We won’t be seeing Lady Gaga going up the red carpet in Cannes next May after all.
Warner Bros. has decided to movie “A Star Is Born,” directed by Bradley Cooper, starring him and Gaga, from May 2018 to October 5, 2018– a difference of five months.
The May date was a perfect launch for “Star,” with Cannes the right kind of glamorous setting.
Now the thinking is October 5th is good for Oscars exposure. But that reasoning is faulty– you can see what October 5th did for “Blade Runner 2049” this year. That date– last weekend of September, first of October– is generally a dumping ground for high profile projects that didn’t work out.
“A Star is Born” could go the New York Film Festival and open there, but that doesn’t seem like the right fit for a very Hollywood-themed movie. And given the number of original Gaga songs we’re expecting from “Star,” it’s a little unclear how a soundtrack CD will tie in for then.
It’s unlikely anything’s wrong with the music. But Cooper is a first time director, this is a huge project with lots of moving parts, and time means everything. The last “A Star is Born,” starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, was a disaster right up its opening day. John Gregory Dunne even wrote a famous book about it.
My guess is “A Star is Born” needs a lot more to marinate– i.e. be edited into something coherent–and that’s the need for the extra time.
