Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was among the big 2020 movies that saw its release date delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. After being moved to October 1st, Dune’s release has been pushed back yet again, this time to October 22nd, Variety reports. The move was one of several releases Warner Bros. rescheduled, with the Clint Eastwood-directed Cry Macho moved to September 17th, and The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos, moved to October 1st.
The adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert sci-fi classic has an all-star cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgård, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, and Javier Bardem. Dune is slated to be the first of two movies based on the book. The movie coming out in October (at this point, anyway) will cover the massive novel’s first half, while a second as-yet-unnamed movie is planned to cover the rest. There was also an HBO Max prequel series in the works.
Dune is among the upcoming Warner Bros. movies slated to debut on HBO Max at the same time it hits theaters. That controversial decision announced by Warner Bros. in December, didn’t sit well with many in the industry including Villenueve. He blasted the studio’s then-parent company AT&T, saying in a Variety op-ed that it had “hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history.” AT&T announced in May that it would spin off its WarnerMedia business to merge it with TV company Discovery.
Dune is still scheduled to have its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September.