Disney has announced a pair of new release dates along with a couple of calendar shuffles.  Briefly:

  • The Ghost in the Shell movie, which recently set Scarlett Johansson to star, will arrive in theaters on April 14, 2017 in 3D.
  • The Pete’s Dragon remake will hit theaters on August 12, 2016, also in 3D.
  • Director Jon Favreau’s CG-heavy The Jungle Book has been pushed from October of this year to April 15, 2016.
  • In light of The Jungle Book’s move, the coast guard drama The Finest Hours will now take over its previous release date of October 9, 2015.  It will also be released in 3D.

More on each project after the jump.

ghost in the shell
Image via Manga Entertainment

Movement picked up on DreamWorks’ adaptation of the classic manga/anime Ghost in the Shell recently when Scarlett Johansson—apparently the only actress capable of leading female-driven action films—signed on to star.  Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders came on to helm the movie last year and one imagines he’s still attached at this point.  Given Johansson’s busy schedule, it makes sense that the Ghost in the Shell movie won’t arrive for a couple more years, but I imagine filming will get underway sometime later this year.  Currently the film has its April 2017 date all to itself, though it is set to arrive one week after Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim 2.

Also getting a release date is Disney’s live-action remake of Pete’s Dragon. Filmmaker David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) is directing and has been building an impressive cast that now includes Robert Redford, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Michael C. Hall.  The film will start production soon, and is currently set to square off against Seth Rogen’s R-rated animated film Sausage Party, the comedy Dirty Grandpa, and Universal’s action-thriller Spectral on its August date.

Finally, a switcheroo is happening between The Jungle Book and The Finest Hours.  Favreau is currently in production on The Jungle Book, but the performance-capture-heavy film likely needs more time for visual effects, and so it is now taking over the April 2016 date previously held by The Finest Hours while that Casey Affleck-fronted coast guard drama moves up to this coming October.  The Jungle Book now opens opposite Goosebumps and The Best Man Wedding, while The Finest Hours squares off against Vacation and the Halle Berry thriller Kidnap.

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Image via Disney