David Lowery Aims for ‘Green Knight’ to Open in Theaters Over VOD, but ‘No One Knows’

Zack Sharf
·3 min read

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Anticipation for “The Green Knight” soared in February after A24 dropped the dazzling first trailer for David Lowery’s reimagining of the “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” legend. The indie studio was set to world premiere the Arthurian legend at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, though the March festival was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. During an interview on the most recent episode of the A24 Project podcast (via The Playlist), Lowery says that not being able to premiere “The Green Knight” at SXSW was somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

“We were really rushing to try to get done by SXSW, and the movie, if we showed it there, would not have been fully finished,” Lowery said. “It would have been close, but not quite done. If we had to release the movie tomorrow, it would be pretty close to where it needs to be. But we’re able to take a breather and sit with it.”

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A24 announced a May 29 theatrical release date for “The Green Knight” when the trailer dropped, but the studio now lists the project as having a TBD 2020 opening. A24 confirmed with IndieWire the movie currently remains undated. The same thing happened to the release of the A24 horror film “Saint Maud,” which got delayed indefinitely from its originally-planned April 10 release date. Both movies are genre films and could wind up on VOD should A24 choose to release them that way. Lowery said he doesn’t know anything when it comes to how “The Green Knight” will get released.

“No one knows. That’s the case with everything at the moment. No one knows anything,” Lowery said. “All I can say is that at some point audiences will see it. And they’ll see it in the best way possible, given the circumstances. Hopefully, that’s in theaters. Hopefully, theaters survive. I’m a big-time defender of the theatrical experience, and one of the things I love about A24 is that they are as well.”

Lowery continued, “[But] if I were just an audience member and I’ve been stuck at home for six months and I wanted to see a new movie, I’d rather see it at home than not see it at all. So I’m confident that it’ll be seen soon, but ‘soon’ is variable.”

“The Green Knight” stars Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Kate Dickie, Ralph Ineson, and Barry Keoghan. The movie reunites Lowery with A24 after the release of “A Ghost Story.” A24 issued no comment about the film’s release date when requested by IndieWire.

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