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Warner Bros’ Six Billion Dollar Man & More Get Release Dates
Warner Bros. has set release dates for The Six Billion Dollar Man and a few other movies. The Weinstein Company originally planned on having The Six Billion Dollar Man, based on the 1970s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, release in 2017, but the film ended up suffering from numerous delays. Then, in late 2017, The Weinstein Company sold the film to Warner Bros. following the Harvey Weinstein scandal that eventually forced the company to sell for $500 million. Now, WB hopes to start filming The Six Billion Dollar Man this summer.
Mark Wahlberg will be playing Col. Steve Austin in The Six Billion Dollar Man, which will be written and directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Damián Szifron. The film will update the series that originally starred Lee Majors about a military man who, after a near-fatal accident, is rebuilt into a superhuman cyborg government operative. While that movie is finally scheduled to release after being stuck in development for the past few years, it’s only one of many movies on Warner Bros. slate that got a new release date today. The Kitchen, based on a Vertigo comic book series written by Ollie Masters, and The Sun is Also a Star also got new dates.
Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has dated The Sun is Also a Star to release on May 17, 2019, with The Six Billion Dollar Man releasing two weeks later on May 31. Meanwhile, The Kitchen will release on September 20, 2019. Warner Bros. has also lined up 2019 release dates for two untitled New Line Cinema horror movies: April 19 and July 3. Moreover, an untitled event film originally slated for September 27, 2019 has been removed from the docket.
The Six Billion Dollar Man was originally supposed to mark the fourth high profile film between Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg, after Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon, and Lone Survivor., but Berg ended up dropping the project. Szifron has now taken over writing and directing the film. As for The Kitchen, Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and a currently uncast actress will take the leads in that film, which will be the first feature film from director Andrea Berloff. The movie follows the dealings of Irish mob wives in Hell’s Kitchen in the ‘70s whose husbands go to prison.
These dates form a strong response from Warner Bros. to recently announced dates from Sony and Disney (who has yet to title many of their slated releases). The Six Billion Dollar Man is aiming to use Wahlberg’s status as a world-recognized celebrity, while also reviving a fondly remembered TV series. Then, The Kitchen is looking to become a high-profile woman mob drama by taking inspiration from a comic book that, interestingly, wasn’t too popular. The Sun is Also a Star is an unknown entity, but its cultural relevance in the political landscape ought to translate into filled seats.
