Jessica Chastain’s ‘Molly’s Game’ Moved Back to Christmas Day
STXfilms has shifted Jessica Chastain’s “Molly’s Game” back a month to open in limited release on Christmas Day rather than the day before Thanksgiving.
It will get a wide release on Jan. 5.
The film has generated strong reviews for Chastain’s performance as Molly Bloom since it premiered a month ago at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival with a current 93% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety’s Peter Debruge said in his Toronto review, “‘Molly’s Game’ delivers one of the screen’s great female parts — a dense, dynamic, compulsively entertaining affair, whose central role makes stunning use of Chastain’s stratospheric talent.”
STX bought the project, which is Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, at the Cannes Film Festival last year for $9 million. Sorkin adapted the script from the 2014 book “Molly’s Game: From Hollywood’s Elite to Wall Street’s Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker.”
Idris Elba stars as the attorney to Bloom and Kevin Costner stars as her father. Mark Gordon, Amy Pascal, and Matt Jackson produced.
Bloom was a top-tier skier who headed to Los Angeles after not qualifying for the Olympics and became an organizer of underground poker games for Hollywood players including Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Tobey Maguire before getting arrested by the FBI.
“Molly’s Game” is the only film with a Dec. 25 launch. Five other titles are slotted for a Dec. 22 opening — 20th Century Fox’s Steven Spielberg movie “The Post,” Focus Features’ untitled Paul Thomas Anderson movie starring Daniel Day Lewis, Universal’s “Pitch Perfect 3,” Paramount’s “Downsizing,” and Warner Bros.’ “Father Figures.” The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
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