The SXSW World Premiere of David Lowery’s “The Green Knight,” a fantasy re-telling of the medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, was canceled due to the current pandemic. The film was set to premiere at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas on March 16th.
Given that the other big title that was supposed to premiere at SXSW, Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island,” has now transitioned to a June digital release, my hopes were that Lowery’s film would do the same, alas, that is not going to happen as A24 has decided to cancel a May 29th theatrical release for “The Green Knight.” No new date has currently been set.
The trailer set up the 14th century-set world that Lowery had concocted for us. A medieval fantasy film based on the poem, ‘Sir Gaiwin and the Green Knight” which was was written by an anonymous, 14th-century British poet. Only one copy of the poem has survived to this day. “The Green Knight” is no doubt a risk-taking venture for A24 since it deals with fantasy, a genre they have rarely tackled in their past films.
Dev Patel, Joel Edgerton, Alicia Vikander and Sean Harris.star in the film. Lowery has directed five movies thus far in his young directorial career; “A Ghost Story,” “Ain’t Them Bodies A Saint,” “The Old Man and the Gun,” “Pete’s Dragon” and his 2011 feature-length debut “Saint Nick.”
Because A24 loves and promotes the theatrical experience, I can’t foresee them following in the footsteps of Disney and Universal by releasing their 2020 theatrical titles directly to streaming. This means that Saint Maud, The Green Knight, Minari, First Cow, and Zola will all have to wait until movie theaters are fully reopened.
Alongside Blanchett, the film features a wildly eclectic ensemble including Dave Bautista, Lily-Rose Depp, Riley Keough, Léa Seydoux, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Chris Pine