“Dune” fans — already bummed out when the Timothée Chalamet-starring film was pushed from Dec. 18, 2020, to Oct. 1, 2021, nearly a year later — are once again met with the news that the film’s premiere is being postponed further.
This time, the sci-fi epic from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures has been delayed by three weeks, to Oct. 22.
The new delay came as a result of a release date shuffle by Warner Bros. on Friday. “The Many Saints of Newark,” a prequel of “The Sopranos,” was pushed back one week, taking the original spot held by “Dune.” Clint Eastwood’s film “Cry Macho,” which was slated for Oct. 22, will now debut on Sept. 17.
Director Denis Villeneuve’s big-budget adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel will coincidentally release on the same day as Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” — which also stars Chalamet. Other films premiering that weekend include Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho” from Focus Features, the animated “Ron’s Gone Wrong” from 20th Century Studios and “Jackass 4” from Paramount.
The film follows Paul Atreides (played by Chalamet), a brilliant young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding. He travels to the most dangerous planet in the universe to protect the future of his family and his people. While there, he tries to salvage the universe’s most precious resource that can unlock humanity’s greatest potential.
The A-list cast for “Dune” also includes Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem.
“The story is so rich and complex that, in order to be faithful to the book, we’ll need to make at least two movies,” Villeneuve said of the film in September 2020. “That was a deal right at the start.”
The other movie pushed back by Warner Bros., “The Many Saints of Newark,” is a prequel to “The Sopranos” written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner and directed by “Sopranos” veteran Alan Taylor. The film is set during the Newark riots, in which rival gangsters challenged the powerful DiMeo crime family’s hold over the city. Michael Gandolfini will play a young version of his father’s iconic character, Tony Soprano.
The cast also includes Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen, Michela De Rossi, John Magaro Ray Liotta and Vera Farmiga.
Upcoming Warner Bros. releases include “The Matrix 4” and “The Suicide Squad” — which just released a crazy new trailer featuring a giant starfish-like alien.
