Buena Vista has transported The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a week earlier, eschewing the May 6 summer kick-off for April 29, the studio informed Box Office Mojo. The May date had become crowded, as two other major pictures are scheduled for release then—director Ridley Scott's Crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven and horror remake House of Wax.

The long-in-development sci-fi comedy based on the novel by Douglas Adams will now face off on April 29 with Sony's action sequel XXX: State of the Union starring Ice Cube and Samuel L. Jackson.

Buena Vista also set a date for its Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Glory Road, starring Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama), Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) and Jon Voight. The period basketball drama in the vein of Bruckheimer's Remember the Titans will bow on Jan. 13, 2006—the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. The Samuel L. Jackson basketball drama, Coach Carter, scored strong business on the same frame this year, and another Jackson drama, Freedomland, is also set for Jan. 13.

The weekend of Aug. 12 is shaping up to be a scary showdown. Buena Vista has picked the date to release its Jennifer Connelly thriller Dark Water. Last week, Universal shifted its Kate Hudson thriller Skeleton Key to the same date. Lions Gate has had Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses follow-up, The Devil's Rejects, scheduled for Aug. 12 for some time. Counter-programming against the horror is Rob Schneider's comedy sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo from Sony.

Click here to see the new dates for Steven Spielberg's untitled 1972 Munich Olympics project, V for Vendetta, Memoirs of a Geisha and many more on the Release Schedule.

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