Awards season is heating up, with yet another movie musical positioning itself to qualify for the 2022 Oscars. Cyrano, starring Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennett, will now open December 17 for one week in Los Angeles, California, allowing the project to compete on the ballot for film’s highest honors.
Deadline reports the movie will then hit select markets January 21, 2022, before a wide release the following month. The film was originally slated to play theatres December 31, then pushed to early 2022, which would've missed the Oscar nominations ballot cutoff date.
Cyrano is directed by Joe Wright with a screenplay by Erica Schmidt (Dinklage’s wife), based on the stage musical she adapted and directed from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Dinklage played the lead at Goodspeed Opera House in 2018 and Off-Broadway the following year; Bennett played Roxanne for the former run.
READ: Reviews for Cyrano Movie Musical
Joining Dinklage and Bennett on screen are Kelvin Harrison Jr., Ben Mendelsohn, Bashir Salahuddin, and Monica Dolan.
The spin on Rostand’s work places the emphasis on the title character's height rather than his nose. Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the band The National wrote music for the work with lyrics by Matt Berninger (also in The National) and Carin Besser.
The movie is presented by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures in association with Bron Creative and Working Title. Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Guy Heeley produce.
Cyrano is far from the only movie musical adaptation in the running this year. This summer's In the Heights, Dear Evan Hansen, and Everybody's Talking About Jamie, along with the upcoming tick, tick...BOOM! and West Side Story, are all eligible for Oscar nominations, to be announced February 8, 2022.