By Ryan Parsons | Image property of 20th Century Fox, Variety.
Night at the Museum
Not letting the WGA strike faze them (too much), Fox has announced the theatrical release of the sequel Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian and pushed James Cameron's Avatar back a bit.
Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian and Avatar Release Dates
The announcement comes as good and bad news. While those anxiously awaiting the sequel to Night at the Museum will be glad to hear that Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian arrives May 22nd, this also means that James Cameron's highly anticipated film, Avatar, will be getting the push out of the Memorial Day frame. Fox is sticking close to holiday frames, however, as Avatar will now be released a whopping seven months later on December 18th.
Director Sean Levy and Ben Stiller will reteam for Smithsonian, which was penned by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon; the same two guys who wrote the first installment. The sequel will feature a lot of the original cast, but expect a bunch new historical figures as well.
Avatar's move does have some meaning. Cameron's last big production, Titanic, opened on the exact same weekend back in 1997. So far, Avatar is the only film scheduled for that release date. Besides giving the production time, the delay on release will allow additional work on the film's complicated effect work while giving theaters time to install 3-D projectors.
"Making this change more than two years out allows Weta to achieve this unparalleled cinematic feat with the most efficient completion of the digital effects," Parker said. Fox also stresses that Avatar's production is currently still on schedule.
Ice Age 3, which is also being shot for digital 3-D, will hit theaters on July 1st.
Fox will have X-Men Origins: Wolverine kick off summer with a May 1st release.
Add to Heffee!
