Baz Luhrmann is definitely on some wacky shit making an opulent 3D costume epic out of The Great Gatsby –a concept that inherently treads awful close to “missing the whole goddamned point” territory– and yet Warner Brothers has just made a move that suggests some kind of confidence in the film. A date shift now puts the film off it’s December 25th released date into an unspecified May date at the start of next summer.
If you roll with word from the LA Times, the date shift is easily interpreted as a positive thing on a number of levels as it indicates studio confidence in the film’s ability to play a 3D early-summer tentpole, helps fill out a relatively thin summer for WB, takes the movie out of competition with WB’s own The Hobbit for 3D screens, it allows more time for effects and soundtrack tweaking, and it doesn’t necessarily preclude the film’s awards contention next year.
I’ll buy most of that.
Look for a specific date to be announced sometime soon, and for the film to get another big trailer push during the holidays.