A couple of festival films and one major studio blockbuster have secured new release dates this week. First up, Warner Bros. have made a slight adjustment to their animated LEGO film, directed and written by 21 Jump Street’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller. While its still well over a year away, they’ve switched the film to a February 7th, 2014 release date, up three weeks. Featuring voice acting from Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pratt and Morgan Freeman, the film will now go up against the RoboCop reboot and Need For Speed adaptation, so expect at least one to budge on this busy weekend.
We’ve also got news on two independent films, with the first being Stephen Frears‘ Lay the Favorite. Although the betting drama brings together the talented Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Zeta-Jones and more, we thought it was one of the worst films at Sundance (full review). But alas, The Weinstein Company VOD off-shot Radius-TWC are putting it in front of you on December 7th, with a VOD release likely for a few weeks before.
Lastly, we’ve got word from The Playlist hat following an Oscar-qualifying run later this year, Ginger & Rosa, the coming-of-age period piece from director Sally Potter (Orlando, The Tango Lesson), will land in limited release on February 1st, 2013 and expand from there. One can see the trailer here for the film starring Elle Fanning, Timothy Spall, Alice Englert, Oliver Platt, Jodhi May, Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks and Annette Bening.