Christopher Nolan Is Fighting Hard to Keep Tenet July Release Date

As the entertainment industry grapples with the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, certain elements have been hit hard. Production around the world on movies and shows has been halted with titles delayed as much as a year and some studios abandoning plans for 2020 theatrical film releases entirely. There has been one constant this entire time though as Christopher Nolan‘s new movie Tenet has never moved from its July 17 release date, not even by a week. Warner Bros. has shifted countless other movies on their calendar but Tenet remains in July, and the director himself is pushing for the film to be released at that time.

“I know Chris really would like to be come out with the film that for theaters, but that’s up to a lot of things including government regulations and the virus and all sorts of things,” IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond said during the company’s quarterly earnings call today. “Certain filmmakers are very anxious to have their movies release. So I don’t know anyone in America who’s pushing harder than Chris Nolan to get the theaters open and to get his movie released in July when it’s scheduled for.”

He added, “So it’s really a balance. I’ve frankly never seen closer cooperation of the studios and the exhibitors than now. There’s just almost a daily dialogue going on for everybody’s trying to assess when are the likely opening dates and what is the optimal time. And I think people are really working together to make it happen.”

Nolan wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in mid-March, calling for the public to put their full support behind movie theaters and the business when life returns to normal, writing: “When people think about movies, their minds first go to the stars, the studios, the glamour. But the movie business is about everybody: the people working the concession stands, running the equipment, taking tickets, booking movies, selling advertising and cleaning bathrooms in local theaters. Regular people, many paid hourly wages rather than a salary, earn a living running the most affordable and democratic of our community gathering places.”

The director added, “As Congress considers applications for assistance from all sorts of affected businesses, I hope that people are seeing our exhibition community for what it really is: a vital part of social life, providing jobs for many and entertainment for all.”

Little is actually known about Nolan’s latest film with the official description revealing only that it is “s an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage. One thing we DO know about the movie though is the cast which includes John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, Himesh Patel, Kenneth Branagh, and Christopher Nolan’s lucky charm, Michael Caine.

(H/T Rerelease News)