‘Respect’ moves to wide release over MLK weekend
MGM is taking full advantage of the Academy’s extended eligibility deadlines for next year’s Oscars and now plans to skip the platform release of the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, starring Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, and now will go wide over the MLK holiday beginning January 15, 2021.
This isn’t the first date change for the film, which started out as an early August release. Faith in the film bumped it to a Christmas Day limited release with a rollout through January that included an expansion on the 8th and then wide on the 15th so in many regards it’s kind of back where it started.
Respect is directed by Liesl Tommy and also stars Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker as C.L. Franklin, Marlon Wayans as Ted White, Academy Award nominee Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington, and Emmy Award nominee Tituss Burgess as Rev. Dr. James Cleveland.
Other MLK wide releases include New Line Cinema’s Mortal Kombat, Universal’s Simon Kinberg-directed thriller 355, and Sony’s delayed Peter Rabbit sequel.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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