It’s not irregular for a movie release to be pushed back a few days, or even a few weeks, due to post-production delays, but for a film less than a month from release, with trailers already in theatres, a delay of nine months is very irregular, but this is just what has happened with the new film Apollo 18.
The new sci-fi thriller supposedly depicts, through “unaltered footage”, the secret 18th mission of the Apollo program, which officially ended with Apollo 17. The mission comes under attack by an alien entity of some kind while landed on the moon. The tagline for the film suggests that this is the real reason our country stopped flying to the moon.
It was originally slated to appear in theaters on 4 Mar 2011, was later pushed to 22 April, and has now been pushed to January 2012.
The whole production and release of the movie has been shrouded in secrecy already, with the studio saying nothing about the production process or casting, nor in any other way publicly admitting that the movie depicts a fictional narrative. All of the promotional material and press information indicates only that the film is assembled from real footage from the Apollo 18 mission.
It could be that the delay is part of the plan for the film. Having it inexplicably delayed almost a year, after getting the creepy trailer into theaters, will serve to increase the mysterious aire of the film. Audiences might start to wonder, “Is it real footage? Is the delay a result of government intervention or censorship?”
Of course it’s also possible that the studio has gotten into some kind of contractual dispute, or serious post-production issue, which requires reshooting some scenes.
