The stage-to-screen adaptation of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has been pushed back again, this time with no new date set for its release. The movie was scheduled to arrive in theatres February 26, 2021, after already being delayed to January 2021 from a fall 2020 premiere.
Deadline reports Disney pulled the film from its 20th Century Studios docket, with no reason given for the delay.
Harwood plays Jamie New (who blossoms into Mimi Me) in the movie, joined by Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant as Hugo (the former drag queen known as Loco Chanelle), Sharon Horgan as Miss Hedge, and Sarah Lancashire as Margaret New. Jonathan Butterell and Kate Prince, director and choreographer of the original production, respectively, reprise their work for the movie.
Having premiered at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in 2017 before transferring to the West End that year, the stage musical, featuring a score by Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae and based on a 2011 documentary, played at London's Apollo Theatre up until March's mass gathering shutdowns. It was nominated for five Olivier Awards and broadcast live in movie theatres in 2018.
After multiple reschedules due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the London production re-opened December 12. Two days later, the U.K. Government placed London in its Tier 3 alert level, shuttering the West End again December 16.
The pandemic has forced a number of big Hollywood studios to re-think their movie roll-outs, with Warner Bros. recently signing a deal to distribute its 2021 films on HBO Max, including In The Heights. Prior to the Jamie shuffle, 20th Century had moved its release of the new West Side Story movie to December 10, 2021; it was scheduled to premiere this weekend.
