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‘Macgruber’ adds time to its ticking clock

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Those hoping for a dose of ‘Saturday Night Live’ ‘80s action satire on the big screen next month will have to wait a little longer.


Universal says that ‘MacGruber,’ the Will Forte-starring spoof of MacGyver, is moving back a month to May 21, confirming what sources have been saying for the past several weeks. (In other release news, the studio also said its ‘Fast Five,’ the latest installment in the ‘Fast & the Furious’ franchise, would come out June 10, 2011.)

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The MacGruber shift is the result of a bit of studio musical chairs. Warner Bros. recently moved the comic-book action movie ‘The Losers’ from April 9 to June, then moved it back to April when executives fretted it would be bumping into ‘The A-Team.’

But Warners didn’t return the film to the original April 9 date, instead pushing it two weeks to April 23. That meant ‘MacGruber’ was now squarely competing with ‘Losers,’ a move that went straight into the maw of the young-male fan base. So the film is pushing to May.

The date Universal has chosen is a fairly open one with the MacGruber core audience -- ‘Shrek Forever After’ that weekend and ‘Sex and the City 2’ won’t exactly play to the same crowd -- although it will now be coming out the week after ‘Robin Hood,’ an issue if some of the same people who remember MacGyver fondly are also interested in a swashbuckling Russell Crowe.

-- Steven Zeitchik

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