Will Cabin In The Woods Be The Latest MGM Casualty?

MGM's dire financial troubles have already spelled doom or delay for several films: the next Bond movie was indefinitely postposed, The Hobbit is delayed to the point where Guillermo del Toro walked as director, and the Red Dawn remake is shelved for the time being, because the studio doesn't have enough money to release the film.

Now the horror movie Cabin in the Woods, written and produced by Joss Whedon and directed by Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard, looks like the latest casualty of the studio's misfortune.

In an article detailing how MGM can't find anyone who wants to run the studio, THR says that "MGM has the thriller "Red Dawn" set for release in November and the horror thriller "Cabin in the Woods" slotted for January. But no trailers have been shot, and it's assumed both will be pushed to later release dates."

The sad irony here is that Cabin in the Woods was originally slated for release in February of this year, but in October 2009 a decision was made to push the release date so the film could be post-converted to 3D. A ploy to make more money off the film could now have put it into a position to make no money at all.

That's a great shame. Whedon and Goddard have a solid cast (Richard Jenkins, Chris Hemsworth, Bradley Whitford, Jesse Williams, Amy Acker and Kristen Connolly) and have managed to keep most of the details of the script from getting out. It looked like Cabin in the Woods could have been a smart, fun horror movie to stand alongside Drag Me To Hell. We ran down the opening of the horror/monster movie script a few months back, and I won't spill details here, in case you haven't already had the story revealed. It might not matter though, as at this point we have no way of knowing when we'll be able to see the film.