Updated: With the new UK release date and plan: scroll down for the new news.
Most news items are like a 7" punk single, arriving with a bang and over in a flash. Grindhouse news, on the other hand, is becoming a 12" extended club remix, where the same chorus repeats over and over and over. The only chance to win attention back at this point is if R Kelly or Lil’ Wayne drops in with a verse.
So here it is, quick like: the film’s UK release date has been pushed back indefinitely. Previously scheduled for June 1, the Brothers have realized that their US strategy spanked nuts, and have decided to regroup and reformulate. With a territory just twice the population of California to market, you’d think a strategy wouldn’t be difficult to come up with, but this is the same company that couldn’t educate consumers on the fact that they were seeing a double feature in the States.
Along with that news rolls the continuing Tarantino backlash, which is as apparant in the litany of news articles as in comments posted online. We all know that studio executives live and die by the sort of relativist moral code that means lunch friends are dinner enemies, so rumors of Hollywood glee at the pic’s failure aren’t shocking, but even elements of the press who formerly thrived on QT praise have given into the trend.
This is an entertaining opportunity, at least, to get online and read the reams of reader comments on various articles, since the law of numbers means that at least a few of the people bashing the guy’s entire filmic output paid to see Wild Hogs.
Update 2/29: Yesterday a September 21 release date for Death Proof was anounced for the UK, which will get the film courtesy of Momentum Pictures. No date has been announced for Planet Terror, and there’s also been no word on whether or not the UK will get the US version of QT’s film, or the Cannes cut — that info will undoubtedly be pending until The Weinstein Co evaluates the Cannes performance. The two film release plan will hold steady in ‘all international territories‘ according to Harvey, so if you were holding out hope to see the original double bill in Melbourne or Bankok, it’s best to forget it.