Entertainment

Clooney Wants Everyone to Calm Down

by Alicia Lutes

George Clooney would like to politely ask you to calm the fuck down with all this speculation about Monuments Men already. Jeez! After it was announced that the film's release date would be moved from Oscar Race-heavy December to February 2014, every single over-enthused journalist on the block threw their speculative abilities into hyperdrive. What does it mean? Is the film terrible? Does it need more time? Is this Shutter Island all over again? Is it possible that Clooney and the studios don't actually care about the awards? How is that even possible in 2013?

Well the whole raucous got Clooney a wee bit miffed, so he spoke to journalist Mike Fleming. Jr. about it all.

Clooney explained:

The straight up facts are these.We had a really good test last week, scoring in the mid 80s, in Arizona. And when we were on the plane coming back with Jeff Blake, Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton, they said look, let’s be honest. There are lots better times to bring this movie out than December 18. How about November 22? Can you do it? Now, today is our first day at the scoring stages at Abbey Road. Then they call and ask, how about the 15th of November? We like to pull stuff off, and we said, let’s see what we can do. That was two days ago. ... We had a meeting with all the effects guys for our CGI stuff, and, we’re just not going to get there in time. ... We said, where’s another good place to land? And we looked at February.

It's funny how, even when the reasons for the film's delay are explained, the between-the-liners come out for the speculation parade. The thriller about a group of well-placed art buffs (historians and museum directors) tasked with taking back priceless works of art from the Nazis, has — according to Clooney himself — never been considered for the Oscar races, but rather as a fun, ensemble romp. To say nothing of the fact that Cloon-dog here's been in the middle of shooting Disney's Tomorrowland while finishing up all this Monuments Men business.

So, I think we can all go back to caring about more important stuff. Like whether or not Clooney and his Gravity co-star Sandra Bullock should just say 'fuck it all!' and go fall in love already.