Another potential Oscar contender has exited the awards race: Sony is moving Monuments Men from its original Dec. 18 release date to an unspecified date in February of 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.
“We just didn’t have enough time,” director and star George Clooney said. “If any of the effects looked cheesy, the whole movie would look cheesy.”
Clooney’s World War II film is based on the true story of a band of historians and art dealers who were sent behind enemy lines to retrieve stolen art from the Nazis. The all-star cast includes Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin.
This isn’t the first movie generating Academy Award buzz that has been pushed to next year: Fox Catcher, The Immigrant and Grace of Monaco have also vacated the 2013 Oscar Race. Paramount has changed Martin Scorcese’s The Wolf of Wall Street several times already this fall; the film may yet be pushed to next year.