In what should come as a shock to no one, the Christopher Nolan thriller Tenet reportedly has been pulled from its August release date, according to Variety.
The movie — which stars John David Washington in some sort of reverse-casualty mind-eff — already has been pushed back from its initial July 17 date. But with the coronavirus continuing to flourish in the United States, the studio has pushed the date yet again. Variety didn't note a new release date.
Nolan has made no secret of wanting Tenet to be a major event when it's finally released in theaters. And that means he's also refused to settle for releasing the film through the various on-demand streaming options.
From Variety: "Sources at Warner Bros. stress that they will have to be flexible with its plans to release 'Tenet,' which means it will not have a traditional theatrical rollout."
On one hand, it's completely understandable that Nolan wants his latest epic (and by all rights this will be an epic film) to be seen on the big screen — Nolan used IMAX again in this one — and with all the fanfare (and superlative audio) that comes with it. Imagine if Inception had never been in theaters. Or Interstellar.
On the other hand, given the state of things in the United States who knows how long it'll take for things to settle down enough for theater levels to return to the mark they need to hit for Tenet to be a viable proposition. We've already seen no less a film than Hamilton move up its release by months, and switch to Disney+. And it's just one of several that has done so on Disney's streaming service.
So no Tenet yet. Maybe no Tenet for a while.
