Possibly with a sigh of relief, it looks like everyone is rearranging their fall schedules to fill the void left by the absence of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Twentieth Century Fox is the latest studio to move around the release date of their Oscar baiter Australia—Baz Luhrmann‘s sweeping epic adventure, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. It will be opening Nov. 26 in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The rest of the world follows at Christmas as originally scheduled.
Luhrmann‘s epic and romantic action adventure–his first film since his Oscar-winning 2001 Moulin Rouge–is set in Australia, natch, on the explosive brink of World War II. As he is wont to do with his movies, the director is painting on a vast canvas, creating a cinematic experience that brings together romance, action, adventure and spectacle.
Obviously, the move takes advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday, which was to be dominated by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
“Recent shifts in the release dates of other pictures created an opportunity for us to move Australia to Nov. 26, which is a big win for us and for this amazing film.” said Bruce Snyder, Fox’s President of Domestic Distribution in a press release. “It’s only a 12-day move, but the new date is an ‘event’ weekend–one of the busiest movie-going periods of the year–and one truly befitting this Baz Luhrmann motion picture event.”
Good for the movie’s profile, but perhaps a hassle for the studio’s internal marketing team. Got to rearrange all those media buys!
