Jeff Nichols' Midnight Special has been pushed to 2016

Midnight Special, the first major studio film by indie director Jeff Nichols (Mud) has been moved from its Nov. 25 release date to March 18. Distributor Warner Bros. provided no explanation for the change, though the studio just last week pegged its Sandra Bullock-starrer Our Brand is Crisis (originally scheduled for 2016) to an Oct. 30 release date. And the busy studio also has seven other films on its fall slate, including Pan, Point Break, and Creed.

Featuring Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, and Adam Driver, the science-fiction-oriented Midnight Special has been shrouded in secrecy. What’s known is that it concerns a father who goes on the lam with his 8-year-old son after the boy reveals supernatural abilities.

We’ll have to wait nine months to know if the film was worth the long wait. Meanwhile, Nichols has already announced his next project, a very unsupernatural dramatization of the historic Loving v. Virginia court case, also starring Edgerton.

Though the 2016 release means it won’t be competing for this year’s Oscars, Midnight Special could still profit from the delay. Nichols could do much worse than having one of the actors from the year’s most highly anticipated movie — Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ lead bad guy, Driver — high up in the cast list of his movie. Star Wars, opening on Dec. 18, might even still in theaters by the time Midnight Special hits screens in March.