The Big Picture
Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras concert film has other productions fleeing from its path. The latest to shift for Swift is The Marsh King’s Daughter, which will move back a month. Deadline reports that the Daisy Ridley-led drama, originally set to premiere on October 6, is being pushed back to November 3, to make way for the concert film. Since the surprise announcement of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour last month, anticipation for it has been at a fever pitch, and ticket sales have broken presale records, prompting other distributors to scramble to get their movies away from its October 13 release date.
The biggest name to move has been the long-awaited Exorcist: The Believer, Joseph Gordon Green’s continuation of the venerable horror franchise. Originally planned to hit theaters on October 13, it moved up a week to October 6. Dumb Money, the comedy-drama chronicling the GameStop stock-market saga of 2021, was also moved up a week, from October 6 to September 29. The Meg Ryan/David Duchovny romantic comedy What Happens Later was the next domino to fall – initially planned to bow on October 13, it will now share a release date with The Marsh King’s Daughter.
What Is ‘The Marsh King’s Daughter’ About?
Based on the bestselling 2017 novel by Karen Dionne, The Marsh King’s Daughter centers around Helena Pelletier (Ridley), who has to confront her long-buried past when her estranged father, Jacob Holbrook (Ben Mendelsohn) escapes from prison. Holbrook, known as the Marsh King, had kidnapped her mother (Unhinged’s Caren Pistorius) decades ago and fathered Helena, raising her with his twisted belief system in the wilderness. Now an adult, she must stop the man who taught her everything she knows about survival.
The film also stars The Florida Project’s Brooklynn Prince as the young Helena and Tulsa King’s Garrett Hedlund as Helena’s husband Stephen. Directed by Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist), and written by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) and Elle Smith, the film will be released by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions.
With its new release date, The Marsh King’s Daughter will now contend with a number of this year’s prestige pictures. Its current release date is also shared by Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla, Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut American Fiction, and the Colman Domingo-starring civil rights drama Rustin, setting up an interesting tussle at the box office.
The Marsh King’s Daughter will debut in theaters November 3. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
