Christopher Nolan's Tenet delayed again due to COVID-19

The theatrical release of Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated thriller Tenet has been delayed again.

The film was originally slated for release on Friday, July 17, until a few weeks ago when it was pushed to July 31. Now Warner Bros. has set the twisty sci-fi movie for Wednesday, Aug. 12. The news comes as much of the U.S. is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases.

"Warner Bros. is committed to bringing Tenet to audiences in theaters, on the big screen, when exhibitors are ready and public health officials say it's time," a studio spokesperson said in a statement to EW. "In this moment what we need to be is flexible, and we are not treating this as a traditional movie release. We are choosing to open the movie mid-week to allow audiences to discover the film in their own time, and we plan to play longer, over an extended play period far beyond the norm, to develop a very different yet successful release strategy."

Not much is known about the plot of Nolan's latest mindbender. The trailers released so far, and the vague official synopsis, hint at international espionage, a concept known as "time inversion," and an organization known only as Tenet.

Speaking to EW for our latest cover, star Kenneth Branagh described the film as "an espionage piece that's dealing with a global threat to the world." He added, "A nuclear holocaust is not the greatest disaster that could befall the human race. Tenet discusses an even worse possibility, and it is wrapped up in this mind-boggling treatment of time that continues Chris Nolan's preoccupations in films way back to Memento, through Interstellar and Inception."

The film also stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, and Michael Caine.

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