Release dates! Make sure you don’t have your grandma’s birthday scheduled for these days and peep the updates below.
First off, “The Killer Elite” — which improbably brings together Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen — will hit theaters on September 23rd via fledgling distributors Open Road, headed up by the AMC and Regal theater chains. In the film, Statham will play the world’s most skilled special-ops magent (obviously) who comes out of self-imposed exile to put together a team to rescue his former mentor played by De Niro. They will face off against Owen who plays the villain and his cadre of baddies known under their sinister (?) name “The Feather Men.” So yeah, it’s more of Statham being Statham. The film faces heavy competition that weekend with Taylor Lautner‘s Bourne-esque “Abduction,” “Moneyball” and less threateningly, “Dolphin Tale 3D” hitting screens.
Meanwhile, George Clooney‘s highly anticipated “Ides Of March” has moved up a week, now hitting screens on October 7th. Curiously, it throws the film right up against “Real Steel” and the Paul Rudd/Jennifer Aniston comedy “Wanderlust” but this will be skewing solely for the adults who don’t want to see metal things bang together or a goofy comedy. Loosely based on the 2004 Democratic primary run of Howard Dean, the Iowa-set story takes place just weeks before the state’s Democratic caucuses officially commence, following the exploits of a twenty-something presidential campaign spinmeister/wunderkind named Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) and the dirty pool he plays to get his candidate (played by Clooney) the nomination against a rival senator. Paul Giamatti will play the campaign manager of the rival senator, Marisa Tomei is a New York Times reporter and Evan Rachel Wood stars as an intern for Myers’ campaign. And if that heavyweight talent isn’t enough for you, Alexandre Desplat is scoring the film. [Deadline/BoxOfficeMojo]
