Years ago, Lionsgate paired Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland together for an adaptation of a sci-fi dystopian novel. So… what happened? We needed this movie like yesterday. Just the mention of those two talents in one sentence alone seems enough for Chaos Walking to succeed.
The movie has been wrapped in reshoots and delays for years. Fans have been asking these questions to the studio since they’ve left them on hold. Thankfully, Lionsgate has been listening and has finally settled on a new release date for Chaos Walking. Check out Lionsgate’s announcement below:
That’s about a year from now. The studio announced the release date of January 22, 2021 with screenshots of various pleas from fans on Twitter asking for the movie, mostly in all caps. It seems like Lionsgate is doing this one for the fans. That and… they spent over $100 million making it so far.
Chaos Walking was originally set for March 1, 2019, but, back in April 2018 “significant reshoots” were announced to be in the works. The problem then became the fact that the film’s stars are amongst the busiest actors in Hollywood. Daisy Ridley had to wrap her three-movie arc for Rey and Tom Holland always seems to be swinging from one Marvel film to the other.
So the reshoots didn’t happen until April 2019. But still, no word on a release date was given. Back before Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland returned to these characters years later, one report indicated that Chaos Walking turned out so poorly that it was “deemed unreleasable."
The film’s director Doug Liman – who previously helmed Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith – has called the project the most “creatively challenging” movie he’s ever done. But there’s still confidence in Chaos Walking. Lionsgate’s chief executive Jon Feltheimer reassured fans that they wouldn’t still be working on it if it didn’t have potential.
Unfortunately, a January release date for next year doesn’t instill a ton of backbone for Chaos Walking. The first month of the year is notably saved for the duds of the year – but it’s not without its exceptions. Bad Boys For Life just scored big. For the time being, there’s no other movie set for this date, but the James Wan-produced Mortal Kombat remake recently moved to the weekend before it in January after facing some powerful competition with its first date.
Chaos Walking is based on a 2008 novel The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. A virus has become fatal for all of humanity, but particularly for women, who have all but died off. The remaining survivors can hear each other’s thoughts (including animals) through the “Noise." But, then Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) and his dog Manchee discover a lone patch of silence. This is where he meets the mysterious Viola (Daisy Ridley).
The movie also stars Cynthia Erivo, Mads Mikkelsen, Nick Jonas and David Oyelowo. Are you excited for Chaos Walking? Sound off in the comments below.
