Tom Hanks' New Sci-Fi Movie Just Got Pushed Back

Tom Hanks in News Of The World

We've seen a hell of a lot of Tom Hanks over the last year. From his Oscar nomination for A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, to his COVID-19 diagnosis, to Greyhound, to Borat 2, to News Of The World, the guy has just been absolutely everywhere recently. Hopefully you're not getting too used to his constant presence, however, because we have some bad news to deliver. While his next film, the sci-fi movie BIOS, was originally scheduled to hit theaters this spring, the latest development for the project will now see it come out in late summer instead.

BIOS was originally planned as a 2020 release, having completed production in Albuquerque, New Mexico back in 2019, but thanks to the on-going pandemic the project has seen its opening weekend shift a few times. While it was initially going to come out on October 2, 2020 before being moved to April 16, Variety is now reporting that Universal Pictures has decided to push the film again, and will now have it ready to hit theaters on August 13.

It's unclear if this date will remain permanent (everything on the calendar is up in the air until COVID-19 is under control), but it's interesting to note that August 13 is currently shaping up to be a busy weekend. Deep Water, an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel starring Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas, is also presently scheduled for that date, as is the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, and the untitled sequel to Don't Breathe starring Stephen Lang. One could probably make a fair bit of money betting that at least one of the features is going to be move, but that will all depend on changes in the world that may or may not happen in the next six months.

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, whose credits include some of the best Game Of Thrones episodes, BIOS is a post-apocalyptic thriller that will star Tom Hanks as Finch – an inventor who is sick and dying, but feels a responsibility to make sure that his dog is taken care of when he's gone. This leads him to build an android that he begins to train as his replacement, ultimately leading to the trio making an epic cross country journey.

From a certain angle it sounds like the film is a kind of sci-fi semi-sequel to Cast Away, allowing Tom Hanks to dominate the screen – though obviously this time around he will have an android instead of a volleyball. It's unclear how "human" the android will be, but it's being played by X-Men: First Class/Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri star Caleb Landry Jones.

Should that August release date hold firm, that means we could see the first trailer for BIOS by the end of spring/early summer, so hopefully any and all Tom Hanks withdrawal symptoms will hold off until at least then.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.