It wasn’t that long ago thatAmazon Studiosannounced a recent acquisition fora sci-fi action film starring Chris Pratt, a pretty nice project to grab considering Pratt’s star-power in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not unlike Netflix’s recent acquisition of theKnives Outsequels,The Tomorrow Warwas originally intended to release in theaters but was picked up by streaming after the pandemic hit and theater releases became a risky venture.
The plot of the film is a basic alien invasion concept, but with an interesting twist.Time travelers from the futurearrive on Earth with a warning: 30 years in the future, humanity will face an alien threat against their very existence, and it’s a war that they’re losing. With humanity facing extinction, the only hope is to recruit people from the past to join the fight and save Earth.
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Protagonist Dan Forester, played by Chris Pratt, is a school teacher who joins the cause and teams up with his estranged father in order to save the planet for his daughter. It’s a unique setup that could lead to lots of interesting twists and turns withinThe Tomorrow Waritself. Time travel is a tricky plot device but if used correctly, it makes for some great storylines that lead to all sorts of creative scenes.
While the news broke a few months ago that Amazon had picked upThe Tomorrow Warfor $200 million, there hadn’t been many words on whether the release plans were changing or if something new was planned for the movie. Now, it has been reported thatThe Tomorrow Warwill indeed become anAmazon streaming exclusiveand has a release window of summer 2021.
With the current release date set for July 2nd,The Tomorrow Waris a long way off from its initial Christmas 2020 release, but that’s to be expected given the current state of theatrical releases. Still, it seems that Amazon will not hold out for theatrical windows and is happy to keep the film on streaming, with no current news on any alternative distribution plans.
Between this andthe earlierKnives Outnews, there seems to be an interesting trend of theatrical IPs deciding to switch over to streaming, even as the pandemic starts to wind down. Whether this trend will continue once vaccinations are fully rolled out remains to be seen, but it’s possible these films are signaling a new trend in what kind of projects can come to streaming rather than theaters.
