Here we go again. Yet another of 2020’s most-anticipated movies has been pushed back into 2021. This afternoon, it was announced that Warner Bros. and Legendary have elected to delay Dune, the new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi novel from director Denis Villeneuve, from its planned December release until next October 1st.
Hype for Dune is huge thanks to both its iconic source material, previously filmed by David Lynch in 1984, and its all-star cast which includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsgård and Javier Bardem.
It was originally pegged to arrive on December 18th, though the first sign that it might get moved occurred when Wonder Woman 1985 was delayed until Christmas Day last month. Collider states that a source told them at the time that WB was confident the marketplace could sustain two major tentpole releases in the same week, as it usually can. However, clearly something has recently made them change their minds. And it’s not hard to work out what.
Last week, MGM elected to pull No Time To Die from its November slot and move it into next April. This had the colossal fallout of causing Cineworld to announce that they would be closing down all of their Regal cinemas until the James Bond film appears. This has further de-stabilized what was already a very shaky time for the movie business, with studios now being forced to re-evaluate their strategies, Warner Bros. included.
Villeneuve is said to be very supportive of this decision because, as well as it obviously being the more health conscious option, the director wishes for Dune to be shown on the big screen rather than end up on streaming. For fans, though, this is a pretty significant delay, clocking in at almost 10 whole months. But given that 2021 is now stacked full of twice as many blockbusters as normal, there probably weren’t too many free slots available.
