We are entering new territory for the movies: thanks to Covid-19, major titles have been pulled from release, in anticipation of plummeting audiences or cinemas shutting altogether. Will the entire schedule be rejigged to ensure an even flow? Or will there be a post-pandemic movie glut? Will some movies decide to release over streaming services instead? And will anybody want to see these films when they finally get released?
Usually when a release is delayed it is for one of several reasons. Often, it is simply because everyone knows the film sucks. Or it is down to internal battles, as with Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret, filmed in 2005 but held up by studio disputes over its 165-minute length. A 150-minute cut eventually surfaced, to rave reviews – but six years later, which killed the buzz somewhat.
Sometimes, it is down to controversy, as with the “video nasties” of the 1980s, which were eventually un-banned in the 1990s and 2000s, triggering a spike in cannibalism and chainsaw massacres. And, sometimes, it is down to timing, as with the trigger-happy horror The Hunt, whose autumn 2019 release was pulled in response to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings. In the intervening period, Trump denounced the movie, which saved on its marketing budget, although it didn’t help The Hunt’s box office takings when it limped into cinemas a few weeks ago.
This time round, though, the delays are through no fault of the movies or their makers. Will they feel out of date by the time they arrive? Does it make a difference if we get No Time to Die in November rather than April? Or Furious 9 a year later? Vin Diesel might have a whole new look by then! Other titles are seasonally specific. It made perfect sense to put out Peter Rabbit 2 for the Easter holidays. Similarly, a musical such as Spielberg’s West Side Story has “family-friendly Christmas movie” written all over it. It is unlikely to want to budge from its prime December slot.
If there is a high-profile postponement in The Great Pause, it could be the X-Men spin-off The New Mutants. Enticingly pitched as “Stephen King meets John Hughes”, it was filmed in mid-2017 with a view to a 2018 release. That date has shifted many times since, due to alleged creative disputes, reshoots (since denied) and Disney’s takeover of its studio, Fox. Just when it was due, this April, coronavirus has snatched it away again.
Today’s no-shows could take consolation from Orson Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind: begun in 1970, made in fits and starts, abandoned, lost, then finally restored and completed in 2018, three decades after the deaths of Welles, lead actor John Huston and most of the cast. It is a wayward masterpiece whose absurdly protracted genesis only enhances the experience. There is a lesson here: if the delay drags on for long enough, it’s no longer a story, it becomes a legend.
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