Continuing to be developed well under the radar, almost to the point where we were wondering if it was still happening, Kathryn Bigelow‘s “The Hurt Locker” followup, her currently untitled Seal Team 6 flick now has a firm release date: October 12, 2012 — right in the heart of awards season.
Since late last year, Bigelow and writer Mark Boal have been hard at work on the black ops thriller, the details of which, at the time, were being kept under wraps but was rumored to be about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Those rumors turned out be true but when the Al Qaeda leader was suddenly killed the spring, it was reported that Boal a former investigative reporter, shifted his research and resources and was already rewriting with a section covering the 40 minute firefight that resulted in Bin Laden’s death. Even more, Aussie actor Joel Edgerton was said to be a frontrunner for the untitled film—also referred to as “Kill Bin Laden”—and despite Columbia picking up the rights to the film, nothing has been heard on casting since. And considering Edgerton will be busy on Baz Luhrmann‘s “The Great Gatsby” this fall, we’d guess he’s no longer in the running.
Of course, any other details are being sealed (ha!) for now. But with a release date now looming just over a year away, updates should begin to trickle out soon. There is no other film slated for that weekend yet, but the film is now poised to be a major player on the fall festival circuit next year (you can bet Venice and TIFF folks are making calls now) and will be a strong contender to get Bigelow back on the podium in the Kodak Theater. [Deadline]