by Larry Richman
October 5, 2006 7:42 PM

First, you need to know what "Alpha Dog" is. It helps to read a bit about it if you don't already know. The one line description is that it is a drama based on the life of Jesse James Hollywood, a drug dealer who became one of the youngest men ever to be on the FBI's most wanted list. But that's not even the tip of the iceberg.

You see, this movie was finished 2 years ago and has been held up in political and legal troubles ever since. Despite its high-powered ensemble cast (Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Foster, Sharon Stone, Dominique Swain, Fernando Vargas, Paul Johansson, Olivia Wilde, Lukas Haas, Bruce Willis, Heather Wahlquist, Amanda Seyfried, Vincent Kartheiser, and more) and high profile writer/director (Nick Cassavetes), it has been mired in controversy and is arguably the most talked-about completed yet unreleased movie in recent Hollywood history.

It was originally supposed to have been completed and released in the Fall of 2004. Then Spring 2005. Then Summer 2005. Then Fall 2005. And on and on. On November 2nd, director Nick Cassavetes delivered the finished product to New Line, its distributor. Finally, a release date was set for February 24th, 2006. Then it was pulled. By mid-January, it didn't even have an official site yet. Some films have one a year ahead of time. There wasn't even any official trailer online.

The film had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. I attended and covered the festivities for PROnetworks -- see My 'Alpha Dog' World Premiere blog & pics.

Finally, the first trailers were shown on February 10th with New Line's Running Scared. But there was still no official release date. And, as it turned out, no date was ever announced. New Line dropped the film. Producer Sidney Kimmel and director Nick Cassavetes wanted a larger distribution than New Line was willing to give it, so they shopped around. Universal took the bait and bought the distribution rights. A release date of January 12, 2007 was set. But a new trailer still had to be prepared and released by Universal. As well as a new official site. Both the New Line trailer and site were now, of course, obsolete. Today, October 5, 2006, that new trailer and site is now up and running.

Here is the new "Alpha Dog" trailer:

Small
Medium
Large
HD

(All in QuickTime format)

And the new official website is up:
Alpha Dog website