Why was this movie shelved for 3 years?

Hi Ediaz8,
I read a review in Entertainment Weekly years ago about why Brenda Starr was shelved. Here is the link to it:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/review/movie/0,6115,310335_1|50052||0_0_,00.html

The critic totally savaged it, but I thought it was a camp classic. Brooke was great as Brenda, Timothy Dalton was dashing and smooth, and Tony Peck was cute as Mike (I kind of liked him more than Dalton in a way). It was cute and it had humor. A nice guilty pleasure. I love the theme music in the opening credits of the film. Very cool.

And it was only released in West Germany in 1989! It didn't come out here until 1992 in America, when prehaps Brooke would have been slightly more age appropraite for the role (only slighlty....frankly, I always imagined her being around 40 but I didn't know too much about the comic...so frankly, it would be fitting if she was making the movie right now).

Is that some kind of record between having a movie made and released to theathers (first run)?

I always thought it was because the movie mostly stunk. It started off strong, but Brooke was horribly miscast. She looked the part, but was just too young. I remember HBO doing a spotlight on its making, and how Shields herself said she really liked the part and so forth. Then it seemed to vanish from the radar, only to re-emerge sometime later.

I liked the opening sequences, but once they left New York and headed for South America the film tanked. The Russian sequences weren't all that inspired either.

I do have to admit, it's got it's moments, but I'm more inclined to think that the powers that were, were just a bit too embarrassed. Just my opinion.

I guess that (partially) explains why I never see it coming up to be shown on TV or find it for rent or sale on DVD?

I guess my only chance is to find it on Ebay perhaps, but so far, I have only seen VHS versions.

As huge long time fan of the comic, and Ms. Shields, I would like to see it.
Even if it as bad as everyone says.

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"You can't fix faith, River. Faith fixes you." Shepherd Book, Firefly

Most of the movie was filmed in Jacksonville. I was working for a hotel in JAX at the time where the cast and crew stayed. Brooke was very young -she was still at Princeton and was late getting back to school since the movie went way over time and budget. The crew would come and vent to the hotel employees about how much they hated the director...they felt he ruined the picture.

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