Will Smith’s ‘Collateral Beauty’ to Open Against ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’

Dave McNary

February 8, 2016 at 9:06 PM

Disney’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” has some new competition on Dec. 16 — Will Smith’s drama “Collateral Beauty.”

Warner Bros. announced Monday that it has moved “Chicken Soup for the Soul” out of the Dec. 16 slot into 2017 and replaced it with New Line’s “Collateral Beauty.” The “Star Wars” spinoff is the only other title scheduled for release that day.

David Frankel is the director of “Collateral Beauty,” which is being co-financed by Village Roadshow. Smith is starring along with Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, Naomie Harris and Michael Pena.

Producers are Anthony Bregman, Bard Dorros, PalmStar CEO Kevin Frakes, Allan Loeb and Michael Sugar. Smith will portray a successful New York advertising executive who experiences a deep personal tragedy and retreats from life entirely, prompting his colleagues devise a drastic plan to help him recover.

“Rogue One” is directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz, from an idea by visual effects supervisor John Knoll. It will be the first film in the “Star Wars” Anthology collection of stand-alone stories set in the Star Wars universe, and will star Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker.

Alcon picked up the rights to “Chicken Soup for the Soul” in 2013 and set the project up with Kerner Entertainment Cos. topper Jordan Kerner along with Alcon toppers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove. The movie will draw from the characters and stories from the inspirational “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series.

The studio, which releases Alcon titles through its longstanding output deal, announced last August that it had dated “Chicken Soup” for the Dec. 16, 2016 slot against “Rogue One.”

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Will Smith’s ‘Collateral Beauty’ to Open Against ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’