When Martin Scorsese wants to take his time editing his movie, you damn well let him, even if that means losing one of your few holiday season efforts that can be both a critical and commercial success. The Wolf Of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, had been looking like one of the fall season's best bets, but according to The Hollywood Reporter it may not be a fall movie at all. Multiple insiders-- including some we've spoken to-- say the film definitely won't be ready in time for its November 15 release, and the question now is whether it will be ready in time for Christmas, which is a lucrative moviegoing period as well as the cutoff for Oscar eligibility.
If it can make it in time for Christmas, Paramount reportedly plans to give it that slot and bump Jack Ryan, the reboot of the Tom Clancy hero starring Chris Pine, Keira Knightley and Kevin Costner. Though Jack Ryan was looking like a promising holiday release, it doesn't have the same awards hopes as Wolf, and could jump out of 2013 without quite as much difficulty. According to THR the studio is eyeing Martin Luther King Day weekend in January as a potential new home for Jack Ryan, and that date has special significance for the studio-- when Cloverfield opened that weekend in 2009, it nearly doubled its budget and proved that good movies can make a mark in January, which is often just a dumping ground for the crap they can't release any other time of year.
With the current cut of The Wolf of Wall Street standing at over 3 hours, and destined for a rumored NC-17 rating, Scorsese and his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker are working to figure out how to trim it-- but, again, they get to call the shots, and it's unclear if the film will even be ready in time for Christmas. WIth stars like Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin and Kyle Chandler on board in addition to DiCaprio, Wolf has tons of hit potential for the studio no matter when it's released, but Oscar buzz sure can't hurt. While we wait to figure out what Paramount will do with its late arrival, check out the incredible Wolf of Wall Street trailer below. Below that is a gif of DiCaprio dancing, just because.
