HOLLYWOOD -- Moviegoers have been gunning to see Brad Pitt as outlaw Jesse James for more than a year.

And now director Tony Scott -- who produced The Assassination of Jesse James with his brother Ridley -- tells the Sun the dark, sprawling western, co-starring Casey Affleck as James' killer, will be released in February.

A few months ago, a minimalist trailer announced the duster, which was filmed around Calgary and Edmonton last fall, would be out in September.

Just weeks later, and rather unceremoniously, the project was bumped into the nether regions of 2007.

This sort of scheduling move usually indicates, at best, what a dark lord of the Sith might describe as a "disturbing lack of faith" on the part of the studio.

At worst, it's a portent of a deeply troubled production.

Not so, says Scott, director of such testosterone-fuelled actioners as True Romance and Man on Fire.

(Ridley's no slouch either, having helmed, among others, Alien, Gladiator and Blade Runner.)

"It's great. We have to be careful how we market it because it's like a Terrence Malick film," he says, referring to the legendary director of such visually sumptuous epics as The Thin Red Line and The New World.

"But it's really good and Brad's terrific in it -- he just gets better with age."

In addition to Pitt and Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James also stars Sam Rockwell, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker and Zooey Deschanel.

Scott, an avid rock climber, is no stranger to Calgary, frequently coming here to shoot commercials for the overseas markets -- when he's not scaling mountains.

"I love it there."