Real Reason For Delay Of The Rock's Next Movie

As noted last month, The Rock's next major movie release, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, had its release date moved nine months. The big-budget action flick, which was supposed to release at the end of this month, will now be released on March 29, 2013. The new release date is a little over a week before WrestleMania 29, which takes place on April 7, 2013. The reason given at the time was that the delay was to add 3D to the movie.

Deadline.com reports that the real reason for the delay was that the test scores for the movie were "mediocre to bad" and that re-shoots were required. According to the report, the only positive of the film for the test audiences was the relationship between Channing Tatum and The Rock, however Tatum is killed off early in the film.

Paramount Studios made the call to delay the release of the film, add more scenes with Tatum to better develop his story with The Rock and then convert the film into 3D.

"Channing Tatum had a breakout spring, starring in The Vow and 21 Jump Street," a Paramount studio insider told Deadline.com. "In our first screening of the film the reaction from audiences was good but with 2 big concerns: 1) They didn't like the fact that Channing and The Rock really didn't have any time to develop a friendship before Channing died, and 2) Why wasn't it going to be in 3D? We went back and shot another week with Channing to develop more of his story with The Rock, which made the film play much better.

"But we didn't have the time to be in 3D... We need to offer the best version of the film irrespective of summer market share to ensure the best possible performance. And not being in 3D will cost us a ton of business internationally."

The report went on to note that the film's director, Jon M. Chu, is "shellshocked" over the delay.

Source: Deadline.com

Mike L. contributed to this article.