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Sony Moves 'Elysium' to August 2013 & 'RoboCop' to February 2014

by Alex Billington
October 15, 2012
Source: Variety

Well this is a rather interesting development. Over on Variety, they have revealed an updated set of release dates for Sony/Columbia Pictures' upcoming 2013/2014 release schedules. They're distributing quite a few major releases for MGM and otherwise, and included among them is the RoboCop remake as well as Neill Blomkamp's upcoming sci-fi Elysium. The studio has shifted the releae dates of both films back quite a bit. Blomkamp's second sci-fi movie Elysium is being moved into the August 9th, 2013 summer spot that RoboCop first had, while José Padilha's RoboCop remake is now being pushed to February 2014. Whoa.

The report mentions that the "studio has pulled its RoboCop reboot from the Aug. 9th slot" and replaced it with Elysium. Which, is honestly, a better spot for it following in the footsteps of District 9, which had a similar release pattern. Other changes from Sony: the sequel Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 will arrive on September 27th, 2013, the weekend that a month ago played well for Hotel Transylvania; the CGI animated movie Pixels has been pulled from its May 2014 date until further notice, citing "more time for development". These are the biggest changes to their schedules. As we also mentioned, that doomed RoboCop remake will now arrive in dumping grounds season February 7th, 2014 next to Need for Speed.

All of these date changes seem like smart decisions from Sony/Columbia Pictures, despite the unfortunate extra delay for a few big sci-fi projects. I'm very excited for Elysium, but the post-production schedule may mean they need more time to finish it plus that August D9 spot is a better fit for this original sci-fi starring Matt Damon. We'll continue to keep you updated on all of these upcoming 2013/2014 releases. Thoughts?

Filed under Movie News, Release Date, SciFi

From around the web:

axalon

Sounds like Sony has a lot of faith in Elysium if they're pushing it back towards the summer season.
Akirakorn

Sigh, I was hoping to catch Elysium sooner, and worried it might get lost in the summer shuffle. Oh well. D9 still has a huge fanbase and Damon's films are very reliable.
Gavin

That means the studio has no confidence in these films.
- notalent
  
  Or it could be because District 9 was released in that same weekend in 2009.
syntaxterror

maybe they're going to rethink their whole strategy and concept of the Robocop reboot? Or, if we're lucky, they're quietly just going to dump it altogether.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Sleider/1847907840 Brian Sleider
  
  Robocop does have the stink of fail around it.
Dion

Elysium is gonna be fucking epic.
rocky728

I'm looking forward to Oblivion more than Elysium myself but hopefully they'll both be great. The Robocop move I agree smells like the studio is burying it already. The August release date isn't quite as bad. Some films have done ok in that month but we haven't had a major hit in Aug. and IMO won't til Guardians of the Galaxy opens in 2014
http://www.facebook.com/matt.peloquin.14 Matt Peloquin

Why haven't we seen anything for Gravity yet?! I thought that was originally planned for November 2012?
Jeff Metzger

Well I guess Robocop is going to suck.
Ricardo_PT

The way the Robocop remake is being treated on Firstshowing is something of unparallel proportions, at least since I come here. How can you guys be so "hateful" (and pardon me for the expression) towards a movie that hasn't even released a trailer. It's one thing to don't agree on remakes in general and on this one in particular, it's one thing to wish bad upon the movie and talk about it with such disdain. And based on what, set photos? Come on, that doesn't feel like something a true movie lover should do. I know that sometimes studios take over and destroy movies like this, but it's disrespectful to Padilha, who is actually a good director. I feel for the guy, he must be going through hell being pressured by the studio and then reading things on the internet (Try to put yourself in his shoes) I'm not saying the movie will be amazing, I'm asking you to give it a chance, then we'll review it when it's out. So many times I've seen, on this site, a movie getting praise like it was a masterpiece when it really was far from it, never I've I seen an Editorial plus several articles trashing another film. I don't mean to offend anyone with this comment. It's just that, as someone who really loves the movie magic, this saddens me...
- http://www.firstshowing.net/ Alex Billington
  
  Hateful? Did do you read the article? Everyone out there is commenting on the RoboCop release date change as a bad thing. Any movie that gets moved to February is usually in trouble. The only times I wrote an opinion on RoboCop in this article were "José Padilha's RoboCop remake is now being pushed to February 2014. Whoa." Plus "that doomed RoboCop remake will now arrive in dumping grounds season February 7th, 2014 next to Need for Speed." Nothing I've said in here is "hateful" at all, or anything that others aren't saying. I don't know why you're attacking me. You really believe this RoboCop remake is going to be good? Even others (seen in these comments) have acknowledged this shows a lack of confidence by Sony.
your humble narrator

Send the RoboCop remake straight to video.
http://djkento.com/ Kento

Ah February... where shitty movies go to die...