It was inevitable, but The Proposition director John Hillcoat‘s follow-up to The Road will not be part of this year’s Oscar race. After picking up the prohibition-era drama The Wettest Country in the World at Cannes, The Weinstein Company had stated they will release the film by the end of 2011. But, with a huge 2011 slate including The Artist, The Iron Lady, Coriolanus, W.E. and My Week With Marilyn, they’ve pushed it back.

The drama starring Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf and Jason Clarke as the Bondurant brothers will now hit nationwide theaters on April 20th, 2012. It will open against the Disney doc Chimpanzee, the Jennifer Lawrence thriller House at the End of The Street, the Zac Efron romance The Lucky One, as well as TWC’s own Scary Movie 5 (but expect that to change).

Also starring Guy Pearce, it will also open next to his sci-fi flick Lockout. Based on Matt Bondurant‘s novel of alcohol smuggling, the period drama also has an ensemble cast that includes the now-ubiquitous Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska and Gary Oldman. It is an insanely talented group, making this one of our most-anticipated for next year. My only worry is if the initial promise of a “major awards campaign” is now down the drain. Most films that hit theaters in the spring don’t last when it comes time for recognition in the fall. Nonetheless, we’ll be getting the film in just a few months, so I can’t complain.

We also get another quick release date change, as the Jason Statham thriller Safe has moved yet again. Set for a fall release, it was pushed to March 2nd, 2012 and we just posted the trailer. But it has now been moved to an April 27th slot, where it faces Nicholas Stoller’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek follow-up, The Five-Year Engagement, starring Jason Segel and Emily Blunt.

[Box Office Mojo]