
With the writer’s and actor’s strikes currently ongoing and with no end in sight, the release date calendar for the rest of 2023 is about as secure as a house of cards.
A new report at Variety indicates Warner Bros. Pictures is “strongly considering” pushing the sci-fi epic “Dune: Part Two” from its November 3rd release to a date sometime in 2024.
Additionally, Warners is also said to be assessing potential new dates for its movie musical “The Color Purple” and its big-budget DC Studios sequel “Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom”.
“Dune: Part Two” is a co-production with Legendary Entertainment and both parties have to agree on a new release date before it can move. The trade’s sources say Legendary has yet to be approached by Warners about such a move, and that no formal discussions have been had at this point.
The duration of the current industrial action is entirely unpredictable, but one thing is for certain – a film like the “Dune” sequel will strongly benefit from having its high-profile cast like Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin all out there promoting the movie alongside director Denis Villeneuve.
Current union restrictions say those actors cannot promote past or future work until the strike is resolved. Other films opening in the Fall corridor like “The Marvels,” “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” and “Napoleon” will also potentially be contemplating moves in the coming weeks. However since the actor’s strike began, no major studio has officially altered their late 2023 release plans.