i know & it's just plain damn stupid if ya ask me. why wait a total year after a film is done?
It might seem stupid to hold off on releasing a film - especially to the people who are highly anticipating seeing it. But from the studio's POV it's considered good marketing. Studios don't simply want their films to make money, they want them to make the most money possible - and more often than not that has to do with what a film's competition is at the box office at the time of it's release. And also, if they feel they have a prestige film that has the potential for Oscar nominations, more often than not the film will be held for the end of the year because quite frequently (and despite the ability of Academy members to screen films at home) many Academy members have the habit of overlooking films that came out earlier in the year - not to mention the buzz on those films has probably died down, while the buzz on current releases is still taking place.
Of course, normally the Academy looks down their nose at vampire/horror films in general, particularly when it comes to acting nominations. But if any vampire role could bring an acting nomination if done correctly, Barnabas must surely be one of them because he's so deeply complex.
And getting back to the competition aspect of release, let's not forget that the first installment of
Twilight: Breaking Dawn is to be released on November 18, 2011. So, it really is quite likely that WB won't want the Depp/DS film anywhere near the box office while it's in release. And who knows if the Depp/DS film could even be completed with enough time to be released and be released with sufficient enough distance between it and T:BD P1's release? And to complicate matters further, the second installment of T:BD is scheduled to come out on November 16, 2012, so the release of the Depp/DS will surely be sufficiently earlier in 2012 so as to not compete directly with it.
Actually, one need look no further for a perfect example of a studio holding off on releasing films than the T:BD films because BD is in production right now, yet even the first installment won't be released until over a year from now...