It’s been a long and arduous journey to the big screen for Cormac McCarthy’s Pultizer Prize-winning book The Road. The movie was originally supposed to hit theatres last fall, but ended up being pushed back due to The Weinstein Company’s lack of funds and possibly because of its bleak subject matter. It was never really clear whether or not director John Hillcoat needed more time for reshoots or editing tweaks, but now that the movie is finally finished and has already premiered at the Venice Film Festival, The Weinstein Company has decided to delay it yet again. Thankfully, it is only being pushed back by a month and will now hit theatres on November 25th instead of October 16th. But what could the reason for this latest delay?

It’s a bit of a puzzling choice, given that the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend is already packed. The Road now has to compete with the Disney comedy Old Dogs, the martial arts action fest Ninja Assassin, and The Weinstein Company’s own Oscar contender Nine, in addition to the expansion of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Is this an Oscar positioning thing? A financial thing? Maybe they just want to give the positive festival buzz a few weeks to percolate. Either way, I suspect it will need whispers of Oscar potential if it hopes to gain traction with audiences, otherwise it may end up abandoned and forgotten like Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness.

Around the Web: