Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was missing from yesterday’s Cannes programme announcement and Thierry Fremaux implied the film won’t be releasing in July as expected.
EDIT: Thierry Fremaux has now retracted his statement and clarified that Oppenheimer will still release in July as planned, according to the Variety story.
Nolan’s new film is currently scheduled to be released on July 21 and officially, that hasn’t changed. The first trailer proudly boasted the July release date.
However, in an interview with Variety, Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said Oppenheimer was not included in the festival’s line-up because it wasn’t ready yet, much to Fremaux’s disappointment.
“I would have loved [that] but it’s being released at the end of the year as part of their awards strategy.”
Fremaux’s comment has come as a bit of a surprise. He also expressed disappointment over not being able to screen Greta Gerwig’s Barbie which has the same general release date as Oppenheimer.
The Wrap later reported that a source close to the studio said the release date had not been changed.
Oppenheimer has been hailed as Nolan’s latest masterpiece and its awards chances were always strong. A later release date would certainly help its chances; films released over the summer rarely have the momentum to make it to the race which mostly takes place early on in the following year. Elvis, however, was a notable exception, but even that ended up going home without any Oscars.
Warner Bros. is distributing Oppenheimer and the studio has not updated the film’s release date as of yet. It remains to be seen if Nolan and Oppenheimer stick to their July release date in the ultimate cinematic battle with Barbie.
