‘Clash Of The Titans’ Sequel Will Square Off Against ‘Hunger Games’ On March 30, 2012
For every big movie that shifts its release date, there’s a studio across town panicked by the move. With a jam-packed couple of years ahead, every slight change in the calendar has domino-like ramifications; for instance, Ridley Scott‘s “Prometheus” was initially announced for March 2012, but was almost immediately pushed to summer after Disney‘s “John Carter of Mars” moved in on the same date. Yesterday brought a couple of new changes that promise to cause problems for some rival projects.
Relativity Media‘s “The Brothers Grimm: Snow White,” which will be directed by “The Fall” helmer Tarsem, and earlier this week landed Julia Roberts to play the villainous queen, will, according to Box Office Mojo, open on June 29, 2012 going head-to-head with the sequel to “Star Trek” (although five’ll get you ten that Captain Kirk and co. make move), and a week after “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” and the week before the “Spider-Man” reboot.
It’s a pretty bullish move, not least because it comes a full six months before the December 21st, 2012 release of the rival project, Universal‘s “Snow White and the Huntsman.” For a while, that project, which looks likely to star Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron, and is helmed by debut director Rupert Sanders, seemed to have more momentum at first, but could the gap become something of a road block for the latter? No one wants to be the “Infamous” to Julia Roberts’ Snow White “Capote.”
“Clash of the Titans 2,” which may or may not be called “Wrath of the Titans,” has also got a new date, according to Coming Soon — moving up a week, from March 30th 2012, where it would have opened against Dreamworks Animation‘s “The Croods,” to March 23rd, where it’ll now go head to head with Lionsgate‘s “Hunger Games,” the hotly anticipated young-adult-novel adaptation.
The original “Clash” opened last year against “How To Train Your Dragon” successfully, despite sharing 3D screens, and the fairly action-packed “Hunger Games” seems to be in direct competition with “Clash 2,” and risks robbing it of some of its younger audience. We imagine that Warner Bros are counting on Lionsgate flinching first — after all, the latter have more to lose if the films cannibalize each other. “Clash of the Titans 2,” which will be shot in 3D by “Battle: Los Angeles” director Jonathan Liebesman, added Rosamund Pike to its cast earlier in the week; the actress joins new additions Edgar Ramirez and Toby Kebbell, and returning cast members Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Gemma Arterton.