As far as epithets for Hollywood movies go, “unreleasable” is pretty close to the bottom of the barrel. Sure, Warner Bros. has flirted a bit in recent years with the fiscal value of not putting out movies—thus converting its whole business model into a sort of tax-agnostic cinematic warehouse—but releasing movies is generally viewed as a good way for these companies to make the large stacks of money they require to continue operating. (There’s only so much revenue to be harvested from meme-generating novelty popcorn buckets, apparently.) So when reports started circulating this weekend that Jonah Hill’s latest directorial effort, Cut Out, was, to use that specific and highly unpalatable word, “unreleasable,” both the studio and the actor/director started pushing back.
This all sources back to Hollywood journalist/The Studio cameo guy Matt Belloni, who included in his most recent Puck dispatch a single line about Hill’s directorial follow-up to this April’s Outcome: “Alas, Warners had scheduled a Jonah Hill-Kristen Wiig comedy, Cut Out, for July 17, but that movie is said to be unreleasable and is now not scheduled.” The latter part, at least, was true: The film was recently moved off of the company’s July release schedule—where it was going to be fed directly into the maw of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey—and has yet to pick up a new date. But Warner Bros. has now been forced to issue a statement to The Wrap pushing back on the whole “unreleasable” bit, saying, “That speculation is inaccurate.” Meanwhile, a representative for Hill made similar statements, saying that the film (which reportedly wrapped back in January) simply got moved off its current schedule spot because it’s still in post-production. A Warner Bros. source says a new release date is forthcoming.
It feels worth noting, in light of all this, that neither critics nor audiences particularly liked Outcome, which starred Keanu Reeves as a Hollywood star facing the terrifying prospect of being canceled. Cut Out, meanwhile, will once again be a multi-hyphen job from Hill, who both wrote and directed in addition to starring with Wiig as the kids of two mega-rich parents (Nathan Lane and Bette Midler) who have to fend for themselves after their parents stop paying for their lifestyles.
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