by Conan Simmons – November 18, 2020 – 7:04 pm
Word finally came down today from Warner Bros. that the highly anticipated sequel, ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ will now be released to streaming on HBO Max on December 25. It has not given up entirely on theaters. The December 25 release will be what is called a day-and-date release, meaning it will open simultaneously in theaters and streaming.
More than half of theaters in the U.S. remain closed due to the ongoing pandemic and the absolutely horrible handling of it by the Republican led government. Nearly a quarter million have died of Covid-19 in the U.S. alone.
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ had originally been scheduled for release on June 5 until it was pushed back to August 14 and again to October 2 until finally settling on December 25. Overseas markets will receive ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ on December 16 keeping with Hollywood’s long standing of releasing major tentpole movies a week or two earlier internationally before bowing in the U.S.
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ is directed by Patty Jenkins and stars Gal Gadot as the eponymous superheroine.
How the movie plays in theaters compared to streaming will undoubtedly be watched closely by all in Hollywood as the landscape for distribution continues to change.
In other movie news, Quentin Tarantino’s hit film ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ will be getting a novelization written by Tarantino himself. The book, as the movie, will follow the lives of struggling actor Rick Dalton and his stunt double Cliff Booth as they navigate their way through a changing movie industry while living next door to Sharon Tate. Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie played the roles in the movie. The novel is expected to contain variations on the story that will differentiate it from the movie.
The novelization will be part of a two book deal Quentin Tarantino recently made with HarperCollins publishing. The second book will be “70’s Movie Deep Dive: Cinema Speculation” that will contain essays and movie reviews by Tarantino focusing on genre films from the 1970’s that inspired his work.
Quentin Tarantino has long said he will only make 10 movies and then move on to writing books and other things, possibly even video games. Last year’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is his ninth feature meaning he only expects to make one more movie. There was a video game adaptation of his first movie, ‘Reservoir Dogs’, in 2006 that was banned in Germany, Australia and New Zealand due to violence. It was developed by Volatile Games and published by Eidos Interactive and Square Enix Europe, it was made available for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
A sequel video game, ‘Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days’ was released in 2017. Developed by Big Star Games it is available on Steam. Quentin Tarantino is not directly involved with any video game adaptation of his movies.