supposed to open on June 19, 2009, and now it's Memorial Day, 2010. Why the postponement? If I had to guess, seriously, I think it's so Disney can get a Comic Con jump start next summer. Look what it did for Iron Man, and watch what it will do for Watchmen.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Otherwise, I have no idea why they'd push it back that far unless it's the labor issues, but that doesn't seem to be stopping very many movies at the moment. When they pushed the release date back, though, it opened up a major hole in the Summer 2009 schedule, and studios have been frantically trying to fill it. However, most of the tentpoles are set, so June 19th, kind of like the Get Smart-Love Guru weekend this year at the same spot, is shaping up to be filled with filler.

Variety reports that Disney has thrown another title in Persia's place on June 19th, the Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds rom-com The Proposal. How awful does that sound? Sandra Bullock...romantic comedy...called The Proposal. Yeesh.

Another comedy will now also swoop in on the 19th of June, with Fox's The Tooth Fairy staking its claim for the kiddies. The movie stars Dwayne Johnson, who I'd prefer in more action-oriented stuff, but a guy's gotta eat, I guess.

Will anything cool open on that weekend? Could be. We have the Judd Apatow Factory's 2009 model, Year One, a Old Testament-era comedy directed by Harold Ramis (one of the smartest guys I've ever met in the business of show), which stars Jack Black and Michael Cera. Given the growing clout of all things Apatow (with apologies to Drillbit Taylor...or maybe that should be the other way around), you'd have to put the smart money on this Sony release that weekend.

Will there be other moves in 2009? Possibly Transformers, scheduled for the next week, coincidentally enough. That's entirely contingent on Shia LaBeouf's ability to keep up with the shooting schedule following his recent accident. Even still, it's highly doubtful they'd miss that weekend bleeding over into July 4th, so I'm sure they'll figure something out. Maybe less effects in the third act. Couldn't hurt".
Source: www.getthebigpicture.net