James Gunn’s BrightBurn delayed, Possession film takes its place

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Sony was planning a high-profile horror movie release for this fall. The film, produced by James Gunn and starring his SLITHER lead Elizabeth Banks (pictured above), was going to get some promotion at the San Diego Comic-Con in July; maybe they were even going to make the announcement there that its title is BRIGHTBURN… But then Disney fired Gunn from the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 directing job over terrible jokes he made on Twitter a decade earlier, so his appearance on that SDCC panel was cancelled. BRIGHTBURN was still moving toward a November 30th release date, but now it has been pushed back sixth months. Its new release date is May 24, 2019.

BRIGHTBURN plot details are still a secret, but we do know that Banks is joined in the cast by Jackson A. Dunn, David Denman, Meredith Hagner, and Matt Jones. THE HIVE's David Yarovesky directed the film from a screenplay by Gunn's brother Brian and their cousin Mark.

The release date change is a lucky break for director Diederik Van Rooijen's film THE POSSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE (which was formerly known as CADAVER). At one time expected to be in theatres in August of 2017, that movie has been off Sony's release schedule entirely for several months. Now it's set to reach theatres on November 30th in BRIGHTBURN's place. It's less high-profile BRIGHTBURN, but at least it's another horror movie.

Written by Brian Sieve, THE POSSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE stars Shay Mitchell, Stana Katic, Grey Damon, Louis Herthum, Nick Thune, Max McNamara, Jacob Ming-Trent, and Kirby Johnson. The story centers on 

Megan Reed (Mitchell), an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic who takes a graveyard shift at the morgue in the hospital where she got sober and uncovers more than she bargained for. 

Now that the film is going to be on the big screen in less than two months, we should start seeing some promotional materials very soon.

I'm on board to watch both BRIGHTBURN and THE POSSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE, so I can handle this release date shuffle.