NEW YORK – The bodybuilder drama “Magazine Dreams,” starring Jonathan Majors, will be released in theaters after it was canceled after Majors was found guilty of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired distribution rights to the film, company CEO Tom Ortenberg confirmed Wednesday. Ortenberg said in an email that Briarcliff is planning a “strong” theatrical release in the first quarter of 2025. The acquisition was first reported by Deadline.
Before Majors’ conviction, “Magazine Dreams” was a huge hit at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023. Searchlight Pictures had scheduled the film for release later that year, and expectations were high that Majors would be nominated for his first Oscar.
However, things changed after Major was arrested in a March 2023 crash. Majors’ ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabari, said he attacked her in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven car, hitting her over the head with his open hand, twisting her arm behind her back and squeezing her until her middle finger broke. insisted.
Majors has maintained his innocence. But in December, Majors was found guilty of one count of misdemeanor assault and one count of harassment violation.
Within hours of the decision, Marvel Studios dropped Majors from the role of Kang the Conqueror, who would have been a central part of the company’s films and television series for years to come. In January 2024, Searchlight, which like Marvel is owned by Walt Disney Co., returned the distribution rights to Magazine Dreams to the filmmaker.
In April, Majors was ordered to complete a one-year counseling program, but was spared any jail time. In sentencing Majors, Judge Michael Guffey noted that both parties agreed that the case did not merit a prison term and that Majors had no prior criminal record.
In writer-director Elijah Bynum’s Magazine Dreams, Majors plays a lonely, ambitious bodybuilder who has been scarred by a painful life and prone to angry outbursts.
Briarcliff is also the distributor of one of the most controversial films of 2024, the new Donald Trump dramatization “The Apprentice.”
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