It looks like Fox has done a bit of date shuffling, and in the process it means fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner will have to wait a bit longer to see the feature adaptation. The film was expected to arrive in theaters next Valentine's Day, but has now been moved to September. Fox has also rescheduled the release of The Book Thief, though that one's only set for a week later than planned. And on the subject of Fox -- and feature adaptations of popular books, for that matter -- The Fault in Our Stars has been given a June release date.
First, The Maze Runner: It was originally set for February 14, 2014, but has been moved to September 19, 2014. Dashner's novel follows a kid named Thomas who wakes up in a dark elevator that delivers him to a strange walled location called The Glade, which is inhabited entirely by other boys, none of whom can remember anything about their pre-Glade life aside from their own name. Each morning, the walls open to a mysterious maze with no apparent exit. Some of the braver boys spend each day running the maze looking for a way out and trying to avoid injury or worse, being trapped in the maze where dangerous creatures lurk when the wall closes at night.
Director Wes Ball approaches the date change news with optimism (via Deadline):
This kind of feels like Ender's Game all over again, except in this case, we were quite a bit closer to the anticipated release date when news of the schedule change came. Ender's Game was originally supposed to release into theaters last March, but in April 2012, it was moved to November 1. In that case, it was reported that the scheduling shift was due to Summit wanting to get Ender's Game a lot closer to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which arrives in theaters later in November. Wes Ball doesn't outright state that Maze Runner's move is because Fox wants more time to promote it, but at the very least, he seems to see the benefits in the delay. There's been no trailer released for the film yet, though we have seen sone photos. In the meantime, the film might have a bit less competition in the young adult demographic with its new date, as February 14 is also when Vampire Academy arrives in theaters.
Next on the list of Fox schedule updates is The Book Thief, which is based on Markus Zusak's best-selling book and tells the story of a foster girl living in Nazi Germany who reads and shares stolen books with the people in her neighborhood (and a Jewish man hidden in her basement) during the bombing raids. The film was set to release November 8, but Fox has pushed it back to the following week (November 15).
And finally, there's The Fault in our Stars, which has been given a June 6 release date. The film is based on John Green's novel and stars Shailene Woodley as Hazel, a terminally ill cancer patient whose life is changed when she meets another patient named Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort). Also among the cast for that one are Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe and True Blood's Sam Trammell. That's the second film Woodley currently has lined up to arrive in theaters in 2014. She's also starring in Divergent, which arrives in theaters March 21.
