Odd Coincidence -- Two Infamous "Milk Carton" Movies to Be Released Today

By 'milk carton', I'm referring to those 'have you seen this person?' pictures that used to be on milk cartons back in the day. Today, February 6th, two notoriously delayed features, He's Just Not That Into You and Fanboys, are both finally being released after countless date changes.

In the case of the New Line Cinemas/Warner Bros release, He's Just Not That Into You was plopped around the release schedule for the second half of 2008, with Warner Bros (theoretically) best deciding how to take advantage of the Sex And The City hook and the allegedly just discovered audience of adult female moviegoers. Same studio, same general target demographic (and, apparently, same genre of female escapism). Ironically, despite the months of negative buzz and the somewhat squirm-inducing trailer, the film is getting surprisingly mixed reviews. Business should be rock-solid this weekend, although I still contend that the casting of Jennifer Connelly implies that the film will have a bitter, unhappy ending with at least one suicide.

Fanboys is a completely different story. While He's Just Not That Into You is being given a 3000+ screen release, with official press screenings, a saturation ad campaign, and publicity tours by the cast, Fanboys is literally being dumped into a pathetic 40 screens this Friday. This Weinstein Company picture has literally been awaiting a release date since at least Spring, 2006. Anyway, it concerns a group of friends attempting to sneak their dying comrade into Skywalker Ranch in the winter of 1999, to see Star Wars: Episode One: The Phantom Menace before he succumbs to cancer. Much of the delay was allegedly the result of Harvey Weinstein trying to force the filmmakers to completely remove the cancer portion of the story, but apparently artistic freedom won out (a rare thing with Harvey, I know...). The reviews are lousy so far, and this will arguably be the quietest studio dump since 20th Century Fox's Idiocracy back in September 2006.

I don't have anything profound to add here. I'm just highly amused that these two infamously delayed pictures are both finally being released, on the same day no less.

Scott Mendelson

Comments

[jaycubed]

I saw Fanboys last Friday on the opening night of Indiefest in San Francisco. As there were numerous people in costume, including a troop of imperial storm troopers, and a full house of total geeks; the audience response to the film was very positive. I enjoyed the film, but it was the cameos that I really loved.

P.S. Idiocracy IS the future of mankind. We are already well along that path, if we don't exterminate ourselves first.

[libertron]

What the?! I thought Idiocracy was a great movie and I've been waiting forever for Fanboys. What is wrong with the film companies that they think they have to bury something "not up to their standards", when they release so much total junk?

[LMPE]

Other "milk carton" movies:

Supernova
I Dreamed of Africa
Town & Country
Original Sin
The Adventures of Pluto Nash

Needless to say, all these flicks were box office duds (we might also include "Heaven's Gate", just since it's filming got way behind schedule and it ended up being one of the biggest box office disasters in history).

If I remember right, "Valkyrie" saw its release date change several times.

[abacab81]

Harvey Weinstein has done the same thing to Crossing Over which was supposed to be released last summer. Now it is due to be released Feb 27th. It stars Harrison Ford, Jim Sturgess, and Ashley Judd. I've yet to see any publicity for it at all. Certainly a movie starring Harrison Ford will get more than 40 theaters??