‘Monster Hunter’ (Photo credit: Sony Pictures).
Anticipating the end of the global pandemic and the re-opening of cinemas, Sony Pictures has dated four films for September and October, starting with Monster Hunter.
Opening on September 3, Monster Hunter is based on the Capcom video game, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich as the head of an elite unit confronted by a world of dangerous monsters.
Sony Pictures Animation’s Connected, an original comedy about an everyday family’s struggle to relate while technology rises up around the world, directed by Mike Rianda (Gravity Falls) and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is set for September 17.
Directed by Andy Serkis, Venom 2 (October 1) sees Tom Hardy return as Eddie Brock/Venom alongside Michelle Williams and Woody Harrelson. The original film amassed $855 million worldwide.
Kevin Hart stars in Fatherhood (October 22), the Paul Weitz-directed drama about a widower who must raise his daughter after his wife dies in childbirth.
Among the first titles that shifted dates last month, Will Gluck’s Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is now set for December 26.
‘Greed.’
Missing from the line-up is Michael Winterbottom’s Greed, a satire on the world of the super rich based on controversial UK billionaire Philip Green.
After debuting at Toronto, the film starring Steve Coogan, Isla Fisher, Asa Butterfield, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Fry and Shirley Henderson was scheduled to open here on April 23.
But the film co-financed by the UK’s Film4 bombed in the UK in February so it will be released here by Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on July 7 (digital) and July 15 (Blu-Ray/DVD).
The omens did not look good when Winterbottom went public with his criticism on the cuts insisted on by the studio, which included cards spelling out how little money workers earn in sweatshops in Myanmar and Bangladesh while fashion moguls rake in extraordinary profits.
The 2021 slate includes Escape Room 2, Marvel’s Morbius, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the Tom Hanks WW2 starrer Greyhound.