George Clooney’s ‘Monuments Men’ Pushed to 2014

George Clooney’s The Monuments Men has been pushed to 2014, The Hollywood Reporter confirms.

Sony Pictures had planned to open the World War II drama domestically Dec. 18, but the film now will hit theaters during the first quarter of next year. The Los Angeles Times first reported the news.

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Clooney told the Times that he and producing partner Grant Heslov asked Sony and 20th Century Fox (which partnered with Sony on the drama) to postpone the film’s release, partly because more time was needed to complete the hundreds of visual effects.

The year-end holidays are especially crowded this year and could become even more so if Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street is completed in time for a Christmas release.

Monuments Men had been considered one of the season’s awards contenders, but the move will make it ineligible for the upcoming Oscars. It follows Sony Pictures Classics’ Foxcatcher and The Weinstein Co.’s Grace of Monaco as awards contenders that have moved to 2014 and out of contention this year. Sony still has David O. Russell‘s American Hustle, opening Dec. 25, and Tom Hanks starrer Captain Phillips in play for the upcoming awards season.

The Monuments Men centers on a group of art historians and museum curators charged with rescuing art treasures taken by the Nazis. Clooney, who directs and stars in the film, is joined by castmembers Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray and John Goodman. Clooney and Heslov adapted the screenplay from Robert Edsel‘s nonfiction work The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History.

Sony is handling the film’s domestic release, and Fox will release it internationally.

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