2015 may be over-saturated with costly tentpoles, but we have release date news of at least two films that appear to be aiming at an older crowd: we suspect each will be worlds apart in tone once all is said and done,
First up, THR reports that John Hillcoat’s followup to “Lawless” will hit theaters next year on September 11th. Titled “Triple Nine,” the Matt Cook-scripted heist thriller will follow “a crew of dirty cops that [are] blackmailed by the Russian mob to execute a virtually impossible heist. The only way to pull it off is to manufacture a 999, police code for ‘officer down,’ but the plan is turned upside down when the unsuspecting rookie they set up to die foils the attack.” While the plot may sound like something straight out of the David Ayer playbook, the cast is nothing to sneeze at, encompassing actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson, Aaron Paul, Kate Winslet, Gal Gadot and Norman Reedus. As it stands right now, “Triple Nine” has September 11th, 2015 all to itself. That date certainly renders the film prime for festival programming: you can bet Telluride, Venice and TIFF are already on the phone trying to secure the film.
Meanwhile, few could have predicted Channing Tatum‘s ascendance in 2012. Fewer still could have predicted that the actor’s third consecutive box office hit that year would be an R-rated Steven Soderbergh film set in the world of male stripping. Obviously there’s a “Magic Mike” sequel on the way and though we heard earlier this year that “Magic Mike XXL” would be swinging into theaters around July 4th, the most American of weekends, it seems that Warner Bros suddenly has cold feet. Just kidding! The studio is doubling down on that date with Deadline reporting the release date has been moved up two days, from July 3rd to July 1st. As if you needed further confirmation of Warner Bros’ confidence in the “Magic Mike” sequel, you should know that the only other competition scheduled for that weekend is Paramount’s “Terminator: Genisys.” Beefcakes stripping versus killer cyborgs! What’s more American than that?