You see what you’ve done, Hollywood? With the summer of 2015 completely congested with tentpoles from all the major studios, Warner Bros. has opted to release two buzzy, star-studded projects in the cold winter months of next year. Spy reboot The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (pictured above) has been handed a January 16 release date, while con-artist caper Focus will be released on February 27.
If this was any other year we were talking about, I’d say that Warner Bros. had recognized the two flicks as likely bombs and decided to bury them in the typically barren months of January and February. However, 2015 is absolutely waterlogged with major flicks. In the summer of next year, Warner Bros. already has three major projects – sci-fi revamp Mad Max: Fury Road, Dwayne Johnson action adventure San Andreas and Joe Wright’s Peter Pan reworking Pan – but the months of May, June, July and August will also see the release of competing blockbusters like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Fantastic Four, Terminator: Genesis, Ant-Man, Bourne 5 and (I hate to say it) The Smurfs 3.
So, perhaps an earlier release will bode well for both flicks. However, even their current slots won’t be completely without competition. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. will go up against a Frankenstein remake and Michael Mann’s thriller Cyber, while Focus will be battling Tarsem Singh’s sci-fi thriller Selfless and the star-studded 3D adventure Everest. Regardless, Warner Bros.’s releases will now almost certainly be the box office victors in their respective weeks, which likely would not have been the case if either flick had been released in the summer of 2015.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E., directed by Guy Ritchie, is a reboot of the classic spy series. Set in the 1960s, it follows two agents (Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer) working for the spy organization U.N.C.L.E., who team up to stop a shadowy organization from unleashing chaos across the world. Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Debicki, Alicia Vikander and Jared Harris co-star.
Focus, from Crazy, Stupid, Love. directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, stars Will Smith as a professional con artist whose romance with his young protégé (Margot Robbie) threatens to disrupt the heist of a lifetime when the pair meet up years after their romance. Rodrigo Santoro also stars.
Are you interested in either The Man from U.N.C.L.E. or Focus? Let us know in the comments section!