Melissa McCarthy Comedy “Happytime Murders” and Jessica Chastain Drama “Molly’s Game” Get Release Dates
Mark your calendars: STX Entertainment has revealed the release dates for Melissa McCarthy and Jessica Chastain’s latest projects, “The Happytime Murders” and “Molly’s Game.”
Set in the underbelly of LA, “The Happytime Murders” follows two clashing detectives, one human (McCarthy) and one puppet. The pair are forced to work together to investigate a serial killer: someone — or something — is brutally murdering the former cast of a beloved puppet show. The R-rated comedy takes place in a world where humans and puppets co-exist. Directed by Brian Henson (“Muppet Treasure Island”), “The Happytime Murders” hits theaters August 17, 2018. McCarthy is among the film’s producers.
Fortunately we won’t have to wait quite so long to see Chastain-starrer “Molly’s Game,” Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Olympic-class skier turned FBI target Molly Bloom’s memoir. Set to open in theaters November 22, the drama sees Bloom getting into a lot of trouble following an injury. She “ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons,” Deadline writes. “Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans, and finally, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned that there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led us to believe.”
McCarthy’s next big screen projects include “Life of the Party,” a college-set comedy she co-wrote, and Marielle Heller’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” a dark comedy about a journalist who forges letters from late writers and actors.
Chastain’s upcoming films include Susanna White’s Native American period drama “Woman Walks Ahead” and “Painkiller Jane,” an adaptation of the graphic novel series of the same name about a former police officer turned vigilante. The two-time Oscar nominee recently made headlines for addressing Cannes’ woman problem at a press conference following the fest’s award ceremony. She served as a juror at this year’s festival. “This is the first time I watched 20 films in 10 days, and what I really took away from this experience is how the world views women,” Chastain said from the podium. “It was quite disturbing to me, to be honest. There were quite some exceptions. I was surprised by the representation of female characters on film.” The “Zookeeper’s Wife” actresses added, “I think if we include more female storytellers, I hope we have more women that I see in my own day-to-day life. They just don’t react to the men around them. They have their own point-of-view.”
