Nearing the end of its best year ever at the domestic box office, Universal announced a slew of release dates today. The recently shaken-up studio has set its reboot of The Mummy for April 22, 2016, and Seventh Son, the Jeff Bridges-Julianne Moore fantasy that Legendary picked up from Warner Bros in August, will bow February 6, 2015, a week before the arrival of Universal’s Fifty Shades Of Grey. Legendary‘s untitled Michael Mann cyberthriller for January 16, 2015. and Blumhouse’s Jennifer Lopez thriller The Boy Next Door hits theaters on January 23, 2015. The studio also is pushing its video game adaptation Warcraft — the first film that had been dated under the new Universal-Legendary partnership — from December 18, 2015 to March 2016. If that vacated date looks familiar, it’s probably because a little flick known as Star Wars: Episode VII was penciled into that slot three weeks ago. Warcraft has that new weekend to itself for now.
So what competition will the newly dated pics face when they arrive a year or two or more from now? The Mummy and The Boy Next Door have no wide openers to contend with as of yet, but the other two do. Seventh Son will go against Sony/Screen Gems’ The Wedding Ringer, starring Kevin Hart, Josh Gad and Kaley Cuoco, and the Michael Mann pic will battle — in a jolt to the neck of Old Hollywood monster movie purists — Fox’s Frankenstein. If you’re scoring along at home, that will be four score and four years after Universal stitched together its Boris Karloff horror classic.
Here’s some background from the studio on its freshly slotted pics:
About UNTITLED MICHAEL MANN PROJECT
Set within the world of global cybercrime, Legendary’s UNTITLED MICHAEL MANN PROJECT follows a furloughed convict and his American and Chinese partners as they hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta. Directed and produced by Michael Mann, the film stars Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Tang Wei and Wang Leehom, and it is written by Morgan Davis Foehl and Mann. Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni produce alongside Mann, while Alex Garcia and Eric McLeod will serve as the executive producers.
About THE BOY NEXT DOOR
Jennifer Lopez leads the cast in THE BOY NEXT DOOR, a psychological thriller that explores a forbidden attraction that goes much too far. Directed by Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) and written by Barbara Curry, the film also stars Ryan Guzman, John Corbett and Kristin Chenoweth. THE BOY NEXT DOOR is produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, Lopez and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas of Nuyorican Productions, Benny Medina of The Medina Company and John Jacobs of Smart Entertainment.
About SEVENTH SON
In a time of enchantments when legends and magic collide, the sole remaining warrior of a mystical order (Oscar® winner Jeff Bridges) travels to find a prophesized hero born with incredible powers, the last Seventh Son (Ben Barnes). Torn from his quiet life as a farmhand, the unlikely young hero embarks on a daring adventure with his battle-hardened mentor to vanquish a dark queen (Julianne Moore) and the army of supernatural assassins she has dispatched against their kingdom. Sergei Bodrov directed SEVENTH SON from a screenplay by Matt Greenberg, Charles Leavitt and Steve Knight, based on the book “The Spook’s Apprentice” by Joseph Delaney. The film is produced by Basil Iwanyk, Thomas Tull and Lionel Wigram. Jon Jashni, Brent O’Connor and Alysia Cotter are executive producers, with Jillian Share and Erica Lee co-producing. The film will be released in 3D.
About WARCRAFT
Legendary Pictures’ WARCRAFT, a 3D epic adventure of world-colliding conflict based upon Blizzard Entertainment’s globally-renowned universe, will be directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and is written by Charles Leavitt and rewritten by Duncan Jones. The producers are Charles Roven, Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Alex Gartner. Stuart Fenegan, Jillian Share and Brent O’Connor will serve as executive producers. Blizzard’s Chris Metzen will co-produce.
About THE MUMMY
A legend that has endured since the dawn of man is reborn in THE MUMMY, Universal Pictures’ all-new epic action-adventure. THE MUMMY is conceived with dramatic intensity by an imaginative creative team including director Andy Muschietti (Mama) and producers Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (Star Trek and Transformers series) and Sean Daniel (The Mummy trilogy). Jon Spaihts (Prometheus) wrote the screenplay, and Bobby Cohen and Barbara Muschietti will executive produce.
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