The Latest Date Changes 2: The New Batch

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Disney finally announces their date changes.

The Empty Man 10/23/2020 (from 12/4/2020) (has to be a dump at this point)
Death on the Nile 12/18/2020 (from 10/23/2020)
The King's Man 2/12/2021 (from 2/26/2021)
Black Widow 5/7/2021 (from 11/6/2020)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 7/9/2021 (from 5/7/2021)
Deep Water 8/13/2021 (from 11/13/2020)
The Eternals 11/5/2021 (from 2/21/2021)
West Side Story 12/10/2021 (from 12/18/2020) (wouldn't be surprised if Disney is waiting for the Ansel Elgort controversy to blow as the reason for the delay over COVID)

Meanwhile, Universal has won the rights to a $125 million movie from David Leitch starring Ryan Gosling. I expect the end result to be a hacky film of the Doug Liman variety.

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As a fill-in for all of the Disney delays, Hocus Pocus will return to theatres again on October 2nd. Also, some Alamo Drafthouse locations will get The Nightmare Before Christmas on October 16th.

In other news, Warner Bros. has announced a new remake of Father of the Bride with a Latin American twist. They must be expecting big things from In the Heights.

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Apple has picked up the Russo Brothers' new film. Not sure if a theatrical run is planned (assuming A24 is still around in the next few months).

Meanwhile, Netflix has snagged I Care a Lot, a drama with Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage.

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The next Shyamalan film has been given the title of Old. Expect some parodies as it gets closer to release.

Meanwhile, Disney is now making Coco available for repertory screenings next month. How long before they allow everything, Disney and Fox, to be booked into theatres?

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Interesting. Any knowledge as to the plot or cast?

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Plot details are still under wraps, but the cast includes Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alex Wolff, Vicky Krieps, Abbey Lee and Rufus Sewell.

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Apparently, Sony has sold The Craft off to Amazon and will hit Prime on October 27th. So I guess Prime has become the new Blumhouse dumping ground as they have four other Blumhouse titles premiering in October (none of which are Run Sweetheart Run, which was picked up from Universal a few months back).

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Steven Soderbergh just started shooting a crime thriller called No Sudden Move for HBO Max that stars Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Jon Hamm, David Harbour, Amy Seimetz, Ray Liotta, Kieran Culkin, Noah Jupe, Bill Duke, Frankie Shaw, Julia Fox and Brendan Fraser. Like a lot of people, I'm hot and cold on Soderbergh's work, but it's hard to not be intrigued by something with a cast of that caliber.

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Seems like Soderbergh's going exclusively streaming ever since his attempt at being a distributor failed (lesson learned: don't spend $30 million on a movie and then sell the rights that actually make you money). I have to wonder if he's ever recovered financially.

In other news, Lionsgate has hinted that they may trade dates with Chaos Walking and Voyagers. Chaos Walking's marketing campaign has begun while Voyagers still has nothing out.

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Apparently, Sony has sold The Craft off to Amazon and will hit Prime on October 27th. So I guess Prime has become the new Blumhouse dumping ground as they have four other Blumhouse titles premiering in October (none of which are Run Sweetheart Run, which was picked up from Universal a few months back).

So this report that was going around over the weekend proved to be slightly off as Sony is releasing it through PVOD on the 27th. It's also picked up the subtitle of Legacy, hinting that it's a sequel instead of a remake.

This move also seems to indicate that Happiest Season will be released through some channel before Christmas.

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Happiest Season is TriStar, so I'm sure Sony's going theatrical with it as those projects are intended as prestige films. The Craft: Legacy had little buzz and a lot of backlash when it was announced.

In other news, Disney has just hired Barry Jenkins to direct a prequel to The Lion King. That should be interesting.

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Borat 2 is set to premiere on Prime in late October. Prime also picked up Sylvie's Love, one of the few notable remaining Sundance titles without a distributor (now when will someone pick up Falling?).

And Open Road is releasing that After sequel in the US. I'm not sure if it's still on for October 23rd as they have Honest Thief a week earlier.

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Greenland will premiere on VOD on October 13th. Theatres still have coming soon posters for this one.

And Ma Rainey's Black Bottom will hit Netflix on December 18th, making sure that Oscar campaign for Chadwick Boseman's final performance will happen.

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I know everyone was waiting with bated breath about the details of Greenland's release in the territories where it hasn't already been theatrically released, so here they are per STX and Deadline:
US: PVOD release at a TBD determined 2020 date, HBO and HBO Max early 2021 (HBO paid somewhere in the $20-30 mil for the streaming/pay cable rights)
Canada, UK, Australia: Amazon Prime at a TBD date

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So if you want to watch a Deep Impact imitator without paying (more), get a VPN.

Back to the dates, we're getting a new Cat in the Hat movie in 2024, followed by a Thing spinoff in 2026, and an adaptation of Oh, The Places You'll Go! in 2027. With Audrey Geisel's iron fist in charge of these adaptations, I'm not expecting anything good from these.

And Paramount has snuck Spell, a movie pulled from the Summer schedule, into a 10/30/2020 spot. Related to Paramount, it seems that Spontaneous, apparently still scheduled for a Friday bow after more than two years on the shelf, has been pulled from the schedule.