The theatrical industry might finally be approaching the light at the end of the tunnel, with Godzilla vs. Kong firmly on track to become the biggest Hollywood blockbuster of the COVID-19 era, but the release date domino effect is still far from over.
Disney recently got in on the act by shuffling several major titles around the calendar, including Disney Plus Premier Access hybrid debuts for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Widow and 101 Dalmatians prequel Cruella, and a couple of 20th Century Studios projects have also found new dates.
In what’s become a rarity over the last year or so, buddy movie sequel The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard has now moved forward two months, with the odd couple of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson set to return to our screens on June 16th instead of August 13th, meaning fans will get a double dose of both stars this summer with Reynolds’ Free Guy and Jackson’s Saw sequel Spiral also arriving.
The first installment managed to haul in close to $180 million at the box office on a budget of $30 million, and even though it wasn’t the subgenre’s finest efforts by any means, the two leads generated exactly the sort of chemistry you’d expect given their reputations. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard finds Reynolds’ CIA agent once again reluctantly teaming up with Jackson’s master criminal, this time to rescue the latter’s spouse after she’s kidnapped by the bad guys.
It’s a standard setup, but the Reynolds/Jackson pairing should promise fireworks, while the impressive ensemble of The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is rounded out by Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas, Richard E. Grant, Frank Grillo and Morgan Freeman, with The Expendables 3‘s Patrick Hughes calling the shots.