Despite Variety recently reporting that “Here Comes The Flood” was on the unofficial shortlist for the Venice Film Festival, they’re now updating that claim from June and stating the Netflix pic is moving out of 2026 entirely and possibly debuting sometime in 2027, so Venice is being ruled out as it likely won’t be completed in time. The highly anticipated unconventional heist film is helmed by Fernando Meirelles (“Two Popes,” “City of God”) with stars Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Danai Gurira, and Sean Harris playing key roles. Netflix’s busy slate is also being cited for the thriller’s push, with “La Bola Negra,” Léa Seydou‘s “Gentle Monster,” the Brad Pitt-led “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” from director David Fincher, the war drama “The Mosquito Bowl” from Peter Berg, and the Venice opener “Ink” hailing from Danny Boyle.
In the piece from Variety where they mentioned the delay for “Here Comes The Flood,” they’ve outlined a bunch of other movies that are either shifting from the festival and award season in 2026 for various debuts in 2027. This could mean that some of these anticipated projects just aren’t ready to go or that the current landscape is a little crowded with too many desirable contenders making things way too competitive.
THE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM IS DOWN/A24: Filmmaker Ruben Östlund‘s latest disaster satire (expected to feature a plane crash with a group of Aussie cricket fans) was already expected to debut next year at the Cannes Film Festival, so it wasn’t a huge shocker that it wasn’t going to be bowing in 2026 (given the director’s history of debuting his films at Cannes). That one features another impressive cast such as Keanu Reeves (“Good Fortune”), Oscar-nominee Kirsten Dunst (“Roofman,” “Civil War”), Daniel Brühl (“All Quiet On The Western Front”), Nicholas Braun (“Sucession”) and two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton, who just wowed audiences as Circe in Christopher Nolan‘s “The Odyssey” and there is a suspecion that she’ll land a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for her performance.
SATURN RETURN/NETFLIX: Greg Kwedar‘s high-profile follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “Sing Sing” won’t be ready either, but could end up landing at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March 2027. The project from Netflix and Plan B, starring Charles Melton (“Her Private Hell,” “Beef”), Rachel Brosnahan (“Superman”), and Will Poulter (“The Bear,” “I Love Boosters,” “Union Country”), is “a Chicago-set romance that unfolds across two timelines, tracing a decade in the lives of three college friends.”
THE RIDERS/A24: German director Edward Berger, who is coming off massive critical hits with both “Conclave” and “All Quiet on the Western Front,” has Brad Pitt in the role of the psychological thriller adapted by screenwriter David Kajganich from Tim Winton’s 1994 book of the same name. Julianne Nicholson, Danny Huston and Camille Cottin play roles opposite Pitt, which they claim won’t be ready as Pitt has two other films coming in the coming months, such as “Heart of the Beast” and “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” making it tough for Pitt to also promote this movie.
CRY TO HEAVEN: Tom Ford’s feature adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1982 novel, which is set in the ruthless world of 18th-century Italian opera. That one features Nicholas Hoult (“Man of Tomorrow,” “Nosferatu”), Colin Firth (“Disclosure Day”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Werwulf,” “Nosferatu”) and famed singer Adele making her acting debut. It’s currently without a distributor yet attached, and they’re still trying to land a buyer.
JACK OF SPADES: Joel Coen‘s solo directorial effort is “a gothic mystery, set in 1880s Scotland,” his second solo feature after “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” and stars Josh O’Connor, Frances McDormand, Lesley Manville and Damian Lewis. Variety believes an acquisition announcement is expected sooner rather than later, but that likely means we won’t be seeing it coming out for critics until next year.
A PLACE IN HELL/NEON: Director Chloe Domont’s follow-up to “Fair Play” was once expected to come out on Christmas Day; however, NEON has pushed the mature legal world thriller to April 23, 2027, so we’ve all known it wouldn’t be ready for bow in 2026. It stars Michelle Williams as “a cutthroat criminal defense attorney on the verge of making partner whose ambitions are upended when a younger lawyer, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, is brought in to replace her, with the rivalry escalating to dangerous extremes.” Another name on the call sheet is Andrew Scott.
CHILDREN OF BLOOD & BONE: Lastly, they mention Paramount Pictures and Gina Prince-Bythewood‘s big-budget adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling “Legacy of Orïsha” fantasy series, that already has a theatrical debut on Janurary 15, 2027, but there had been some rumblings it could have had a qualifying run in 2026, but now that is said to be not happening, according to the outlet’s sources at the studio. Thuso Mbedu, Damson Idris, Amandla Stenberg, Cynthia Erivo, Lashana Lynch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Regina King, Idris Elba and Viola Davis are part of the star-studded cast. Worth noting that the novel’s author has disavowed the film in a public statement from earlier in the month.
Where some of these projects are going to land in the festival circuit, and whether they’ll ultimately make the nomination lists for award season, is a tad unknown at the moment.
