THE SOLOIST Cancelled: AFI FEST 2008
The AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, which kicks off on October 30, has announced that The Soloist has been pulled as the festival’s Opening Night Gala presentation. A replacement will be announced tomorrow, a mere week before the festival begins.
"Due to the change in The Soloist release date," reads a joint statement from Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks Pictures, and Participant Media, "we unfortunately had to withdraw from the AFI FEST Film Festival. It was an honor to be invited as the Opening Night film and we are very grateful to the festival for their support and understanding. The Soloist filmmakers, DreamWorks, Universal, Participant and Paramount are very proud of this film and we are excited and committed to bring it to the world in March."
On October 16, Nikki Finke broke the story about the Soloist postponement on Deadline Hollywood Daily. The musical drama about a homeless songwriter, which was scheduled to be released on November 21, in time for this year’s awards season, will now open in late March 2009. Directed by Joe Wright, and adapted by Susannah Grant from Steve Lopez’s book, The Soloist stars Jamie Foxx (as the musician), Robert Downey Jr. (as a journalist who befriends him), and Catherine Keener.
"Soloist insiders fear the delay will prompt a lot of web speculation that something is ‘wrong’ with Joe Wright’s pic when everything is right," Finke wrote. "I’m surprised especially because Downey has really good awards season and box office heat from Iron Man. But Paramount instead will be pushing the actor for Tropic Thunder consideration."
In that same article, Finke explains that Defiance, a Nazi era drama directed by Edward Zwick and starring Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell, has been pushed back from December 12 to the 31st. Here’s wondering if that will cause more headaches to AFI FEST organizers, who are surely less than thrilled with the Soloist cancellation. After all, Defiance is the festival’s Closing Night Gala presentation on November 9.
Barring a calamity, AFI FEST 2008 will run October 30–November 9. Passes and individual film and event tickets are on sale now. To order passes and tickets and to get more information, visit www.AFI.com or call 1.866.AFI.FEST.
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