F. Javier Gutiérrez’s long-gestating horror sequel-cum-reboot Rings has hit another roadblock today, with Deadline reporting that Paramount has shifted the film from its planned April 1 release date to a more fitting October 28.
In its place, Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some, will slot into the vacant April 1, meaning the director’s spiritual successor to Dazed and Confused – which has experienced its fair share of chopping and changing itself – has been brought forward by a fortnight.
That plucks Linklater’s latest from one of 2016’s crowded corridors, given that Everybody Wants Some was originally set to compete with The Jungle Book and Universal’s matrimony comedy, The Best Man Wedding. In light of today’s switcheroo, its new box office competition will arrive in the form of horror retelling Amityville: The Awakening.
Switching gears to Gutiérrez’s Rings and Paramount’s decision to realign the spooky sequel with a Halloween release makes a lot of sense, even if on paper a six-month delay does raise more questions than it answers. It’s by no means the only budding horror reboot to have endured a spell in development hell, with the studio recently pushing back Friday the 13th into 2017. As for Michael Myers, Dimension’s Halloween Returns got the ax late last year.
Thrusting series newcomer Alex Roe into a whole new breed of horror, Rings will now conjure up a scare just in time for Halloween on October 28. On the other end of Paramount’s slate, SXSW will host the worldwide premiere of Everybody Wants Some come March 11 ahead of a theatrical release on April 1.
