Universal Dates Jo Koy’s ‘Easter Sunday’, Sci-Fi ‘Distant’ & Corey Hawkins Pic ‘The Last Voyage Of The Demeter’

Universal has dated two DreamWorks movies, Distant and Easter Sunday, as well as Amblin Entertainment’s The Last Voyage of the Demeter. 

Distant, directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, will open on March 11, 2022. The sci-fi comedy stars Anthony Ramos as a low-level mining engineer whose spaceship gets struck by an asteroid sending him to an unknown alien planet. There he contends with his AI survival suit (voiced by Zachary Quinto) and aliens. He connects with a fellow crew member (Naomi Scott) via radio, but she’s trapped inside her own escape pod, and losing oxygen as well. Pic is produced by Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Fred Berger and Anna Halberg. Speck and Gordon are also EPs with Jonathan Rothbart and Matthew Hirsch. Kevin K. Vafi is co-producer. Pic will open against Disney/Pixar’s Turning Red.

Easter Sunday will open on April 1, 2022 and it’s the only wide release currently dated. Stand-up comedian Jo Koy stars as a man returning home for an Easter celebration with his riotous, bickering, eating, drinking, laughing, loving family, in this love letter to his Filipino-American community. Jimmy O. Yang, Tia Carrere, Brandon Wardell, Tony nominee Eva Noblezada, Lydia Gaston, Asif Ali , Rodney To, Eugene Cordero, Jay Chandrasekhar, Tiffany Haddish and Lou Diamond Phillips also star. Jay Chandrasekhar directs. Pic is produced by Rideback’s Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich and is executive produced by Jo Koy, Jessica Gao, Jimmy O. Yang, Ken Cheng, Joe Meloche, Nick Reynolds and Seth William Meier.

The André Øvredal directed feature The Last Voyage of the Demeter will debut on Jan. 27, 2023 and is also the only wide release dated for that weekend. Pic is based on a single chilling chapter, “The Captain’s Log” from Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula, and tells the terrifying story of the merchant ship Demeter, which was chartered to carry private cargo—fifty unmarked wooden crates—from Carpathia to London. Strange events befall the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a merciless presence onboard the ship. When the Demeter finally arrives off the shores of England, it is a charred, derelict wreck. There is no trace of the crew. Corey Hawkins stars as Clemens, a doctor who joins the Demeter crew, Aisling Franciosi as an unwitting stowaway, Liam Cunningham as the ship’s captain and David Dastmalchian as the Demeter’s first mate. Brad Fischer produces for New Republic Pictures and Oscar-nominated producer Mike Medavoy and Arnold Messer for Phoenix Pictures. Pic is executive produced by Matthew Hirsch.