‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Re-Set for Christmas Release, ‘Monuments Men,’ ‘Jack Ryan’ Pushed to 2014

It’s a busy day for release date maneuvering. Biggest news first;

Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street will indeed release this year, although it will be bumped back from its original November 15th date to a Christmas opening, according to the L.A. Times. There had been concerns that an inflated runtime and content issues might push post production into early next year, but more recently hopes were high that all work would be completed in time. The pic stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Matthew McConaughey as real-life investment bankers in the ’90s.

That bodes ill for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, which like Wolf is being distributed by Paramount. No official announcement has been made yet, but it’s unlikely that Paramount releases two films on the same day. Jack Ryan isn’t likely to garner any awards consideration, so there’s no harm it releasing it anytime early 2014. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Kenneth Brannagh’s Chris Pine-starring action flick, which was facing stiff competition from American Hustle, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, August: Osage County, Grudge Match, 47 Ronin, and others.

One film definitively no longer in the December melee is George Clooney’s The Monuments Men. Citing the need for more time to finish numerous effects shots, co-distributors Sony and 20th Century Fox have moved the release from December 18 to sometime in early 2014. This is the second major Sony release which has moved out of the 2013 Oscar picture, following the true Olympic wrestling drama/thriller Foxcatcher. It’s very possible that The Monuments Men does need more time, but it’s also possible Sony just wanted a cleaner release window for the star-studded picture.