Mel Gibson‘s Apocalypto (Touchstone), an ancient-history metaphor piece about a civilization destroying itself, has abandoned its August 4 release date and will now open on December 8. So either Gibson and Disney distributors have decided Apocalypto has year-end awards potential, or they didn’t like the idea of opening in the same late-summer period as Oliver Stone‘s World Trade Center and Clint Eastwood‘s Flags of our Fathers, or they decided they need a lot more time to get it ready.