Universal Pictures and Focus Features made another huge announcement about the movie "Fifty Shades of Grey." The last time the studios had some big news they were announcing that Charlie Hunnam was quitting the lead role of Christian Grey but this time they have decided to push back to release date.
Universal Pictures Chairman Donna Langley told Entertainment Weekly that the movie will be released Valentine's Day weekend 2015 instead of summer 2014. This news comes right after it was announced that production for the film was also pushed back a month.
"Fifty Shades" was supposed to be start filming mid-November but will now start at the beginning of December. It was speculated that the delay in production was due to Hunnam's abrupt exit from the movie in October. Almost two weeks after the "Sons of Anarchy" star left, author E.L. James announced that Jamie Dornan would be the replacement.
Even though they quickly found a new actor there were several rumors that the movie was trying to play catch up to get back on schedule. Langley didn't mention the delay in production but told the magazine that the new release date had nothing to do with having to recast the lead male role.
"We see this movie as a global event," Donna Langley, Universal Pictures Chairman said. "The strength of this book is really worldwide, so we want to be able to take advantage of women who are invariably on vacation with their families during the month of August in Europe."
According to EW, the main reason for the new date is because of "the crowded summer schedule 'Fifty Shades' was originally competing in." In August, the movie was up against another potential franchise Marvels "Guardians of the Galaxy."
Also other studios have started moving their big movies out of June and July and into August because of the World Cup in Brazil at the beginning of the summer.
"Together with the international marketing and distribution team, we've been looking really closely at the August date and becoming more and more convinced that the right thing to do for the movie was to push it," she said. "So even if Charlie stayed, we still would have been making the date change."
The new release date is officially set for Friday, February 13. According to Entertainment Weekly, now the movie will be in competition with Nicholas Sparks' "The Longest Ride," which has yet to cast or begin production.
Do you think the new release date will be a good Valentine's Day outing?
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