Although plans remain in place for Universal to release the movie in the United States this Christmas Day, Deadline is reporting that the studio has made a deal with Netflix to release the upcoming Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks film News of the World direct to the streaming service internationally.
According to the trade, Universal is keen to keep the movie in the mix come awards season, although because of the studio’s deal with AMC – agreed on the back of the furore from exhibitors over Trolls World Tour skipping a theatrical release earlier this year – the film’s December 25th opening in the States will be followed just 17 days later by a PVOD release.
There’s no word yet as to when Netflix plans to premiere the movie internationally, although it’s likely to be close to the U.S. theatrical release in order to keep it eligible for contention for BAFTA’s British Academy Film Awards.
This is the second of Hanks’ films to head to a streamer during the global health crisis, with Sony selling the World War II drama Greyhound to Apple TV+ earlier this year. Greengrass meanwhile also released his most recent film, 22 July, directly through Netflix.
SEE ALSO: Watch the trailer for News of the World here
Five years after the end of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks), a veteran of three wars, now moves from town to town as a non-fiction storyteller, sharing the news of presidents and queens, glorious feuds, devastating catastrophes, and gripping adventures from the far reaches of the globe.
In the plains of Texas, he crosses paths with Johanna (Helena Zengel, System Crasher), a 10-year-old taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier and raised as one of their own. Johanna, hostile to a world she’s never experienced, is being returned to her biological aunt and uncle against her will.
Kidd agrees to deliver the child where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search for a place that either can call home.
