V for Vendetta, originally slated to open on Nov. 4, has been pushed back to an as-yet-unannounced release date sometime likely in the first quarter of next year, a Warner Brothers spokesperson told SCI FI Wire. The spokesperson said that the movie was not going to be ready in time to meet the earlier release date and that filmmakers wanted to "touch up" a few things for the final cut.
The spokesperson, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, denied that the delay had anything to do with the movie's subject matter or the current political climate. V for Vendetta has come under scrutiny for the coincidence of its subject matter and the recent terrorist bombings in London.
V for Vendetta, based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, is set in an alternate universe in which the United Kingdom has a fascistic government, and the film centers on a self-styled anarchist terrorist who bombs London, assassinates government officials and models himself on notorious British traitor Guy Fawkes, who is burned in effigy in the U.K. every Nov. 5. In Moore's graphic novel, which was written in the 1980s, a climactic scene deals with a bombing in the London Underground.
At Comic-Con International in San Diego last month, producer Joel Silver told SCI FI Wire that he was unconcerned about the film's themes and called it a controversial movie for controversial times. "I mean, it's a difficult time, but I think that it's a smart movie," Silver said in a news conference. "It's that horrible word: intellectual. I mean, you have to think about the movie. ... It isn't just a teen slasher movie."
The movie is produced by The Matrix creators Larry and Andy Wachowski and stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving.
