Less than a week after their last release schedule update, Universal Pictures have kicked off the day with a slew of release date changes, announcing a few new dates for unscheduled movies and reshuffling their summer 2013 schedule to insert a couple of new movies.
The move that’s likely to get the most attention is that of samurai action flick 47 Ronin, directed by Ridley Scott’s son-in-law Carl Rinsch, which has now been pushed back all the way to Christmas Day 2013, over a year after its initial November 2012 release date. Originally, it had been moved to next February in order to do some reshoots and when we spoke to Keanu Reeves last week, he told us optimistically “I hope will come out next year” probably not realizing it would only barely be squeaking into a 2013 release after the current move. So far, it’s the only movie scheduled for that date besides the Ben Stiller remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
The Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) comedy Identity Thief, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, has moved off its prime early May release–the date the studio released McCarthy’s breakout hit Bridesmaids–to take 47 Ronin‘s place on February 8.
Taking its place is the Richard Curtis (Love Actually) sci-fi comedy About Time, starring Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy, which now comes out on May 10, going up against Tyler Perry Presents We the Peeples.
Meanwhile, the Ryan Reynolds-Jeff Bridges action comedy R.I.P.D. has been moved back three weeks to July 19, but that’s to make space on June 28 for the action sequel Kick-Ass 2, the follow-up to Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of the Mark Millar-John Romita Jr. comic book which was released by Lionsgate in 2010. The sequel has been announcing a lot of its cast over the past few weeks and should start filming relatively soon.
On top of that, Universal dated 2 Guns, Mark Wahlberg’s second crime thriller with Contraband director Baltasar Kormakur, for August 16–one year from tomorrow–with the family adventure sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monters being its only competition.
Lastly, Jurassic Park 3D, Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur blockbuster converted into 3D, will be released three months earlier on April 5, 2013, a similar release date as this year’s 3D rerelease of James Cameron’s Titanic.
