NEW YORK (AP) — The Jonathan Majors -starring bodybuilder drama “Magazine Dreams” has been acquired for theatrical release after it was dropped following Majors’ conviction for assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
Briarcliff Entertainment has picked up distribution rights to the film, its chief executive, Tom Ortenberg confirmed Wednesday. Ortenberg said in an email that Briarcliff is planning a “robust” theatrical release in the first quarter of 2025. Deadline first reported the acquisition.
Before Majors’ conviction, “Magazine Dreams” had been a critical hit at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023. Searchlight Pictures had set a release for later in the year, with widespread expectations that it could land Majors his first Oscar nomination.
But that changed after a confrontation in March 2023 led to Majors arrest. Majors’ former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, accused him of attacking her in the backseat of a chauffeured car, saying he hit her head with his open hand, twisted her arm behind her back and squeezed her middle finger until it fractured.
Majors maintained he was innocent. But in December, Majors was found guilty of one misdemeanor assault charge and one harassment violation.
Within hours of that decision, Marvel Studios dropped Majors from the role of Kang the Conqueror, which was to have been a focal point in its films and TV series for years to come. In January 2024, Searchlight — which, like Marvel, is owned by the Walt Disney Co. — returned its distribution rights to “Magazine Dreams” to the film’s producers.
In April this year, Majors was ordered to complete a yearlong counseling program but avoided jail time. In sentencing Majors, Judge Michael Gaffey noted both sides in the case agreed the charges didn’t warrant jail time and that Majors had no prior criminal record.
In writer-director Elijah Bynum’s “Magazine Dreams,” Majors plays a lonely, aspiring bodybuilder prone to eruptions of rage, carrying wounds from a life filled with pain.
Briarcliff is also the distributor of one of 2024’s most controversial films, the upcoming Donald Trump dramatization “The Apprentice.”