UPDATE: Apparently, the main reason for the delay is that the movie’s not done which does corroborate previous intel that there were significant rewrites on this film (via Matthew Belloni).
EARLIER: Kendrick Lamar, along with ‘South Park’ co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, shot a film last year. The mysterious project was said to be a “slave comedy” set in California. The rest of the cast includes Chloe East and Celeste Octavia.
Paramount had set up a theatrical release for July 4, 2025, but it’s now been pushed to March 2026. No reason was given for this nine month delay. The news was announced this afternoon at CinemaCon.
Last week, I had heard that rewrites occurred on the still untitled film, and that they were significant enough to have significantly altered the originally-announced plot. The film was supposed to tackle “ a young Black man who is interning as a slave re-enactor at a living history museum and discovers that his white girlfriend’s ancestors once owned his.”
There have been a few rumors circulating about this film, including that it would be going straight to streaming on Paramount+ and that it was titled “Whitney Springs.” Regardless, and despite the delays, don’t be surprised if Paramount unveils first footage of the film this week at CinemaCon.
This was one of only a handful of major studio releases I was looking forward to watching this summer. What’s left now? Off the top of my head, ‘Mission: Impossible 8,’ ‘28 Years Later,’ ‘F1,’ ‘Weapons,’’ Superman,’ and ’The Naked Gun.’
Besides their fantastic work on “South Park,” Stone and Parker are best known for the Broadway hit “The Book of Mormon,” as well as features such as “Team America: World Police,” and “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.”