‘Dune’ Shifts Back 3 Weeks to Late October
In a minor shuffle of its fall film calendar, Warner Bros. has moved “Dune” back three weeks to now open in late October.
The studio also shifted the release dates of Clint Eastwood’s next movie “Cry Macho,” moving it up by roughly a month, and the “Sopranos” prequel film “The Many Saints of Newark” back by just one week.
“Dune” will now open Oct. 22, 2021, back from Oct. 1, and the film will play in 3-D and IMAX in theaters. “Cry Macho,” which was dated for Oct. 22, will now debut Sept. 17. And “Many Saints” will shift back into “Dune’s” previous slot, opening Oct. 1, moving back from Sept. 24.
“Dune” now moves out of the way of the James Bond film “No Time To Die,” which opens on Oct. 8, and into a more favorable weekend where it will be up against Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho” from Focus Features, the animated “Ron’s Gone Wrong” from 20th Century Studios, Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” from Searchlight and “Jackass 4” from Paramount. “Dune” will also get a special premier screening as part of the Toronto International Film Festival lineup, which takes place in September.
“Dune” is directed by Denis Villeneuve as based on the epic sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert. It’s the story of a man who must travel to a dangerous desert planet to ensure the future of his family and his people, all in a fight to salvage the universe’s most precious resource capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential from other malevolent forces.
The film has an impressive cast led by Timothée Chalamet and including Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, David Dastmalchian, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem. Villeneuve also wrote the screenplay with Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth.
“Cry Macho” is Eastwood’s return to the big screen, as he’ll direct, produce and star in the film that’s based on the book by N. Richard Nash. The story is of a one-time rodeo star and washed up horse breeder who, in 1978, takes a job from an ex-boss to bring the man’s young son home and away from his alcoholic mom. Crossing rural Mexico on their way back to Texas, the unlikely pair faces an unexpectedly challenging journey, during which the world-weary horseman may find his own sense of redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.
Eastwood will star in “Cry Macho” with Eduardo Minett and Dwight Yoakam, and Nash co-wrote the screenplay based on his own book with Nick Schenk.
“The Many Saints of Newark” is a prequel to “The Sopranos” written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner and directed by longtime “Sopranos” veteran Alan Taylor. The film is set in the explosive era of the Newark riots, when rival gangsters began to rise up, challenging the all-powerful DiMeo crime family’s hold over the city.
Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Michael Gandolfini, Billy Magnussen, Michela De Rossi, John Magaro Ray Liotta and Vera Farmiga all star in the film.