Universal Announces Release Dates for 'The Bourne Legacy,' 'Safe House'

Photo by Ron Phillips – © Touchstone Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer

Universal has planted flags for its movies, revealing what movies the studio hoped to be in production on in the next two years.

Among the movies, already in various stages of development, are a Hasbro board game Ouija, Keanu Reeves' samurai movie 47 Ronin, and the adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

The biggest glimpse is Universal's 2012 slate.

The studio has locked down a February 10, 2012 date for Safe House, the thriller to star Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds and directed by Daniel Espinosa. The company picked up the South American-set thriller from David Guggenheim in February this year.

The month after, on March 16, 2012, Universal slips in Contraband, a Working Title production starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale and directed by Baltasar Kormakur. The project is a remake of Icelandic thriller Reykjavik-Rotterdam. The setting will be changed to Latin America.

For summer 2012 movie Universal has scheduled The Bourne Legacy, the Jason Bourne movie that will not star Matt Damon as Jason Bourne but rather feature another spy character. The movie is to open August 3.

(Bourne joins Battleship, based on the Hasbro board game and now an big-budget alien invasion movie, which opens May 18, 2012 and Judd Apatow's latest directorial effort, an untitled comedy on the summer schedule. Apatow's movie will be released on June 1, 2012.)

Ouija, based on the spooky Hasbro board game, will open November 9, 2012. A search for directors is currently being conducted.

Samurai movie 47 RONIN, a Stuber production starring Keanu Reeves and directed by Carl Rinsch, will be released on November 21, 2012.

Ending the year will be Snow White and the Huntsman, a retelling of the fairy tale produced by Joe Roth and directed by Rupert Sanders. Universal won the project in a bidding war, with a provision the movie would get a greenlight asap. The studio is out to actors now to make the movie for December 21, 2012.

Looking toward 2013, Universal has staked out May 17 as the date for its high-profile adaptation of King's The Dark Tower. Imagine is producing the Ron Howard-directed project.

Also, Universal has scheduled a July 1, 2011 opening for Larry Crowne, the Tom Hanks-directed dramedy starring Hanks and Julia Roberts.