Starring Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, The Bikeriders lost its distributor just as it was set for release – and now it has a new one.
Uh-oh. News is not looking on the bright side for the new film from the brilliant Jeff Nichols. The man behind superb cinema such as Take Shelter and Mud has premiered his latest movie, The Bikeriders, over the last few months.
It stars Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer, and it’s the tale of a 1960s motorcycle club, or more to the point, its members. Reviews had been really good for the film, and it played in the UK at the London Film Festival last month too. There had been hopes for an awards campaign.
That may still happen, but it also looks as if the film no longer has a distributor. It had been set, in the US, for December 1st, although it released that date a few weeks ago. What it didn’t do was set a new one, and now we know why.
The film was backed by New Regency, which in turn had a deal in place with the Disney-owned 20th Century Studios to release the movies. What – and I’m joining dots as best I can here – may have happened is that when Gareth Edwards’ The Creator failed to break through commercially for Disney, it reassessed its options.
To be clear, nobody has said that out loud as of yet. But it would be little surprise if the thinking was if a big sci-fi film such as The Creator can’t break through, the chances for The Bikeriders are on the slim side.
It’s still technically in the awards race from what I can gleam, although someone may correct me there. Yet 20th Century Studios/Disney was also set to distribute the movie in the UK, with an eye on a January release over here. The film is now conspicuous by its absence on the UK release list.
When there’s more news, we’ll gladly pass it your way. Hopefully, there’s another distributor who can swoop in and get this to the screen quickly. We need filmmakers like Jeff Nichols.
UPDATE: Well, thankfully that didn’t take long. A day after it became clear Disney had dropped the film, Focus Features has picked The Bikeriders up and will distribute it in 2024. Universal Pictures will distribute the film outside of the US. Here’s to what looks like a happy ending.
UPDATE #2: Focus Features has announced a June 24th 2024 release date for the film in the US, it’s now been confirmed.
