Emile Hirsch hasn't appeared in a movie since 2009's Taking Woodstock, and his last starring role remains Speed Racer, though at this point pretty much everyone chooses to remember Into the Wild instead. The actor was scheduled to have a few more films showing up soon that didn't materialize, including a Hamlet adaptation to be directed by Catherine Hardwicke that fell apart, and the Russian-set alien invasion thriller The Darkest Hour, which has now been pushed from a summer release to December 23.
Granted, the THR article that reports the shift makes no mention of this being a bad sign for the film-- and in fact, a Christmas release is even more prominent than the August 5 it had been scheduled in. But as a fan of Hirsch's I was kind of anxious to see him back on the screen again, and the longer we go without him at the movies the easier it could be to forget him entirely. The film co-stars Olivia Thirlby, another indie-friendly actor who seems to have disappeared lately (though she apparently had a role in No Strings Attached and will show up in the Judge Dredd remake, her last significant film was 2009's The Answer Man). Maybe The Darkest Hour will be a triumphant return for both of them-- at the very least, I'll be curious to see two indie-bred actors running away from aliens in Russia. I mean, who wouldn't be?
