Steven Soderbergh's 'Haywire' Gets January 20, 2012 Release Date

by Catherine Scott
June 15, 2011 12:23 PM
6 Comments

Relativity Media Will Distribute in U.S.

Well, that's one film we can take out of awards contention for 2011. One of Steven Soderbergh's upcoming films "Haywire" won't be released till January 20, 2012. As we've been saying all along, Relativity Media has retained the domestic rights, with Lionsgate holding on to the foreign rights. Lionsgate was all set to release in the U.S. as well, until restructuring gave partner Relativity its own domestic arm for distribution. The initial date was April, 2011, which Soderbergh confirmed himself, but it was never officially announced; the restructuring deal points took much longer than anyone expected. Then August, 2011 became the next date everyone was zeroing on, but they too lost that window of opportunity when the deal pushed back the chance to release trailers and posters.

"Haywire" will star MMA fighter Gina Carano in her film debut alongside a phenomenal supporting cast of Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, new heartthrob Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas and Michael Angarano. Phew, that's one hell of a team of men to back up this new leading lady. Carano will play a covert ops specialist who discovers she's been double-crossed and takes revenge on her own company, in the film produced by Gregory Jacobs (who also produced Soderbergh's 'Ocean's Trilogy,') and written by Lem Dobbs ("The Limey"). David Holmes (the 'Oceans' Trilogy, "Out of Sight") wrote the score.

"We are honored to be working with Steven Soderbergh on this project. This film is full of amazing action sequences, and with a sophistication only Soderbergh can deliver," said Relativity's President of Worldwide Production, Tucker Tooley. "We're very excited to add our picture to Relativity's 2012 slate. We're looking forward to working with our partners at Lionsgate on the release internationally."

Relativity is coming off of a win with this summer's hit "Bridesmaids" (yes, they produced, Universal distributed) and has a few more interesting projects coming out next year, including Tarsem Singh's double with features "Immortals" and "Untitled Snow White Project," (the one with Lily Collins and Julia Roberts). This move to the beginning of next year means that Soderbergh will likely push his other film "Contagion" for awards contention this year, especially considering we're hearing that it could debut at the Venice Film Festival (which, incidentally, has a lineup that could be the best it's been in years). With "Contagion" having a heavier-hitter star cast, including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law, it makes sense that "Haywire" wouldn't be quite such prime awards-season material.

"I think it might be best for 'Haywire' to follow 'Contagion', which is the kind of film people like to see me make," Soderbergh said in an interview last night. "It's in the vein of 'Traffic,' an entertaining multi-layered story about something timely right now. Because Gina has never been in a movie before, being able to draft off 'Contagion' will be very good. We knew she could do the right stuff, but she really delivers as a screen presence. She looks comfortable, and then she tears these guys in half."

At the very least the release date push for "Haywire" mean that we'll have something to look forward to in the post-awards doldrums of January.

More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Film Studios, Tarsem, Haywire, Contagion, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Gina Carano, Venice

6 Comments

| Reply
Ryan | June 16, 2011 11:13 AMReply

Channing Tatum was great in The Dilemma and A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. I'm grateful to Relativity for always stepping up when the rest of the film world drags its collective feet.
Alex | June 16, 2011 10:55 AMReply

Bad ass cast? Michael Fassbender and Michael Douglas are great, the rest ... please. Rumours about Haywire being the bad one and Contagion the good one must be true after all.
carrie | June 16, 2011 8:38 AMReply

usually the movies for january are not good
Ian Ungstad | June 16, 2011 4:52 AMReply

Universal had their production fund with Relativity spun off into it's own entity and is no longer associated with the studio. They couldn't stand working with Ryan.

We will be lucky if Relativity is still around in January. The hedge fund that was giving them financing has turned off the tap and all their theatrical releases besides Limitless have been flops. (Somehow I don't think Shark Night 3-D or The Immortals are going to do much at the box office.)
Styles | June 16, 2011 3:47 AMReply

this movie was terrible.
Abner | June 16, 2011 1:09 AMReply

The cast is great but i lulzed when I saw you name Channing Tatum first. That meat sock? Please. Treading water.