I think this'll be my last Outlander post for a while; you're probably sick of hearing about it by now. But I think I owe you this one as a matter of follow-through. You see, the buzz on the internets is that, as feared, the Weinstein Company is sending the nearly $50 million dollar Vikings-fight-aliens adventure film to direct-to-DVD oblivion.

The source of this semi-substantiated rumor is that a couple of online DVD retailers, such as Movies Unlimited and Amazon have listed a November 18th, 2008 release date for the movie, with Movies Unlimited now accepting pre-orders. No theatrical release date was ever announced, and needless to say, if the DVD release date is accurate, it rules out any sort of theatrical appearance.

I guess I'm a little surprised at the dump, simply because the movie's so darn expensive. But it's the Weinsteins, theatrical releases themselves cost a lot of money, and this was more of a cult item from the start anyway. In any case, November is certainly sooner than I expected to be able to see the thing.

Important to note that there's no official confirmation from the distributor on the DVD release, so this could all be one big mistake. But it doesn't look good.

[via SlashFilm]

Now, I know Wayne Wang isn't in most cinephiles' good graces these days.* He's spent most of the decade making bland and unremarkable middle-brow flicks like Maid in Manhattan, Because of Winn-Dixie and Last Holiday. But the director behind The Joy Luck Club and Chinese Box still has a fair bit of cachet, and when he does something like make his new film available in its entirety online and for free, people pay attention.

So, pay attention: Wang's The Princess of Nebraska, an indie he premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival (where it got a positive review from Cinematical's Kim Voynar), will be offered for free on the internet in September. The filmmaker partnered with ex-SXSW chief Matt Dentler and his Cinetic Rights Management to make this happen, as a means of releasing Princess simultaneously with its companion film, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, which will come to theaters courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. The exact plans of the release (i.e. where, how) haven't been announced, but I'll keep an eye on it. Take a look at this IndieWire story for more.

Not, probably, the start of a new Hollywood trend, given that The Princess of Nebraska -- a no-budget drama about a pregnant Chinese teenager's struggles in the United States -- probably wouldn't have done much business anyhow. But if Dentler and his colleagues can figure out a way to get people to watch the thing, who knows. Indie filmmakers could always use a new channel.

*The exception is our own Eric D. Snider, who informs me: "I love Wang films!"

It comes as little surprise whenever a studio decides to kindly remove a film from a director's hands -- the situation with Lionsgate's treatment of Punisher: War Zone still smells fishy from this end -- but while most filmmakers would proceed to bite their tongues and salvage their careers, Mathieu Kassovitz begs to differ on his own film, the Vin Diesel vehicle Babylon A.D., which opens this Friday in an all-too-familiar August dump situation (joining it on the marquee: alleged comedies Disaster Movie and College).

In an exclusive interview with AMC's sci-fi blog, Kassovitz admits that a troubled production and comprised final cut (at least in the States, although reviews from elsewhere aren't much kinder) are responsible for turning his adaptation of Maurice Georges Dantec's futuristic novel into "pure violence and stupidity... like a bad episode of '24'."

I never would have thought I would see the day that moviegoers and critics would praise the heck out of Jean Claude Van Damme -- unless they were all in the midst of a discussion about awesome crappy martial arts movies from the '80s. But the critical praise has finally come with his work in J.C.V.D. which means that the sucker has to hit screens soon so the rest of us can see what the fuss is about. According to AOL Money, Peace Arch Entertainment bought all the North American rights to the film, with plans to release it shortly after it screens at TIFF. Okay, so the exact date is not set, but the wait for Jean Claude's latest could be as short as a month. Stay tuned! (We'll have a review and mayyybe an interview with the man himself later next month.)

Meanwhile, Cabin in the Woods, which started whipping up buzz back in July, is going to make us wait a little longer. Ace Showbiz reports that MGM has scheduled Drew Goddard's film for an October 23, 2009 release. That'll slide it into theaters a week before Saw VI. Now this is assuming that the production goes according to schedule -- it hasn't started yet and there hasn't been any big casting announcements.

In what appears to be part of a most thorough campaign to botch Entertainment Weekly's Fall Movie Preview, a recent press release wholly admits that the North American opening of the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, back from November 7th to the 14th marks an effort to capitalize on last week's sudden Harry Potter shift.

Although the removal of the 007th from any coming marketing blitz sure is a shame, it does place this film closer to the release of its predecessor, Casino Royale, which opened on November 17, 2006 to the tune of almost $600 million worldwide. Solace will still premiere in the United Kingdom on October 31.

For those keeping track at home, this now leaves Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and the just now shifted Paul Rudd comedy Role Models on November 7th, and the 14th is now between Bond, Baz Luhrmann's epic drama Australia, and Bernie Mac's final film, Soul Men.

Now, think fast! When does Something of Boris open again?!

Cinematical has just been informed that Nia Vardalos' My Life in Ruins has scheduled a May 8, 2009 release date, which, so far, puts it opposite Star Trek as the weekend's only other wide release. And yes, we're told it will be a wide release, and that a brand, spanky new trailer will arrive soon (pay no attention to the one leaked online earlier in the month). Produced by Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Ruins stars Nia Vardalos as she returns to her Greek roots (and to the country itself) as a tour guide who discovers her romantic side while showing a ragtag group of tourists around. Directed by Donald Petrie (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), Richard Dreyfuss and Rachel Dratch also star.

Fox Searchlight must have a good feeling about this flick if they're throwing it out right at the beginning of the summer -- and opposite the giganto Star Trek -- though the film's low-key vibes and romantic scenery will counter the ridiculous Trekker fanboy-ish quite well. Will My Life in Ruins bring Vardalos some more big, fat Greek luck? We shall see ...

