Joe Wright’s musical drama Cyrano has been pushed back by over a month in the U.K., seemingly becoming the latest film casualty of the ongoing omicron-fueled COVID-19 surge.
The feature, which Universal is handling internationally and stars Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett and Kelvin Harrison Jr., was due for release on Jan. 14 but, with just a week to go, has been now been delayed until Feb. 25, with previews on Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day), The Hollywood Reporter understands. Given the late move, the publicity drive had already kicked off, with Dinklage appearing on a recent episode of The Graham Norton Show on the BBC to promote the film.
The film joins Operation Mincemeat in the U.K., which THR revealed in December was shifting from its Jan. 14 slot to April 22. Both titles appear skewed towards an older demographic, which even before the emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in late November had been much more cautious about returning to public events. However, it should be noted that Universal, via Focus Features, is still going ahead with the U.K. release of Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, another film that would fit into this category, on Jan. 21.
Cyrano had a limited one-week L.A. run in December, an event also impacted by omicron with United Artists Releasing canceling the red carpet premiere at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Museum on Dec. 15 “out of an abundance of caution given the changing COVID landscape.”
The latest news comes as the U.K. recorded almost 195,000 daily cases of COVID-19, up more than 11,700 from the previous week, and 334 daily deaths.
Source: HollyWood
