David Ayer and Brad Pitt’s Fury Moved Up a Month

Sony Pictures has decided to move the World War II movie Fury, written and directed by David Ayer (End of Watch) and starring an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf, up one month from November 14 to October 17.

Originally, it was opening against the comedy sequel Dumb and Dumber To, Relativity’s Beyond the Lights and the (presumably) limited release of Bennett Miller’s delayed Foxcatcher by Sony Pictures Classics. Now, it will take on the animated The Book of Life from Fox, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nightcrawler, the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Best of Me and the limited release of Alejandro Inaritu’s Birdman–the latter which is getting similar early Oscar buzz as Fury.

This move may signify Sony wanting to give Ayers’ movie an early push during festival season to allow it to build earlier word-of-mouth ala last year’s Gravity and 12 Years a Slave, 2011’s Argo and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, all of which received October releases, the latter three on their way to winning the Oscar for Best Picture.

Set in April 1945, as the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, Fury features a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.