A lot of planning goes into each and every action-packed issue of the Tucson Weekly.
For example, we plan cover stories about six weeks in advance (while leaving wiggle room for breaking news, changes of plans, etc.). Our arts folks plan out a basic framework of coverage for each season. We even make schedules for features that are generally non-timely, such as book reviews.
For our film section, we plan ahead, too. We have three very-busy people doing reviews for us, and we need to coordinate which reviewer is seeing which films and when, so we can get screeners into the proper hands, reserve spots in preview showings, etc.
Of course, we depend on the various studios to tell us when films are coming to town; we can't do any scheduling without this information. And herein lies the problem.
Astute readers will notice that a couple of times in recent weeks, we've reviewed movies more than a week before their opening dates. In both cases, the studios delayed the films' arrival in Tucson by a week—and did so at the last minute, when it was too late for us to change our film-review plans.
Well, this week, we have a real mess on our hands: Bellflower was slated to open in Tucson on Friday (Sept. 30)—so said the studio, Oscilloscope. A studio rep even sent a hand-written note asking for a review.
Deep into our production process for this week's issue, the reference to Bellflower opening in Tucson disappeared from the Oscilloscope website. We called and emailed our contacts at the studio ... and got no response.
Therefore, we're running a review of Bellflower this week, even though we have no idea when it's going to open.
We're sorry, folks. Sometimes, things just don't go according to plan.
Addendum: We received an email from the Loft Cinema informing us that Bellflower will open in Tucson...on November 4th. Sigh.
