Sony suddenly making Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous limited release

In a move that certainly doesn’t sound like necessarily good news for the project, Roland Emmerich’s ANONYMOUS has been knocked down to limited release classification, meaning it like won’t be coming to your closest theater when it debuts October 28th.

Kind of a last minute move, but one that makes sense when you realize, holy crap, that’s coming out in a week? I haven’t seen many ads for it at all, and those I have seen haven’t exactly done a great job of conveying that the movie is about the theory that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays.

According to Deadline, there are fears that a wide release could doom what one of their studio execs calls “a magnificent film,” and even if that classification is true, it may be right, because if it wasn’t advertised correctly, it will be a waste to show it at so many theaters.

So rather than 2000+, the film is only debuting on 250 screens, and if it does well it will expand. Seems like a smart move, but one that rarely happens this late in the game, especially with a usually blockbuster director attached.