It looks like everyone's favorite giant, friendly red dog, Clifford, isn't quite ready for his big-screen debut.
Despite being announced as a title for this year's Toronto International Film Festival, Paramount Pictures has opted to delay the planned September 17th release of Clifford the Big Red Dog indefinitely. The reason should come as no surprise to anyone, with the culprit being the spread of COVID-19's delta variant. Despite theaters being open in most markets, the box office has still taken a beating in recent months, and I suppose Paramount figures they've got a potential franchise starter on their hands, hence the delay.
Deadline was the first to report the news, with them noting that the film has not only benefitted from excellent early tracking but that the trailer was viewed something in the neighborhood of 130 million times in its first week! It sounds like they have good reason to be excited about its franchise potential.
No word yet on whether the film's planned TIFF premiere will go ahead.
According to the official synopsis:
"When middle-schooler Emily Elizabeth (Darby Camp) meets a magical animal rescuer (John Cleese) who gifts her a little, red puppy, she never anticipated waking up to find a giant ten-foot hound in her small New York City apartment. While her single mom (Sienna Guillory) is away for business, Emily and her fun but impulsive uncle Casey (Jack Whitehall) set out on an adventure that will keep you on the edge-of-your-seat as our heroes take a bite out of the Big Apple. Based on the beloved Scholastic book character, Clifford will teach the world how to love big!"
Clifford the Big Red Dog is still set to hopefully open in 2021, but stay tuned…