GATSBY YANKED FROM CHRISTMAS RELEASE

Saying that its 3D special effects could not be completed in time, Warner Bros. has yanked Baz Luhrmann’s remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby from its scheduled release on Christmas Day and has moved it to next summer. (No specific release date has yet been selected). Although the film had been expected to become a top Oscar contender, it had faced a daunting phalanx of competing films — some say the most formidable of any Christmas season ever. With the domestic audience showing no sign of expanding significantly, many analysts believe the profusion of films will wind up cannibalizing one another. Among the films being released during the holiday period are Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; Les Miserables, starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway; Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise; Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained; the Judd Apatow comedy This is 40, and a re-release of Disney/Pixar’s Monsters Inc.