The release of some movies has been more impacted by the ongoing pandemic than others, and Miguel Sapochnik's Finch is an excellent example. Originally titled BIOS, the sci-fi film starring Tom Hanks initially went into production all the way back in February 2019, and in the time since then it has repeatedly bounced from release date to release date – going from October 2, 2020 to April 16, 2021, to August 13, 2021, and to August 20, 2021 before being taken off the schedule completely. The feature then saw some big news in the spring when it was announced that Universal Pictures had sold the film to AppleTV+, and while the release date was still left up in the air at the time, we now know when it is coming out, and have gotten our first look.
Apple Original Films has announced that Finch will be arriving as an AppleTV+ exclusive on Friday, November 5, and has released the debut still, which you can see above. With its new release date, the movie is now set up with what is potentially a very strong scheduling position in the later-in-the-year awards race, but it also should be noted that it will be facing off against some serious competition for attention. While the Tom Hanks feature will be streaming online on the first weekend of the second to last month of the year, that is also presently the date that Marvel Studios is planning to roll out Chloe Zhao's Eternals. That's not an easy situation, but if it's a quality piece of work it still has a fine chance to find an audience.
An original film based on a screenplay by Craig Luck and Ivor Powell, Finch's titular character is a robotics engineer (Tom Hanks) who lives in solitude – a circumstance forced on him given that he is one of the last humans on Earth following a solar event that fries the planet. Living with his beloved dog, Goodyear, he comes to the understanding that someone will need to take care of his pet when he is gone, and this leads to him creating a robot named Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones) that he then has to train. After years spent in a bunker, the trio begin a trip traveling across the country, with Finch trying to teach his creation about being alive.
Finch will be the second Tom Hanks film to be released on AppleTV+ since the start of 2020, as the streaming service also picked up the World War II naval film Greyhound and debuted it last year after it was originally scheduled for theatrical release. Clearly, the folks at Apple believe in the star power of Hanks, and we'll have to wait and see if it results in the actor potentially getting his seventh Academy Award nomination.
It likely won't be too long now until we get a trailer for Finch, so keep an eye here on CinemaBlend for that, and for a full low down on all of the titles set to come out between now and the end of December, check out our 2021 Movie Release Schedule.
