Paramount Pictures has movedthe US release date of its sci-fi action thriller The Core from Nov 1 this year to March 2003, taking it out ofthe end-of-year holiday season which would have seen it up against I Spy, The Santa Clause 2 and 8 Mile as well as Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets a fortnight later (Nov 15) and the 20thJames Bond movie Die Another Dayon Nov 22.

'The Core is a huge film with exciting innovative effects andwe always knew that we were on a tight post-production schedule,' saidRob Friedman, COO of Paramount Pictures and vice-chairman of the motion picturegroup, yesterday. 'In order not to compromise the quality of the effects,we have decided to give the film-makers more time to perfect them.'

Paramount will instead focuson its franchise movie Star Trek: Nemesis which opens on Dec 13, its Nickelodeon Movies animated movie TheWild Thornberrys (Dec 20) and itstwo Oscar hopefuls Narc and TheHours. The company is also releasingthe long-finished action pick-up Extreme Ops (aka The Extremists) on Nov 22.

The Core is directed by Jon Amiel (Entrapment, Sommersby,Copycat) and stars Aaron Eckhart asa geophysicist who discovers that an unknown force has caused the earth'sinner core to stop rotating. With the planet's magnetic field rapidlydeteriorating, he leads a team of the world's most gifted scientists intothe earth's core. Co-starring with Eckhart are Bruce Greenwood, Hilary Swank,Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci and Tcheky Karyo.