Mon Oct 27, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger

The Wait for 'Fanboys' Continues

Movie now Set for February

The Weinstein Company has, according to Slash Film, moved Fanboys from November to open February 6, 2009, another delay. The studio  picked up Fanboy for release some time back and the utterly charming tale of friends trying to get their dying friend to see The Phantom Menace has been hung up ever since.

Clearly they have little faith in the film given it will now open opposite Push, Pink Panther 2, and the Jennifer Aniston’s He’s Just Not That Into You.

When they picked up the movie, it was essentially complete and ready for release but instead, the Weinsteins wanted to tinker with it and the creators and fans were horrified at the notion that the charm might be replaced with something different. They decided to reedit the film their way then test screen both versions before deciding which one to release.
Weinstein decided the cancer subplot was too downbeat and put up $2 million to have four scenes created, under producer Shauna Robertson (The 40 Year Old Virgin) and director Steve Brill (Drillbit Taylor) that changed the story. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the non-cancer version of the film narrowly edged out the original version but well within the margin of error. After much public hemming and hawing, the studio opted to retain the original cut.

Fanboys was conceived in 2003 by Kevin Mann, who produced the love letter fellow geeks with Kyle Newman. The script was from Ernie Cline and it made the Blacklist, the top unproduced scripts circulating in Hollywood. It stars Jay Baruchel (Just Buried), Kristen Bell (Heroes), Seth Rogen (Knocked Up), and Dan Fogler (Good Luck Chuck) and has been eagerly anticipated since footage was shown at various conventions. Release dates of August 17, 2007 and January 18, 2008 came and went without a movie.

Both edited versions are expected to be available on the eventual DVD.
 

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