A few release dates have been shifted for some promising upcoming pics.  Briefly:

  • Director Martin McDonagh’s (In Bruges) dark comedy Seven Psychopaths, starring Colin Farrell, has been moved up a month to October 12th.
  • Joe Wright’s (Hanna) adaptation of the classic tome Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley, has been pushed back slightly to November 16th.
  • The remake of Gambit, starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz, has been pushed to an unspecified date in Winter 2013.

Hit the jump for more details.

seven-psychopaths-movie-image-woody-harrelson-christopher-walken

Martin McDonagh’s highly anticipated follow-up to In Bruges, the comedy Seven Psychopaths, has been moved up nearly a full month from November 2nd to October 12th.  The film stars Woody Harrelson as a gangster who goes on a rampage after his beloved shih tzu is kidnapped by an unemployed actor (Sam Rockwell) whose only source of income is helping a professional dognapper (Christopher Walken) who steals dogs and returns them for the reward money.  Colin Farrell co-stars as Martin, a struggling screenwriter who tries to help Rockwell’s character, but only gets caught up in the mess, although it gives him great material for his next script, which is called “Seven Psychopaths”.

On the October date, the film now squares off against Ben Affleck’s drama Argo and the new Kevin James “comedy” Here Comes the Boom.

Additionally, Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright’s adaptation of Anna Karenina has been pushed back one week from November 9th to November 16th, apparently for fear of competing with Rian Johnson’s sci-fi pic Looper.  The film stars Keira Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Johnson and takes a visually ambitious approach to Leo Tolstoy’s classic Russian romance novel.  The film now faces The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and the nationwide expansion of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln on its new date.

Finally, in somewhat disheartening news, Michael Hoffman’s remake of the 1966 caper comedy Gambit has now been pushed to an unspecified date in Winter 2013.  Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth star as partners in a con to sell a fake Monet painting, and the film has a script by Joel and Ethan Coen.  CBS Films initially slated the pic for a January 2013 release before most recently shifting it to October 2012.  Now they appear to have changed their minds, and we’ll likely see Gambit drop in January or February of 2013.  The caliber of talent involved is impressive, but an early 2013 release doesn’t exactly speak to the studio’s confidence in the film’s critical prospects. [Box Office Mojo]

gambit-image-cameron-diaz-colin-firth