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So in the midst of all the Avatar hullabaloo, we haven’t yet addressed the major move on Friday of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island](Shutter Island (2010) - Movie | Moviefone) from this October 2nd to next February. Considering the negative connotations that tend to come with most films pushed back, many were quick to defend the move as a savvy business strategy for a pulpy-looking film that wasn’t a primary contender all along.
Fair enough. Plenty of studios made major shuffles to deal with post-strike gaps (Harry Potter](http://www.cinematical.com/2008/08/14/breaking-harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince-moved-to-next/), anyone?), and now they’re concerned about being more fiscally responsible with what’s to come. As THR’s Steven Zeitchik pointed out, Paramount/Dreamworks already has two front-runners to work with between Up in the Air and The Lovely Bones, and somewhere between the reportedly sharp comedy and the prestige-heavy drama, a distinctly genre work like a Leonardo DiCaprio thriller does seem a bit like the odd man out.
In the wake of the move, two comedies – Zombieland and Whip It – have moved up their own October release dates to fill the void, and if there’s any justice, we’ll see Woody Harrelson accept a blood-splattered Oscar in DiCaprio’s stead. And if Coming Soon and Box Office Mojo are to be believed, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox will now get a limited release on November 13th before going wide on the 25th, where I suspect it will still get crushed by the likes of Old Dogs across the Thanksgiving stretch. Pity.