‘Road’ is long for adaptation

“The Road,” which has been the subject of incredible fascination in the blogosphere in recent weeks, is moving its release to 2009. The feature adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which stars Viggo Mortensen, originally had been scheduled for next month, but its filmmaking team has made it clear that the movie just isn’t ready for release.

Its producers, 2929 Productions chief Marc Butan and producer Nick Wechsler, said in a statement Wednesday, “Depicting McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic tale involves an incredible amount of visual effects, and we want to make sure to give this beautiful movie the time it needs to be perfected.”

Apparently the producers have more clout with the Weinstein brothers than the filmmakers behind “The Reader,” who also said their film wasn’t ready but were bulldozed into agreeing to a late 2008 release date, prompting producer Scott Rudin to quit the film in protest.