Natalie Portman’s ‘Jane Got a Gun’ Also Got Delayed Again

When ‘Jane Got a Gun’ finally arrives in theaters, the revisionist Western will look mighty different from the one that was originally conceived several years ago. It was first intended as a Lynne Ramsay film, but the ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ director reportedly quit the production on the first day of filming. She was eventually replaced by Gavin O’Connor (‘Warrior’), but before the dust settled much of the original cast (and even some of their replacements) had come and gone. Michael Fassbender signed on then departed, along with Bradley Cooper and Jude Law. The final lineup includes Ewan McGregor, Joel Edgerton, and Noah Emmerich, plus the film’s stalwart leading lady, Natalie Portman.

But will it finally arrive in theaters? If it does, it will be even later than initially anticipated. Originally scheduled to open last summer, Relativity delayed the troubled film until next February. Now the film’s been delayed again, from February 2015 to September 4, 2015. The fact that ‘Jane Got a Gun’’s been pushed back is a bad sign; the fact that it’s been pushed to the Friday before Labor Day (traditionally one of the worst moviegoing weekends of the year, and a time when studios typically unload stinkers) is even more troubling.

Still, the premise (Portman plays a frontier woman who calls on an old flame to help defend her family from outlaws after her husband is wounded) sounds terrific, and Gavin O’Connor delivered a really solid movie with ‘Warrior.’ Is it wrong to hope this movie is great, and bucks all the trends of late-summer releases? I’m still crossing my fingers.