The Weinstein Company has shifted release dates for two of its anticipated awards season movies as Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, will now be getting a limited release on September 14, a month before its original planned release date. Also, Killing Them Softly, Andrew Dominik’s long-awaited follow-up to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, once again teaming him with Brad Pitt, has been pushed back to October 19.
Anderson’s movie has been the topic of much debate on whether it might debut at one of the major film festivals in September but after rumors of it premiering at the Venice Film Festival proved unfounded, it was then thought it might premiere at Fantastic Fest (as was Anderson’s previous movie, the Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood) or Lincoln Center’s prestigious New York Film Festival. Its September 14 release date rules out both of those as an option, so we’re back to it possibly being a last minute addition to the Toronto International Film Festival or possibly bypassing the festival scene altogether.
Variety reports that the movie will then expand to more cities the following week on September 21, but there’s no word on when it will be in theaters nationwide.
In the meantime, Dominik’s crime thriller will now take on Tyler Perry in Alex Cross and the popular horror franchise Paranormal Activity 4. David Chase’s Not Fade Away is also slated for a limited release on that date, but being that it’s also from Paramount, we may see that one move to another date.
