emily   –   February 16, 2017

Sadly, Tulip Fever has been pushed again. It will be released sometime later this year.

THE WRAP – The Weinstein Company film “Tulip Fever” has been punted down the release schedule yet again.

The Alicia Vikander drama will not open on Feb. 24 as planned but will be “moved to later in 2017,” a TWC spokesperson told TheWrap.

A specific release date wasn’t given. The film had already been moved once, away from a July 2016 opening where it was expected to enter this year’s awards conversation.

Tulip Fever” was directed by Justin Chadwick, with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard adapting Deborah Moggach’s acclaimed novel. Alison Owen and Harvey Weinstein served as producers.

Set in 17th century Amsterdam, the film follows a married woman (Vikander) who begins a passionate affair with an artist (Dane DeHaan) hired to paint her portrait. The lovers gamble on the booming market for tulip bulbs as a way to raise money to run away together.

The film has a starry ensemble that includes Oscar winners Christoph Waltz and Judi Dench, as well as Jack O’Connell, Cara Delevingne, Zach Galifianakis, Tom Hollander, Holliday Grainger, David Harewood and Matthew Morrison. The studio cut a trailer for the project last year, which can be viewed below.

While TWC is enjoying some late-in-the-season success with their film “Lion” — which earned six Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Nicole Kidman and Best Supporting Actor for Dev Patel — distribution is a touchy subject at the moment.

The company was hit with a lawsuit last week from a subsidiary of fellow distributor FilmNation for allegedly violating the release terms on their co-production “The Founder.”

FilmNation claims that TWC agreed it would not release any other film within two weeks of the Ray Kroc biopic starring Michael Keaton. TWC indeed wound up rolling out another awards hopeful — Matthew McConaughey’s “Gold” — the weekend after “The Founder” opened in limited release. FilmNation is seeking the most valuable of two settlement options: the full cost of their final prints and advertising budget, or $15 million.

Legal woes aside, we do hope “Tulip Fever” blooms in theaters sometime this year. It’s a reunion of sorts between Weinstein and Stoppard, who swept the Oscars with 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love.”

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