Star Trek Postpones Launch Date

Okay, that 2008 in the corner is going to have to go. 

Did you think you had your plans all set for Christmas Day 2008? For example, plans to be amongst the first to see JJ Abrams Star Trek movie? Well, find something else to do.

Variety is reporting that Paramount has decided to push back the date of the film’s release from Dec. 25, 2008 to May 8, 2009. The studio is explaining the move by saying the movie stands to make more money in May than December. However, Peter Sciretta over at SlashFilm speculates quite reasonably that this may have a lot more to do with JJ Abrams being dissatisfied with the script he’s been forced to shoot. I say forced to shoot because no one can make changes to a script other than the writer, and as you may recall, writers have been somewhat scarce on movie sets lately.

(What? You’re saying, “Hey, Abrams wrote the script, couldn’t he change it?” Alas, no, children–Abrams is a WGA member and would have been breaking union rules by making any kind of adjustments, even to his own script.)

So the scheduling move, even if it is for the purpose of increased profits, buys Abrams some time, perhaps to tweak what’s left of the script to include new ideas or effects and even reshoot scenes that had been done using a script he didn’t love.

As of right now, Star Trek will be the only big release on that particular May weekend. Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine is slated for the week before.

With the resolution of the strike, it’s likely that a lot of studios will be reshuffling their calendars. Other Paramount changes include moving Ben Stiller’s Tropic of Thunder from July 11 to August 15 (August? well, I guess they don’t think much of that movie). The studio also announced that the Martin Scorsese adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will open on October 2, 2008 (good heavens, it seems like just yesterday we were announcing casting for that one!).