On the heel’s of Warner Bros.’ announcing the move of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to a summer 2009 release date, IMAX has released a brief statement regarding the change to 2008 film slate.
Reflecting today’s announcement that the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has moved to July 2009, IMAX Corporation confirmed it is already exploring alternative titles for this year’s holiday season and is confident it will secure a solid film for the IMAX theatre network. The Company looks forward to announcing a replacement film as soon as possible.
The sixth Harry Potter film had an original release date of November 21, 2008 (which was grabbed up today by Summit Entertainment’s Twilight) and was slated to run in IMAX theaters as well. With Half-Blood Prince‘s jump to summer 2009, IMAX is now left with a big vacancy.
The final 20 minutes of the previous film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which had a successful run in IMAX in July 2007, was presented in IMAX. No word yet if Half-Blood Prince will follow suit.
Either way, IMAX still needs a replacement. My suggestion? Walden Media’s City of Ember, which is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 10, 2008. Just one look at film’s teaser trailer and it’s obviously perfect for IMAX viewing in a visual scenes, plus it’s a family friendly movie. City of Ember would be sandwiched nicely between the other scheduled IMAX releases: Shia LaBeouf’s action-thriller Eagle Eye (September 26, 2008) and the DreamWorks animated sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (November 7, 2008).
