While Universal Pictures made headlines this year for putting new releases on VOD platforms (see `Trolls World Tour` and `The King of Staten Island`), Nolan would not allow such a move for `Tenet.` Nolan is one of the biggest advocates for the big screen experience.
In its place, Warner Bros. will re-release Nolan's `Inception` on July 17 in theaters, timed for the film's 10th anniversary.
`Tenet` is an espionage action epic starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson as detectives who somehow can manipulate time to solve cases and carry out top secret missions. Like all Nolan films, not much else about the `Tenet` storyline is known. The supporting cast includes Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Caine, Clemence Poesy, and Kenneth Branagh.
Warner Bros. has good reason to push `Tenet` for theatrical release, as the director is one of its most profitable filmmakers. Nolan has been working with Warner Bros. since the 2002 release of `Insomnia` and has never made a Hollywood movie outside of the studio. Nolan's career at the studio includes his billion dollar grossing `Dark Knight` trilogy and such acclaimed tentpoles as `Inception` and `Dunkirk.` The `Tenet` delay follows Warner Bros. similar postponement of Patty Jenkins' superhero movie `Wonder Woman 1984` earlier the year. `Tenet` is one of the summer movie season's biggest original entries.