Paramount execs shut out ‘Shutter Island’
By Kevin Slane | Aug. 26, 2009The Best Picture race for next year's Academy Awards just got a little thinner. Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated new film ""Shutter Island"" had its release date pushed back from Oct. 2 to Feb. 19, 2010. Not only does this disqualify ""Island"" for the 2009 awards, but it also gets a February release date, a month normally reserved for studio clunkers like ""Son of the Mask"" or ""Biker Boyz."" In fact, the four films released this year the weekend ""Island"" is set to debut were ""Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li,"" ""Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail,"" ""Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience"" and ""Fired Up."" If 2009 is any indication, the caliber of February film releases does not typically end up being Oscar-worthy, which leads to the question of why Paramount is delaying the release. The film is already completed, there is no cataclysmic event that should delay it (the terrorist-filled ""Collateral Damage"" was shelved for over a year after 9/11) and the stars haven't had any embarrassing public meltdowns; so why is ""Shutter Island"" being delayed? In short, the economy.
