Steve Carell’s ‘Foxcatcher’ delayed to 2014

One of the most anticipated movies of 2013 won’t come out until 2014.

“Foxcatcher,” Bennett Miller’s fact-based story of wrestling and murder starring Steve Carell, is being delayed until next year to allow Miller to finish the film. A spokeswoman for Sony Pictures Classics, which was set to bring out the movie Dec. 20, made the announcement late Thursday in a short email statement.

“Sony Pictures Classics announced today that the release of ‘Foxcatcher’ is being moved into 2014. SPC supports the decision of the filmmakers to allow for more time to finish the film,” it said. No new date was given, and it remains to be seen whether the film will be delayed a full year or come out in the spring or summer.

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The movie had also been set to play AFI Fest in November; that screening will presumably not happen.

Miller has been in the edit room in recent weeks trying to finish the movie, a person familiar with the director’s activity, who asked for anonymity because he was not asked to speak on behalf of the director, told The Times recently.

“Foxcatcher” stars Carell as eccentric heir John du Pont, who killed one of the wrestling Schultz brothers in an infamous incident at his compound in 1996. Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo play the brothers, Mark and Dave Schultz. Sony Pictures moved release responsibilities for the film to specialty division Sony Pictures Classics in the summer, and the Dec 20 date was announced.

“Foxcatcher” is the second film this week to be pushed from the current awards season. Earlier, The Weinstein Co moved the Nicole Kidman period drama “Grace of Monaco” into 2014. Rumors continue that Martin Scorsese’s “Wolf of Wall Street” could also be moved out of the season, though studio Paramount has yet to make an official statement on the subject.

Last year several movies moved out of the crowded fall season, notably “The Great Gatsby,” which was pushed from Christmas until May. Though such a delay can sometimes be a bad omen, the movie wound up opening the Cannes Film Festival and becoming a box office hit.

The 2013 fall and holiday film schedule has been expected to be one of the most crowded in recent memory, though at this rate, it’s starting to look a lot more wide open.

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