Paramount Pictures has confirmed to IGN that they will no longer release The Little Prince, which was set to open in theaters next Friday, March 18.
The studio didn't provide a reason for why they opted to drop the film so close to opening day.
The film's official site and trailer still bear the Paramount logo. The studio's publicity site still had assets for the movie available as of today, March 11. ...
So I'm guessing that this tested badly. Or the green eyeshade types didn't think it would work for Paramount.
Or else Sumner Redstone came out of his trance, stopped speaking in tongues and screamed: "I HATE it!! Get rid of it!! I thought the movie was going to be all CG, but this has stop motion in it!!""
I suppose we will find out, in due course, why the plug was pulled.
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I seriously doubt it had anything to do with crappy test screening results. Based on testimony I've heard from both critics and the people who already saw it, it's apparently really amazing. My guess is that it was legal issues, or perhaps maybe the producers didn't want Paramount's current financial instability hurting its performance.
Who decided to release it two weeks after Zootopia? Anyone thinking that an animated feature from a major studio would burn itself out in only two weeks was overly optimistic.
The French co-production studio was supposed to pony up for half the advertising/distribution costs, and they reneged. It's a shame. I feel bad for Mark Osborne and everyone who gave years to this project.
It did, indeed, test poorly. But I don't blame the film. It's a cute kid's cartoon, but not necessarily the kind of wide audience film paramount was thinking it might be. paramount is having very real problems with it's own animation department, with multiple heads over the last few years, and many comings and mostly goings of key creative staff. They hired an animator to run the place--someone who had zero experience running a studio. Bad idea. And their first animated feature is apparently in such trouble they may shut it down as well. They hired a "director" with no storytelling experience to do it, and the chickens have come home to roost.
Ditto that. Mark's a great filmmaker and this is some shitty business to do to his film. And I thought that "The Iron Giant" got screwed over pretty badly...
Well hopefully someone else does pick it up at all, I feel like it might end up in GKIDS' hands at this point.
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