EXCLUSIVE: MGM will be opening Sylvester Stallone’s Samaritan on November 20, 2020, in the pre-Thanksgiving period.
Deadline exclusively reported Monday that MGM closed a deal with Julius Avery (Overlord) to direct the thriller, which is Stallone’s next starring vehicle following this weekend’s opening of Rambo: Last Blood ($18.8M), the finale in that franchise. Production begins early next year on Samaritan.
Based on an original idea, Samaritan centers on young boy who is out to discover if a mythic superhero, who vanished 20 years earlier following a tragic event, is still alive. Screenwriter is Escape Room‘s Bragi F. Schut. Stallone and Balboa Productions partner Braden Aftergood is producing as the first project for their company. Schut will serve as EP.
Samaritan will be up against such wide releases as Sony’s Kristen Stewart-Mackenzie Davis comedy romance Happiest Season, an untitled Warner Bros. event film and an untitled Amblin Partners feature from Universal as well as the expansion of Focus Features’ Tom McCarthy-directed movie.