Warner Bros has pushed back on the claim that Cut Off, a new film directed by Jonah Hill, is “unreleasable”, after its planned release date next month was abandoned.
Hill, an actor best known for his roles in comedies such as Superbad and 21 Jump Street, has also directed multiple films, including the 2018 coming-of-age drama Mid90s, and the recently released Outcome.
Cut Off, which stars Hill alongside Kristen Wiig, Bette Midler, and Nathan Lane, was originally intended to be released on 17 July – but no longer has a fixed release date.
The film sees Hill and Wiig play the spoiled children of wealthy parents who must suddenly adapt to life without their elders’ financial backing.
A column in Puck News had remarked on the film’s delayed release, claiming that the movie is “said to be unreleasable and is now not scheduled”.
Warner Bros, the studio releasing Cut Off has now disputed this claim, as has a representative for Hill.
In a statement provided to The Wrap, a spokesperson for Warner Bros said: “That speculation is inaccurate.”
According to Hill’s representative, post-production work on the movie is simply “not finished”.
The report also suggests that production on the film wrapped in January this year, making the July window an unusually tight turnaround for a feature.
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The 17 July release date is also the same day Christopher Nolan’s literary epic The Odyssey is set to hit cinemas.
Featuring an all-star cast including Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, and Charlize Theron, The Odyssey is expected to be one of the biggest films of the year. As such, any other films released that weekend face an uphill battle at the box office.
Earlier this year, Hill opened up about his decision to leave his hometown of Los Angeles after becoming a parent.
During a live recording of the podcast Smartless, the actor and filmmaker said: ““So I live in a very small town in San Diego, and it’s amazing, and my neighbors are incredible people. And when we had our first kid, we moved out there three years ago.
“I wanted to leave L.A. and raise a family outside of Los Angeles.”
Before his return to the spotlight this year, Hill took a three-year break from movie promotion, stating that he had been experiencing anxiety attacks.
“I’ve been gone for a while, so I’m kind of coming back and I’m like excited because I got all, like, serious for a while and I wasn’t as happy,” he said during the podcast appearance. “And then I had my family and I got happy, and now all I want to do is be funny again. That’s why I said yes [to being on Smartless]. I’m, like, ‘I want to go f***ing be funny in front of a crowd and that’d be awesome.’”