Despite an all-star cast and an experienced director, the revenge thriller 'Motor City' has been put on indefinite hold. The cause? Scheduling woes, of course.

According to Deadline, the the film was cancelled without warning and the entire pre-production crew was sent home immediately. The Albert Hughes helmed project, which was going to star Gerard Butler, Mickey Rourke and Adrien Brody, was set to begin filming in just a few weeks.

Here's the gist of what went wrong: in order to appease the various distributors (including Warner Bros.) and secure proper backing, 'Motor City' was given a "drop dead" date, meaning that it had to meet a certain release window no matter what. When the film's backers saw that this would only allow them twelve weeks of post-production time, they chose to pull the plug rather than work under such a constrained schedule.

Here is their official statement:

“Faced with the realities of a very short post-production schedule and complicated visual and special effects, the producers have decided to push back production on Albert Hughes’ Motor City. We are dedicated to delivering top-tier productions such as 2 Guns starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg which is currently in production and Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor which is in pre-production. The circumstances surrounding this project made it impossible to meet the firm March 31st delivery date without compromising the quality of the film.”

It's always sad news when a film gets shut down. In addition to the director and cast losing the project, there are hundreds of other crew members who are suddenly out of a job. The film's producers are currently working to get the project back on track.

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