Sony has decided to move Great Hope Springs more than four months away from its initial December 14 release date.  The typical pattern is to push the release later on the calendar, but the dramedy led by Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell, and Jean Smart will instead premiere much sooner on August 10.  The last collaboration between Streep and director David Frankel, The Devil Wears Prada, hit theaters in the summer of 2006 and ended up with over $124 million domestic.  Perhaps Sony is chasing that success, though the story is very different in tone: Great Hopes Springs follows a married couple (Streep and Jones) who undergo a weekend of intense marriage counseling.

To make room on August 10, Variety reports the studio pushed Sparkle back a week to August 17.  Jordin Sparks, Tika Sumpter, Carmen Ejogo, and Whitney Houston star in the remake of the 1976 musical about a Motown girl group inspired by The Supremes. Hit the jump for synopses for both movies.

Great Hope Springs synopsis:

Many years of marriage have left Maeve (Streep) wanting to spice things up and reconnect with her husband.  When she hears of a famed relationship guru (Carell) in the town of Great Hope Springs, she must persuade her skeptical husband (Jones) to get on a plane for an intense week of marriage and sex therapy.  Getting there was hard enough…now shedding their bedroom hang ups, learning some new moves and rediscovering their youthful spark is when the real adventure begins.

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Sparkle synopsis:

Like the original film, this version of Sparkle will follow the three Williams sisters (Ejogo, Sumpter, Sparks), singers at their local church choir who eventually go on to become a successful girl group. Their sudden rise unravels their personal lives, and the youngest sister, a music prodigy named Sparkle, struggles to become a star while overcoming the issues that are tearing her family apart. [Wikipedia]