'Jack the Giant Killer' Gets a New 'Slayer' Title and Release Date

Screen Rant

By Sandy Schaefer

Published Oct 18, 2012

Warner Bros. has retitled Bryan Singer's 'Jack the Giant Killer' and bumped it up to take the date previously occupied by Neil Blomkamp's 'Elysium'.

Bryan Singer's fairy tale re-telling Jack the Giant Killer made our original list for Most Anticipated Movies of 2012, thanks in part to the involvement of the X-Men director - not to mention, a fun teaser trailer hinting at an action-packed fantasy adventure boasting a solid cast headed by Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man, X-Men: First Class).

However, when David Dobkin's Arthur & Lancelot hit a snag during pre-production, Warner Bros. decided to push Jack back to March 2013 (to replace Arthur as the studio's big release that month). Warner Bros. is expected to re-initiate the marketing for Singer's film in the near future, possibly attaching a new trailer with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this December.

In the meantime, the studio has announced that Jack the Giant Killer is now going under the slightly-altered title Jack the Giant Slayer. The motivation behind the name change isn't readily apparent to me, since 'Slayer' doesn't seem like that much more of a marketable term to use than 'Killer'. The former is perhaps a more elegant term than the latter, so maybe there's some artistic reasoning behind the change - since it's hard to imagine anyone who wasn't planning to see the film before are now going to change their minds.

Nonetheless, Warner Bros. must have reason to think otherwise.

jack giant killer movie nicholas hoult release date — Nicholas Hoult is now 'Jack the Giant Slayer'

Jack the Giant Slayer is now opening on March 1st next year, taking the spot that Neil Blomkamp's Elysium vacated this week. Stoker, which is Oldboy director Park Chan-wook's crossover into American filmmaking, opens that same Friday, but won't provide much direct competition for Singer's 3D effects-heavy fairy tale re-imagining. Moreover, this new date gives Jack a week-long head start on Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful, which will also be showing in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D theaters around the U.S.

Here is the official synopsis for Jack the Giant Slayer:

[The film] tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend—and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

The Jack the Giant Slayer cast includes Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games), Ian McShane (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Bill Nighy (Underworld), and Ewan McGregor.

Source: Warner Bros.