With the summer of 2015 set to be one of the biggest blockbuster seasons ever, it's no surprise that the major studios have already begun tinkering with the various titles and dates on the schedule like pieces on a chess board. Walt Disney made the first strike when they moved Edgar Wright's Ant-Man from November to July 31, 2015 and took Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales off the calendar completely (it was originally dated for July 10, 2015). The Universal Pictures made their move when they announced that would be putting out the next Jurassic Park sequel, Jurassic World, on June 12, 2015. And now it's time for Paramount Pictures to play around with their biggest title of the 2015 season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has opted to change the release date for the upcoming Terminator reboot from on June 26, 2015 to Wednesday July 1, 2015. While it's only a five day shift, it's an interesting one, as the title is going from a weekend without competition to one that already has two other big movies scheduled for release. It's clear that the studio wants to control the July 4th weekend, but in doing so they will be going head-to-head with both Roland Emmerich's Independence Day 2 (an obvious fit for the holiday) and an untitled project from the folks at Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio that has produced hits like the Despicable Me movies and The Lorax. It's worth noting that Terminator currently has a two day jump on both of those films, as the other titles are dated for July 3, 2015, but it's hard to say if that will make a difference from this far out.
Paramount's attempt to take over the Independence Day weekend may also come from the studio's success in that time frame in recent years. In the last decade they have had three major hits land on the holiday, with Transformers, Transformers: Dark of The Moon and War of The Worlds all managing to make a bundle of cash in their respective release years.
Outside of the release date, there really isn't much that we know about the new Terminator movie. As we reported earlier this month, Thor: The Dark World's Alan Taylor is set to helm the film, which will be a reboot of sorts rather than a sequel to McG's Terminator: Salvation. It's being planned as the first of a new trilogy and screenwriters Patrick Lussier and Laeta Kalogridis are currently developing the script.
In other Paramount Pictures release date news, THR also adds that Alexander Payne's Nebraska has also been shifted on the release date calendar. While it was originally going to start its limited run on November 22nd of this year, it has now moved up a full week to November 15th. In the film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival back in May, Bruce Dern and Will Forte play a father and son duo who hop on the road when the dad believes that he has won the lottery.
