Does Columbia Pictures’ decision to release the delayed All the King’s Men (the original release date was 12.16.05) on 9.22 mean it might turn up at the Toronto Film Festival? No matter how much it gets talked up by friends of producer Mike Medavoy or director Steve Zaillian, Men is regarded as a damaged-goods movie that, fairly or unfairly, has something to prove. I’m sorry but last December’s delay left a mark, and Columbia knew that pulling it would create one. If it’s as good as the “friends” say it is, Columbia publicity should start screening it early….no later than July…to let the word get around. Written and directed by Zaillian, it’s essentially a remake of Robert Rossen‘s 1949 Oscar-winning film (which was based the novel by Robert Penn Warren), and it stars Sean Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Patricia Clarkson and James Gandolfini (whose performance is especially good, according to the “friends”).