Warner Bros. has penciled in some new release dates, announcing new slots for a Project X sequel (oh-so-creatively titled Project XX), Ben Affleck drama The Accountant, Miles Teller starrer Arms & the Dudes and an untitled horror pic that’s likely to be an Annabelle sequel.
Let’s take those one at a time. After the solid box office returns on 2012’s Project X and unexpectedly strong reviews for the found-footage party comedy, Warner Bros. greenlit a sequel, but there’s been no news about who will direct or star in the next pic. It would be a shocker if most of the originals came back – Thomas Mann’s popularity is about to go through the roof thanks to Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, Miles Teller is way too big a star for found-footage and Oliver Cooper has his hands full with Amazon series Red Oaks.
Only Jonathan Daniel Brown, who went from Project X to Kid Cannabis, seems to have room in his schedule, were he interested in reprising his role. On the other side of the camera, director Nima Nourizadeh moved onto drama American Ultra, and once a helmer gets out of found-footage, they’re typically hesitant to dive back in.
Given all that, it seems likely that Project XX will simply follow a different crop of hard-partying teens. I can’t say that idea sounds too promising, but the first one made money, so maybe this one will too. It’s been dated for August 19, 2016, opening opposite kid-targeted Kubo and the Two Strings.
As for The Accountant, the Gavin O’Connor-directed action-thriller, about an accountant (Affleck) who moonlights as an assassin, has been set for January 29, 2016. That’s somewhat surprising, given that the pic was thought to stand a chance in the awards race given its killer cast (Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons and John Lithgow co-star), but it looks like Warner Bros. is banking on The Accountant to revitalize a typically dead season at the box office. Intriguingly, the date will see Affleck going head to head with his brother Casey Affleck, who’s starring in Disney’s Coast Guard drama The Finest Hours.
Meanwhile, The Hangover director Todd Phillips’ Arms & the Dudes will be unveiled on March 11, 2016. The action-comedy features Teller and Jonah Hill as pot-smoking arms dealers who get in way over their heads and must fight to survive.
Warner Bros. also removed what had previously been called a “Special Event Film” from its schedule. The mystery pic had been set to open January 15, 2016, but it evidently didn’t make enough progress to meet that deadline. Finally, the studio bumped “Untitled New Line Horror Film” up to January 22, 2016. That’s almost certainly a sequel to the terrible, high-grossing Conjuring prequel/spinoff Annabelle.