If the Tom Cruise as a Nazi movie Valkyrie was a bullet shot from a gun, it would have been ricocheting all over the damn room. The movie has moved release dates over 9000 times now, and there’s yet another new one; the film is moving from Valentine’s Day to Boxing Day, or as you Yanks like to call it, the day after Christmas.
This is actually good news for the film, and the half dozen people excited about it. The Valentine’s Day date was a sign of a complete lack of faith in the picture – it was just a terrible release date – while December 26th signals that MGM thinks that the film has some awards possibilities.
“We saw and tested the movie, and we believe a strong movie deserves a strong playdate,” says MGM big boy Clark Woods. I imagine this test was after the reshoots that added a big desert battle to the opening of the movie.
Valkyrie will be opening in a crowded, Oscar-minded marketplace, and there’s no word on how wide MGM is going on the 26th, a date that could be used to slowly open a platformer. Woods’ quote does make it seem like they’ll go big with it, though. And since the movie cost a bunch, they should.