It's a lonely day in the neighborhood ....

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: I'm not sure whether Warner Bros. was prepared for the ridiculous fanboy (and girl) backlash that came with pushing the film's release date back several months to the middle of July, 2009, though it looks like they've re-grouped, dusted themselves off and are preparing to get that marketing machine up and running again. Following a statement from Warners chief Alan Horn (included after the jump) comes word from our friends at Bloghogwarts that Warner Bros. has sent in a new trailer (marked at a minute and a half) to the BBFC for approval. Could this be the studio's version of make-up sex? (PG rated make-up sex, of course.) Only time will tell ...

Inglorious Bastards: These days, when it comes to the cast of Quentin Tarantino's WWII flick Inglorious Bastards, nothing is set in stone (or badass, motherf**king stone, as QT would say). Thus, we want to be real careful about this latest news (via Variety) that Michael Fassbender is "in talks" to join the ensemble cast. Note that he's "in talks", as were a few other guys (Simon Pegg, David Krumholtz, though the latter is still mentioned by the trade) before they dropped out. Though they don't say who he'd be playing, the German-speaking actor would most likely take on the role of badass motherf**king Nazi in charge of total damage ... which sounds about right to me. Fassbender, of course, is best known for his role as Stelios in 300, and is still set to appear opposite Abbie Cornish in Wuthering Heights.

When Warner Bros. announced last Thursday that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had been pushed back from Nov. 21 to next July, hardcore fans immediately entered the five stages of nerd grief. So far we've worked our way through denial, anger, semi-literate Internet ranting, and conspiracy-theorizing. All that's left is acceptance, where we go ahead and watch the movie when it comes out next summer and forget any of this ever happened.

In the meantime, several myths about the date change have popped up, and we'd like to help separate fact from fiction.

MYTH #1: Half-Blood Prince was moved because WB was scared of Twilight.
According to some people who are fans of the Twilight novel and pre-fans of the Twilight movie, WB got nervous about Harry Potter coming out just three weeks before the teen-vampire chick flick, fearing it would siphon off too much of Harry's audience.

Most observers believe Twilight will indeed be a hit, but come on. The Harry Potter franchise the most lucrative in film history, with a total worldwide box-office gross so far of $4.5 billion. There's no reason for WB to fear any competition, no matter how formidable. Also, most of Harry Potter's income is from overseas, where Twilight, still largely a U.S. phenomenon, cannot hope to compete.

Plus, if Half-Blood Prince came out Nov. 21 and followed the usual pattern, it would have already made most of its projected income by the time Twilight showed up on Dec. 12 anyway. Three weeks is a huge gap in our modern, front-loaded, it's-all-about-opening-weekend movie culture. If there had only been one week between them, then maybe you'd have something.

Adam Sandler's most recent not-very-funny comedy, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, has earned about 100 million U.S. dollars since its release in June. It's not going to be pulling in any Egyptian gineih, Lebanese lira, or U.A.E. dirhams, though, because the censors in those countries have banned the film from local cinemas. I'm tempted to say that for the first time ever I'm jealous of Middle Eastern moviegoers, but that would be a shallow joke. Besides, no matter how lousy a movie is, it's nice to at least have the option of watching it.

Film censorship is common in Arab countries. What's noteworthy here is that the film in question is about Israeli/Palestinian relations, a subject that's probably of some considerable interest to many people in that region. Sandler's character, a former Israeli spy, moves to New York and gets a job at a hair salon run by a Lebanese-American woman -- but people in Lebanon won't be able to see the film. I guess the movie's final message of looking past our differences and learning to get along with each other was deemed too offensive.

Well, OK, as noted in Variety, anything with a lot of sexual content, political messages, or religion bashing is liable not to make it past the censors in the Arab world, and Zohan has plenty of all three. The film's Middle East distributor, Circuit-Empire, is still showing the film to the other Arab countries' censorship boards, but they don't expect it to fare any better than it did in Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. Sorry, Middle East! You'll have to view images of Sandler's comically oversized package by some other means!

For all you Harry Potter fans who are also devoted to a certain series of teen-vampire romance novels, here's something that should help you deal with Thursday's devastating news about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being pushed back to next summer. Summit Entertainment announced today that with Harry having vacated the November 21 spot, they're going to fill it with Twilight, bumping it up a full three weeks from its original date of December 12.

While some fans wondered, irrationally, if the Harry Potter move was to get away from Twilight, Summit's CEO says Twilight never had any delusions of being more powerful than the boy wizard at the box office. "With a giant franchise like Harry Potter in the market, we had to stay clear of it," Rob Friedman told Variety -- hence the original date well away from Half-Blood Prince. "Their move created an opportunity to bring the movie to fans three weeks earlier."

Once November 21 opened up, the move was really a no-brainer. As a press release from Summit points out, movie theaters get very crowded around the holidays, and Twilight will be able to open on far more screens on November 21 than it could have on December 12. Now it'll be opening the Friday before Thanksgiving, too, which is nearly always a plus. Its only competition will be Disney's animated Bolt. The only loser here is Entertainment Weekly, whose Fall Movie Preview is now wrong again, before most readers have even seen it. (Or, from another point of view, now that issue is even more of a collector's item.)

What do you say? Are you excited about getting Twilight sooner? To those of you who have been sending Warner Bros. wrathful messages about the Harry Potter move, does this quell your anger somewhat? Will you at least be able to live and function and carry on?