Sony Removes Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning’s ‘The Nightingale’ From Release Schedule

Mélanie Laurent’s film was supposed to open Christmas Day

Elle Fanning Dakota Fanning The Nightingale
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The release date for TriStar’s “The Nightingale,” starring Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning, has now been unset.

In December, TheWrap exclusively reported that Mélanie Laurent (“Galveston”) would direct the period drama from a script by Dana Stevens. Elizabeth Cantillon was to produce through her production company The Cantillon Company. The two sisters were to unite for the first time on screen to play sisters, based on Kristin Hannah’s worldwide best-seller of the same name.

“The Nightingale,” which was in preproduction before worldwide film shoots halted in March, was due to be released on Christmas Day this year. Production is expected to restart once it is safe to do so.

“The Nightingale” follows two sisters coming of age in France on the eve of World War II and their struggle to survive the German occupation of France. The story is inspired by the courageous women of the French Resistance who helped downed Allied airmen escape Nazi-occupied territory and hid Jewish children.

Hannah’s book became a hit after it was published in 2015. It has since been published in 45 languages and sold more than 3.5 million copies in the U.S. alone. It has become No. 1 New York Times best-seller and spent a total of 114 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List. It was also named the best book of the year by BuzzFeed, iTunes, Library Journal, The Wall Street Journal, Goodreads and others.

On Friday, Sony also announced other release date shuffles as a result of the pandemic shutdown of movie theaters and film production: The “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel” moved from April 8, 2022 to October 7, 2022, while the untitled “Spider-Man: Far From Home” sequel moved from July 16, 2021 to November 5, 2021.

“Hotel Transylvania 4” moved from December 22, 2021 to August 6, 2021, while “Uncharted” moved from October 8, 2021 to July 16, 2021.

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