Will we see a more normal summer for movies in 2021? So far, things are at least looking up from last year. 2020’s summer box office called in sick (with the exception of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet arriving at the tail end). As we approach the busy blockbuster season, there are a number of major films holding summer dates, including Marvel’s Black Widow, Warner Bros’ In The Heights and Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II. But, there is still some final shuffling going on this week including Universal’s Tom Hanks-led film, BIOS.
The science fiction movie about Tom Hanks’ Finch living in a post-apocalyptic world with his trusty dog has just been moved by Universal for the third time, but this shift inspires the most confidence for BIOS’ summer release. After all, the studio has only moved the movie back one week, from August 13 to August 20 of this year, per Deadline.
The decision follows Disney’s decision to move Free Guy from late May to the same day as BIOS. The August 13 release date is additionally occupied by the horror sequel Don’t Breathe 2, and the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. BIOS has moved itself out of the packed summer weekend to share a debut date with The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and Paw Patrol: The Movie instead.
August is shaping up to be a huge month for movies, as the summer month will also include the release of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and the Jordan Peele-produced remake of Candyman. Within the week, Disney, Lionsgate and now Universal have established that they are planning on keeping their big-budget releases in summer 2021, and it’s an exciting change of pace from drastic date changes within the past year.
BIOS was originally slated to come out in theaters on October 2, 2020 until Universal decided to move it to 2021 following Wonder Woman 1984’s prior move from June to October 2020. The DCEU movie ended up moving again to Christmas Day, and early this year BIOS’ release date shifted again from April 2021 to August 13. We can definitely deal with waiting just one week longer to see Tom Hanks play one of the last people on Earth.
The movie is about an ailing inventor who builds a robot to take care of his dog companion before he dies. BIOS is directed by Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik from a script by newcomers Craig Luck and Ivor Powell. The sci-fi flick will take after Castaway in the sense that Tom Hanks will spend most of the movie playing the only human character.
Hanks has had good and bad luck since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The actor was shooting his Elvis Presley movie last March, and became the first Hollywood name to announce that he had contracted the virus. He has since overcome COVID-19, returned to continue to film the Baz Luhrmann movie and appeared as the star of two 2020 movies, Greyhound and News of the World (not to mention his brief cameo in Boral Subsequent Moviefilm).
Along with BIOS coming to theaters on August 20, you can check out what other 2021 movies are on the way here on CinemaBlend.
