David Lowery’s “The Green Knight,” starring Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander and Joel Edgerton, has been pulled from its scheduled Aug. 6 theatrical release in the U.K. at the last minute.
The A24 and Bron Studios film by writer-director David Lowery (“A Ghost Story”) was due to be released by Entertainment Film Distributors. The decision was the distributor’s and was prompted by the rising wave of COVID-19 cases in the U.K., Variety has confirmed.
The film’s simultaneous U.S. release on Aug. 6 is not believed to be affected.
Variety reached out to Entertainment Film Distributors for comment, but did not hear back by press time. It’s still unclear if and when the film might be rescheduled.
“The Green Knight” is a fantasy re-telling of the Arthurian medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson fully reopened the country, with most cinemas operating at capacity, on July 19, the so-called “Freedom Day.” Johnson himself is in self-isolation, along with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, because they were in contact with Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who was diagnosed with the virus.
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As of July 22, the U.K. had 39,906 daily new cases and 325,223 in the last week, an increase of 24.2%. Daily deaths are 84, with 387 people dying of the virus in the last seven days. 788 COVID patients are being admitted into hospital daily with a weekly total of 5,175, a 50% increase in admissions.
Some 87.8% of the U.K. adult population have had one dose of a vaccination and 69.2% have completed both doses. More than 1 million COVID tests are being conducted daily, with nearly seven million over the last week.
Lowery directed a segment of anthology film “The Year of the Everlasting Storm,” which debuted at Cannes.
Manori Ravindran contributed to this report.