L.A. Times guy John Horn is reporting that George Clooney‘s The Monuments Men will not open on 12.18 “because the film’s visual effects could not be completed in time,” according to director-star Clooney. The World War II saga of a group of art commandos trying to save paintings and sculptures from being trashed or hidden by Nazis will be released Sony Pictures “early next year,” the story says.

“We just didn’t have enough time,” Clooney told Horn from London. “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.” Clooney tells Horn that “Oscar attention was never his goal for the film.”