'Dune' Delayed Again As Warner Bros. Shuffles Its Fall Release Dates

Dune has weathered quite a few delays, but Warner Bros. has just handed one more to Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic. Thankfully, it's only a delay of three weeks. Warner Bros. has reshuffled its fall and early winter release calendar, pushing back the release dates for several of its titles, including Dune and the Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.

Movies are coming back to theaters, which means that the fall and early winter slate is looking more crowded than ever. To keep pace with competition, Warner Bros. is moving three of its fall releases, which will all maintain their day-and-date HBO Max and theatrical hybrid releases, Deadline reports.

First up is Dune, which gets pushed back from its original October 1 release date to October 22, to not compete with MGM's No Time to Die on October 8. This is just the latest release date for Dune, which was originally set to debut on December 18, 2020, before getting pushed back a whole year to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Warner Bros. has been set Dune for the October 2021 since last year, but it appears that the film will finally (hopefully) open without a hitch. The star-studded sci-fi blockbuster, which stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem, will still have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will be hitting TIFF. It will also be released in theaters in 3D and IMAX.

The next film to get pushed back is The Many Saints of Newark, the Alan Taylor-directed, David Chase produced and co-written Sopranos prequel film. It's takes Dune's recently vacated October 1 slot, getting pushed back from its initial September 24 date. Warner Bros. is counting on The Many Saints of Newark as the "adult choice" amid a group of family-friendly films like MGM's The Addams Family 2 and Sony's recently-moved Hotel Transylvania 4, which are dropping on the October 1 weekend.

Finally, there's Clint Eastwood's Cry Macho, which actually gets pushed up — vacating the October 22 slot now taken by Dune and moving to September 17. That will put Cry Macho up against Paramount's Clifford the Big Red Dog and B-movie kings Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo's Copshop.

October 22 is looking to be an exciting day at the movies with Dune joining the fray. Not only that, it will have double the Timothée Chalamet: Both Dune and Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch are set to premiere on that day. As far as rising movie stars, Chalamet has got all his bases covered – stepping into his first major lead role in a sci-fi tentpole directed by acclaimed auteur Denis Villeneuve, and putting on a mustache to join the colorful ensemble of an arthouse film by another beloved director with The French Dispatch.

Also opening in theaters on October 22 are Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho, Jackass 4, and the animated film Ron's Gone Wrong. And we all know what's going to draw the most cinephiles to the box office: Jackass 4.