Terence Malick makes movies on his own schedule. It took decades for him to get from Days of Heaven to The Thin Red Line. So when his next film, The New World, is slow to the finish line, you just change the release date and be glad that you’re going from the end of 2005 to the beginning of 2006 and not some year far off in the future.
The New World was originally set to be released on November 9, just after my birthday, but post-production hold ups will mean New Line will hold the film until January 13.
Normally I would wonder about that, but New Line will be doing limited releases at Christmas in order to qualify for awards season. They have at least enough faith in the picture to think it has Oscar chances.
Of course they could just think that Terence Malick attracts Oscar noms like his star, Colin Farrell, attracts brawls and pussy, no matter what the actual movie is like.