The powerbrokers in Hollywood have held their collective breaths this week with the news that "Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince" will not see the light of day until 2009! So studios have been looking at their schedules stateside in an attempt to take advantage of Warner Bros. flight from the Q4 fight. Columbia Pictures were the first to move and they have announced today it will release "Quantum of Solace" on November 14th in North America - one week back from its original slate.
"The strategic move places the highly-anticipated James Bond adventure one week closer to the prime movie-going holiday window and takes advantage of last week's decision to move the release date of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,'" said a rather chuffed studio exec.
"We saw the film recently in London and Marc Forster, Daniel Craig and the entire team at EON have truly delivered another extraordinary Bond adventure," said Jeff Blake, Chairman of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution for the Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group. "'Quantum of Solace' is a seamless continuation of the storyline that began with the last film. We believe November 14th is a great date that allows us to play straight through Thanksgiving and right into Christmas. The Bond films have a long history of entertaining audiences in this holiday corridor going back to 'Goldeneye' in 1995. The studio enjoyed tremendous success opening 'Casino Royale' in North America on November 17, 2006, and we believe this decision will give the public a wider opportunity to see the film over the holiday."
"Quantum of Solace" is still very much on for its UK release on October 31st. This move in the US will pit 007 in direct competition with Baz Luhrmann's "Australia".