George Clooney’s The Monuments Men has been pushed back to a 2014 release. Clooney, who is both starring and directing the film, said there simply wasn’t enough time to complete the visual effects in time to release it this year.
The World War II film also stars Matt Damon and Bill Murray, had a Dec. 18 release date. Clooney said in a phone interview from London that they just can’t make that happen.
“We just didn't have enough time," he said, LA Times reports. “If any of the effects looked cheesy, the whole movie would look cheesy. We simply don't have enough people to work enough hours to finish it."
With time not on their side, Clooney said he, producing partner Grant Heslov, composer Alexandre Desplat and a 110-piece orchestra were going to be completing a 16-hour scoring session.
With the push-back, the Sony and 20th Century Fox film, which Clooney said will be made in the style of The Guns of Navarone, won’t be eligible for the Academy Awards.
"All we've ever said, from the very beginning, is that we wanted to make a commercial, non-cynical piece of entertainment," he said.
THR notes Monuments Men’s delay means Sony will only have one wide release come out from now until Dec. 27, David O. Russell's American Hustle.
image: Claudette Barius © 2013 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation