Anthology Film Archives regretfully announces that it will not be able to open the new feature CHELSEA ON THE ROCKS for its premiere engagement, which had been scheduled to screen daily from March 20 to 26. Anthology has been informed that the distributor with whom it booked the film, Empire Film Group / Hannover House, has decided not to, or is unable to, follow through on its plans to represent the film. The producers have thus canceled the engagement despite the prior commitment for the NY Theatrical Premiere which was announced by Anthology. Citing contractual reasons, the producers have declined to honor this commitment.

An (all-too-rare) Reeler post informs us that Abel Ferrara’s Chelsea Hotel documentary Chelsea on the Rocks, which we covered at Cannes, has been pulled from its planned one week run at Anthology Film Archives later this month.

What could they mean by “contractual obligations”? A “misplaced” (or more likely, never obtained) release? Complaints from the people behind the hotel itself, which was in the middle of a management change while Ferrara was filming in 2007? Considering Chelsea’s relative lack of freshness, we’ll assume it’s not the same kind of contractual obligation that AFI Dallas’ John Wildman blogged about today, the kind that causes a film to drop out of one festival so it an play another … although it is interesting that the Ferrara news comes within 24 hours of Wildman going public about a film dropping out of his festival so it can play Tribeca. In any case, we’ll keep our ears open…