Forgive me for presuming that Juan Antonio Bayona‘s The Impossible, the Asian tsunami drama with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor which wrapped last fall, might be ready for release sometime later this year. But no. Summit acquired domestic rights in May 2010, and there hasn’t been a peep out of them since. A rep said he didn’t know when they’ll be releasing it, but all indications point to 2012.

I asked Orphanage producer and Bayona confidante Guillermo del Toro what he knows. No reply as of yet.

The Impossible is a true account of a family swept up in the ’04 tsunami that slammed into the coast of Thailand and neighboring countries. One presumes that fine-tuning the visual effects is at least one reason for the extended post-production effort.

Besides Watts and Macgregor the costars are Tom Holland, Gitte Julsrud and Marta Etura. The same team that worked on Bayona’s The Orphanage (writer, production manager, cinematographer, composer and editor) have reunited for this, so that’s cause for hope. The Orphanage is one of the great adult horror films of this century.

Pic was largely shot in Alicante, Spain and on location in Phuket, Thailand, beginning about 13 or 14 months ago,

Bayona has allegedly described it as an “ambitious, high-quality European film” which will be “competitive on an international market”. Wait…”European film”? I’m betting that Summit honchos flinched and frowned and went “hmmm” when they first read that. We all know Summit.