It’s only yesterday that we were talking about one movie that got caught in limbo, and now another has come up, or at least resurfaced. "The A-Team" and "The Grey" director Joe Carnahan spent last year working on a low-budget thriller called "Stretch," about a limo driver (Patrick Wilson) who chauffeurs around a billionaire (Chris Pine) who’s trying to sell his book of criminal contacts. Produced by micro-budget horror specialists Blumhouse, the film was originally meant to be released by Universal back in March, but only two months ahead of the opening date, it was dropped unceremoniously by the studio, who apparently didn’t feel justified in spending the hefty marketing costs on a wide release, despite the small investment.
Carnahan shopped the picture to other studios, but no one bit, and little was heard in the meantime. But in the last few days, Carnahan started sharing the first images from the movie (via /Film), and now the picture that Carnahan called "as good or better than my best film" will be seeing the light of day, and sooner than you’d think. According to Deadline, Blumhouse is launching a new venture, BH Tilt, aimed at putting together multi-platform releases for the films that Universal (who have a ten-year deal with the company) doesn’t deem wroth a full theatrical release. And amidst the various marketing buzzwords, is the news that Universal Studios Home Entertainment will release "Stretch" digitally in October.
Despite the new label’s talk of ‘multi-platform,’ it appears that "Stretch" will skip theatrical release entirely, a rather ignominious fate for the film. Other movies under the banner include the Duplass-produced horror "Creep" and its sequels (we reviewed the first at SXSW), which Radius-TWC are putting out, Joe Johnston‘s "Not Safe For Work," Bryan Bertino‘s "Mockingbird," Stephen King adaptation "Mercy" and the remake of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown." That last one is being released by Orion, who last released a movie in 1998. Way to bury two ledes in one story, Deadline…
Anyway, when an exact date for "Stretch" firms up, we’ll let you know, and we imagine a trailer will be along before too long. In the meantime, take a first look at the movie, which also features Jessica Alba, Ed Helms and Brooklyn Decker, below in the new images.
