No Time To Die Delayed Until October

No Time to Die, the latest James Bond film and the final installment to feature Daniel Craig's portrayal of 007, will now be released in theaters on October 8, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That matches reports that emerged yesterday suggesting that the film -- which was the first major blockbuster to delay its release last year at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic -- might be positioning itself to do the same again. Whether the No Time to Die delay will reset the clock and start every studio scrambling to re-date their movies is anybody's guess at this point.

Some, like Warner Bros., are likely to keep most of their release dates since they are doing theatrical and HBO Max paired releases for all their 2021 new release films. As of this writing, Sony has just announced that they will once again delay the theatrical release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but given that Sony also has an interest in Die Another Day, it's not necessarily a sign of wider trends yet, so much as it is a sign of what Sony's current thinking is on the matter of release dates.

"This thing is just bigger than all of us," Daniel Craig said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon back in October. "We want to release the movie at the same time all around the world and this isn't the right time. So fingers crossed April 2nd is going to be our date."

Cary Fukunaga is directing the No Time to Die with a script he co-wrote alongside Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Scott Z.Burns, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The film stars Craig, Rami Malek, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Lashana Lynch, Jeffrey Wright, Lea Seydoux, and Billy Magnussen. Christoph Waltz will be making a return as the villain Blofeld.

Here's the official synopsis for No Time to Die:

"In NO TIME TO DIE, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology."

Check back here for more updates on No Time to Die and the rest of the 2020 release schedule as we learn them.