Magazine Dreams updates: has Jonathan Majors film been shelved one year after Sundance premiere?

Magazine Dreams, a drama film which stars Jonathan Majors as bodybuilder Killian Maddox, premiered at Sundance Film Festival last January, but the movie may never again see the light of day.

Maddox will stop at nothing in his search for superstardom in the movie, risking permanent physical damage in the process. But the movie’s lead actor, himself a huge Hollywood actor, saw his star fall just weeks after the film found a distributor.

Majors' arrest and conviction for assault and harassment against his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari has probably cost him every upcoming film role he had lined up, and he could face prison time at his sentencing next month. Even Magazine Dreams, which was completed before his arrest, has been affected and may never be released. 

Has Magazine Dreams been cancelled?

The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2023, and Searchlight Pictures bought the movie rights for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be in the seven-figure range, the following month.

However, in March 2023, the film’s star, Jonathan Majors, was arrested and later charged with harassment and assault. He denied the charges but faced trial in December.

Disney, which owns Searchlight, quietly removed the film from their release calendar in October 2023 - it was initially expected to be released in cinemas on December 8, which would have been in the middle of the Majors trial.

Searchlight dropped the distribution rights to Magazine Dreams, and the film’s creators are now looking for a new distributor, though given Majors’ rapid fall, it may be difficult to find a buyer.

When the film landed at Sundance, it received a standing ovation following the premiere and HBO, Sony Pictures Classics, and others bid for rights to the drama, but if it does find a new home it will likely be for a much lower price than it originally sold for.

What is Jonathan Majors doing now?

Majors has seen his promising Hollywood career, which was expected to go from strength to strength, fall away with the outcome of his trial in which he was found guilty of assault and harassment.

He lost out on what would have been his biggest role to date, playing the main villain in the upcoming Avengers film Kang Dynasty, which has now been temporarily renamed Avengers 5. 

He has been dropped from all future MCU projects, and it has been rumoured that he will no longer be involved in upcoming Amazon Prime Spike Lee movie Da Understudy, and he has been dropped from sports biopic 48 Hours In Vegas, in which he would have played controversial basketball star Dennis Rodman.

Majors has a sentencing hearing on February 6 - he faced a maximum sentence of one year in prison.