Russell Crowe's "Unhinged" to Be First Movie in Theaters

We’re still months away from the country returning to normal post-coronavirus, but the producers of the Russell Crowe road-rage thriller Unhinged are counting on the fact people will be clamoring to get back to movie theaters whenever we do. The movie is scheduled for a July 1 theatrical release, making it the first film to play in theaters since the pandemic began.

Interestingly, while most movies have been pushed back to later dates due to the virus, the Solstice Studios film’s release date has actually been bumped up, after it was originally slated to come out September 4.

“When we green lit this film, I probably figured that July 4th weekend and Christmas would be the two least likely slots,” Solstice chairman/CEO Mark Gill told Deadline. “We were sitting on September 4 and then COVID-19 happened, and A Quiet Place 2 moved out of its original slot and landed on our date. When you are in a speedboat and a giant ship is coming at you, you better move out of the way. We looked at the rest of the year, fall/winter and spring 2021. The release schedule was already crowded, and when you add all the films that have been delayed, it made it think that maybe we go sooner.”

Solstice is leaving the safety precautions to the individual theaters that will screen the movie, but Gill says he’s confident they’ll be able to reopen safely after speaking to theater owners. “They said they’ve survived floods, hurricanes, riots and shootings, things they had to adapt to in the moment,” he said. “They all say, we’ve had time to prepare and we’re going to do this right. They understand there’s no getting this three-quarters right. It has to be 100 percent safe, and their levels of preparation gave us the confidence we needed to do this.”

If the idea of sitting in a theater with other people just about seven weeks from now doesn’t sound completely unhinged to you, check out the trailer for the flick below.