Trek moved to May 2009, effectively kills film

Trekmovie.com reported today (through Variety) that Star Trek has been pushed to a May 2009 release instead of the previously "launch" date of Christmas 2008.

Why do this? The film has already been hyped as being a December release - millions of people have seen the teaser which states this specifically during Cloverfield. If they had made the decision before the point I wouldn't see as much of a problem - but they missed the boat already.

I believe Starship Troopers was also hyped long before the film came out and then was delayed and delayed so long that the hype had peaked and then all but disappeared come release date. Sure Starship Troopers wasn't anything spectacular - but Trek ain't Shakespeare either (the fans delusional minds not withstanding).

Principle filming is half complete - if they wanted to blame the writers strike it would have made sense to delay production WHILE the strike was occurring. This smells of major plot problems that could not have been resolved until the strike end granted them the opportunity for re-writes.

Diagnosis: It's dead Jim!