Warner Bros. pushes ‘Pan’ from summer to fall for ‘breathing room’

Facing a crowded summer blockbuster season, Warner Bros. has decided to move its live action Peter Pan film to the fall.

“Pan,” directed by Joe Wright and starring Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara and Amanda Seyfried, is now set for Oct. 9, instead of July 24.

The original timing would have put it in a packed month of potential blockbusters including Disney/Marvel’s “Ant-Man” and Paramount Pictures’ “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.”

The change should give the film and its filmmakers more “breathing room,” the Burbank studio said in a statement.

“We wanted to give ‘Pan’ the space to extend its theatrical run, so taking it out of the cluttered summer season made the most sense,” said Warner Bros. domestic distribution head Dan Fellman. “Moving the film to the heart of the fall will allow us more time to screen the picture, enabling us to capitalize on what we anticipate will be strong word of mouth.”

The move will also give the filmmakers more time to complete the movie.

“As you might expect, the fantastical story of Peter Pan involves very complex effects and I did not want to compromise on quality in finishing the film,” Wright said in a statement.

Instead of the summer blockbuster fare, the film will now compete directly with Universal Pictures’ “Steve Jobs,” the biopic of the late Apple chief.

Earlier Monday, Warner changed the dates for its “Lego” franchise movies -- the studio’s yet-untitled Lego Batman picture, the ninja-centric spinoff movie “Ninjago” and “The Lego Movie Sequel.”

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