Less than serene about delay of "Serenity"

I've mentioned several times Joss Whedon's wonderful, libertarian, sci-fi TV series Firefly, which appeared on Fox for just 10 weeks in 2002 before being unceremoniously cancelled. The series got a "second life" last winter with the DVD release of the complete series. And Universal quickly gave the "green light" for a Whedon scripted and directed movie based on the show, Serenity, which has been shot and was scheduled for release to theaters this coming April.

Well, Joss Whedon himself (via WHEDONesque.com) just announced that Universal has pushed release of the movie to SEPTEMBER 2005...a five month delay. Ack!

As Joss explains: "April got crowded with a lot of titles aimed at a similar demographic, and the studio decided September was a clearer corridor for the film to make the kind of impact it should. ... It's just a marketing issue."

He continues: "I love this movie. I HATE waiting to show it to you. ... But these guys know what they're doing, and they're trying to protect their investment, not bury it. So I gotta be a grown-up. The release date is September 30th. Hopefully it won't change again."

Sigh.