Dune: Part Two, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Color Purple may be pushed into 2024 amid dual strikes fr – Daily Mail

Warner Bros. is considering pushing three of its biggest movies slated for the end of this year into 2024, amid the dual strikes from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA.

Dune: Part Two (November 3), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (December 20) and The Color Purple (December 25) are all being eyed for new 2024 dates, via Variety.

Strike rules from both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA prohibit its members from promoting any upcoming work from a struck company.

That means they cannot participate in any red carpet premieres, Q&A’s, press junkets or any other interviews during the strike, which would be a huge blow to all of the above films’ marketing campaigns.

While no dates have been confirmed – and Warner Bros. has not commented on the Variety report – the consideration to push three of their biggest movies into the next year is likely an indication the studio doesn’t believe the strike will be over by mid-fall, which also comes after reports Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom underwent three extensive reshoots.

Dune: Part Two is the conclusion to 2021’s Dune, the studio’s sprawling adaptation of Frank Herbert’s masterful 1965 sci-fi novel.

The film features a star-studded cast including Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Christopher Walken.

The original 896-page novel was published as a two-part serial in Analog magazine before the novel won the Hugo Award and the inaugural Nebula Award.

Director Denis Villeneuve had set out to direct an ambitious two-part movie that he hoped would succeed where David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, a 1990 Sci-Fi Channel adaptation and filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s infamous adaptation attempt had previously failed.

The first part was a success, bringing in $402 million worldwide theatrically even though the movie was simultaneously available on HBO Max, earning 10 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, and winning six Oscars in technical categories.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is also coming off the success of its predecessor, with 2018’s Aquaman earning $335 million domestic and $1.148 billion worldwide. 

Jason Momoa returns as the title character, alongside Patrick Wilson (King Orm), Amber Heard (Queen Mera), Dolph Lundgren (Nereus), Nicole Kidman (Atlanna), Yahya Abdul-Mateen III (Black Manta) and Temuera Morrison (Tom Curry).

It was reported earlier this week that director James Wan brought his cast back for a third round of reshoots, said to be ‘unprecedented’ for a film of that size.

If the movie is pushed into 2024, it will give director Wan and his editors more time to craft the film, which will be the last DCEU project created under the previous DC Studios regime, before James Gunn and Peter Safran took over.

The Color Purple is the latest adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning 1982 novel, which spawned a 1985 adaptation of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and the feature-film debut of Oprah Winfrey. 

The adaptation earned 11 Oscar nominations, though it won none, which was quite controversial among many critics who perceived it as the best picture of the year, including Roger Ebert (Out of Africa won Best Picture).

The new adaptation from director Blitz Bazawule stars Halle Berry,  Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks.