We’ve got a few release dates to share today.  Briefly:

  • Labor Day – Writer/director Jason Reitman’s drama starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin will hit theaters in limited release on December 25th of this year (just in time for awards season, natch), before expanding wide on January 31st.
  • Exodus – Director Ridley Scott’s Biblical epic about the life of Moses has been dated for a prime holiday release of December 12, 2014, confirming that this will indeed be Scott’s next project.  Christian Bale may star.
  • Assassin’s Creed – The feature film adaptation of the popular video game series has been dated for Memorial Day weekend of 2015, with a firm May 22, 2015 release date.  Michael Fassbender is producing the film and will also star.

Hit the jump for much more on all of the aforementioned projects.

All release dates come courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

labor-day-book-cover

Juno and Up in the Air director Jason Reitman’s follow-up to 2011’s Young Adult finally arrives later this year.  Based on the Joyce Manard book of the same name, Labor Day centers on a 13-year-old boy who convinces his reclusive mother to take in a drifter over Labor Day weekend.  It’s later revealed that the man is an escaped convict and the three spend a weekend together that will shape them for the rest of their lives.  Kate Winslet plays the mother, Josh Brolin plays the convict, and the cast is rounded out by that likes of Toby Maguire, JK Simmons, Clark Gregg, and James Van Der Beek.  This is an awards contender for sure, and I'm eager to catch the performances and interplay between Winslet and Brolin.

While dueling Moses projects had been moving forward recently at Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, the Warner Bros. project (Gods and Kings) was dealt a blow when Steven Spielberg opted not to direct.  Now it appears that Fox is moving full speed ahead with Exodus, as Ridley Scott’s epic has been given a firm holiday/awards season release date for next year.  Last we heard, Christian Bale was being courted for the Moses role.  The actor has yet to officially sign on, but as Scott finishes up post-production on The Counselor and starts prepping Exodus for production later this year, we should start hearing much more about this project soon.

Exodus has a script by Oscar-winning scribe Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).  The film is currently the only movie dated for the December 12th weekend, but Peter Jackson’s trilogy capper The Hobbit: There and Back Again arrives the following week.

As for Assassin’s Creed, we don’t know much about the film project at this time but it almost certainly has a greenlight as New Regency and Ubisoft have set a Memorial Day weekend 2015 release date, notably the same weekend that launched the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.  Michael Fassbender is toplining the project and producing alongside Ubisoft, and acclaimed English playwright Michael Lesslie was recently tapped to pen the screenplay.  It’ll be interesting to see if the film apes specific storylines from the game series or if Lesslie will be carving out a wholly new tale set in the Assassin’s Creed world.  The only other film currently slated for release in May 2015 is The Avengers 2, which opens on May 1st.