Quaid's 'Alamo' on Hold Until Spring

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday October 29, 2003 07:38 AM EST

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Santa -- and movie goers -- will not be getting Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric and Patrick Wilson in the $80 million "The Alamo" for Christmas, as Disney originally promised.

Instead, reports the Los Angeles Times, Disney has announced that the film will be postponed from Dec. 25 until April -- an unusual step for such a high-profile a movie, especially this late in the calendar year, with theaters booked and ad campaigns in place.

But the reportedly two-hour, 45-minute-long "Alamo" simply wasn't ready, according to the Times.

"It's proven to be more difficult than we thought," producer Mark Johnson tells the paper. "With six major characters, getting the balance right has been very, very difficult. I have every confidence we will get there. Just having the Christmas date breathing down our neck was impeding our progress."

Disney denied to the Times that the delay has anything to do with early mixed reviews by test audiences.

One posting on the Ain't It Cool News Web site called the film overly long and the characters forced. But Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook tells the Times: "Ultimately, the end product is more important than the need to meet arbitrary deadlines. ... We feel the wait will be worth it."

"The Alamo" was originally envisioned as a gritty $125-million movie to be directed by Ron Howard and star Russell Crowe, but the studio feared the large budget, Variety reports. So Disney tightened belts and lost the star and director. (Howard, however, did remain as a producer.)

John Lee Hancock ("The Rookie") eventually stepped in as director, reuniting with "Rookie" star Dennis Quaid for the epic.