Jeff Nichols‘ long-gestating biker epic The Bikeriders will roll into theaters in time for the holiday season. The star-studded film will bow on December 1. The Bikeriders boasts a star-studded cast, including Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Boyd Holbrook, Norman Reedus, and frequent Nichols collaborator Michael Shannon, who has appeared in all the director’s films to date. It is based on legendary photographer Danny Lyons‘ 1968 photo book of the same name, for which he actually joined and traveled with a motorcycle club.

The film will follow the history of a fictional midcentury Midwestern biker club, detailing its initial beginnings as a refuge for misfits and outsiders, and charting its gradual descent into a violent criminal organization, leading to conflict with the club’s original members. This mirrors the path that many motorcycle clubs took in those years; initially founded by veterans dissatisfied by society, many motorcycle clubs became brutal criminal gangs, dealing in drugs, prostitution, and violence. It will be Nichols’ first film since 2016, when he released the sci-fi suspense film Midnight Special, and Loving, a historical drama detailing the path to the legalization of interracial marriage. After departing a spinoff of A Quiet Place, he focused on The Bikeriders, a project he’d contemplated making for years before being spurred into action by Shannon, who doubted he’d ever make the film.

‘The Bikeriders’ Rides Into A Busy Holiday Season

20th Century Studios will roll out The Bikeriders in what is becoming a crowded holiday season – an indication that studios may not be as eager to push back their release schedule for the SAG/WGA strike as earlier reports indicated, especially when it comes to prestige fare for the coming awards season. The Bikeriders will share a release date with the Thomasin McKenzie/Anne Hathaway period psychological thriller Eileen; Saltburn, Emerald Fennell‘s Barry Keoghan/Jacob Elordi black comedy, will debut the week before, on November 24, and Yorgos Lanthimos‘ Frankenstein-inspired Poor Things (which was pushed back from its initial September release date) and the Jonathan Majors bodybuilding drama Magazine Dreams will bow the week after, on December 8.

The Bikeriders will be produced by Sarah Green and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones through Nichols‘ production company Tri-State; it will also be produced by New Regency Pictures. Fred Berger will executive produce. Filming wrapped on the project last December, and it is now in post-production.

The Bikeriders will premiere on December 1.

via Collider