"Fifty Shades of Grey" won't come out on Aug. 1, 2014.
As first reported by EW.com, the highly anticipated adaptation of E L James' erotic novel has been pushed to Valentine's Day weekend in 2015. The film's new release date is Feb. 13, 2015.
Speculation was that "50 Shades of Grey" could lose its 2014 calendar slot after star Charlie Hunnam bowed out at the 11th hour over scheduling conflicts. Speaking to EW, however, Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley denied that was a driving force behind the shift.
"Together with the international marketing and distribution team, we've been looking really closely at the August date and becoming more and more convinced that the right thing to do for the movie was to push it," Langley said. "So even if Charlie had stayed, we still would have been making the date change."
After Hunnam left, "50 Shades" producers settled on Jamie Dornan to play the film's title character, Christian Grey, a businessman and S&M enthusiast. As The Hollywood Reporter revealed back in October, the last-minute switch forced the "50 Shades of Grey" production start-date to shift from November to Dec. 2 of this year. At the time of the THR report, it was rumored that a subsequent release date change would follow suit. Now, it's official.
With "50 Shades of Grey" pushed back, that leaves Aug. 1, 2014 to Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy."
For more on the decision to move "50 Shades of Grey," head to EW.com.
[via EW]
