Universal Studios has announced a major shuffling of its release dates for 2013 that involves some high-profile films including the Keanu Reeves-starring 47 Ronin as well as some interesting comic book-based movies including the Ryan Reynolds starring R.I.P.D. and 2 Guns, which features Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington. 

 

R.I.P.D. a supernatural/action/fantasy/ adventure/comedy based on the Dark Horse comic book series is vacating its June 28th debut date (which will be filled by new addition to the schedule Kick-Ass 2--see "'Kick-Ass 2' Gets Debut Date"), which is just two weeks after the opening of Man of Steel and one-week after the Brad Pitt zombie epic World War Z, and moving three weeks to July 19th, one week after the bow of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim on July 12, and a week before the premiere of Fox’s The Wolverine on July 26th.  To make room for R.I.P.D., Universal is moving the debut of the computer-enhanced Jurassic Park 3-D from July 19th to an early spring date of April 5th.

 

In addition to Kick-Ass 2, Universal also added another comic book movie to its summer of 2013 schedule, the crime-noir thriller 2 Guns, which is based on the Boom Studios graphic novel written by Steven Grant, and which should get major notice because of the popularity of its stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg.  Universal has set a debut date of August 16th for 2 Guns, where it will open against the YA fantasy novel-based Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.  August is shaping up as a major month for the release of comic book-based movies.  Two weeks prior to the debut of 2 Guns, 300: Battle of Artemisia and Red 2 will open on August 2nd, while the reboot of Robocop will bow on August 9th in what is looking like the most competitive summer ever for comic book movies.

 

As for the big-budget samurai movie 47 Ronin starring Keanu Reeves, its debut, which was originally slated for this summer, was first shifted to February 8th to accommodate post-production conversion to 3-D (and, according to some, to avoid saddling Universal with a second big-budget bomb after Battleship foundered in The Avengers wake).  Now citing the need for additional retakes, Universal has pushed the film back to Christmas of 2013.  While this project was always going to have to do the majority of its business overseas so adding 3-D make sense, and while "retakes" have long been an integral part of the Hollywood system, it is still hard not to view this 47 Ronin project as anything but deeply troubled.