Posted in: MGM, Movies | Tagged: mhm, movies
No Time To Die Director Cary Fukunaga Supports the Latest Delay
No Time To Die has had a bit of a rough road getting to the big screen. Before cameras even started rolling, there were issues with director Danny Boyle which lead to him dropping out of the project at sort of the last minute. MGM decided to bring on Cary Joji Fukunaga to direct the movie, and all seemed to be going well. However, 2020 pulled a 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. No Time To Die was one of the first big productions to get a significant delay moving from April 2020 to November 2020, and everyone seemed fairly confident that the movie was going to come out. However, the United States failed to get its collective shit together and wear a stupid mask, so come October, and the pandemic still rages. MGM decided to delay No Time To Die, the latest movie for movie theaters to pin their hopes on, from November 2020 to April 2021. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (via IndieWire), Fukunaga talked about his initial reaction to
"There were a couple of hours of F—, it's not happening. And then pretty quickly, I mentally moved on…I was at peace with it. … I think they made a very smart decision to be one of the first to say out loud, 'This is a big thing. We're moving the film.' Because a lot of people were in denial. Some still are."
There isn't much that Fukunaga can do about the No Time To Die delay and acknowledged that the movie will come out when it comes out. He also tells everyone that we need to focus on the bigger pictures here.
"I look at it unemotionally right now…. There are so many bigger things happening. I have friends who are losing businesses, restaurants, and other friends who have lost family members. … The film will come out when it's right," he said, "and it will perform in the context of this new world, in which no one really can define what success or failure means."
He's right that the context will very much matter when it comes to the bottom line of this movie. Unfortunately for MGM, they have had two promo campaigns for this movie before it got delayed, and that kind of marketing does cost money. The box office numbers that this will have to do to break even are going to be massive.
No Time To Die, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, stars Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Ralph Fiennes, Lea Seydoux, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Dali Benssalah, Billy Magnussen, Ana De Armas, David Dencik, and Lashana Lynch. It will be released on April 2nd, 2021.