Universal’s upcoming Jamie Foxx war drama THE KINGDOM has been bumped from its release in April to a new date of September 28th. Call me skeptical but I’m not believing the “this movie is great and we want to create buzz” party line. Certainly possible but remember it is the job of a publicist to lie. These are the same people who told us that Joss Whedon was still actively involved in WONDER WOMAN as they were buying a new script and one day before he announced he had left the film. I have a marketing/publicity background so I know how this works. Deny, deny, deny. Universal is claiming that focus test scores were “at the high end of extraordinary” and they hoped the late-September date would give them a better return. Remember that Sony Pictures told us how great ALL THE KING’S MEN was as they pushed it back to a late-September date and when it was released we all saw what a big stinker it was. Now I don’t know for sure KINGDOM is in trouble and this is a way for Universal to buy director Peter Berg some time to fix whatever perceived errors there are in the film. I would like to dig a little deeper though; perhaps hear some word from anyone at the recent test screenings in Sacramento?
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