More Ruffalo Fallout? ‘Brothers Bloom’ Moved to May ‘09

The director of the long-delayed Adrien Brody/Mark Ruffalo caper flick The Brothers Bloom confirmed today that his film was pushed back once again — this time to May — for better “counter-programming” chances. Really?

Because if Ruffalo isn’t keen to work on Greenburg in the wake of his brother’s staggeringly tragic death this week, we can’t imagine he’d be up for doing the press rounds either on a troubled film that needs all the star support it can get. And filmmaker Rian Johnson’s official explanation on his message board doesn’t quite make sense:

January is crowded with an insane amount of Oscar movies (some being released, some expanding) and Summit decided that Bloom would play better as counter-programming to a few summer movies than to a few dozen Oscar ones. [...] January is definitely crowded, and May may prove a better spot, so there’s logic to Summit’s move. So May it is.

“Logic”? Going up against Angels and Demons and Bruno in limited release on May 15, then opposite a Pixar movie when Bloom goes wide May 29? It is probably better than the wasteland of January, we suppose, but still. Come clean, guys.

• New Release Date – May 29th [Rian Johnson via Cinematical]