The new adaptation of Dune from director Denis Villeneuve has reportedly been delayed. Collider says the film has now vacated its December 2020 release date and is planned to launch on October 1, 2021. This comes around a month after the film's first trailer dropped.
We've reached out to Warner Bros for comment on this. The Collider report says that Villeneuve supports the move. Variety also reports that the movie has been delayed.
A delay was largely expected when Wonder Woman 1984 was pushed back to December 25, one week after Dune's planned December 18 release. Since both films are distributed by the same studio, Dune seemed likely to move. This new date, if true, however, is much further away that we expected.
Warner Bros currently has The Batman down for release on October 1, 2021. We'd be surprised if that didn't change as a result of this apparent reshuffle.
Movie release dates have been changing all year, but it's only in the past few weeks that the schedule of theatrical releases in 2020 started to look barren. No Time To Die and Black Widow have both moved to 2021.
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Movie theaters close again
pic.twitter.com/pzYso3VkvMOctober 5, 2020
This has been a turbulent few days for theaters. Over the weekend, it was reported that US chain Regal, which also owns Cineworld and Picturehouse in the UK, will close its cinemas until further notice. Regal just confirmed that earlier today, with all venues shutting on October 8. Cineworld will be closed in the UK from October 9.
With a quiet release schedule and people cautious about returning to the cinema during a pandemic, movie theaters were always going to struggle to stay open during this difficult time.
Now, the near future of blockbuster movies seems uncertain.
