I spoke briefly with producer-director Brett Ratner during last November’s Key West Film Festival, and he assured me that Warren Beatty‘s long-gestating, ’50s-era Howard Hughes film (which is more of a 20something love story between characters played by Lili Collins and Alden Ehrenreich than a film about the legendary aviation pioneer and business titan) will open this year.
Lily Collins as Marla Mabrey and Annette Bening as her mom in a still from Warren Beatty’s untitled Howard Hughes film.
And yet here we are in late March with spring and summer films starting to release trailers, and Beatty’s film still has no announced title and no announced release date.
This for a film that completed principal photography on 6.8.14 after 74 days of shooting. A year ago N.Y. Times guy Michael Cieply reported that Beatty shot pick-ups and re-shoots in late February 2015.
I don’t believe there’s even the slightest whisper of a chance that Beatty’s film might play the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and at this stage it doesn’t seem likely to open before Labor Day. Any bets on 2017? Could Terrence Malick‘s title as Hollywood’s greatest post-production procrastinator be in jeopardy?