As there’s positive vibes (knock on wood) coming out the AMPTP and WGA talks at the time of this post, there are interesting maneuvers happening on the theatrical release-date calendar. Specifically, more films keep getting added.
After Paramount dated its next Mean Girls for MLK weekend 2024 today, a positive indication that the winter won’t be completely dry of movies due to the strikes: Lionsgate has plopped John Woo’s next action movie, Silent Night, on December 1.
Silent Night is an acquisition by Lionsgate.
That’s the post-Black Friday weekend frame, which typically sees genre pics pull in a young audience. Currently, 20th Century Studios/Disney has the Jeff Nichols-directed The Bikeriders on that date. There’s also MGM’s expansion of Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn.
Silent Night is Woo’s first American theatrical movie since 2003’s Paycheck, starring Ben Affleck and Aaron Eckhart. The new film, which uniquely has no dialogue, stars Joel Kinnaman, Scott Mescudi, Harold Torres, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. Robert Archer Lynn wrote the script. The pic is also produced by John Wick producers Thunder Road Films.
The gritty revenge tale follows a tormented father (Kinnaman) who witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang’s crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, Kinnaman makes vengeance his life’s mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son’s death.
Producers are Christian Mercuri, Lori Tilkin deFelice, Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Woo. In addition to Thunder Road, Capstone Studios and A Better Tomorrow Films are the production companies.