Kevin Macdonald’s The Eagle Of The Ninth, the sword-and-sandal actioner starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell and Donald Sutherland, has been pushed back to February from its original September release.

Meanwhile, David O. Russell’s The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, will likely open sometime in December, according to Mr. Marky mark himself. [The Playlist]

Both pieces of news aren’t too surprising. We haven’t heard much of Eagle in the past months by way of teaser trailers, screen shots, etc. and Focus Features (who produced the film) pushed the Ryan Fleck/Anna Boden indie It’s Kind Of A Funny Story to Eagle‘s exact release date, suggesting a change to avoid conflict.

As for The Fighter, it’s a period drama starring to of the more high-profile actors working today and a director who many believe is a visionary, so an awards-push release date always made sense.

Both of these films are highly anticipated and some of the more ambitious cinema out there right now. One hopes they’re both well made and well seen, be it in September, December or February.

Will you see these films?

We now know the release dates of two upcoming films thanks to Box Office Mojo. First is the Sundance hit Cyrus, directed by the Duplass Brothers and starring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei and Catherine Keener. Fox Searchlight has positioned this the same exact time frame as their Sundance hit last year, (500) Days of Summer. It will come out July 9th. Although it will likely be a limited release, this is the same weekend as Fox’s Predators and Universal’s animated feature, Despicable Me. It will be a week after Knight and Day starring Tom Cruise and a week before Christopher Nolan‘s Inception.  Check out our review round-up here and the trailer here. Read the full story

Here courtesy of Yahoo!, are 6 new photos from Kevin Macdonald’s (State of Play) upcoming sword-and-sandal epic concerning a young Roman soldier (presumably Channing Tatum) and his quest to find a golden emblem to honor his father’s death. Read the full story

Focus Features, the art house films division of NBC Universal’s Universal Pictures, have given us a detailed glimpse at their 2010 lineup. They have actually produced and distributed some of my favorite films this year including Away We Go, Coraline, Sin Nombre, and A Serious Man. Check out their 2010 queue: Read the full story