George Clooney’s ‘The Monuments Men’ Has Been Bumped to 2014
For those playing the Oscar guessing game at home, please update your playing cards as George Clooney's 'The Monuments Men' has bowed out of the 2013 Oscar season. It was just announced that the film has been pushed into 2014, likely to be released in the early months of next year.
This news comes from the LA Times, who talked to director/star Clooney and he said "If any of the effects looked cheesy, the whole movie would look cheesy. We simply don't have enough people to work enough hours to finish it." He went on to say that the film is meant to be in the mold of such beloved men on a mission films as 'Guns of Navarone' and 'The Great Escape,' and so coming out in the Oscar season was optimal but not necessary.
It's also likely that everyone saw that 2013 is looking like a pretty heavy Oscar year, with 'Captain Phillips,' '12 Years a Slave,' 'Saving Mr. Banks' and 'Gravity' -- which also stars George Clooney -- already serious contenders, not to mention films that haven't screened like 'The Wolf of Wall Street.' On top of which, Clooney and producing partner Grant Heslov just won Oscars last year for producing 'Argo,' which may have worked against them.
'The Monuments Men,' which stars Clooney alongside Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and Bill Murray, should be hitting theaters sometime in the first quarter of the year, with February mentioned as the likely month.