Summer 2009 Plays a Delayed 'Game'
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Lionsgate Films, Newsstand, Games and Game Movies
It has not been a good week on the "Movies Elisabeth Wants To See" front. First there was that wretched news that Warner Bros isn't particularly interested in RocknRolla, then Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was delayed a whole year. And now, producer Gary Lucchesi told SciFi Wire that Game has been pushed back to the increasingly crowded summer of 2009.Game is a futuristic thriller directed by the insane duo of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, and stars the ever-so-lovely Gerard Butler. While he's reason enough to see it, it's also the kind of frantic, maniacal movie making we've come to expect from Neveldine and Taylor. We were treated to some footage at ComicCon, and it was a hell of a lot of fun. Later in that same day, Butler described it (and his directors) as being not only in tune with Internet, science, and pop culture, but having a nightmarish sensibility. "You're literally walking around the set at night and there are people hanging with hooks coming out of their skin and that's your day filming. There's blood dripping. I had blood on me. These people did it for fun." Come on! Who doesn't want to see that right now?
Well, if wishes were horses, and all that. Lucchesi said we should get a teaser by Christmas, and a solid date will be set very soon. But that doesn't satisfy me -- and so I'm just going to abandon my posting duties to build a time machine, and travel to the Summer of 2009. I'll wait around for The Road and Australia, of course, but I fully intend to skip ahead a year to see Harry Potter, Wolverine, and Game. I'd come back bearing Star Trek news, but frankly, I would rather not return to a bleak Colorado winter. Especially when the movie selection is getting thinner and thinner.
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Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. This whole mess is so aggravating. First the fall line up looked so full I wondered how I was going to keep track of it all, let alone buy so many tickets. Now in the span of a week we lose 3 films. At least I still have Australia and Viggo Mortenson to look forward to, but if we lose anything else, ticket sale profits are going to take a helluva nose dive. Wonder how the studios will feel about that? No one at the theater at all. Personally, I think they could use a wake up call like that.
Posted at 3:17PM on Aug 16th 2008 by Julie
3. First Rocknrolla distribution problems, now Game postponed. Is something also going to happen to The Ugly Truth? Tales of the Black Freighter has been relegated to a cartoon with voice over and it appears it will be on DVD only. Law Abiding Citizen starts filming in November 2008 instead of July. What are Gerard Butler fans to do? And there are lots of us. We want Gerry in our local theaters sooner and more, not later and less.
Thanks for your comment "the ever-so-lovely Gerard Butler."
Perhaps your column will give Warner Brothers a nudge.
Posted at 6:51AM on Aug 17th 2008 by Gillian Fey
4. Thanks for the (albeit discouraging) update, Elisabeth!
Posted at 11:43PM on Aug 17th 2008 by Holly
5. Thanx, Elisabeth, for always being such a big promoter of the G-man's films - even when the stuidios do have the audacity to push back much-anticipated release dates... I was looking forward to 'Game' being released months earlier myself and am none too pleased with this latest 'relevation'. (Even tho' I can't say I'm all that thrilled to watch people hanging around on meat hooks...!) Hope his new production company will start ramping up some of those excellent titles that are already in their pipeline...
Posted at 12:04AM on Aug 18th 2008 by Cait
1. Grrrrrrr...you're right, this has not been a good week. Got room in the time machine for me and a few others, Elisabeth?
'Scuze me while I go breath into a paper bag and then watch a "Shooters"/"Lock, Stock..." double feature.
Posted at 3:01PM on Aug 16th 2008 by weetiger3