How skittish is Paramount becoming with their tentpole releases? Between this and GI JOE: Retaliation, there’s seemingly no delay too lofty for these guys.

Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production company had been up in Vancover in heavy pre-production for Ninja Turtles, a big budget live-action revival of the popular 80s cartoon that was going to be directed by Wrath of the Titans director Jonathan Liebesman. Well, that was yesterday.

Today, the pre-production staff has been informed that they’re being layed off temporarily as the studio reassesses. According to Hollywood Reporter‘s exclusive, Paramount’s abandoning a Christmas 2013 release in favor of a more attractive May 2014. Taken at face value, it’s only a six-month setback. Rumors abound that the issues lie with Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec’s script, as Paramount moves the production into lockdown mode for re-tooling. Still, this leaves a pretty wide hole in the studio’s release schedule come Christmas 2013.

One wonders where this leaves Liebesman, as this is a pretty hefty delay for a working director. Will he stick around for this restructuring or will there be someone new stepping in? Is Lars von Trier available? Because that’d be amazing.