George Clooney to Battle Harry Potter

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/30/2002 at 01:00 PM EDT

George Clooney's new movie "Solaris," in which he plays a psychologist dispatched to a space station, will be released at Thanksgiving rather than Christmas, reports Variety. The shift in dates is so that the sci-fi thriller will be an adult alternative to the next Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (scheduled to open Nov. 15), says the trade paper. So, expect "Solaris" Nov. 27 rather than Dec. 13, as had been planned. The movie re-teams Clooney, 41, with his "Ocean's Eleven" and "Out of Sight" director Steven Soderbergh. In other holiday movie news, Jack Nicholson's movie "About Schmidt" (which earned him accolades at this year's Cannes Film Festival in May) is now set to open in the United States on Christmas Day. Nicholson, 65, is also in talks to star in a comedy about an older man who falls for the mother of his young girlfriend, to be written and directed by Nancy Meyers ("What Women Want"). The Oscar winner will also be seen in the Adam Sandler comedy "Anger Management," scheduled to open next summer.