Oy, this movie.

For those of you who don’t know, MGM filmed an approximately $60 million remake of 1984′s Red Dawn in 2009, with a cast led by a then-unknown Chris Hemsworth. Things were going along smoothly until the studio nearly collapsed into oblivion, making it one of their produced films that was left languishing, thanks to financial woe. (Another was Cabin in the Woods, a horror movie that also starred Hemsworth.)

The biggest blow to its credibility came in March, when we heard of the producers’ efforts to replace the Chinese villains for North Koreans via the wonders of digital technology. Part of this seems to be them not immediately realizing that a major market like China might not respond to a movie where they’re the bad guys. MGM dropped it when they got the chance because of this plot element, and no one else wanted it for the same reason. After all of these problems — some the fault of the studio, others the producers themselves — 24Frames tells us that a distributor has been found for the project, and that distributor is FilmDistrict.

A deal with the Drive company is said to be in the final stages, despite no comments officially coming from any party. Due to it currently being late September, the hopes of getting it out before the year’s end and being a hit are pretty slim; a 2012 opening is thus expected. The Avengers, which has Hemsworth reprising his role of Thor, hits theaters on May 4th of next year — could this play to packed audiences soon after? August has been a big month for genre remakes over the past several years, so this seems like one of the better times.

However, the little interest that I may have in it is basically gone after all the digital alterations, even if the cast has some alright names in it — including Josh Hutcherson, Josh Peck, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Adrianne Palicki, and Brett Cullen. That has to count for something. Right?

How about you? Any reason that you would want to see this new Red Dawn?