The ongoing actors’ strike has claimed another casualty as one of winter’s most anticipated films – Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders – is delayed.
One of the films we were very much looking forward to seeing this winter was The Bikeriders, the upcoming drama from Mud director, Jeff Nichols.
The film boasts a great ensemble cast including Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Michael Shannon, Boyd Holbrook and Norman Reedus. The trailer arrived last month and stoked anticipation even further. Furthermore, the movie is clearly finished, as it played at the London Film Festival this month, with Nichols on board for promotional duties.
Here’s the synopsis:
The story is set ‘in the 1960s and follows Kathy, a strong-willed member of the Vandals who is married to a wild, reckless bike rider named Benny. She recounts the club’s evolution over the course of a decade from a group of local outsiders led by the strong Johnny to something more dangerous and sinister.
While a firm UK release date was never announced, the film was set to arrive in US cinemas on the 1st of December, with a release in this part of the world likely not far behind. Those plans have now been significantly altered due to the ongoing actors’ strike, with the film not currently reappearing on 20th Century Studios’ release schedule.
The word is that the film will get some kind of a limited release in the new year to enable it to qualify for this year’s awards competitions, but it’s certainly not the ideal release strategy for a star-studded prestige drama that likely cost a bob or two to make. With the film’s estimated budget said to be around $40 million, 20th Century Studios is going to have to navigate a tricky path to finding a wide release slot that isn’t too crowded, a prospect that could become trickier if more films due for release this side of Christmas are also delayed.
With negotiations between studios and the actors’ guild having broken down, there’s a chance that more studios could pursue this option and as such, there are bound to be ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ if a release shuffle occurs. Let’s hope that The Bikeriders isn’t one of those casualties and is given a chance to succeed on its own terms.
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