Paramount Dates Brad Pitt's 'Heart of the Beast' for September 25
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- Paramount Pictures set Heart of the Beast for a September 25 theatrical release, positioning it against DreamWorks' Forgotten Island (starring Dave Franco and Jenny Slate) and a re-release of Marvel's Avengers: Endgame.
- David Ayer directs the survival thriller, which follows a former Army Special Forces soldier and his retired combat dog battling for survival after a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness.
- Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe star in the film, written by Cameron Alexander, marking the first Pitt–Ayer collaboration since their 2014 WWII drama Fury.
- The project arrives on the heels of Pitt's starring turn in Apple's Oscar-nominated F1, with producers including Olivia Hamilton, Marty Bowen, Ayer and Pitt, and exec producers including Damien Chazelle.
- The release slot pits a grounded survival thriller against an animated DreamWorks title and a six-year-old superhero re-release, a notably crowded counterprogramming configuration for late September.
Why it matters: September 25 is historically a soft window for original adult dramas, and Paramount is choosing to put a Pitt-fronted original against a DreamWorks animated title and an Avengers: Endgame re-release — a counterprogramming bet that either clears room for a survival thriller or gets steamrolled by a Marvel nostalgia event. The Ayer–Pitt reunion is also a data point for fans of Fury and Suicide Squad tracking whether their tonal chemistry travels to a wilderness setting.
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