For a movie directed by a well-regarded arthouse stalwart with mainstream appeal and starring an actress who was the biggest movie star on Earth as recently as three years ago, it’s weird that mother! has remained almost entirely shrouded by secrecy. We know that Darren Aronofsky’s new movie stars Jennifer Lawrence, it’s some manner of home-invasion psychothriller, and the cast includes Javier Bardem, Kristen Wiig, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer. We saw the poster, which finds JLaw ripping her own heart out in a lush vernal scene like Mola Ram on vacation in Argentina. But apart from that, it’s a big, strange question mark. Word on the street says a trailer is on its way, and yet it’s still impressive that a project this high-profile has gotten so far while remaining almost totally incognito.

This is made even more surprising in light of the recent development that this film is now a little under two months away from release. Variety ran the news last night that Paramount has bumped mother! up a full month, shifting it from its original October 13 release date to September 15. If this is a strategic move, the logic behind it is lost on me; on October 13, mother!’s main competition would have been the Jackie Chan action vehicle The Foreigner and the Thurgood Marshall biopic Marshall, and on September 13, it’ll instead face Blake Lively vehicle All I See Is You and Michael Keaton-led action flick American Assassin. Seems like a pretty lateral change-up to me, but then, I guess that’s why I don’t run Paramount. (Yet.)

A September 15 release date places this film just after the big festivals in Venice and Telluride open, and right smack-dab in the middle of Toronto. With all the big names attached, it’s sure to pop up somewhere or other, at which point critics will start to get an idea of what, exactly, is going on with this bizarrely non-marketed film.

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