“The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.” It’s just going to, um, take a little bit longer to catch up.
Entertainment Weekly broke the news that the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower is shifting its release date to a not-yet-announced weekend in the summer of 2017, but it’s not as bad as it seems. The release date was February 17th, 2017, but this isn’t the first time the date has been shifted. Shortly before they started shooting, director and co-writer Nikolaj Arcel said they were planning for a release date of January 13th, 2017.
So what’s the hold up? Why do we keep having to wait longer to see Idris Elba‘s gunslinger grab his Horn of Eld and pursue Academy Award winner and chill college professor Matthew McConaughey? According to an anonymous source who spoke with Entertainment Weekly, it’s about the money, not the quality of the film itself or any delays in shooting. The film wrapped in time and on budget, but the six months Sony and MRC gave them to do all the special effects proved to be not enough time for a modestly-budgeted $60 million film that isn’t paying extra for rushed CG work. They’d either have to pay much more for the CG — defeating the whole purpose of doing the film on a modest budget with plans of affordable sequels and a TV spin-off starring Idris Elba — or they’d have to put out a less polished film. Neither option seems to make as much sense as making the film a Summer movie instead.
“It’s a very fiscally responsible budget, and trying to stay in budget to make money and stay profitable means the VFX won’t be finished in time [for February]. Now that there’s more time, they’re not paying rush charges to get the effects where they need to be.”
This also gives them more time to promote the film and release completed footage. So far we’ve only seen sneak peek posters, and a trailer without completed special effects leaked. It was good, but we didn’t share it because, without completed effects, it wasn’t particularly fair to judge it. Sony hasn’t yet picked which weekend of next Summer they’ll stake their claim, but we’ll let you know when you can dig your man.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
