Many release date changes/announcements were made today...
Perhaps the biggest news among all the shifts, delays and TBD's, Disney and Marvel have set Ant-Man for a November 6, 2015 release date. Carrying on the tradition since 2011, Ant-Man will be the second Marvel production for that year, following the recently announced The Avengers 2 (May 1, 2015), which will have Joss Whedon back as director. Currently the only other movie set for that day is DreamWorks Animation's B.O.O. (Bureau of Otherworldly Operations).
With Marvel having the biggest announcement of today, Disney also confirmed that next year's Iron Man 3 (May 3) and Thor: The Dark World (November 8) would get 3D conversions. Iron Man 3 will have its' trailer debuting on October 23. 2014 will bring Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4) and Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1) from Marvel.
Disney also set the biographical drama Saving Mr. Banks for December 20, 2013. Now shooting in England, the movie tells the true story of Walt Disney's tireless efforts to secure the film rights to Mary Poppins from feisty children's book writer P.L. Travers. Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson star, and the movie will compete against Fox's Walking With Dinosaurs 3D for family audiences during Christmas week.
With hardly any production details revealed, Disney moved the live-action adaptation of Phineas and Ferb to a TBA 2014 release date. Originally scheduled for July 26 of next year, the movie was sandwhiched between DreamWorks Animation's Turbo and Sony's The Smurfs 2. Disney also added an untitled Pixar movie for November 25, 2015 and an untitled movie from their animation division on November 7, 2014. Upcoming movies for Disney Animation include next month's Wreck-It Ralph and next year's Frozen (November 27). Pixar has Monsters University (June 21, 2013) and The Good Dinosaur (May 30, 2014) on their slate. Finally, Disneynature's next documentary Bears is currently filming and will hit theater on April 18, 2014.
Sony also made quite a few adjustments. With Phineas and Ferb off the calendar and Hotel Transylvania performing exceptionally well, Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers was moved up to September 27, 2013 (it was originally scheduled for February 2014). Live-action/animation hybrid Pixels was removed from its' May 17, 2013 release date, while the Robocop remake was delayed to February 7, 2014 and Elysium was moved to August 9, 2013.
Finally, The Weinstein Company has cancelled their release dates for Santapprentice, The Trick or Treaters and Leo The Lion. The studio does have Escape from Planet Earth set for next February, while the remaining three are currently slated for TBA 2013.
With Phineas and Ferb and Pixels removed and Cloudy 2 added, and provided if the three Weinstein movies release in 2013, the year is still shaping up to be strong for animation, with 15 partially or fully-animated titles set for release.
