It seems Marvel's Eternals will hit the film festival circuit before starting its theatrical run.
In an interview with 221 Radio, longtime Marvel Studios executive and producer Victoria Alonso -- who was recently promoted to President of Physical and Post Production, Visual Effects, and Animation at the studio -- revealed she will be heading to Italy to screen a Marvel movie at the Rome International Film Festival (which starts on Oct. 14). With Eternals just around the corner, it stands to reason that's the Marvel Cinematic Universe project she was referring to.
Inspired by the comic book characters created by Jack Kirby in the 1970s, Eternals revolves around the titular superheroes, a race of immortal aliens who've hidden on Earth for thousands of years to protect the planet from their evil counterparts, the Deviants. The film is written and directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Chloé Zhao, who's coming off winning the Best Director Oscar for Nomadland, a movie that also took home the Academy Award for Best Picture. Zhao is no stranger to the film festival scene, having premiered her movie The Rider at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 and screened Nomadland at last year's festivals in Venice and Toronto.
"Chloé’s interested in telling stories about outsiders who find themselves adrift in new worlds. Nomadland and Eternals both share that DNA," said producer Nate Moore, speaking about the latter film in August. "Nomadland doesn’t have the same bells and whistles as Eternals, but it has the same thematic resonance."
Between Zhao's past work, reports that Eternals is the second-longest movie in the MCU to date (behind only Avengers: Endgame) and the film receiving a PG-13 for "brief sexuality" (a first for an MCU movie distributed by Disney), many fans are speculating that Eternals will end up becoming Marvel Studios' first serious awards contender since Black Panther. Even Dune director Denis Villeneuve, who recently made waves for criticizing the MCU's films as being "made from the same mold," has admitted to being curious about Eternals, saying it was "genius" of Marvel to hire Zhao for the movie.
This year's Rome International Film Festival takes place from Oct. 14-24. Eternals will open in theaters a few weeks later on Nov. 5.