“Solomon Kane,” may yet face additional hurdles in reaching U.S. theater screens in the immediate future.  Variety is suggesting a very bleak distribution environment for recently completed independent films.  The article reports that with the first half of the year completed, it is hard not to notice the nearly complete lack of specialty film pickups by studios.

Even Fox Searchlight, one of the few remaining studio specialty divisions, has been somewhat quiet. Since picking up ”The Wrestler” at Toronto last fall, the label has made just one fest purchase: ”Adam,” a small indie drama that played in Sundance’s competition in January.

The consolidation of the indie and specialty-division landscape is alarming to filmmakers and sales agents, but Searchlight isn’t happy about it, either.

“We don’t want to be the last man standing with the entire burden of specialized cinema resting on our shoulders,” Searchlight’s acquisitions head Tony Safford confided as he headed out for his late-June vacation. “Without New Line and (Paramount) Vantage really being in the game, and without Warner Independent, suddenly there are 20-30 films that aren’t being distributed. Maybe half shouldn’t have been distributed, but half should have.”

John Sloss, who is repping domestic sales on two Cannes fest entries still looking for homes – Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” and Alejandro Amenabar’s “Agora” — said the specialty biz may be facing a sea change.

“I’ve been an optimist and a defender of the core elements of indie distribution, but it’s hard to explain the lack of presence of specialized distributors in the market,” Sloss said.

Sobering words indeed for those awaiting the release of the completed “Kane” film.  The dismal situation reported by Variety certainly clouds the hopes for an autumn distribution date in the U.S. that would coincide with the previously announced dates in Europe.  For now, Solomon Kane fans can only wait with crossed fingers as events play out in the coming weeks.

Back in the day when Solomon Kane was still in active production, they faced financial challenges due to currency fluctuation in Czech Republic as has been reported by screendaily. The movie was budgeted and planned in 2006 and when shooting started the currency rate had changed a lot. The article also features another production shot of Michael J. Bassett and some words on the pricing of the film itself. (Solomon Kane was shot for $25 Million)

The choice for Prag itself was not an accidental one, as Producer Paul Berrow said in the article, they chose the location on purpose because the skill set of the people they could hire there met their quality goals.

Interesting to see that something as abstracted to the average person as currency fluctuation can really push the boundaries of the possible if you handle several millions of dollars producing a movie. We can all be glad that in the end it turned out positive for Solomon Kane and that we soon will see a most likely excellent film on the big screen featuring the dark fantasy puritan.