After being moved from this August to next February, Valkyrie is again being moved, though this time in our fuhrer… I mean favor. After a recent test screening that “went well”, MGM has opted to move the film back into the late year timeslot, which is normally used for family and Oscar films. Considering MGM is a shell of the former studio they used to be (what do they have now? Rocky, Bond and this?), expect them to campaign this film rigorously to the Academy.

Whats particularly interesting about the film’s new release date is that it was moved because of a test screening in the first place, one that reportedly was a disaster. From a prestigious spot late in the summer, once the juggernauts had cleared out and Valkyrie could’ve had free reign (if it was good that is) until September, to a month where studios dump their films which looked good on paper but sucked on screen, I can’t imagine that much tweaking couldv’e been done to take this from zero to Oscar hero.

That is, unless they redubbed everyone’s voice with actual German accents. How do you make a movie where all of the Nazi’s have British and American accents? I’m rooting for Singer, since he has shown a lot of promise thus far (X2 and The Usual Suspects) and even his lesser films (Apt Pupil and Superman Returns (which is a really interesting visual treat, if you can get past Bosworth’s horrible acting and a rather stupid climax)) are leagues better than a lot of crap that is given to us on a silver platter every year.

Here’s hoping the first test screening was a false alarm.