The Weinstein Co. has recently delayed several films on its slate, the latest being the CG animated 3-D film ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH, reports the LOS ANGELES TIMES.
The film was announced in 2006, but won't get a release until 2011 at the earliest. The story is about a group of aliens plotting to escape Area 51 in Nevada. Previously, ESCAPE had been looking at a 2010 release.
The studio, headed by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, has now delayed five films in the last 18 months, but did recently retain a financial consulting company to restructure its debt and raise funds.
Production is not expected to resume on ESCAPE until August or early fall. Script issues are said to be why the film was pushed back. Tony Leech and Cory Edwards are penning the script and Leech is directing. The team worked on the studio's 2006 hit HOODWINKED!.
Rainmaker Ent. in Vancouver is animating the film, and experienced a 31 percent decline in revenue in Q1 of this year due to production delays.
Rainmaker CEO Warren Franklin called the delays "very nominal" for an animated film and they were looking at a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend release for 2011.
Sources close to the project say that Weinstein Co. has invested $20 million in the project, but the delays will not increase the cost of the movie nor the studio's investment in it.
