Lionsgate is making moves to its release calendar, including dating the video game feature Borderlands for summer 2024 and pushing dates for Dirty Dancing sequel and its prequel to Wonder.
Borderlands is now set to bow on Aug. 9, 2024. The film hails from director Eli Roth, and also underwent additional photography from Deadpool filmmaker Tim Miller. Borderlands, based on the popular gaming franchise, is a big swing for Lionsgate, which secured big stars to fill out the expansive cast of characters. The call sheet includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett and Edgar Ramirez. Borderlands launched as game in 2009, and spawned multiple sequels that have sold a combined 66 million units. Gearbox Software and publisher 2K released Borderlands 3 in 2019.
White Bird: A Wonder Story was slated for an Aug. 25 wide release, but is now undated with an eye for the fourth quarter of 2023. The Marc Forster feature is a prequel to the 2017 film The Wonder and stars Bryce Gheisar, Gillian Anderson and Hellen Mirren. The shift isn’t a huge surprise, considering that Mirren has another movie launching the same August weekend, Bleecker Street’s biopic Golda.
Meanwhile, director Jonathan Levine’s Dirty Dancing sequel is moving off its Feb. 9, 2024 date and is eying a summer 2025 release. Jennifer Grey will reprise her role in the film, a sequel to the 1987 classic that also starred the late Patrick Swayze.
The moves come at challenging times for studios as they navigate duel writers and actors strikes, which hamper both the production and the promotion of movies. So far, studios haven’t revealed any major calendar moves because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, but release dates are certain to shift if the strike continues.
Pamela McClintock contributed to this report.
