YoutubeWith the holiday season more jam-packed than ever with Oscar contenders, Paramount Pictures announced Thursday that Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is being pushed to January 17, 2014.
The reboot of the Tom Clancy spy franchise was originally scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 25, 2013.
It stars Chris Pine as the titular hero in his early days when he's first recruited by the C.I.A. and is tasked with taking down a nasty Russian (Kenneth Branagh) bent on destroying the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack. Keira Knightley costars as Ryan's ladylove, Cathy Ryan, and Kevin Costner plays Jack's handler.
So far, there's no official word from the studio as to why it made the decision, but Ryan's departure means it won't have to duke it out at the box office with awards entry August: Osage County, Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Keanu Reeves' action fantasy, 47 Ronin, all landing Christmas Day. Also competing for moviegoers' attention will be Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, which comes out Dec. 20.
The move does, however, make room for Paramount to slide into the busy Christmas Day window a prestige picture right in time for awards season—Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The latter was originally supposed to open Nov. 15 but was postponed after the director needed more time to edit the movie.
Despite the scheduling shakeup, Jack Ryan is in good company. George Clooney's World War II drama The Monuments Men was set for Dec. 18 but, per the Los Angeles Times, Sony Pictures opted to postpone it to an unspecified date in February after the actor-director requested an extension to finish the film's complicated visual effects.
Other buzz worthy flicks getting bumped until next year include Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman, James Gray's The Immigrant with Marion Cotillard, and Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher, headlined by Steve Carell and Channing Tatum.