Warner Bros. Korea is still figuring out a release date for Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated movie “Tenet” as Warner Bros. chairman Toby Emmerich announced that the studio is pushing back the US release date of the movie indefinitely from August 12 on Monday (local time).

“We are still in the middle of discussions. We will try to make our decision within the week,” said CEO Kim Tae-joo of ROSC, the company in charge of marketing “Tenet” in Korea.

This is the third time the release date for the movie has been delayed in the US due to the spread of COVID-19. The film’s initial release date was planned for July 17.

The release schedule for the movie also has been postponed twice here. Currently, Nolan’s latest film is set to be released locally on Aug. 12.

There is still a possibility that the movie will be released as scheduled, with Emmerich hinting that the international release date of the movie might be different from the release date in the US.

“We are not treating ‘Tenet’ like a traditional global day-and-date release, and our upcoming marketing and distribution plans will reflect that,” said Emmerich.

Movie industry insiders see that Korean movie theaters are coming back to life thanks to the success of “Peninsula,” which has been seen by over 2 million people since its release on July 15, and that may affect Warner Bros. Korea’s decision.

“Tenet,” the first major film that Hollywood is presenting after the spread of COVID-19, is about an agent trying to stop World War III while going back and forth between the present and the future.

Meanwhile, the 150-minute movie will not be able to be released in certain countries like China, where films with running times of over two hours have been banned for social distancing purposes.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)