Is there trouble in mutant-land? 20th Century Fox has delayed two of its fifty-one (perhaps a slight exaggeration) in-production X-Men films. X-Men: Dark Phoenix is moving from its intended November 2018 debut to February 14, 2019, while New Mutants is graciously giving up its February 2019 release date in favor of August 2, 2019.
According to Collider’s sources, the Dark Phoenix delay comes down to scheduling issues. The movie just had test screening, and as always some knucklehead has to complain about Jennifer Lawrence‘s skinsuit being too revealing, or Michael Fassbender‘s hair not being perfectly coiffed. So reshoots have to be arranged, and the earliest all of the X-Men mega-stars can reconvene is around August 2018. That would only leave few short months for final post-production work, so a delay to February 2019 gives them some breathing room to polish the effects, and digitally remove mustaches, if necessary.
New Mutants is a different beast. The original plan was for New Mutants to grace us with its presence in April 2018 (which is, like, a few days away). The film wrapped principle photography back in September 2017, so that gave director Josh Boone plenty of time for post-production editing and reshoots.
Well, apparently those reshoots are more extensive than originally anticipated. On top of making the film more horror-forward, and adding a high-profile new character as a cameo, we are now hearing that they are reshooting 50% of the film. They are also adding one or two new characters who are more than mere cameos, and are present throughout the movie.
There are also rumblings of the dreaded ‘creative differences,’ with Boone and the studio not seeing eye-to-eye about the requested changes. Word has it that Boone has already submitted a cut of New Mutants that he was pleased with, so all of these changes aren’t sitting well with the filmmaker. Hopefully the studio and the director can get on the same page and deliver a Logan or Deadpool-sized success story come next August.
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