By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Christopher Nolan has been talking up TENET as the movie that will spearhead the return of movies to the big screen this summer, but now the road-rage thriller will be driving in first.
New distributor Solstice Studios is taking the gamble on bringing UNHINGED to theaters July 1, ahead of TENET’s scheduled July 17 debut (which may yet change). Directed by Derrick Borte from a script by Carl Ellsworth (RED EYE, DISTURBIA, the LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT remake), UNHINGED stars Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Gabriel Bateman, Jimmi Simpson and Austin P. McKenzie. The synopsis: “Rachel [Pistorius] is running late to work when she has an altercation at a traffic light with a stranger [Crowe] whose life has left him feeling powerless and invisible. Soon, Rachel finds herself and everyone she loves the target of a man who decides to make one last mark upon the world by teaching her a series of deadly lessons. What follows is a dangerous game of cat and mouse that proves you never know just how close you are to someone who is about to become unhinged.”
Originally announced for a September 4 release (a slot now occupied by the delayed A QUIET PLACE PART II), UNHINGED will now be braving a theatrical landscape that is still uncertain; while theaters in some states are just now getting back into business, it’s uncertain if major markets like New York and Los Angeles will be open by early July. “If there are places where density is a factor and theaters aren’t open, that’s OK,” Solstice president/CEO Mark Gill tells Variety. “It might be that theaters are closed in New York City or Chicago or San Francisco, but less populated cities and suburbs will be open and we expect there to be a lot of pent-up demand. We would get killed if we stayed there,” he says of the original date and QUIET PLACE PART II. “The whole idea is not to be somewhere where you can get run over by a supertanker.” Solstice has announced that it will work within public health guidelines and social-distancing restrictions at the venues showing UNHINGED.